Update on Noe

A thank you to everyone who has been praying for Noe, whether you have met him or not.  He is a child from our village, Las Lomitas, who has been way behind in many ways. 
Intellectually (he is 10 and only passed kindergarden), socially (he has a bad eye and is constantly picked on), physically (he looks like an average 7 yr. old, always had a cold, and was malnourished for years), emotionally (his first father left before he can remember and his step father is a drunk and abuser), and much more.
In Oct. 2012 his mother agreed for him to be taken to Pan American Health Services (a nearby health center) to receive professional help in all of these mentioned areas.  He was restored to good health in a few months and ready to have surgery on his eye, cataracts is his problem.  Unfortunately the day they took him in for the surgery the anesthesiologist could not approve him to be put under because he had congestion issues.  So he had to go back to the center and go through many more months of treatment visiting many allergy specialists and taking expensive medication.  A few months ago he was taken back and approved for surgery again.  The date is set for Dec. 1st - this Sunday!  Thank you as well to those of you who have given to make his eye surgery a possibility.  We heard a while back from the health center that the surgery is completely paid for.
We are asking for your prayers this Sunday for Noe to be emotionally stable enough to undertake the surgery because he has been very nervous in other doctor appointments.  Also that his health would be extremely good so that there will be no excuse to not do the surgery.  And obviously for a successful cataract surgery and quick recovery in the days to follow.
Continued prayers for his family and his transition are appreciated as well as he will rejoin them after recovery.  His mother's name is Cristina, step-father Pito, sister Carmen, and two brothers Santillo and Jesus.  His mother is very committed to him and his recovery she will be with him in the surgery and the 4 days following.  They are one of the most poor families in our community please pray for the local body of believers to step up and reach out to them.

Winter, Staff Position, New Director Search, and Leadership Team

Nature is yanking on the pullcord of winter here. After having sat for the rest of the year, it seems like it is having a hard time starting. The typical nonstop winter drizzle has been interrupted with a day or two of sunshine here or there. Once winter’s motor is really running by the end of this month, the only thing to break up the drizzle will be the occasional downpour. Oh well, this is the price to be paid for beautiful weather 10 months out of the year. Overall, bearable, especially if you love mud and cooler temperatures.

For the most part it is fine. These days we have been spending a little more time in the shelters of Heart to Honduras’s offices in Santa Elena. Since September, we have been working officially as staff for the department of Community Development 3 days a week. This has relatively little effect on our daily lives other than the aforementioned increase in office time and other community visits since we had been increasing our time with them over the past year.  The rest of the week we spend in our community with the same vision as always.

This office time has also been augmented by our role on the new Heart to Honduras “Leadership Team” here in Honduras. The previous part-time Honduran director for HtH left in August to invest himself full time in his growing church in Choloma. In the meantime HtH’s president Gordon Garrett implemented a “Leadership Team” down here to fill the shoes best we can of a director.  We have been filling two spots at the table of six Honduran staff members acting as interim leadership while we seek a new Honduran director. This team has really risen to the occasion, and we feel that staff morale and unity are at an all-time high. This unity is a truly welcome improvement. Previously there have been some hangups within the staff that have prevented real “gelling”, but since this abrupt change and requirement to play nice, people seem to be truly addressing some previous issues, working to forgive, and even improve. We feel a little more of the environment that should come from a group of believers. This team as also stepped up to address issues that have laid dormant for a long time, it has been challenging, but each of us is relying on the Lord to direct us as we take on these giants.

Overall, these changes make us busier, which is not necessarily desirable, but not yet to the point of being overwhelming. We’ll try to be a little more on top of the blog over these next couple of months. Thanks for hanging in there with us! We love you all and appreciate your support.

A great opportunity to get involved!

We have several phrases we repeat over and over in Community Development.
1. We all have poverty in our lives because poverty is holistic (intellectual, spiritual, emotional, social, material, physical) and therefore development must be holistic as well.

 2."Development is not about the final project, but it's about the process" 
3. "No community development does NOT only do construction projects"

As a great example of a holistic "non-construction" development project we have a solicitation submitted by a girls youth group who wants to go to a long weekend Christian camp.  They have been dreaming about this all year and working hard to raise funds by having food sales.  They have come up with $225 in their account in the past year of work in their village!  That's $225 that came out of a small rural village.  They have decided, to not wipe out their account, they can invest $150 in camp.  So we started the solicitation process through Community Development with them.  It's $50 a girl to go to a Christian camp (this includes everything at the camp, a nice T-shirt, and transportation).  There are 8 of them committed to going, so they need $400 total.  They began to present their ideas to their families and the local church who then gave $50 total.  So between the girls, their families, and the local church they have 50% of what they need.  So here is where we can get involved Stateside in a healthy way!  It's a local idea with lots of local by-in, so we can come along side and support a development project!  

You can read about this project at this link:

http://hth.org/2011/get_involved/projects/

 

Under the village Las Lomitas you'll see "Send youth group to camp" Click on "Learn more about this project"

The dates they are shooting for going are the first week in December so if you'd like to support it would be appreciated the sooner the better so the money can be transferred to Honduras in a timely manner.

Thanks for your support in the holistic development of these girls!  Their lives will be changed in this one long weekend.  Please be joining us in prayer for God to work in their lives through this experience.