My Journey In Helene,Honduras

The island of Helene clearly demonstrates God beautiful creation. The people are beautiful, the animals intriguing, and the scenery takes your breath away.

Last week we hiked up to the cross. A couple of years ago Alternative Mission put the cross on top of this big hill. You can see it from all over the island and even as you approach the island from the sea. The views up there are magnificent. Enjoy.

The clinic is  down in that grouping of buildings.

The closest island is Morat followed by Barbaretta.

Me at the cross

The group that made the hike.

I played basketball today. Man you get sweaty quick, but it is a great way to hang with the guys and meet new ones. We went to lunch at like the one local island restaurant. The service was a little slow, as expected, it took 2 hours for all of our food to come out. But it sure was good.

God Bless,

Paul

Happy weekend to everyone. While serving here in Helene often means hard work, we certainly do have fun as well.

Today in the morning I worked with Andrew on finishing up painting some plywood. Then we were sent on a search to find a roof vent. We were only told that somewhere on the property one should be hiding. I found one, on a tip from Shelia that they might be up in the rafters. Holy cow it is hot up there. We’re talking about a 15-20 degree temperature difference.

In the afternoon Ewings returned from dropping some people off down island. He saw that the weather looked nice and wanted to go fishing. So Andrew and I got to go fishing with Ewings. We went way far away, about a 20-25 minute boat ride each way. We were trolling for tuna. The slow, rocking of the boat made me feel a little seasick but I held down my lunch.

I caught nothing. But the story is that my line scared the small tuna on to Andrews, which we then used as bait for barracuda and Ewings caught a smaller sized barracuda(2ft to 2.5ft). The best part for me was the boat ride there and back, with the great breeze blowing. As we cruised across the beautiful blue sea in God’s amazing creation. I felt so small, yet so comforted by knowing how unfathomably large God is. A song came into my mind called Indescribable. The song talks about how mighty and powerful God is-creating the heavens and earth. The word indescribable seems to fit perfectly. The fact that the God who created all, loves every single person on earth infinitely and wants everyone to have a relationship with Him.

God Bless,

Paul

During the medical clinic someone got the not so bright idea to wash out paint brushes in the sink. Maybe they assumed the sink would get replaced. But that was not the case. Leaving us with a very messy sink.

Cleaning up the sink ranks up there on fun tasks to complete. I lost quite a few brain cells from the paint thinner. Our best method was to get it all soaked in paint thinner, and that go around with a screwdriver and chip off the big chunks, being careful not to scratch the sink.  Thenthe scouring pads came in handy as we scrubbed very hard. After about an hour and half and some breaks to get fresh air, we had a very nice looking sink.

Andrew captured my excitment about the now clean sink.

In other news. I have been helping out in the school this week. Helping with the school takes a lot of energy. I am in the 5/6 grade classroom. When these kids get foucsed they are not a bad group to work with at all. But sometimes getting them on task can be quite a feat. To make matters a little bit more complicated Ms. Emily is in the states on her scheduled break, so they have a substitute. She is doing a great job of filling and keeping control. Showing how Ms. Emily does a great job.

Kenree did not show up on monday, and showed up yesterday 20 minutes late. Hopefully, he will make it today and maybe he’ll show up to be read to again tomorrow.

Well recess is over, back to school for me.

God Bless,

Paul

Wow. I have been in Helene for three weeks. It feels like I just arrived a couple of days ago.  My time so far has been very enjoyable but it has also been a lot of work. There are so many projects going on around the clinic. Some involve adding on to existing facilities but many are regular maintenance that are very labor intensive and require a lot of time. Many do not require skilled labor but just the manpower to do it. The amount of things that need maintenance around here amazes me. The heat and humidity really put a toll on the buildings.

In the past I have always felt like I am serving the most when I am talking to people about God or building relationships. But over the last few weeks my view of what serving really is, has grown.  I have been doing a lot more building projects then I thought I would be doing. By doing these time consuming tasks I have helped to enable other team Helene staff to work on the big projects, such as, Joe working on the battery bank. I have also assisted in those projects such as helping Joe hang the new inverter for the second battery bank and moving 12 batteries from temporary storage to the bank. While these activities may not require talking about God, they are helping to further His glory.

While I have been here I have realized that I involve God so much more in my daily life when I am here in Helene than I do at home. That is not the way it should be. I should involve God just as much at home as I am forced to do here. And there lays the key, NEED, when you are in a third world country life presents itself as much more uncertain then back in the states. We need God just as much in the States or Honduras, the key is letting him in our life wherever we are. Admitting our weaknesses at letting Christ be strong though them. Instead of us trying, and ultimately failing to help ourselves. God has offered us complete assistance, and left it up to us if we will take it. My goal for when I return home is to use that assistance and not try and do it on my own.

Being here on staff is much different than on a team. I think I am just starting to get used to that. I need to create opportunities for fellowship that were created for me when I was on a short term team. I have been hanging out a lot with Ewings and getting to know him.

He is a really cool guy and you can see God’s love pouring out through him. He constantly pushes against the overwhelming negative culture on the island and strives for Christ.

