1. I learned that small communities are amazing. I love it when they rally around one of their own.
2. I learned that I’m ready for fall weather.
3. I learned that you can get in the dog house by being forgetful. Yip, one slip up (or two) and you can be in BIG trouble. It was William Congreve who came up with the saying, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” but I’m thinking what he really meant was, “Hell hath no fury like what a woman gives a man who accidentally leaves the dish she fixed  for the funeral lunch in the bed of his pickup all afternoon … instead of taking it in for the family to eat.” Yip … I’m sure that’s what he was trying to say. I’m just glad Lea’s a forgiving person.
4. I learned that night time prayers with Cooper are the best. Last night his prayer included, “Thank you God for giving me an awesome mom and an awesome dad.” How can you not like that?
5. I learned, and continue to learn, that ministry can be an emotional roller-coaster. In just ONE day last week I celebrated with a family over the birth of their new baby, prayed and loved on a friend whose wife is leaving him, cried with a friend on the phone whose father was dying, pleaded for help for a single lady with 4 kids whose water had been cut off for more than two weeks, and sat in ICU with a family whose loved one’s life was hanging by a thread.. I was emotionally wiped out by the end of the day … but I still believe I have the best job in the world.
6. I learned that I love being both a father and a friend to my boys. I loved having all the boys home this weekend and playing games, hunting, watching movies, laughing, etc. with them.
7. I learned that I’m ready for both the NFL and Fantasy Football to start. Since I’m not a college football fan … I wasn’t ready for it to start.
8. I learned that the biggest PR problems of Jesus were because of his followers (things like this and this). I think as Christians, it would be amazing if instead of always promoting what we’re against as Christians, we start promoting what we’re for!  Those who call themselves Christians ought to be the most loving, forgiving and gracious people on the planet.
9. I learned from watching a movie that a man will show no pain while taking the most ferocious beating but will wince when a woman tries to clean his wounds.
10. I learned that you should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests that you think she’s pregnant, unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment. No, I will not explain.

But you and I CAN make a difference. Like the young boy, Trae, I told you about here or my 11 year old friend, Christopher, who has a ministry called the Ice Cream Ministry. Christopher gives up ice cream, and encourages his family to give up their favorite comfort food, and use it to make a difference in the world. In May when we raised money for the Dump in Honduras, it was Christopher that told the “Bread for a Hungry World” group that he was giving his ice cream money to the Dump Fund. The Bread group saw what we were doing and decided to give us $25,000 to help with that ministry in the dump…. all because of Christopher, an 11 year old boy. Just this morning, I got a letter from Christopher saying he’d raised another $669.29 for the Dump Fund. It’s amazing what God can do when you’re willing to let Him.

You can make a difference.  Here’s what I’d suggest…

First, make a difference by doing something. Get involved. It’s easy sometimes to write a check or give $20 to something. It’s a little tougher to make a commitment to actually get involved. Ministry is getting involved on a personal level.  Here are some examples:  find a homeless shelter where you can volunteer, sign up to help feed homeless, volunteer to head up a plan to raise money for a mission work that’s in a 3rd world country, go on a short term mission trip and serve others, etc.  Just look around in your community, you can find someone to serve.

Now, I’d also suggest giving. God has blessed us. If you don’t believe me, read this. We are the richest people in the world. If you ate three meals yesterday, if you slept in a home last night, if you have a car … then you’re in the top 10% of the richest people in the world. If your household income is above $50k you are in the top 1% of the richest people in the world. Let’s share what we have.  Here are a few places I suggest today…

• Bread for a Hungry World: This is an amazing organization that’s dedicated to both meeting physical needs of the poor and reaching them with the story of Christ. Would you believe that Lea and I gave a goat this morning. Yes, a goat. Here’s where. A $50 donation will buy a goat for a poor family in the Philippines. We made a difference in one family. ALSO, one of the coolest things the Bread group is doing is providing powdered milk for 1,200 school children each day in Honduras. The milk is distributed by teachers in the public schools, grades 1-3. Read about how you can help here. My favorite page is the video page explaining where everything goes, but don’t just read about it … pick some place to help.
• Build some Homeless Food Bags and give them away. About 3 weeks ago, a group got together at the church building and put together some bags that can be handed out to people you see that are asking for food at a stoplight, wanting something to eat, etc. In the 1 gallon ziplock bag we put a bottle of water, juice box, crackers, granola bar, Vienna sausages, trail mix and a little devotional book that tells them that Jesus loves them. Although we don’t get a lot of homeless people through Childress, we’ve already given quite a few of these away.
• Want something with the Dump Ministry on it? Buy a “Dump Shirt” (see picture below). Our church just ordered 20+ shirts from Bread for a Hungry World, who are making these shirts. On the shirt you’ll find a scripture and a picture I took of a sweet little girl as she sat in the trash and ate the food we’d given her. I still remember sneaking her an extra banana. With a $20 donation to Bread for a Hungry World, they’ll send you a Dump Shirt. Most of the proceeds will go to help that work. Make sure when you make the donation you tell them it’s for a Dump Shirt.
• Want to do something locally? Here’s a great place. The North Texas Food Bank does a great job seeing that kids are being fed in our area. It’s a great place to give. Better yet, volunteer to help them.
• Of course you can always support the Honduras work we’re involved in with Marc Tindall. That work will continue to do great things. And, we’d love to have you join us on a trip to Honduras for a week of building houses, feeding hungry kids, working in the dump, etc. The address for Honduras Missions is: TORCH, PO Box 9222, Columbus MS 39705.

