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.