Back-up Bob's gardens are starting to show some green....

Hola all!
I wasn't sure of the email addresses for everyone who helped so much with the beginning of the Manos de Dios garden. If you can pass these pics along to others who helped so much that would be great. Victor will be teaching the students how to "gently" pull those pesky little weeds out of the beds allowing the veggies to flourish. Almost everything came "up!" That's really very special. The students and other community members will enjoy the fruits of their labor as the garden progresses.
Thanks.
Back-up Bob Grafe

We added 8 new scholarships ...Talking about changing lives in Honduras

The scholarship program is one of my favorite aspects of our mission. It is one of the most rewarding experiences to know that we are giving an opportunity to a student to continue with his or her education when there might have not been the case otherwise. This year we were able to add 8 new scholarship recipients for a total of 26 kids. In addition, we have 3 of our past graduates attending college. Jessica and Ludy are going to Universidad del Zamorano majoring in Agronomy and Erika is studying Industrial Engineering at the Universidad Politecnico. We wish all three the best this school year.

We spent a day interviewing the scholarship candidates and their parents. This year we had Henry, Kevin, Caitlin, Patricia along with Victor and his wife who is a teacher sitting through most of the interviews. As you can imagine, it is not an easy task trying to decide who the best candidates are for the few scholarships that we have.

The next day, we went to see the houses of the kids that were selected to give them the good news. Amanda was able to capture in film some of these experiences. We will share some of these clips with you at a later time because they are pretty amazing. Amanda, thanks for your enthusiasm and for appreciating every little slice of life.

Padre Alejandro and Victor are planning to have a retreat with the scholarship kids before classes start. Last year was the first time that we had the retreat and it was a very successful event. It really helped the kids bond and feel like part of the group.

We have a nice group of new kids joining the program including Karla, Alexis, Manrique, Stephany, Kathia, David, Eduardo and Helen Gabriela.

David really captured my heart. His father died this past December and the family is really going through some difficult times. Please keep these kids in your prayers. We need them to do well in their first year.

El Rey Did it Again...Soccer anyone?

We were fortunate enough to have Ray Thompsett, a.k.a. "El Rey" coming with us again this trip. This is his third trip with the Manos team. We are not sure if he really likes doing mission work or if he just likes to spend his birthdays with us. Rey, hope you had a great Honduran birthday (again)!.

This year Ray had his most acclaimed soccer clinic for the kids in the neighborhood. He had about 40 kids showing up to play FUTBOL. As you know, Honduran kids are totally passionate about the game and they would show up anytime, anywhere where there is a soccer ball. Ray had the challenge of having kids with a wide range of ages (including adults). Not matter what, Ray handled everything beautifully and was able to have a very successful training session and two 20-minute period game. The kids had a blast!

We had our very own Manos de Dios groupy Gerlain acting as the official referee during the game. Gerlain is the kind of kid that walks around holding his official FIFA rules and regulations booklet that he likes to read in his spare time. He actually did a great job.

I will also like to thank David Santos and Daniel Bonilla for coming all the way from Tegucigalpa to help with the futbol clinic. They both love futbol so they really enjoyed helping out with the kids. I really enjoyed watching the whole scene during the game. The kids were having a great time playing; Gerlain was playing the part of his life as a referee; the adult futbol players were cheering the kids and keeping track of the time because they couldn't wait to get on with their own game; and Ray doing what he does best, just absorbing it all.

Ray, we love having you in our team. I hope that your "dad" Chitt gets to come next time. He really needs to come to keep you in line.

Building a Music Room

This year the construction team was extremely efficient. We were able to get most of the materials before we arrived so it took the team no time to get going with their project. The main assignment was to build a music storage room (next to the sacristy). The team worked diligently until they got it done. Now we will be able to store the music equipment all in one place and be able to keep better inventory of the instruments. The team was formed by old pro Cesareo Guadarrama, the California boys (Jim Kasterko and Mike Jelf), Ray Thompsett or better known as "El Rey" and the new kid on the block Dwain Glass. Dwain was amazing, he did not mess around. He knew what he had to do and just did it. I think that it took Dwain about 5 minutes to figure out what mission work is all about. Dwain and Mike, welcome aboard!

We also have a very important team member helping the construction team. Jorge Lenin is one of the scholarship kids that graduated in Nov 08. He is a wonderful young man and he worked with the construction team side by side. We all have to learn a lot from Lenin; his ethics, his professionalism, his determination, his kindness. He is planning to work for a year and then go to college next year. I can't wait to see what Lenin is going to do with his life. We love you Lenin.

Tish, you are going to love the music storage room. For the first time, I felt that the music at Manos de Dios is really taking a life on its own. Marvin is doing very well directing the choir and trying to raise some young musicians.

Cesareo, thanks for bringing your wonderful plumbing skills (among other things) to Honduras. He was able to fix the water lines so now ALL the building has water.

Donna, we missed you this trip but you need to know that your dream of building a church and a vocational center came true. It is all up and running and it looks beautiful. Thanks for all your help and commitment throughout the years.

Empowering the Women in Nueva Esperanza

I was fortunate enough to have met Ema Rosero-Nordalm a few months ago at planning meeting at the Bishop Jones Center. When she was telling me about her 3 Generation of Women workshop that she had been teaching in different parts of the world, I knew that I had to find the way to get her to come with us to Honduras. As it turned out, she made my job very easy because she agreed to come almost immediately. Ema was a true blessing to our team. Ema worked with the women in the community everyday for two hours. Her workshops were designed to empower and strengthen women by teaching them how to take action in their lives and act as mentors for people around them. Ema was able to connect in deep ways with the women and will continue to mentor them "long distance". Ema, thanks for all your efforts and for your incredible commitment to the women. I want to thank Beryl too for being flexible (and wearing different hats) and helping Ema throughout the process.