There are literally thousands of things you can do… just find one and DO IT! Make a difference. Bloom where you are planted. Don’t be someone who just feels sorry for the hungry and less fortunate … DO SOMETHING. Get involved and share what you have. Share your TIME, your TALENTS and your TREASURES.

So I’d love to hear of some other ways we can help. What are you doing? What organization do you know about that’s helping fight poverty? Share something with us today. Remember … “If you can’t feed 100 people, then just feed one.” ~ Mother Teresa

Building food bags, or what we call "Homeless Survival Bags"

]]> http://treymorgan.net/what-you-can-do-to-help-fight-poverty-poverty-week/feed/ 12 http://treymorgan.net/little-inspirations-poverty-week/ http://treymorgan.net/little-inspirations-poverty-week/#comments Tue, 31 Aug 2010 13:29:13 +0000 Trey Morgan http://treymorgan.net/?p=2514 We kicked off Poverty Week yesterday.  Our goal is to bring to light those around us that are living in hunger and poverty. We’re also going to be looking at ways that we can help (on Thursday). Today I want to share with you a story of a young boy who is trying to make a difference. Here’s a letter I got last weekend in the mail from an 11 year old boy who lives in Oklahoma.

“Dear Trey,

My name is Trae. I am 11 years old and have just started 6h grade. I met you this spring when you spoke at our church in Tecumseh.

This summer I watched the video about the group that went to Honduras to minister to the children in The Dump. It touched my heart and inspired me to do something to help. We made a lemonade stand and sold cold lemonade, brownies and cookies on a hot July afternoon. We also made signs that would explain what the money would go to. People in our community were kind and generous. We raised $116.  I remember from the video about the boy who was trying to raise money for his family and hoped to get about $4 a day. I figured that we had raised almost a month of money for a boy like him and we only worked 5 hours. It was a blessing to get to help.

My family and I are praying and hoping that we will get to be a part of the mission trip in December. In the meantime we are praying for you and your family.

In Christian love. Your friend,

Trae

PS – I’ve enclosed some pictures of my cousins and me along with the $116 check.

Stories like these remind me of two things …

1. Anything is possible with a little effort. You just have to be willing.

2. Jesus knew what he was talking about when he said, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Later I’ll tell you about my young friend Christopher and how he’s helping feed hungry people. Thanks for stopping by during Poverty Week.

“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.” Mother Teresa

I’d like to share a few things with you this week on poverty. If you are anything like me, I find myself ignoring the fact that there are hungry people in this world because it seems much easier than feeling guilty about it. I often times wonder … “Can I make a difference?”  What I do know is that poverty in many parts of the world is far worse than most Americans (including me) understand. Here are a few statistics …

• Only 10% of the people in the world can afford a car … (so I shouldn’t be griping about gas prices).
• Over 3 billion people, about half the world’s population, live on less than $2.50 a day.  1 billion people live on less than $1 a day. The average American (.3 billion) lives on $105 a day.
• According to UNICEF, 24,000 children die each day due to poverty.
• My 8 year-old son, Cooper, never goes to bed hungry unless he refuses to eat something he doesn’t like. In developing countries, approximately 850 million people go to bed hungry every night and search for creative ways to ignore their discomfort, like the little boy who grew up in India who remembered his mother telling him to sleep on his stomach because it helped quell the hunger pains.
• Twenty percent of the world has no access to clean water. Millions more walk long distances to carry every drop of water to their homes.

Here are some things to think about …

• You and I spent 15 billion dollars on bottled water last year, despite the clean water we have that flows from the faucet in our sinks.
• You and I spent 12 billion dollars on storage facilities last year to store our extra worldly possessions that we don’t have room for in our homes.
• Economists said last year’s Christmas season was a downer. Yet we somehow still spent 470.4 billion dollars. Now understand that is 11 million dollars a minute that we spent between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I’m not trying to make you feel guilty … but compared to everyone else, we’re rich! Chan was right when he said in his book Crazy Love, “It’s ridiculous that on any given day we might flippantly call ourselves “broke” or “poor”?  We are neither of those things. We are filthy rich.”

