Test Post!

Sarah learned to make balloon animals for the children in Honduras!

*This is a test post from the app we will be using in Honduras! 
 

9 Days!

We leave in 9 days!!!

 

But this trip actually began many months ago.

Mission trips are months in the making.

Last November a grant was written and submitted to the

United Methodist Church Peace With Justice Grant board.

There were some conversations and emails, budget adjustments and then in February, right after Valentine's Day, we got a little "love note" at Wesley Chapel UMC.

We had been awarded a

$1, 000.00 grant to provide a library to the school in El Ocote.

 

 

Shortly before the grant was awarded, but long after it had been written and submitted, 

 we found out we would be working in two villages.

And now we have the opportunity to provide new books to children

in two small villages in the Agalta Valley.

 

This makes ordering children's books in Spanish twice the fun.

We know that the only books in El Ocote are the ones that we have brought the last two years. There were only a few and they are prized possessions.

 

So we took our grant money and started ordering!

There are Bibles and Bible Story favorites like Daniel and Noah,

 the story of Creation, and a songbook for each village school.

There are children's classics like Junie B. Jones, Harold and the Purple Crayon, and Are You My Mother?

 

 

Books are expensive and the cost of one small children's book equals about the monthly income of a Honduran family in the areas we are visiting.

 

We purchased six of these sturdy, foldable crates to hold the books

and all of the VBS and school supplies

we are taking and leaving with the teachers.

 

It is really an honor to get to administer this grant.

 

So now there will be a Biblioteca in each Escuala!

11 Days!

When you buy a lot of plastic tablecloths in all the colors

 you get to answer the question, 

"What are you doing with those?" 

a lot of times as you walk through the store.

The answer is that when your team is doing VBS in Honduras for a lot of children

 (about 85 in El Ocote and 125 in Jicalpa) 

and one of your stories will be Noah's Ark,

 then everybody gets to make an

"arco iris."

We will show you how soon :) 

 

"I have set my rainbow in the clouds,

and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth."

                                                        Genesis 9:13

 

 

                                                                                              Posted by Marcie

16 Days!

Today Olivia and I sorted through a large pile of supplies donated by Edu-Pack  

(the backpacks for the school children were given by this organization last year.)

Look at all of those "acuarelas!!!"

 

        

                                                                                                      Posted by Marcie 

18 Days!

The combined team from Hillside UMC and Wesley Chapel UMC 

leaves Atlanta in just 18 short days!

We are excited. 

It's all we can talk about.

Returning members are sharing stories with new team members. 

We are buying scissors, small toys, VBS supplies and tools.

We are thinking about what to pack. 

And what not to pack.

We are emailing, calling and texting.

There are many things to be accomplished before we leave.

Some of us have to graduate from High School (not me!), attend their Eagle Scout Courts of Honor, pass finals, come home from college, finish up projects at work, get their families organized for their absence, get shots :( and more.
The teams are being commissioned.
We are asking our churches, families and friends to pray for our team and the people we will meet  along the way.

There will be organizing and packing days.

Last minute pleas for friends and family to buy scissors and more "plastilina" - that's Spanish for the hugely popular playdough!

We are working on our devotions for our evening worship time.

We are gathering up tools and work gloves.

We are getting updates as our project and work plans evolve on location in Honduras.

And we keep saying to one another that 18 days is going to go so quickly
 when we have so much to get ready.

But we are ready.

We are ready to see our friends in Honduras. 

We are ready for this:

We are even ready for this:

                   "Greet all God's people. They belong to Christ Jesus."     

                                                                                                                           Phillipians 4:21                           

                                                                                                                          Posted by Marcie