February 11, 2002

Morning breaks with a sense of urgency. Hurry, the clock is ticking and there is still much to do. Lives are depending on you; souls are hanging in the balance. The lesson of loving Jesus through loving his people is written clearly across our hearts. We hear your call Lord and we will move quickly, it will be you who sustains us. Thank you Lord.

Bob has chosen a few strong young men to go with him to The Cay. The barge has finally arrived with our supplies. Maxum Tier, Todd Duval, Matt Thompson and Jordan Wagner will be headed the dock. They will be one of the few that will experience going to The Cay, which is much different looking than around here. The houses are so close together that they are connected. The Cay is at the other side of the island from us and it is there that the oldest Adventist church in Central America stood until it burnt down a few months ago, taking with it 4 other houses attached to it.

Montezuma's revenge has begun to break out in the camp and several are putting on the “frequent flyer miles” that go with it. Actually we are doing very well for such a large group. And considering it only takes forgetting to have your mouth tightly shut when you shower, we are doing fantastic for our number.

Lucy and Elaina are two local women that have walked one hour to get here this morning to help in our kitchen. They are in there now working with Cynthia and Pastor Lamberton to prepare lunch. These ladies just wanted to help, they have a heart for Christ and they appreciate what we are trying to do for their island. They also walked to the construction site yesterday to help lay block.
Cynthia is finding this trip so much easier as far as the work goes. Even though we have had a larger group, she has had so much help that it has turned out the easiest for her. Her dad, Bob Lamb is along on this trip and working as part of the kitchen crew. He is enjoying the very unusual experience of the rough but adventurous mission.

I spoke with my new friend from the little store across the street this morning. She was making breakfast for her customer. She first cooked the flour quessadia on a flat pan, and then added shredded chicken, a white Honduran cheese that is very salty and a yellow cheese. She served this to the fellow who then proceeded to douse it with a fiery red pepper sauce they keep on the table. A country western station played on the radio and I asked her where the signal was coming from and she told me from Roatan. It was strange to hear the nasal, twang of a song about America as she cooked her tortillas.
As I sat in there I could hear a man outside blowing his nose onto the ground. A common occurrence as tissue would be a luxury few could afford. How many simple luxuries we just expect to be around and use as if it were our God given right, never even being thankful for them.

This is the first mission trip for Patrick Danahey, he thinks it is incredibly hot here and the work is very hard, none the less, he is very happy he came and is having a great time. Nicholas Bugbee told me this trip has more than met every expectation he had. Oh, I didn't tell you, yesterday immediately before the baptism, Nick read the testimony that Michael wrote about his walk with Jesus. It was very touching to hear him read what his friend had written. Thank you for taking part Nick. Sarah Moran is a nurse working in the clinics; she loves to work with the children and finds that very gratifying.

Chet Parboo P.A. and Kim Beisiegel R.N. made a house call on one of the local folks just a few houses from us. The man is in a wheel chair and cannot leave the house. He is 81 years old and his wife is 69. Not only is he suffering from an ulcerated leg, he has also been plagued with recurrent bouts of malaria and dengue fever. She has arthritis in her hips and legs making it difficult to walk the mile to the clinic.
Today the medical clinic saw 202 patients. One man was diagnosed with T.B.
A large amount of the illness they are seeing is from venereal disease. It is very common malady here on the island. Another problem is birth control, with several of the women not realizing they could get pregnant. A 14-year old girl came in today with her 12-week old baby. Many of the women have several children by the time they are 20.

The playground equipment has already started to be erected. One of the swing sets is standing and before the week is out the rest of it will be up, along with the basketball hoops. It will be placed off to the left of the school.
The construction teams were able to put up 889 blocks today. They keep chugging away at that work. We have hired 4 more local people and the Savanna Bight church has sent several other volunteers to help out.

The dental clinic had a very exciting day; they were very busy that a patient count was not taken. Dr. Bainum pulled 3 more teeth today. Remember he is a medical doctor, but he was so interested that Dr. Williams taught him how. Dr. Bainum had first gone to dental school for a year before deciding to become a physician and switching to medical school. The consensus was that they all had an exciting, fun, and productive day. One man passed out after having his tooth pulled; after he was revived he still wanted the second one pulled. He had passed out from fear which is strange to think any people that could live daily under these conditions would be afraid of anything happening while anesthetized. Stuart Dixon worked in the dental office today, which he said was a blessing. He is supposed to be in the optical clinic, but our glasses have just arrived today.

Tonight the work for souls begins. We ask that you pray fervently and without ceasing for this effort. Satan has been so involved in messing up plans that have so carefully been laid for this trip that we are certain that there is a blessing waiting to be had here. If there wasn't something so very special waiting to happen he wouldn't be bothered working so hard. But, the victory has already been won, we are about to teach these people how to reach out and grab hold of Jesus. We don't know how many will come, it might be a few, it might be many. But however many turn out, this we do know, that something great is about to take place in the future eternity of the souls in Guanaja!

There were crowds of people in a little building next to us today and I asked my new friend what was going on. She said they were selling clothes today. They are clothes that have been donated in the United States and brought here. The lady then sells them for 100 limpera a bundle. I am glad that they are able to buy so many clothes for 100L. but what is sad is that we have donated them thinking they would be distributed for free. Hardly fair, but then again, nothing in life is fair and we should never expect it to be. What part about the death of a perfect man that never sinned being exchanged for the life of one filled with sin is fair? Thank you Jesus for your love and mercy for us who do not deserve it.

Here is a recap of our living situation for any that might not have caught it in past letters.
We are about 200 feet from the ocean water to where we sleep. While we are sleeping on wood floor, most of us are on air mattresses so it isn't terribly bad and due to exhaustion the closeness doesn't bother to many. Our food supplies finally came today and we will now feel like we are eating food fit for kings. Actually we did very well with what we had and we give a roaring clap of gratitude to our kitchen workers. They took a bad situation and made it turn out fine. All our produce must be brought in from the mainland as little grows here, all vegetation was washed away during the storm and all now is new growth. But what we have bought has been plentiful and delicious. Our laundry situation is a little different than last year in that we are getting it back. That is always nice when that happens. A local lady has a regular washing machine that is run by generator and she is washing them and hanging them under her raised house. That is where all laundry is hung. It is very humid here and laundry takes a long time to dry, it came back to us smelling moldy the other day, and the woman felt bad about it and told us. There was nothing that could be done about it. But at least it does come back!

The seminar has ended for the evening. We had 109 adults under the tent and between 90-100 children attending the vacation Bible school. Pastor Downs, who opened the meeting with singing, teased that the children were full of pepper as they sang so loud in their meeting they were drowning out our voices. A puppet ministry is put on by our youth and it is always a big hit with the children.
Pastor Wagner presented the message from the book of Daniel chapter 2 and ended the message with a plea to accept Jesus as their savior.
The wonderful book called Steps to Christ was given out as a prize to the person who came the earliest and also to the oldest person in attendance. Which by the way was 86 years old.
Tomorrow night promises to be more thrilling as we see even more people come to hear the message of the love of Jesus and His soon return. Please put notes up all around your house to remind you to pray for this outreach and for our entire mission project.
It will be your prayers that will give the extra power to this event. We are relying on your support. Don't forget to P.U.S.H.

Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unaware. Hebrews 13:1,2
We have angels amongst us, I am sure.

Still smiling,
Jennifer Young