A Change of Scenery

 

Today we made a small detour in our usual plans.  This morning after breakfast, we took a small field trip to Tegucigalpa to visit the Sisters of Charity.  This is a home for persons, ranging in age from infant to elderly.  They care for persons who do not have anyone else to take care of them.  Some have medical needs, some are elderly with no where else to go and no family to care for them. They both provide care and teach valuable life skills to the children, helping them to increase independence and improve skills.

We assisted the sisters in making meals for the homeless, packaged food for future use, spent time with children and elderly, and did some cleaning to help out.  There are limited photos of this wonderful experience to protect the privacy of those residing in this wonderful, caring facility.

A few members of the team continued on to Hospital Escuela.  They were meeting with some of the doctors and staff that receive the medical supply assistance from Le Mars Mission Honduras. Carolyn, Bruce and Mrs. Ebert represented our team here.

We got back to the school around noon for some tuna casserole, or PB&J sandwiches for some.

We loaded up and headed to the worksite to continue with siding and roofing. Again, this group exceeded expectations and made great progress!

Junta tonight provided many emotions. Bruce, Carolyn, and Beth (Mrs. Ebert) shared their experiences from the hospital visit. Missioners took the opportunity to express some of the more difficult feelings they were experiencing.  We also discussed some ways we have seen growth in ourselves. Watching each other support our teammates as we experience this trip was truly a beautiful thing.  This is more than houses and beds being built, it is lifelong connections and appreciation of the gifts that each of us bring. We are so proud of this team, thanks to all reading this for the roles you have played in creating and supporting these amazing people!

We thank you all for reading along with us, please know we miss you all back home and think of you often! Reading blog comments in the evening are truly a highlight. Thanks to all who have commented, keep it up!

Connectivity Issues

 Hello All, Matt Schilling again here stateside and I wanted to let you know that we received word from the team this morning that internet connectivity has been very spotty so there may be a delay in the blog or in Facebook updates. Not to worry, the team has been hard at work and will share the progress that they are making as they have internet connectivity.

 Greetings from Nueva Capital!  We apologize again for the technical difficulties yesterday, we will make sure this goes through tonight!

While missioners had a planned wake up time of 7 am, all were up by 6 am.  Some due to time confusions, but mostly because they were ready to go. And the roosters, can't forget the roosters! Once moving, boy did they go!

We started with breakfast followed by loading tools and wood. The principal of the school invited us to talk to the students at their morning assembly.  We were greeted warmly and Fr Doug explained why we are here and what we are doing. 

We then took off on our long, steep climb to the worksite.  Many breaks were needed to ascend and after 20 minutes, we made it! Someone tracked the distance and it was .63 miles.  We have decided a 'Mountain Mile' should be work 3 in the midwest. 

A group stayed back to start sorting bag donations, this went as quickly as the house framing.  By noon, we had all donations sorted and 3 houses with 4 framed walls each. We enjoyed a delicious lunch of chicken and rice with fresh veggies and fruit. 

Back to the worksite the whole team traveled.  By the time we wrapped up, we have interior walls started in 1 house, along with siding over half complete on this first house.  We also have the roof trusses up on the first house.  

We arrived back at the school to our much needed (and wanted) showers.  It was a warm day but we were so grateful for the wind! For supper, it was chicken taco and fruit. 

After supper and clean up, we attended mass with Fr Doug followed by a great junta.  We enjoyed lots of laughs and are still enjoying as we listen to the kids play cards and games. 

We look forward to another great day tomorrow with a truly AMAZING group!

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse (or any of the kids for that matter)

Addendum:

Sincere apologies to you all waiting patiently for this!  We blogged last night and just went to check the comments and saw there was a glitch that stopped the publish of this.  We have been posting on Facebook as well! 

Here is last nights blog, you will get another one tonight with many more pics!   

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After a very long travel day, we blog to the rolling snores of the missioners.  It took a whole 15 minutes after lights out to enjoy the sounds of what should be an award winning snort/slumber fest. 

We awoke starting at 2 am and took every minute afforded to us to get the team on the plane, but we made it!  We had smooth transitions in both Miami and Atlanta.  The 2 teams made it through customs/baggage inspections just a few minutes apart. 

We were greeted by our dear Honduran friends, Marta, Claudia, and Marta's son, Roberto. 

We had all bags loaded in the military truck and then loaded ourselves onto buses to enjoy sandwiches, plantain chips and some much needed water on our 4 hour ride to Nueva Capital.  We saw many different terrains and had great conversation.

We pulled into the school as the sun was setting, there were a few still around to greet us as we got right to work unloading bags and setting up 'camp'. 

A fan favorite, enchiladas. was served for supper along with fresh watermelon. 

We met for a brief junta meeting to debrief and share some experiences and then relaxed, enjoying stretching our legs after a long day of airplane and bus seats. 

The missioners are eager to begin our work tomorrow! We have plans to frame houses and hydrate, that's about it.  It will be in the 90's for temps this next week so we will be slathering on the sunscreen and getting to work!

Tomorrow, we will share many more pictures! Thank you for following! 

Departure Day 2024

 Good morning, I'm Matt Schilling, Tech Director at Gehlen and I've been asked yet again this year to keep you up to date on departure day for our team(s). It was an early morning for our four adult team members who left out of Sioux Falls on a super early flight this morning. As this blog goes live, the team will be landing in Atlanta, almost 20 minutes early, so they must have had a strong tail wind. And as I typed that, I got notification that the team landed. What amazing timing.

The rest of our team departed a little before 7:00 am central this morning in route to Miami and then later to San Pedro Sula. Carolyn Bickford did text to say everyone was onboard and was in good spirits as the flight was getting ready to depart. As of time of typing this blog, Their flight is still climbing to their cruising altitude with an estimated arrival time of 10:19 am central. 

If you did have not looked at the pictures from the send off on Gehlen Catholic's Facebook page, check them out at facebook.com/gehlencatholicschool

The sendoff was also live streamed as it was inside of St. Joseph Church this year because of War Eagle Honor Band taking place in the gym. Link for the sendoff can be found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUcxt018LPA&ab_channel=AllSaintsLeMars

Update from the original post: I got the two groups mixed up. The group that flew down to Miami just landed. Our large group that flew into Atlanta, is currently over the Gulf of Mexico and has an ETA of 11:24am.

Update #2: I've just heard from Anne Oloff and she says "the team is on the ground in San Pedro Sula. We have picked up all our bags and are waiting for our couple coming from Omaha. All is well." The group from Omaha has landed according to the flight tracking software. I will say that I am as excited as many of you are to read about our groups adventure and mission trip. I'm now signing off for blogging for our team stateside and turn it over to our team on the ground. I expect that we should have a blog from them here tonight. Thank you for following to this point.

Packing Day 2024

   With only 2 days before our Send-Off and 3 days before our flights into Honduras, we packed 84 50-lb. bags of donated materials into the black duffle bags. While in Honduras, we will give away every donated item of clothing, shoes, shampoo, lotion, toys, caps, underwear, and more to families who have almost nothing. 

   Tuesday we'll have our Send-Off celebration at St. Joseph's Church. Everyone will have a chance to bless our duffle bags by touching them before exiting the church to line the way to the bus. Everyone will have a chance to "send" us off, and we will carry those blessings with us and pass them along to the Hondurans we are going to serve.

   We encourage you to follow our blog. You'll be able to read about our work, our friendships, and the activities that are part of being a missioner.