Saturday, January 26

Starfish Enterprise regrouped in Honduras today, after a year of preparation. We had folks from North Carolina, Michigan, Arizona, Illinois, Missouri, Colorado, and Iowa. We all arrived in Tegucigalpa safely, but not without a few hang-ups.

The day started at about 2:00 a.m. for most of us and now it is 9:00 p.m. It's been a long day. The start of the day at Lambert Airport in St. Louis was a bit confusing because the terminals at which our boarding passes were to be swiped were not working properly, and this delayed us from being the first through the long line of travelers. The flight to Houston was fine, although a bit bumpy. Then it was on to Tegucigalpa. The terminal in Tegus was very hectic. We had a few leaking cargo trunks and 13 of our bags still have not arrived. We were originally told that the bags (which contain medicine and personal clothing) would arrive later this afternoon.
As of now, they still have not arrived. Good thing we packed

a day's worth of clothes in our carry-ons!

After arriving safely at the mission house, we are all very tired. We had a 'sharing-time' tonight, shed a few tears already, and will probably all retire fairly early this evening. Tomorrow it's off to church and our first full day of excitement here in Honduras.

Thank you all for your continued prayers. We are blessed to be here and hope to share the blessing with many of our Honduran friends this week.

In Christ,
Debbie Rathert

Sunday, January 27

Today was a great day! We got up early, ate breakfast and went into town to church. About half of us went to the English speaking church, and the other half went to the Spanish speaking church. After we spent a little time in the park, we made our way to La Florida restaurant, where we had a choice of chicken, fish, beef, or pork. The food was great and a good time was had by all.

Shopping was next on the list. Cigars, purses, ducks, bracelets, machetes and pottery were purchased. The weather was wonderful, and we enjoyed our time with our leader for the day, Eduardo.

We made our way back to the mission house around 4:00 p.m., only to find that our missing 13 pieces of luggage/cargo still have not arrived. Some of us were very happy to find donated underwear (clean, that is) that might carry us over until

tomorrow! The worst part of the missing luggage is that we don't have all of the medicine or eye glasses that we need for our first brigade tomorrow.

We ate supper, loaded the truck with the trunks that we do have for tomorrow, and will have a session on Evangelism tonight to prepare us for tomorrow's work.

The phones are not working properly here or at least we can't figure out how to use them so some of you who were expecting phone calls from us….please don't worry. We're fine. We will be sending emails home and you can reply to them to keep us posted on what's going on at home.

This has been a great start, and we are looking forward to many blessings tomorrow as we begin our first brigade delivering medicine, love, and the Good News of Jesus Christ to our Honduran friends.

Starfish Enterprise 2008

For more pictures from Saturday click on the link above.

Monday, January 28

From: The North Carolina Group

Well, here we are again. We arrived safely and all of our trunks made it. Even though it's Monday night, several people on the team are still waiting for trunks and luggage to come. Please pray they arrive. We have had a great first day serving with a church Chris and Meg and Larry have been at before. The church people are on fire for God and have helped everything run smoothly. The focus of the week has been looking for the gifts each of us have and encouraging those gifts in each other. We have seen love, kindness, patience, compassion, caring, understanding, and Christ moving in wonderful ways through God's people.

memories we carry with us when we return to the states. Thank you for your continued prayers and support for us. Already we have seen God touching and changing the Honduran people's lives. Your collaboration with us makes this all possible.

Thanks be to God!

The North Carolina Team

Tuesday, January 29

From the Youth

Timothy Erb: Wow! What a start! The first two days of the brigade have been amazing. I spent all of Monday in Children's Ministry. The first half of the day I spent washing hair and the second half I just roamed and helped wherever I could, whether it be washing hair or singing songs. Today, I spent the first half of the day in Optical. Trying to communicate with the many Hondurans with only one translator can be difficult. The second half of the day I was in Dental. That was really exciting. The best part of my work in dentistry was pulling teeth. I got to pull two teeth. That was really fun! But anyway, we're looking forward to a fun day at the ranch tomorrow. It's going to be fun!

Adam Brakhane: Hola from Tegus. What an exciting day! There's so much to be learned from the Hondurans.

Their kindness and hospitality is present in all that they do. We've never felt so welcomed into a different culture. It's amazing how they have so little, yet they're always so happy and grateful to have us helping them. Many times, we find they are actually helping us more than we are helping them. They allow us to see just how fortunate we are. So many times, we Americans (gringos) overlook our blessings. We get caught up in ourselves and what we can gain. It's refreshing to see such a reliance on God here.

