Tonight we had a Men’s worship night. There were two new believers in attendance. Larry did a great job of sharing the Good news and encouraging them. To sum it up, we do not clean ourselves up before we come before Jesus. We come before Jesus and admit that we are unclean and he cleans us.
Today was a hot day. Luckily we got more rain last night.
Tomorrow we send the team off. I am sad to say goodbye to them as I know many of them.
God Bless,
Paul
This post is brought to you by the letter L.
I met a boy named Kenree last year. He has a temper and is not educated and is always getting in trouble. Something pulled on my heart I think it was the Holy Spirit and the fact that I made lots of trouble when I was his age.
Coming back this year he remembered me and we instantly had a relationship to work off of. I had helped bring him to tutoring last year, but he had since dropped out. A member of team Helene suggested that I bring him back to tutoring and work with him one on one.
Yesterday I brought him and he was good but he could not remember the letter L for the life of him. He would go abcdefghijk…..ummm.uh.n.. At the end of the day I had him walk out of the building holding his left hand in the shape of an L and saying L. L. L L.
Before the tutoring today which runs from 5-6 I had been working on the house again. We did not get back til 4:55. Leaving 5 minutes to change and relax. After yesterdays L limbo I was not exactly encouraged. I shot off a quick prayer for energy, paitiance and for him to remember the letter L!
I had him look at the alphabet point at each letter and say them. DANG L. He had the rest of it down expect L. I got by a white board and wrote L. And would point to L and than A. He finally seemed to recognize it. I had him start at the top. ABCDEFGHIJKL..YES HE SAID L. Unlike yesterday, he did not forget again. And as we were walking out I had him make his hand in the shape of an L and without hesitation he said “L”.
The rest of the hour we worked more on the alphabet and than I read him a book ran through alphabet flashcards, and than did a puzzle to finish off. The hour went fantacitly well. I left feeling encourage and energized. And another prayer answered. Please pray for his attitude to stay so good and to keep him out of trouble.
So a big day for the letter L. Next week we will start writting down the alphabet!
Itching my legs,
Paul
Yesterday we went on water ration due to the lack of rain. Everyone prayed and some even thought of doing a rain dance. This morning the weather teased us with a brief drizzle. However after lunch the skies opened up. It started out slow and quickly turned into a tropical downpour. We were out working on the house when it started, we tried to wait it out but we soon realized it was not going to stop for a bit. We took brief refuge in Julie’s house, she was so nice and very welcoming.
The 15 minute retreat back to the clinic was a messy one as the paths quickly turned to mud and rivers started flowing down the hills. But we got our rain and now have more shower water. A answer to prayer.
Tonight we had YP which is a basically a local youth group. Numbers were real down. But the worship was great. Some members from sunset shared their testimony’s and we’re very inspiring and encouraging.
The best moment of the night came when Camas shared the gospel and asked if anyone wanted to accept Christ right then. A local teenager came up and accepted Christ right there on the spot. We prayed for him and then burst into applause. A very cool moment indeed!
I am tired and sore but ready for tomorrow.
Serving Him,
Paul
Today was a hard but good day. I had a full day of construction. We covered everything from picking up the tools and wood to squaring and nailing in the siding. The wood here in Honduras is not always so great. At one point when we were putting the siding on, Camas(a member of team Helene) was nailing while I hung(by hung, I mean hung, my feet were off the ground) from the siding to pull it down into place. Parts of the wood are also harder than others. At times nails would simply bend and I would have to pull them out and than use a new one. It was great to be able to look and see all the work we had done over the day.
Team sunset is doing great. Everyone seams to be having a great time and is interacting very well with the islanders.
One of the boys from the crash who had been in a medically induced coma has been woken up and was responsive-with a yawn and stretch, no talking yet, but just surviving is truly a miracle. Praise God. Please keep your prayers up. Helene really needs in this time of great tragedy. We are all really working to encourage the islands that God can and will work through this event for the greater good.
