Potential excursion visits and transportation

We met with two bus / van owners and finalized prices this morning. We then spent the rest of the day looking at potential excursions. A few options but nothing definite yet.

This has been a great trip and well worth the quick trip!
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Re: Awesome Sabbath and great info

Sounds good so far. Hopefully you find good excursions as well. How's
the shopping prospect.

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On Jul 24, 2010, at 11:46 PM, greghatch@sbcglobal.net wrote:

> I made it to Choluteca at about 4 pm. I met up with Manuel and a
> pastor from Tegucigalpa that was helping Manuel. we met at a hotel
> and I checked in.
>
> We then went to the school site and walked around. They have 9 acres
> of land and it should be a beautiful school. They have 700 students
> currently jammed into a small building.
>
> We then went and visited with the Pastor for the district, Juan
> Colindres. He was excited about the possibility of VBS and medical
> and will help coordinate all of that.
>
> After sundown, we met with the manager of the hotel and agreed to a
> contract! Manuel visited all the hotels on Friday and this was the
> best one based on what he showed me. Everyone will be happy with the
> hotel and the price. Pool, AC and good food. God really led in that
> situation and we have a great deal!
>
> Tomorrow we will finalize transportation and Excursions, God willing.
>
> I will post pictures when I get back.
>
> I am excited about the trip already!
>
>
> Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Awesome Sabbath and great info

I made it to Choluteca at about 4 pm. I met up with Manuel and a pastor from Tegucigalpa that was helping Manuel. we met at a hotel and I checked in.

We then went to the school site and walked around. They have 9 acres of land and it should be a beautiful school. They have 700 students currently jammed into a small building.

We then went and visited with the Pastor for the district, Juan Colindres. He was excited about the possibility of VBS and medical and will help coordinate all of that.

After sundown, we met with the manager of the hotel and agreed to a contract! Manuel visited all the hotels on Friday and this was the best one based on what he showed me. Everyone will be happy with the hotel and the price. Pool, AC and good food. God really led in that situation and we have a great deal!

Tomorrow we will finalize transportation and Excursions, God willing.

I will post pictures when I get back.

I am excited about the trip already!


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On the way to Choluteca

This trip will be an adventure. The trip to Tegucigalpa was no problem. Customs was a breeze.

Anwar picked me up. He speaks a little english and I speak a lttle spanish. We went to the bus terminal, but they weren't running any direct buses to Choluteca. So, we went to the other bus company that wasn't direct and would take 4 hours. Not a problem and I got on the bus.

I hadn't paid yet and Anwar comes on the bus 5 minutes later and tells me to get off. He talked with his boss at the Mission office and they didn't want me to take that bus. So, anwar and I are driving to Choluteca.

We stopped to eat at Pizza Hut of all places! His suggestion, not mine.

He is a very nice guy and is an accountant in the Mission office.

Greg Hatch
Managing Director
Alvarez and Marsal Business Consulting
700 Louisiana Street Suite 900
Houston, TX 77002
Mobile 832.492.4023

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Final night!

We finally made it to our hotel in Villahermosa after a detour from our uninformed driver. It took about 30 minutes longer than it should.

We ate dinner and had worship. Afterwards, we had our final meeting and discussed the early morning tomorrow.

Since Eliel and Antigoni were late, they had to do the chicken dance! Antigoni had to teach Eliel and it was entertaining!

We are having our final Uno game as is our tradition. We pray for a safe flight tomorrow and return home.
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A rainy start in Palenque

We were greeted with rain this morning when we woke up. The Weather Channel is NOT accurate for Mexico (and neither is Accuweather)! It said there was only a 30 percent chance of rain starting at 10 am.

Regardless, we got a good early start to the day with our tour guides. We walked through Palenque in the rain (my favorite thing!). Everyone enjoyed it, in spite of the rain. One of our groups met a VERY interesting character on the tour. She was a little crazy and had been living there for two months. She had too many mushrooms one day and was walking around naked. Eliel got a picture with his new friend we will post when we get back!

After we got done with the museum and the gift shop, we are headed to Agua Azul and we hope for no rain!
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Maranatha Idol continued

Since we had a few team members lat Friday morning, we had a great performance of YMCA by Bobby, Antigoni, David and Ashley. We will post video when we get back. Well worth watching!
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Agua Azul

The group had a great time in Agua Azul. We made great time getting there. You can see the pictures of the waterfalls--there are seven of them.