Community Gardens...a New Ministry for Nueva Esperanza

This year we were really excited about adding a new ministry to our efforts in Nueva Esperanza. Bob Grafe decided to join the Manos de Dios team and teach some workshops about horticulture. Bob, also known as Backup Bob, Bueno Bob, Bob-B-Que, Bob the Builder, What About Bob, among other names is a passionate Master Gardener (among other things as well). His passion came across as he worked with the youth and adults teaching them all about raised vegetable gardens. The teaching did not stop in the classroom as they decided to get down and dirty (literally) and built 4 big raised gardens with mostly recycled materials in the Manos de Dios property.

It was amazing to see Bob work with the Hondurans, especially with the scholarship kids. These kids are between 13-17 years old and some of them have chosen Agriculture as their vocational area in high school. They all spoke the "same language". Bob had a very enthusiastic "Manos de Dios Gardening Club" helping him out with all the "green" projects. The club was formed by Gloria Glass, Patricia Riggins, Padre Jerry, Beryl Kenney, Tatiana Hoecker and Caitin Pierce.

Thanks Fr Jerry for leading the "let's use the water well" operation. John Fenley and his water ministry team should be happy to know that the water well is working great and is fully in use, especially for watering the community gardens.

The team also built a nice brick sidewalk around the staircase that takes you to the vocational center. Tatiana did a great job teaching the little kids how to lay sand and bricks.

Bringing "Clarity" to Hondurans through Vision Clinics

We were able to have three vision clinics during our week in Danli. The largest clinic was in the Iglesia Episcopal Manos de Dios where the team fitted about 95 pairs of glasses. They also had two other clinics in El Paraiso and Jacaleapa. We would like to thank the vision clinic team that did a great job trying to improve people's quality of life by giving out glasses to people that would never have access to glasses otherwise. The team included Dr. Henry Moore, Kevin Lee, Amanda Moore, Caitlin Pierce, Patricia Riggins and Padre Jerry. We would also like to thank Jeannie Loving for driving the team to Jacaleapa and helping out translating.

Just got a stove and a refrigerator for the Baking Micro-enterprise

I got news yesterday that Victor (our lay pastor) got the new stove and refrigerator for the Baking Micro-enterprise. Victor went to the store with two of the ladies in the community (Betty and Cristina) and were able to purchase the appliances. Ken and Charlotte Jones (from St. Patrick's in Pagosa Springs, CO) have been instrumental in teaching the ladies how to bake cakes, cookies, pies, etc. We missed Ken and Charlotte on this trip but as you can see their work will continue. We would like to thank Ken and Carlota for all the work that they have done in Nueva Esperanza. Also thanks to Terry Koehler (St Luke's in Baton Rouge) for all her help teaching the ladies in the community. We would also like to thank St. Patrick's for their generous donation that allowed us to purchase the stove. The ladies can't wait to start baking delicious goodies in the beautiful stove! They will be selling their goodies to the schools, other churches and individuals in the colonia Nueva Esperanza.

The Micro-Enterprises Becoming a Reality

The Vocational Center in Danli was created to help the people in the community of Nueva Esperanza. The Center is located in the second floor of the Iglesia Episcopal Manos de Dios. The vocational center has two rooms especially designed to help the ladies in the community start two micro-enterprises that will help them raise money for the Church and eventually for their families.

We will have a sewing and a baking micro-enterprises.

I want to thank my friend Berta for donating all that fabric for the sewing micro-enterprise. The ladies will definitely put the fabric in good use. We are expecting to get some new sewing machines donated soon. Stay tuned.....

The picture shows Cesareo, Patricia and Henry enjoying the furniture for the Sewing Micro-Enterprise that had just been delivered the day before our arrival.

At Last, We Had the Dedication of the Vocational Center

On Sunday, January 18 Bishop Lloyd Allen dedicated the Vocational Center that had just been completed. We had over 200 people attending the service and dedication that took place at the Manos De Dios Iglesia Episcopal.

The dedication was followed by a reception at the Manos de Dios church with some delicious arroz con pollo prepared by the ladies of the community. They prepared 35 pounds of rice!

Return from trip to Danli, Honduras - January 15-22, 2009

We just got back from our annual trip to Danli, Honduras. We had an amazing trip with lots of blessings to share. In the past, I have typically written the reports from our trips from my own perspective. This time, I would like to invite all the Manos de Dios members to share their experiences by blogging along.

We had a wonderful team of 17 goers from different parts of the country including people from Texas (Dr. Henry Moore, Kevin Lee, Amanda Moore, Cesareo Guadarrama, Ray Thompsett, Patricia Riggins, Fr. Jerry Sneary, Beryl Kenney, Gloria & Dwain Glass, Bob Grafe, Tatiana Hoecker, Patricia Perea); California (Caitlin Pierce, Jim Kasterko, Mike Jelf), and Massachusetts (Ema Rosero-Nordalm).

As I reflect on our trip, I keep thinking about the Manos de Dios motto, "Changing lives in Honduras" (or "Cambiando Vidas en Honduras"). I feel that our work in the colonia Nueva Esperanza has been a gift not only for our brothers and sisters in Honduras but for all of us that have been involved in this ministry throughout the years. In reality, the motto should be "Changing lives (period)", as I have seen how doing mission work is a life changing experience for everyone involved.

We had an incredible week where we all took the concept of multi-tasking to a different level. I would like to share some of our special moments during our stay in Danli.