Containers

Tuesday of this week a container was unloaded in Tegucigalpa. This container had over 800,000 servings of rice meals. These meals are vitamin fortified providing a whole day's worth of vitamins for the children that eat them. The organization that sent this container specified that at least 80% of these meals go to hungry children and that the children that receive the meals be taught about Jesus. We can do that.

This container has an amazing story. The container was offered back in December. All we had to do was pay the shipping. We usually don't have an extra $4500.00 sitting around, but we said we would take the container any way. Twenty hours later the entire $4500.00 was on its way. God wants His hungry children fed.

The next container will leave Jacksonville on February 15. This container is full of clothing, blankets, diapers, medical supplies and all kinds of good stuff. Most of the medical supplies came from a place in Jacksonville called In His Service. In His Service is a warehouse that receives donations of medical supplies and other things to be used only in mission work. It is a well organized, well run facility. We were amazed by the efficiency.

Another organization in Jacksonville is called Elm City Center. This organization is run by the Kiwanis club and has been in Jacksonville for 50 years. That in itself is pretty amazing. It is a place that trains adults that are mentally impaired some job skills. All of these people are living alone or in a group home and pay rent and utilities and buy their groceries and clothing. Some in this group did a lot of the sorting and folding and packing. From what I understood, they sorted, folded and packed a lot of the blankets and clothing.

Marc talked to the people at Elm City Center this morning about some of the things we do in Honduras. Marc did an awesome job scaling down to their level. He showed pictures of some of the houses in which people live. Most of them considered themselves lucky when they saw where people live in Honduras. When Marc showed the picture of the wooden 16' by 16' house we build to replace those houses, some clapped and cheered. As Marc was telling about people in the dump, scavenging with the buzzards to find a few morsels to eat, many were sad. A few wanted to keep talking about how sad that was. They were very touched by the words Marc spoke this morning. He also told them they were partnered with us to help the folks in Honduras and they were helping to bring hope to so many.

I am grateful for places like In His Service and Elm City Center that are helping supply medical supplies to missionaries and teaching job skills.

Our next container will be shipping out of Overland Park, Kansas in May. I am also grateful for people that realize in a poverty-filled nation like Honduras we have to take care of physical needs before we take care of spiritual needs. People need to see Jesus, not just hear Jesus. People like Kara Vick, Maria Phillips, and Linda Smith take on a huge job when they say they want to do a container.

Thanks to all the people who supply things for these containers, do paperwork, inventory, load and unload, all the behind-the-scenes things that have to be done. You are Jesus in action to everyone that receives these goods and hears the good news.

Terri