Mission: Accomplished

Today was our final day working on the drill in the village, and it was successful! When we arrived this morning, the villagers had finished laying the concrete slab. We cleaned the final pipes before lowering them into the well, and attached the pump handle. Pastor Alfredo and Emilio gathered the village together to dedicate the well. Our team spoke, telling them how excited we were to get to work with them this week and that our ultimate prayer is that they drink of the living water that Jesus offers. Pastor Alfredo laid out the gospel very clearly and prayed with them for any who wanted to accept Christ. We also had a time to give each family a Bible if they didn't have one. They were so excited, and their eyes lit up when they got it! It was definitely hard to say goodbye, and we are all leaving a portion of our hearts in Honduras. Enjoy the pictures from today, and we look forward to sharing more with you in person in the weeks to come! Adios!

our entire team

                                      

some of the kids from the village

sweet lady receiving her first Bible!

we all signed the inside of the pump

"but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst." -John 4:14a

We have water!

While yesterday was an extremely long and hard day at the drilling site, today was much easier.
All the drilling was completed yesterday, so today we set the pump and drill in a cement slab.  Living Water encourages the villagers to take ownership for the pump, so many men from the village helped lay the cement slab. They are incredible workers! They started this morning around 7:00 am and were still working when we left this afternoon. We have never seen people mix cement and lay it so quickly- especially without a cement truck!

Lindsey and Meghan taught several lessons on nutrition today, teaching the kids and adults about the three major groups of foods they should eat: rojo (meats, beans, chicken); verde (fruits and vegetables); and blanco (rice, potatoes, pasta, and more). The kids learned motions to remember what each group does for your body (growth, energy, and protection). With the adults, they played "hot potato"- and I have never seen a more lively hot potato game, especially with adults! The kids are anxious for any attention we can give them, and we have already been talking about activities we can bring to do with the kids when we come back next year.

After lunch, Abraham (Living Water missionary) wanted to show us a few water wells they had dug in the past.  When we arrived, there were lots of people (primarily kids) pumping water. Abraham had told us that no matter what time of day, there are people there getting water.

There was a boy there who loaded up his bike with 20 gallons of water!  The water is crystal clear and the missionaries said it will take hundreds of years for it to run dry.

We also took the drilling equipment to the village where they will be drilling next week. It is quite a bit more rural, and there is no question they are in desperate need of water. Below is a house from this village.

We are so excited about dedicating our well tomorrow and seeing the villagers pump clean water with it for the first time!  This has truly been a unique experience for all of us and we have been humbled to be a part of what God is doing here.  I (Blake) am still blown away that there are so many people in the world that long for such a simple, God-given commodity- and one that we take for granted in America.  Our hearts have been touched, and we definitely have a deeper understanding of the value of clean water.

Well is almost complete!

Well, it's late and we have to leave the hotel at 5 a.m. in the morning (yes, you read that right, 5 a.m.) because the farmers are on strike.  Why that affects the traffic in the morning I have no idea!  But today was our most productive day by far.  My wife has a blog and she spent hours putting it together tonight with some great pictures.  Soooooo, I'm going to be lazy and link you to her site so you can see some great pictures and read about our exciting day! Thanks so much for praying for us.  Please continue to pray.  We should finish the well tomorrow and dedicate it on Thursday.  What an incredible sight it will be on Thursday!  We have fallen in love with the kids and parents in this sweet village.  God is good and it has been an honor to serve Him through serving the people here in Honduras!

Here's the link...

http://lindseykersey.blogspot.com/2011/03/diarrea-y-la-agua-sucia.html

Drill baby drill!

Ok, so another hokey title, but at least it's not what you expected...Honduras- Day 3.  After two days of traveling we ended up at our drill site this morning around 9 a.m.  The village is about 45 minutes from our hotel.  While the area around our hotel is extremely poor, it doesn't even compare to the extreme poverty where we are digging.

When we arrived at the village some of the villagers had already begun digging the holes for the well.  I am sure there is a lot more technical word for the two holes and trenches that connected them, but remember, I'm as "city" as they come.  There were dozens of kids and adults waiting on us when arrived.

As soon as we got of the bus, one of the Living Water missionaries gathered all the men around and shared the plan of salvation.  He explained to them why we were here and that while we will bring water to the village, only Jesus can bring Living Water to fill their soul.  Several of the men prayed to receive Christ.  It is neat to see that Living Water centers their mission around the gospel and it is evident that they desire to see these villages come to know the Lord.

Lindsey and Meghan (from Mississippi) worked with the kids and women teaching them hygiene.  That took all of 5 minutes and then they ended up playing with them, teaching them Bible stories, singing songs, and just spending time getting to know them.  Lindsey's Spanish definitely came in handy during this day.  While all the kids loved her, she is claiming that she is bringing this little girl home.

She asked Lindsey if she had any kids.  When she told her no, she said, "why not, you are married and married people are supposed to have kids.  But if you don't have kids, do you have a rooster?"  So there you have it, if you don't have kids, you should have a rooster.  I'll have to make sure to tell our new dog, Thomas, that he will be replaced by a rooster.  Following those questions, several of the kids came over to visit me.  They asked me to put my head down.  While I thought that was a strange request I thought, "hey, when in Honduras, do as the Hondurians do" and I did it.  Little did I know that the "fun game" they wanted to play was "pull as many grey hairs out of Blake's head as they could."  I thought it was funny the first two or three hairs they pulled out...but when they were still pulling it out 5 minutes later, it wasn't so funny.  I mean, where did all that grey hair come from anyway?!