Cesar and Cole got in the water. You can see the picture I took of Cole jumping off of a rope into the water. If it was warmer, we would have had a lot more join them.

Everyone got a good chance for shopping and food. We are now headed back to villahermosa for the evening.
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Fair at Palenque

They were having a fair and festival in Palenque with some dancers. A couple of our group joined in!
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Flav's new glasses

With his glasses and hard hat, claudell looks like Flava Flav. He found some new glasses tonight!
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Nacho Carne

No words necessary.......

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On the road to Palenque

After a long week (or two for some of us) of work, we are on the way to Palenque for our excursion. We are looking forward to warm showers at last!

As you can see, we have a few tired members enjoying a comfortable bus!
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Church service in Ixhuatan

We are leaving the church in Ixhuatan after a very nice church service. We had a Sabbath School led by Neale and Pastor Billy had the worship message.

Cesar translated for us again and has gone above and beyond the call of duty with that this week.

The members gave each of us a keychain and a toy as a token of their gratitude. It is very touching because it is an expense they didn't have to go to and that they don't have to give. We will try to take up an offering for chairs to send to them.

As always, a very touching goodbye with lots of pictures and smiles!

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Romeo and Juliet

We are imposing penalties for those who are late to the bus. Eric and Mayra were late today so they had to renact Romeo and Juliet for us! Well done
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Ray on the way to work

No other description necessary.....

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Hello and goodbye

We said goodbye to the first week team. After they dropped the six of us staying for both weeks at the campground, they headed to Palenque for their excursion.

The second week team arrived on Friday night--except for Cole and Charlene. They arrived late Saturday night. So, we have our full team and our headed to the job site.

We did our typical introductions and orientation last night. This group is a little different than most in that all but one are from Houston. So, wee have less getting to know you than usual.

The campgrounds are beautiful. We have a river running through it and we hear the water all night. We will not have many comforts this week (no mirrors, hot water, etc), but we all have the right attitude to start out!
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We got done with the church today! We got all the block done and the roof on. We will put the ridge cap, steeple and sign on tomorrow and get the church ready for Sabbath tomorrow. Awesome job by the entire team!
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(Post for Wednesday, March 17, 2010)

A very muddy day. It rained all day, but we got done with quite a bit. We got done with all the side walls, tore the scaffolds down and set up for the end walls. We got all done with 15 on the front and almost in the back.

As long as it doesn't rain tomorrow, we should be able to get done with all the block and maybe all the roof. Very pleased with what we got done especially considering the rain.
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(For Tuesday, March 16, 2010)

 

Got done with 11 courses minus one block and got half poured.  Team is working well and everyone has been on-time--no embarrassing skits (which people have to do when they are late to the bus)--unfortunately.

 

(For Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - Morning)

 

Last night--played Mafia and had fun.  However, it rained ALL night and is drizzling now.  We pray that it slows to a light drizzle so we can work.  There was a waterfall crossing the road this morning that we had to drive through!  The bus also got stuck as it let us out so we pray it gets unstuck.

 

Update on the above status.......It rained lightly all morning, but we were able to work.  It is slower with the weather, but we are thankful to be able to push through it.

(Post for Monday, March 15, 2010)

 

Another successful day!  We got the sixth course completed along with the re-bar and cement/grout pouring and part way through the seventh course.  (Rachael's note:  Sorry there isn't more information.  He only had a couple minutes of cellular signal to give me an update.)

(Post for Sunday, March 14, 2010)

 

We had a good first day.  We got the steel structure up by 1 pm -- minus 3 pieces that were missing that we will install tomorrow.  We also got all of the first course and about 30% of the second course completed. 

 

It was a good day considering we have a lot of first-timers on the crew.  It was fairly hot today, so we have a few folks suffering from sunburn and one with an upset stomach.  Hopefully a nice cold shower will solve that!

(For March 15th via Rachael - Greg cannot send nor receive email this week)

 

We said goodbye to the first week team.  after they dropped the six of us staying for both weeks at the campground, they headed to Palenque for their excursion.  (Rachael's note:  The first weeks team made it safely back to the States today - thanks for all your prayers!)

 

The second week team arrived on Friday night--except for Cole and Charlene.  They arrived late Saturday night.  So, we have our full team and are headed to the job site.