Hannah Schlemer: The most rewarding experience I've had this trip occurred yesterday while leading Children's ministry. At first I was so nervous because I didn't realize the whole room was in my hands. But when we got started singing and those kids responded to me, I was on a spiritual high. It was so neat to have those soft little brown eyes watching my every action and enjoying each facial expression I made. We ended the brigade with hugs, kisses, and dancing. It was hard to say goodbye to them. Tomorrow we visit the Ranch's orphanage. I'm sure that will be heart-wrenching…so keep us in your prayers. Thank you to all my friends and family who made this trip possible for me. This little blurb can't begin to describe what I'm experiencing. It will forever leave an impact on me. I almost hate to come home. I send my love to my friends and family, especially my sister, Lauren, Meg and Bekah.

Michelle Meyer: I have been lucky enough to spend the last two days working in Optical and Children's Ministry. Being able to look at my dad smiling at me just makes this experience so meaningful, and working with the children just melts my heart. They are so sweet, loving, and helpful and I will remember them forever, especially Gustavo who spent the last two days hugging me, playing around with me, being my helper, and crawling up the side of the bus just to call my name and say goodbye to me. I am so grateful to my dad to let me share this experience with him and my brother. Although most of the people on our team were strangers to me on Saturday, they now feel like family, and I cherish every second I get to spend with them. Although I miss everyone at home (and my suitcase), I would not trade being here for anything. I want to send love to all my friends and family, especially Mom, Mikey, Stinker and my warriors. I look forward to sharing all of my experiences with you when I get home.

Wednesday, January 30

Change of Pace: We were blessed today with wonderful weather! After a presentation by President and CEO, Mike Ferguson, the team boarded the bus for the 1 ½ hour ride to Ebenezer Ranch. This facility provides homes for 36 children reared by Christian house parents in a family setting. They are receiving a bi-lingual education (preschool - 12th grade.) The goal is to have 120 students.

On our tour of Rancho Ebenezer we saw 22,000 coffee plants (shade-grown) and 16,000 blackberry plants. These plants provide income for the mission. On site were volunteer construction workers from North America who were building staff housing.

Prior to lunch some of the team members played a soccer game with the students. The students won! Traveling to a

higher elevation, it was noticed that the scenery was greener, and there was not as much bare ground and rocky areas.

Praise the Lord! The missing luggage/trunks were here. This was a welcome sight when our bus pulled up to the mission house. Everyone cheered!

Joanna, Morey, and Alice

Thursday, January 31

Today we rode the bus out of town many miles to the town of Tamara. The church there was small and crowded, but we were able to care for all of the people that came to the church today. This church is close to a major prison and a Honduran military installation. Otherwise the area was very rural and the people appeared to be of the Mestizo descent. The church was very hot and one of the Honduran dentists almost fainted as did one of our team members who was working in Dental. We saw one young man who had a terrible experience while getting his tooth extracted. It hurt him very badly…so much so that in the middle of the procedure he got up and left. After some coaxing and prayer, he came back and held both Chris and Brad's hand as the procedure was completed. The medical team saw lots of young mothers, many of whom started motherhood at the age of 13. In our evening team-sharing, we felt this to be an apparent problem in Tamara worthy of our prayers tonight. Our patients ranged in age from two months to 92 years, including several

sets of twins.

There were many rambunctious children who were eager for attention, hugs, and hair washing, so some of us spent the days doing just that! The people of the church worked alongside of us, attending to both our needs and those of the people who came to the clinic.

In Evangelism, there were many Christians who were unsure of their salvation. These people were overjoyed as we shared Bible verses and they came to understand that they are saved by grace alone. Joyful tears were shed as people accepted Jesus. We had heavy hearts as we witnessed others who outwardly rejected Christ's offer of salvation.

On the bus-ride home, we sang and laughed with our translators. Upon our return, we enjoyed yet another great Honduran meal. Following a heart-felt Bible study and time of sharing, some of us are now watching the beautiful nightscape of Tegucigalpa, while others are playing cards or preparing for tomorrow.

Adam, Mark, Paul, and Debbie

Friday, February 1

The last full day is always filled with mixed emotions. We are missing our families back home yet not ready to leave this incredible experience. This was the second day at the church in Tamara. As always, when we pulled up to the church in the morning, we were greeted with a long line of people of all ages. They are always smiling and waiting patiently.

on the face of the person when they first regain their sight. Tim and Matt worked in many areas this week. However, they found Children's Ministry today was very fulfilling. Michelle worked in Optical and then Evangelism but the true joy of her day was a little girl named Anga. This beautiful little girl stole her heart as she followed Michelle all day, smiling and hugging. Karen spent the morning in medical. It is always rewarding to see the smiles and looks of gratitude on the faces of the people being treated. At the close of the day, we all gathered together with the church members to sing, pray and say our good-byes. What a blessed week this has been.

See you soon!

Karen, Gary, Michelle, Matt, Jeff, and Tim

Saturday, February 2 Top of the Page / Main Page