Campamento

During the dump day back in May, a group from Fort Worth, Texas called Bread for a Hungry World gave a $25,000.00 donation to the dump fund. Yes, that is suppose to have three zeroes behind that 25. We had never met any of these people and had never even heard of them. The story of how they heard of us is a story for another day.

Marc met some of the folks in June and then was able to meet the whole group while we were recently in the States. They already have some work going in Honduras and were wanting to get more involved in work here. Their work is in Campamento and they approached Marc about partnering in some areas, they helping us and we helping them. There is a large church a day care center and milk program. Milk programs have always tugged at my heartstrings. The thought of small children getting a glass of milk a day just thrills my soul. Marc wanted to go see what is happening in Campamento and I easily convinced him to go today, Tuesday, my day off.

Dorian left at 6:00 this morning to take Rosy to school and called and said there were rockslides on our highway and traffic was a beast. It took him over 2 1/2 hours to get only to the airport, a normal 30-40 minute drive, maybe an hour in morning traffic. We left at 8:00, not knowing if we would get through or not. By the time, we got to the place of the rockslide, most of the rocks had been cleared off the road and traffic was moving, though be it slowly. Due to the heavy rains of late, we saw many rock and mudslide places. Fortunately, there was no rain as we drove today. I would hate to be in those rockslide areas during the rain.

Campamento is about 120 kilometers from the edge of Tegucigalpa, the edge out by the dump. The road was horrible. It has to be the worst major highway in the country. Not the worst road, but the worst major highway. Marc said I am sure it is going to get better, soon. It did. For about 1/16 of a mile. We bounced happily along on a wonderful thrill ride. Disneyland doesn't make any thing this good. My bottom feels more like I rode a horse to Campamento and back.

We saw rainbows and waterfalls and much of the beauty God created.

We all know the govenment has no money to fix roads or anything else. Is some places, individuals will set out to fix the road. They have shovels, dirt and wheelbarrows working away. They are also soliciting donations to buy more supplies with which to repair the roads. We saw several of those work crews today.

We met Bob who has worked with this program for the last 15 years. He is the only American in Campemento and has no one with which to speak English. I think I would lose my mind. We visited a while and then he took us to the church and the daycare center. The church is a large church, with regular attendance of over 200.

Once upon a time, the daycare center was a children's home, that had to close several years ago. The director of the daycare center is a beautiful young woman who grew up in the children's home before it closed. She came as a little bitty girl whose stomach was bloated and distended from extreme malnutrition. She was loved, fed and taught about God. She now directs this daycare center where impoverished single moms can bring their children to a safe, loving environment while they work. The children all ran to Bob with hugs when we arrived. Some of them shared a few hugs with me, too. The children sang a few songs to us. The director was radiating God's love as she led them in the songs. We can only pray that someday we will have a success story like this, one of our own, a beautiful Christian teaching more young children about God's love.

Unfortunately, we did not get to see the milk program. Milk is distributed to 1200 kids a day in schools. It is done a lot earlier in the day than what we were able to be there.

We both left Campamento with our hearts and minds overflowing about getting to be a small part of this ministry.

Terri