I had a very cool moment tonight. Team Sunset was having a group meeting and Marvin was waiting for Ewings to be done with a study. So i started talking with Marvin and we were overlooking the group meeting. We had a great talk about life in general. The group wrapped up their meeting with a moment of prayer. I felt led to pray with Marvin. I asked Marvin if he would like to pray and he said yes. So we prayed. I felt like we really connected during our 30ish minute talk.
Serving Him,
Paul
I’m here. My trip over here went really well. Both plane rides went very well. The boat ride over to Helene compared with a roller coaster because the seas were so choppy. It was great.
It has been great seeing all the people I met last year.
The situation on the island right now is a little tense as there was a serious accident here last Friday. Local island boys were involved in a boat accident. Some were killed. The island has been in a state of shock. Luckily most of the boys survived. Please keep Helene in your prayers. I knew some of the kids on the boat thankfully they were only suffered minor injuries.
It is cool being here while the team from Sunset is here. Since I know almost all of them.
I helped clear a boat earlier today, I will be doing a lot of odd jobs. I am excited to serve. I am very excited for building relationships with the islanders.
Later,
Paul
P.S Facebook users. I would love it if you commented on www.ilovehelene.com
I am sitting in the gate area right now waiting for the them to start boarding. Like Matt I love the fact that PDX offers free no hassle WIFI. Yay Portland.
I am very excited to begin my Journey back to Helene. I have felt God calling me and I am ecstatic to answer His call and serve Him. Serving the Lord gives me pure joy. Our God truly is an awesome God.
I want to thank all my supporters that have made it possible for me to go on this trip. Thanks Mom, Dad, Molly and Kevin for all your help over the last years. Thanks to everyone who was able to contribute financially. If you still want to contribute. Head over to www.alternativemissions.com and look for the support link. Thanks to everyone who is praying and has been praying for me. Prayer is vital for the success of my trip. A HUGE thanks to Sunset Presbyterian Church for helping make this trip possible for a college student.
I am excited to help spread and encourage the good news on the Island of Helene.
Please keep praying for me and the Island and all the teams going through!
See Ya In Helene!
Serving Him,
Paul
P.S if this makes no sense I am running on 2 hours of sleep.
I do not like to pack. I am always worried that I am going to pack WAY too much stuff of things I do not need and forget things that are very important. I get even more nervous when I am going away for two months. I ate dinner with Scott tonight. It was great. We talked about Helene alot and than prayed for like 15 minutes. We also watched a great video that Alternative Missions put together (Alternative Missions is the organization that I am interning for this summer).
I cannot believe I am leaving on Saturday! I am so excited. I cannot wait to be on Helene again.
God Bless,
Paul
I am going back to Helene, Honduras. Yay. I am getting more excited as my departure date quickly approaches. Today during worship at church I felt myself getting so excited about going to Helene and serving.
People have been asking me where Helene is so I thought I would have Google earth help us out a bit.(Feel free to click on any of the images to see their full size)
Here is a far far away view where we can see Roatan off the coast of Honduras and barley see Helene off the coast of Roatan.
Here is Roatan and Helene. There is a narrow strip of water that separates the two. From the picture they look connected as you can see.
And here is a close up view of the island of Helene. The clinic is the building that Alternative missions built and operates out of. This is where I will be staying. You can also see the village of the bite. And the soccer field.
As I Journey back to Helene I will try to keep you all updated on this site. I will also attempt to post many photos at www.Ilovehelene.com/photos. I would love to hear from whoever reads this though comments or email. Also I would ask to be kept in your prayers.
I leave for Helene June 23rd and return August 25th.
Serving Him,
Paul
Sorry I never posted the rest of my journal. In reality there was nothing left to post. Things got busy and hectic and I only wrote bulleted outlines of the last few days.
My trip to Helene last year was an amazing experience. Serving the Lord is the best thing in the world. I am very excited this summer for a two month internship. I will be posting as often as possible about my trip. Please follow along and comment.
Serving Him,
Paul