I'm not exactly sure to tell you what we did other than filling up two holes with water, drilled a hole 85 feet deep, checked every five feet for what was coming up out of the hole, taking the pipe out (after we stuck it in the ground 85 feet deep), used a C-wrench to get the pipes off, and then set up for work tomorrow.  So there you have it, 8 hours of work explained in a very poorly written, non-technical, and non-descriptive sentence.

Honduras- Day 2

I know, I know, real exciting title Blake?  But it's late and it's the most descriptive title I could come up with!  Today was a great day in Honduras.  After breakfast at our hotel we loaded the bus and headed to church together as a team.  We attended a small church, but it was packed with people hungry for the Word of God.  The pastor was absent but one of the staff members filled in for Sunday School and worship.  It was definitely "spirit-led" and makes contemporary services in America look old-fashioned!  We enjoyed worship and were able to learn about their culture through the service.  While they may worship in a different way, there is no doubt that they love the Lord and love His Word.  They were all very appreciative of our willingness to come to Honduras to help their people.

After lunch we travelled our last leg of the trip to our final destination in Saba.  We will begin our drilling work tomorrow in a village about 45 minutes from the hotel.  After dinner we met with the Living Water missionaries and had a quick lesson on drilling.  Words were used that I have no idea what they mean or how to do what they were asking.  I had never even heard of some of the tools he was telling us we will be using.  Thankfully, Michael Moore was sitting next to me so I just nodded my head and acted like I knew exactly what he was talking about.  Surely I can just copy what Michael does, right?  Lindsey is excited about working with the women and children.  They left it pretty wide open as to what she will be doing and her main job will be to form relationships with the villagers.  She will do a great job (and it's a good thing she's fluent in Spanish!)

We head out tomorrow morning at 7:30 a.m.  It should be an exciting day and hopefully I'll have pictures from our first day of drilling up tomorrow.  I will also have some more details about the village where we will be digging.  It is an honor to work with the missionaries of Living Water...I just hope I'm not the first person who breaks the drilling rig or hurts someone trying to use a tool that I have no business using.

Oh, and we were able to watch the UK game through Wi-Fi.  Go big blue (you KNEW I was going to throw that in there didn't you?)!

Honduras- Day 1

After waking up at 2:45 a.m., arriving at church at 4:00, flying out at 6:00, arriving at Honduras airport at 11:30, we found our way to our hotel for the night in La Cieba around 4:00 p.m. today.  All in all it was an uneventful travel day and we thank God for His traveling mercies.  

Today was simply a travel day and we will go to church in the morning and complete our journey to the village where will begin digging on Monday.  Our team consists of the four of us from Trussville, Sueying (from San Francisco), Dave (from Canada), Kevin (from Houston) and Meagan (from Mississippi).  This is Kevin and Dave's second trip with Living Water.  The rest of us have absolutely no clue what to expect, but we are extremely excited about being a part of this work.  

Here are some highlights from the day:

Most exciting moment of the day: after landing in San Pedro, Honduras, some Living Water officials picked us up and took us to lunch.  To all of our dismay (and complete excitement) they took us to Burger King.  I've never been so excited to see those Burger King crown chicken nuggets!

Biggest shock of the day: While at dinner tonight, Sueying and Dave look at me in dismay as I'm talking about Chick-fil-a (yes, I know you're shocked that I've been away from states less than 4 hours and I'm already talking about Chick-fil-a).  Dave asks, "Is Chick-fil-a a type of food or a restaurant?" Neither of them had even heard of Chick-fil-a.  Wow, talk about shock.

Please continue to pray for our team.  We are excited to be here and look forward to meeting the people we will be helping tomorrow. 

 

this is a first....

Well, this is a first for me.  While I've written plenty of papers in my lifetime and sent thousands of emails, this is my first official blog entry.  I honestly didn't see a purpose for having a blog.  I mean, my life, while I know I'm blessed, isn't interesting enough for others to read about...at least that's my opinion.  Limiting funny things in my life to 140 characters (Twitter) or a statuses on Facebook has always been more than enough space!

However, now I have a reason to start a blog!  I get to talk about what God is doing in and through the children's ministry at FBC Trussville!  God has blessed me with the greatest job in the world and I am humbled to be able to serve these tremendous families in Trussville.

The children's ministry was able to transition a little last summer to become more missions focused.  We began focusing on four particular ministries: One Verse (Scripture translation), orphanage in El Salvador, Food for the Hungry (World Vision) and Living Water.  Check out the missions page on fbctkids.org to learn more about our involvement with these ministries.

On Saturday, my wife (Lindsey), Chris Chambers, Michael Moore (children's worship leader) and I will be heading to Honduras to work with Living Water.  We will be digging a well for a village who does not have clean water.  I am more than excited about partnering with this incredible ministry.  Depending on internet availability, I hope to update the blog with details and pictures of our trip.  Please be praying for our team and check back often to know how to pray for us daily.