 

We did our typical introductions and orientation last night.  This group is a little different than most in that all but one are from Houston.  So, we have less getting to know you than usual.

 

The campgrounds are beautiful.  We have a river running through it and we hear the water all night.  We will not have many comforts this week (no mirrors, hot water, etc.), but we all have the right attitude to start out!

Wonderful church service!

We are on our way back from the first church service in the new church in Liquidambar!

As you can see from the picture, it was filled to capacity! When we got there, we found out we were responsible for worship! So, Tito put a GREAT sermon together in 30 minutes, Doris and Tanika led song service, Renee and the VBS team led the children in the VBS songs and Gino had scripture.

After Tito's sermon, we presented Ramiro (the Elder) and Maggie a team shirt for their help during the week. We always have a couple of extra shirts for some of the church members that help out. Ramiro then thanked us for what we did. It was very touching.

The Sabbath where we dedicate the church is always moving and a very tearful goodbye. We are sad to go, but will keep them in our hearts always.

We head back to the University for our final meal there and then head to the excursion (or the second week of work for 6 of us). We pray that Bobby, Glenn and Thelma are feeling better. They were not able to make it today because they are a little under the weather.
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A rainy day in Buena Vista Coracol

We had a great, but wet day in Buena Vista Coracol. 10 of us went there first thing to build the one day church. We got the fram up in 3 hours and started on the roof at about 1 pm.

It was a beautiful day in the morning, but during lunch, a fog rolled in quick and the rain came shortly thereafter--a cold rain! We worked (slowly) through the rain and got one half of the roofing done. That took much longer than it normally would. Because of the rain, we couldn't walk on the roof. One of the Maranatha guys had to tie himself to a rope and crawl on the roof! It took over two hours just for that side.

The maranatha guys correctly said we shouldn't start the other side if we couldn't finish because it wouldn't hold without being complete. So, we helped clean up and left without it being finished. We are dissapointed, but know there is a reason for the rain!

The rest of the group stayed in Liquidambar and did a few other things like putting the roofcap, sign and steeple on. They also cleaned the church and put up pews for church tomorrow.

One of the deacons had wanted to play basketball with us since we visited with them in June. So, we had four of our team play against them today after they got done! It was a lot of fun, even though we beat them two games to none.

Our medical and dental had a very busy day as well, even though they had to wrap up early to pack up their equipment.

VBS had about 70 kids today as well. School wasn't in full session today either.

We are headed back to shower and have dinner--our last dinner and worship at the university.
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Fantastic program by the university last night

We are staying at a University. They have been so helpful to us. They wanted to thank us for our service by putting on a musical program for us last night!

They have some very talented students and faculty. We really enjoyed the show and thanked them for our time here.

We will be sad to leave here tomorrow, but will be happy with the work we have done.

We have another person sick today. Only having two people sick during the week is pretty good (except for those who are sick of course!)
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A rainy day in Buena Vista Coracol

We had a great, but wet day in Buena Vista Coracol. 10 of us went there first thing to build the one day church. We got the fram up in 3 hours and started on the roof at about 1 pm.

It was a beautiful day in the morning, but during lunch, a fog rolled in quick and the rain came shortly thereafter--a cold rain! We worked (slowly) through the rain and got one half of the roofing done. That took much longer than it normally would. Because of the rain, we couldn't walk on the roof. One of the Maranatha guys had to tie himself to a rope and crawl on the roof! It took over two hours just for that side.

The maranatha guys correctly said we shouldn't start the other side if we couldn't finish because it wouldn't hold without being complete. So, we helped clean up and left without it being finished. We are dissapointed, but know there is a reason for the rain!

The rest of the group stayed in Liquidambar and did a few other things like putting the roofcap, sign and steeple on. They also cleaned the church and put up pews for church tomorrow.

One of the deacons had wanted to play basketball with us since we visited with them in June. So, we had four of our team play against them today after they got done! It was a lot of fun, even though we beat them two games to none.

Our medical and dental had a very busy day as well, even though they had to wrap up early to pack up their equipment.

VBS had about 70 kids today as well. School wasn't in full session today either.

We are headed back to shower and have dinner--our last dinner and worship at the university.
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Completed church!

We finished the block and the roof today! It was really windy when we got here and we were worried that we couldn't get the roof on, but it died down.

