Expecting Company Tomorrow

Today I left for San Pedro Sula to meet the group from West Metro at the airport. It takes several hours to travel from Trujillo to San Pedro. I am traveling with Emilson, the director of the school, in his pickup truck. We left at about 7:30 am because I wanted to stop in La Ceiba to see the place where the group will stay on the way to Trujillo. I found the accommodations to be very basic, but it is in a good part of town, which is the important part. I also needed to pick up a few supplies at Office Depot and the supermarket in San Pedro. San Pedro is a large city and has many of the luxuries that are so normal for us in the United States. In fact, as I compose this message, I am sitting in a very modern KFC with a wireless internet connection. Although, the connection is very slow, and I’m not sure if I will even manage to get this uploaded before I leave. Another reason we wanted to leave early is because all of the bus drivers are protesting right now about the high fuel prices. Sometimes they shut down the roads for several hours by parking in middle of a road or bridge, and you just have to wait. Fortunately, for today’s protest they simply parked all of their buses on the side of the road, so we were able to get through with only a few minutes of delay. Of course, for all of the people who depend on the buses for transportation to work, school, and other destinations, this protest is a big inconvenience. And of course, the protest doesn’t do anything to affect the price of fuel, as Honduras is suffering the same fate as the rest of the world in that regard.

Tonight at 9:05, Emilson and I will go to the airport to pick up our first arrival from the United States. Her name is Nadia, and she used to live in Trujillo. She will be living in the apartment with us for the next several weeks. Nadia, Emilson, and I will stay overnight in a hostel here in San Pedro and go again to the airport tomorrow to meet the nine people traveling here from West Metro. We will rent a van, travel to La Ceiba, stay for one night, and go the rest of the way to Trujillo on Saturday morning. Saturday evening, we will have a devotional with a group from California that is working at Little Hands, Big Hearts, another mission organization in Trujillo. Sunday we will of course attend worship and then spend time preparing our work for the week. One of the advantages to my family coming early is that I have already scheduled delivery of materials for the work project that we will be starting next week. So, Lord willing, we will hit the ground running on Monday morning and have a full week of service to the school.

For those of you coming to Honduras tomorrow, the weather here has been very mild. There has been a nice breeze and significant cloud cover, but not too much rain. Maybe the hot weather will stay away, and we will be blessed with comfortable temperatures next week.

In closing. All of our family is doing well. Rachel and the kids are back in Trujillo while I am here getting the group. They are very secure in the apartment where we are staying, as it is part of the Hotel Villa Brinkley. As extra security, I went to the Home Depot (ha ha) and bought a new dead-bolt lock for the door, so we know we are the only ones with keys. We will likely not be able to update anything on the blog until Monday, with the possible exception of a quick confirmation that the group is in Trujillo safely. Thank you all for your continued prayers for us and for the fruitfulness of our efforts in Trujillo. God bless.