Tom Schnepf and other team members trenching for the new sewer line we are laying. At least we have  worked mostly in the shade

Cheryl Copley, one of the "cookie ladies" gives the small boys house a treat -- they get to decorate, and then eat of course, their own cookie

Thursday: We rise early every morning, with the sun. Here, it's early to bed, early to rise.... Our youth are going to be mentored today by our 20-somethings, one of the advantages of a destination like this is that it lends itself to all ages. They will be working together on visiting kids and other activities. Everyone remains well and healthy, with God's blessing, and our work progresses. We ran into one problem (actually a series of problems -- welcome to the Third World) and did not finish the sewer piping project yesterday as expected, but we do believe we will finish today. The team from both churches is a remarkable one, coming together as one to accomplish our goals, then spend the evenings together in fellowship. Members of both churches would be proud to watch the team in action and would be blessed to be here themselves. Keep us in your prayers as we finish our work here and head home Saturday.

Day two is nearly over and the men have nearly finished our sewer piping project, and the women are staying busy with activities with the children, including Monica Snyders project helping 100 children make a book called "About Me," that includes information about favorite Bible verses and other personal information and gives the kids something they are so starved for -- individual attention. Everyone is staying healthy and getting healthier spiritually day by day as we serve here. I keep hoping to post pictures, but the Internet here is so slow it is nearly impossible to post one before the connection goes down, also there are some buts with this blogging program from a foreign country. So, hopefully, I'll be able to work through those. We are looking forward to three more days, then back home!

Monday was our first day of putting our backs into the work we came here to do: helping dig and replace sewer lines and working with the kids. We were successful at both today, and I'll try to post some images, though the Web connection here is iffy and often nonexistant. We are replacing sewer line and got hundreds of feet of pipe in the ground, while other teams from Hillside and Heritage were doing fun and spiritual activitiers with the youth. Because the Net comes and goes here, I'm going to post this quickly and hope to post more later.

We have arrived

All arrived safely and are settling in. A gentle rain on the tin roof drummed us all to sleep and we woke to a breakfast of pancakes before church. Greg Elder of Hillside gave the message. Today: a tour of the orphange and some time with the kids. Tomorrow the work begins. We will be laying some new sewer pipe and repairing a drainage field. We also have a heavy of activity with the kids, many prepared by the members of Heritage Presbyterian.

Day 1

And we are off! 9:58 am Next stop Honduras and 600 children

The members of Hillside UMC and Heritage Presbyterian are departing Sat., Sept. 15, at 10 a.m. By the time you are sitting down to supper in Cherokee County, we will be in Guaimaca, Honduras with 600 children at Orphanage Emmanuel.

Please remember to pray for us everyday as you sit down to eat. We will appreciate it and I'm sure we will feel the strength of your prayers.