We are happy to be done and only have a few things to do there tomorrow. A group of us will go to Buena Vista Coracol to build the One Day Church there tomorrow.
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A blustery 4th day

We had a good, but windy day. The wind was blowing over 20 miles an hour when we arrived. The tarps had all blown down by the time we got there!

We got the sides done and grouted, scaffolds down and raised on the ends and part of the ends done. Not quite as far as we wanted. We had some challenges with the last course that were not expected.

Our plan is to complete the block and the roof tomorrow. If we do we will be back on schedule.

As you can see from the picture of Rachael and Ernie holding a mud board on their heads, the team still has enough energy to have fun!

The Maranatha foreman, Margarito, came by today. He wanted to coordinate for the second church we are building on Friday. We have it all worked out and are looking forward to it!

The VBS team had the same number of kids today. They cancelled school tomorrow so they aren't sure how many they will have attending.

Medical saw about 55 patients today and dental also had a good day.
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Day 3 report

We are on our way back from our third day. VBS had another good day with over 90 kids. They are having some parents pull their kids out because they don't want them learning about Christ. However, the kids are sneaking back in to learn more!

Medical and dental had a strong day. They saw 10 dental patients and 80 medical. No issues today.

We had a bit of a slow day today on construction. We got all done with 10 and got our window headers poured. We got about half of the 11th course done as well. We should get done with the side walls tomorrow and a lot of the end walls. We should still be able to finish as planned. We are suffering from the long commute! We have 3 hours of our day taken up with traveling. If we had one and a half of those back, I think we would be on schedule. Oh well--God has a plan and knows why we are where we are. Staying at the university has been good in a lot of respects, but the drive is tough.

Our team is still energized and anxious to get done. We had a few folks that were suffering from the heat that had to rest. All in all, no major health issues so far.
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Mell at lunchtime

When we eat lunch, we look for shade and a place to sit anywhere we can. Mell found an empty wheelbarrow to sit in today.
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Start of day 4

We had our first power outage this morning at about 5:45. People had to get ready in the dark and ate breakfast a little late. So, we are getting a late start.

We were warned that the power goes out from time to time so this is good that it has only happened once.
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Bobby loves chicken

Bobby and Ernie are our resident meatitarians. Bobby found a chicken wandering through the jobsite. Here is a picture of what he was about to do to it!

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Day two report

We had a good second day at the jobsite and a first day of VBS and medical.

We got all done with the 6th course and about half of the 7th. We also extended all of our rebar and set up our scaffold. I am happy with the teams progress. The maranatha crew is helping lay block as well! It was a hot day so hopefully everyone kept hydrated and enough sunblock on.

The VBS team had their first session today. They had over 100 kids today. In spite of some logistical challenges and computer crashes, they did a great job and the kids had a great time.

Medical and dental had their first day. They saw about 50 patients and Ed did major dental work on 7 patients. They also had the health department there to give immunizations.
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Day two report

We had a good second day at the jobsite and a first day of VBS and medical.

We got all done with the 6th course and about half of the 7th. We also extended all of our rebar and set up our scaffold. I am happy with the teams progress. The maranatha crew is helping lay block as well! It was a hot day so hopefully everyone kept hydrated and enough sunblock on.

The VBS team had their first session today. They had over 100 kids today. In spite of some logistical challenges and computer crashes, they did a great job and the kids had a great time.

Medical and dental had their first day. They saw about 50 patients and Ed did major dental work on 7 patients. They also had the health department there to give immunizations.
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On our way to the jobsite

We are making our way to Liquidambar for our first work day. We had a great afternoon and evening at the university.

After we ate dinner, we had our worship and each team went over their plans for today. Afterwards, the stuydents were playing basketball and asked if we could play with them. We had a few teams, but one was undefeated. Gino, Claudell, Tito, Cornell and one of the teachers didn't lose all night. We may play them again during the week, depending on tired everyone is.
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Awesome first day of work!

We had a great first day of work! We got the steel up by around 2 and then got ready to lay block. We had enough time to get all of the first course and half of the second. We weren't planninf on any block, so that was a bonus!

The crew did great, even with the waiting during the steel construction. So accidents except for Bobby hitting a little girl in the head with a shovel (by accident, of course).

We have a good Maranatha crew as well. Chiel and Alfredo said we did way better than Melvins team!

We are now making the long trip back for dinner, worship and games.
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Wonderful church service

By the grace of God, we made it to Liquidambar without further incident. The church members and pastor were still waiting for us even though we were 1.5 hours late!