Everyday I see another way in which God blesses this island. I feel honored to be a part of His love pouring out through Alternative Missions.  The school is such a great example of His love.  These kids yearn for someone to love them and to teach them. And even though they can be very disruptive it is very evident that they really enjoy being there. Because of what God is doing though the clinic and what he is doing though people who donate their, time, money and materials these children have access to books, puzzles, games and people who love them.

Praise God,
Paul Frazier

As I mentioned in a previous post. We are making a cement pad to put the trash can shelter on to move them away from the building. I did not realize how labor intensive making cement is. We do not have a cement mixer therefore it was all done by hand. Once again moving all the materials clearly taxed our bodies the most. We ran out of sand and gravel up by the clinic so we had to bring more up from the dock. Enjoy the pictures.

The frame we built last week.

Three shovels of sand, two of gravel and one of cement powder.

Do not forget to add water-plenty of it.

Smooth it all out

Then you are finished. Make sure to add your initials(mine are in the upper left corner).

God Bless,

Paul

Varnish-a-thon. It is kinda like a marathon but with sandpaper and varnish. And I actually could do it, vs a marathon, well ya.

So the medical clinic is in the midst of a major remodel. The team from Kitty Hawk put in the flooring and Team sunset helped varnish cabinets and put hinges on.

Andrew and I have been working on finishing up things on this phase of the remodel. Such as varnishing outside and inside doors, hanging the rest of the cabinets.

The process of hand sanding and then putting on two coats of varnish on each side gets old very quickly. At the risk of sounding silly, I never realized how quickly sandpaper heats up from the friction.

After hanging the last of the doors up yesterday, I felt like saying good ridience. After crushing my fingers multiple times hanging the doors, I happily drove the last pin into place and shut the door.

What amazing is that I have never done most of the this stuff before. Most of it is not that hard to learn and really just takes the time to do it more then anything else. Perfection is far from required for sanding and varnishing and many of the other odd jobs.

Door before a new coat of varnish. This photo does not do justice but the doors were quite beat up

.

Here we are sanding them down.You can see how they are beat up on this photo.

Putting on the varnish.

The finished product, nice and shinny and clean.

Before we hung the cabinets.

Hanging them up. Hanging them proves a little tricky because the wood worps down here due to the heat and humity so putting them back on was like a big jigsaw puzzle.

The finished cabinet.

Some have asked where I sleep. So.

The heat really take the energy out of you down here. Hope everyone is doing well. Thanks for all the prayers.
God Bless,

Paul

Alright. So here are the pictures from ripping out one of the kitchen counters. We did this last Tuesday.

Here is what the counter looked like before.

Taking some anger out on the counter.

Andrew and I striking a pose with our hammers.

Whats left of the counter.

All that black is lovely roach dung.

Better view of roach dung

Larry the exterminator.

Burning the roach infested, roach poison infused wood.

Ahh.. Nice new shiny roach-less stainless steel.

There.

I put up pictures. I plan on posting the pictures from the varnish-a-thon tomorrow.

God Bless,

Paul

Well. Sorry I have not been posting. And I apologize for no pictures yet. My goal is to post a bunch of the before,during and after of our latest project. I hope to have them up by tomorrow night. We have been varnishing doors and cabinets for the medical clinic remodel.  After doing 5 doors with two coats of varnish I am tired of it.  I hurt my finger today when we were rehanging one of the doors. O well. It feels better now. It has been hot here lately. Well not much hotter but the breeze has been failing us. However, this afternoon was nice and cool. It rained for awhile. The breeze was strong and it felt like walking around in air-conditioning. Well almost.

God Bless,

Paul

Man I love Fridays. It was not an easy day thou. We definitely finished the week strong. We started off by taking doors off from the Medical clinic remodel. They desperately need some maintenance and a fresh coat of varnish. However, before we could even start sanding them Paul Moore came up and said we needed to go down to the dock and move up the gravel and sand for our concrete pad. Wow. The distance between the dock and the backyard of the clinic has never felt farther. I think I hauled 4-5 wheelbarrows of sand or gravel, moving them sucked the energy right out of me.

We than continued our project with the doors. The first task was to sand them and than put a coat of varnish on them. We had Clinton to help us out as he has recently started as a clinic assistant ( a job that entails managing water and doing other odd jobs for the clinic). Larry showed us how to thin the varnish and the proper way to apply varnish. Even with the Honduran heat the varnish still takes awhile to dry, so that gave us a little break. We were able to apply one coat on two doors. They will dry over the weekend and than another coat will go on top.

To start of the weekend Andrew and I went for a quick dip off the public dock. Jumping in shocked me but the water felt very refreshing. Weekend here are a time of rest and relaxation, baring any medical emergency or major mechanical failure. Saturdays are a total down day and Sunday are similar but we go to church in the morning or evening. After a week of hard work I am very grateful for two days off to get ready for another week of work.

I will really try to start posting pictures. Give me a hard time if I don’t. Thanks to everyone who has commented I really appreciate hearing from you and thanks even more to every who is praying for me I really really appreciate it.

God Bless,
Paul

Today we had the morning off to relax. It was a much needed break. This afternoon we finished the mold by lining wood around the outside and shoring it up with dirt.  After we finished that we took down the screens around the bunkhouse for repair. Most of the screws were rusted so we had to use the cordless saw to cut them.

Andrew and I than went and played basketball with Ewings. Man does that make you tired and sweaty.

God Bless,
Paul