Rick and Cheryl on Adventure

I am writing on the last full day of our adventure in Tegucigalpa, and it has been a super experience all around. The team, both Canadian and Honduran, has opened their ministry and their hearts to us, which has enabled us to discern their needs and attempt to fill some gaps for them, thus accomplishing our goals for this trip. Cheryl developed 34 ESL lessons, taught 6 classes, and is passing the torch on to a member of the team, who has never taught English before but loves these students and is willing to serve them the best she can. Cheryl's prayer is that she will develop confidence in her teaching and delight in a ministry that she can call her own. The culmination of Rick's work here is now being shared with the main members of the team in 2 half-day training workshops encompassing organizational structure, policy manual, budget spreadsheet, leadership styles, team values and code of conduct, and performance management. I bet you all wish you could have attended these w...

Well - we only have about 2 weeks left on this assignment and we are on track to accomplish all that we anticipated doing. We have plenty of down time and have been jogging/walking around the nice, spongy Olympica track or doing Holy Yoga on the open-air upper deck most mornings. We have even gone to two movies while here, enjoying much more comfortable seats than back in Regina. It's really no hardship to live here. Tegucigalpa is widely known as one of the most dangerous cities in the world, but we have not seen or felt this vibe. We walk the dog in the gated colonia across the street from the house we are staying in or stroll down the busy street to the stadium in the early mornings. We zoom around safely locked in the vehicle during the day with traffic all around us, and we don't wander out after 6:00 pm - it's pitch black anyway, so what would you do? We've been "downtown," parking at malls and restaurants, but haven't seen any shady characters. I...

This week was largely spent in the office with Rick working on financial documents and Cheryl writing lesson plans and looking for ESL activities online. Rick was suffering from a cold/flu for 4 days so he was less productive than usual. Back at la casa , el perro is causing us some grief but we're dealing with it. Cheryl's ESL class grew from 5 to 7 this week. Members of the class are Schools of Hope (SOH) staff: Damaris is in her 20's and manager of the ERDO feeding program Delmys is a 30-year-old single mom who works with Damaris in the feeding program Ariel, Damaris' brother, is in his 20's, working as assistant to Victor who is the Manager of Child Care Plus Marvin is in his 20's and he is one of the part-time school Bible story teachers Claudia, sister to Damaris and Ariel, teaches the Seedlings program in the schools. She is newly married to . . . Edwin, who is another of the part-time Bible story teachers Rosa is 15, not a staff member, but ...

Sunday, October 23, 2016 We are continuing to enjoy the weather in Teguc although it has been raining every day or night. Fortunately, we only got caught out in a downpour once and Rick volunteered to run from the restaurant to the car and pick the rest of the crew up. On Thursday, we moved from our accommodation at the team house to the Ruttan's so we can look after their little dog while they are back in Canada for a month. Those of you who are well acquainted with us can imagine the irony as you know are not stinky-dog-in-house people! However, we have put some boundaries in place and are managing fine. Abby seems quite amenable to our company and she is really cute with an engaging disposition. We had a rewarding 2 1/2 days with the director of International Missions and the director of the LAC region. We had the privilege of handing out  about 80 Bibles to grade 5 students in 2 schools and of course, as soon as one got the idea, they all wanted multiple "autographs...

Chapter 2 - Back to Honduras (October-November 2016) We landed in the big city of Tegucigalpa, the capitol of Honduras, on October 8th.  We did leave Canada at the end of a freak snowstorm that left our yard back in Regina covered with leaves and snow (but even that didn't get us excited about the heat and humidity we expected to face in Honduras). We are very grateful for friends who have agreed to step in and help us take care of the yard and "housewatch" while we are gone. We had hoped our house would sell over the summer but understand that the timing is not in our hands. This is a mixed blessing as we love our location and have some great neighbours whom we will miss when we move.  We are happy to enjoy our time  in our old character house while we can. Teguc, as it is called here, is a very developed city of 1.2 million.  We can find most of the comforts of home, and the American restaurant chains dotted along the roads make it easy to forget where we are...