We had a great service with the church. They will be a great group to work with.

We were able to see where the medical group and VBS is going to work at. As it turns out, the Maranatha crew are the same ones that worked with my dad's church a few weeks ago! I told them to not hold that against us!

We are headed back to the university now to eat.
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Sabbath School part two!

Well, bus number 2 had problems as well. 10 minutes into our drive, we blew a tire!

So, while they changed the tire, we continued with Sabbath School. The tire was changed (albeit to a tire with less tread than the one that blew......) And we are on our way.

We pray that God will be with us for the remainder of the trip.
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First night at the university

We made it to the university after a LONG drive! We had a ninja-style bus driver that was awesome. He had to contend with cows, fog and tight turning radius.

We got to the university without problems at around 2:45 in the morning. A VERY tired group had to lug the suitcases up the stairs in the pictures.

The rooms are nice and all together in one hall. We will head off for a few hours sleep before an 8 AM breakfast call.
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On our way to Church

We had a wonderful breakfast this morning in the cafeteria. The weather is great and the sun is shining.

We are on our way to the Church in Liquidambar where we will be working this week. We are traveling in a yellow school bus that we hope makes it all the way up the mountain!

I will have VERY limited ability to send blog posts as we have no phone service at the university and I don't think we have any on the job site. I hope I will find a patch of signal on the road to and from the job site.
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Sabbath School on the side of the road

Well, about 20 minutes into the drive to Liquidambar, the bus overheated. Apparently the fan stopped working and the radiator dumped.

The University folks went back into town to get another bus. While we were waiting, we had son service and Rachael led us out in Sabbath School. The weather was great and it was very nice outside.

We are now on our second bus of the day and on our way (we trust) to church!

God is with us and has a reason for this!

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Safe in Villahermosa

We have arrived safely in Villahermosa! All 34 of us (and our luggage) made it. Robert Mathador had a bit of an adventure getting to Houston from Atlanta, but made it!

We are now on our way to the University and have a 3 hour drive ahead of us. We will be a tired group in the morning, but praise God we are here with no issues and no problems at customs except for Bobby's beef jerky getting taken from him!
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Preparing for Mexico

Our team of 50 volunteers is busily preparing for our two week mission trip to Chiapas, Mexico. We are going to build three churches during our trip.

• Our first week (March 5-15) will be in Liquidambar. It is a small town in the mountains near Tapilula. We are going to build a church in Liquidambar, conduct a medical and dental mission and hold a Vacation Bible School for the children in the area. We will be staying at a University about an hour away during that week.
  On Friday of the first week, we will also be constructing a One Day Church in Buena Vista Coracol. This small community of 18 families was relocated by the government a few months ago and they only have a small facility to worship in.


• The second week (March 12-22) will be in Ixhuatan. We will be building a church in that community. The goverment is relocating a 1000 people there from the mountains and they are in desparate need of a new church. We will be staying at a camp during that week.

Please pray for our group as they go about their work. Challenges are sure to arise.



Assuming we have adequate phone signal, I will do my best to post daily messages regarding our progress. Please feel free to comment if you wish to get a message to one of our volunteers.

Week one Volunteers

Brendon Blake
Tito Charneco
Chelsea Cole
Heather Dantier
Ed Dewar
Elizabeth Eudoxie
Rachael Hatch
Tanya Henry
Andrew Hinds
Danielle Wolff-Hinds
Andrea James
Robert Joseph
Rachel Wolff-Joseph
Kim Kegler
Victor Martinez
Robert Mathador
Geneva McCallum
Mell Ombiga
Glenn Pringle
Doris Ray
Devan Ray
Ernie Schirra
Renee Gonzalez
Thelma Slater
Tanika Vital
Crystal Wilson
Roxie Wolff
Gino Wolff

Week Two volunteers:

Sam Bender
Dale Bender
Ashley Cleveland
Billy Gager
Eric Griffin
Mayra Griffin
Cole Griffin
Charlene Griffin
Austin Hanson
Steve Hanson
Meron Henry
Cesar Santos
Neale Shields
Danae Spencer
David Spencer
Antigoni Varahidis

Volunteers going for both weeks:

Bobby Battistone
Greg Hatch
Eliel Reeves
Jaclyn Sorbet
Claudell Wilson
Raymond Wolff

Thanks!