Here are a few things the Bible says about money …

• “If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?” James 2:15-16
• “He who is generous will be blessed, for he gives some of his food to the poor.” Proverbs 22:9
• “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:17-18,
• “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.” Luke 3:11

So what can we do?  What’s being done? What’s the church’s responsibility?  Glad you asked …

Tuesday & Wednesday, I’m going to share with you two inspirational stories of what kids are doing to feed and help hungry people. They are inspirations to me.

Thursday, I’m going to suggest some things you might do to help, and you can share with me some ways you know to help.

You’re going to love tomorrow’s story. And if you are interested, here’s my sermon from yesterday on the same topic.  :)

A Home in Honduras

Here’s what I want … I’m asking that you only ask God to touch your heart with what’s going on around you in the world, because we’ve ignored it for too long and for too long we’ve thought, “There’s really nothing I can do about it.”

It’s going to be an awesome week, so stop back by Monday and I’ll give you all the details. We’re going to allow God to challenge us, move us and make us uncomfortable. Helping is much easier than you might think.

This hungry little girl was living at the dump in Tegucigalpa, Hondruas.

“While visiting here in the USA the past few weeks, I have been blown away at how much a Coke costs at convenience stores. No longer available in cans – nope, gotta buy the big bottle at $1.69. Are you kidding me? Drink 2 a day and you have spent nearly $4 (pay uncle sam 10%). That is $120 a month and $1440 a year – enough to pay for a week in Honduras with the Childress Team in 2011. So, no Cokes for Honduras is a great trade off! See you in Honduras!”

Yip, that’s like a free trip to Honduras next summer … all you have to do is give up buying cokes. Besides, have you noticed how much you pay for a soft drink at a restaurant when you eat out? Most of the time $2 and sometimes more. Ridiculous!

So here’s how you get a free trip to Honduras with me … give up your soft drinks (ice cream, Starbucks or other expensive extras) and make the trade off.

I promise … it’ll be worth it.

BTW:  This is day two with no soft drinks.   I’m holding strong (and saving for my next Honduras trip).

Did you know that 1 can of Coke (Dr. Pepper, etc) has 12 teaspoons of sugar? Now multiply that by however many sodas you typically consume in a day.

Think of it this way … 3 cans of soda = 36 whopping teaspoons of sugar!

That’s a LOT of sugar! Just think how much easier it’d be to lose some weight if you’d just give up soft drinks. Although I drink Diet Cokes, they’re not that great for you either. So, how about you and I give up sodas for a month … starting today? I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and now since I’ve confessed it here, I have some accountability.

Let’s start a healthy habit.

I remember when the first child came. I kept feeling sick and was light-headed because I was so scared. I wasn’t sure I was ready for this, but it was happening. It was a “ready or not, here I come” moment. I’d never seen or experienced anything like childbirth. Every time one of my children was born God did a miracle in my heart. I remember what felt like an instant sense of love that came over me that I had never experienced before. The second that child appeared in this world, I would have given my life for him.

I still remember each of my children’s births. A nurse always asked, “Do you want to hold him?” I remember shaking my head “no” and thinking, “He might break.” She always gave them to me anyway. They were all the most beautiful things I’d ever seen. Then I made a HUGE mistake … I blinked … and that little baby grew up… and tomorrow we’ll be moving two of them to Lubbock to start college. Time doesn’t stand still.

Just yesterday they were all babies, today they’re young men and soon we’ll wish they’d come back and visit more often.

If you still have children at home, value each moment … because before you know it you’ll blink and they’ll be all grown up.

The dump video documentary is finished. After much work by my friend Andy Hubright, you can see all 38 minutes of the documentary. Stop by and check out TheDumpMovie.com. You may have seen the first 13 minutes, but the last 20 minutes are new. A big thanks to Andy for all he’s done.

—————————

I asked the group from Childress that I took to Honduras this summer, “What did you think of Honduras?” Here are some of their answers. (I’ll give you a few more later) …

“The day at the dump was, by far, the most emotional to me. I sat in the back of the pickup filling bowls with rice. I wanted to keep my head down and not look at the people because I didn’t want to SEE. But when I would look up I saw the eyes. The love in them, the lost and death look in them, but most of all, I saw the eyes of kids who under different circumstances could have belonged to a child siting in my classroom. I saw little girls who could have been giggling with my daughter. I saw young girls who were mothers far too early in life. I have fed many young men in my house who always claimed to be “starving” but that day I saw young men who were truly starving in so many ways. I never knew I could feel so many emotions at once. I can’t wait to get kids in my classroom next week. I hope to see each and every one of them in a different light this year and find my Honduras in my classroom.”

“I DID NOT want to go on this trip! I don’t know when I’ll realize that God’s plans are better than mine! This trip changed my life, and made me realize that things that may be a huge deal to me (birthdays and parties) really aren’t that important in the scheme of things. That doing God’s work is what is really important, rather that be in Honduras or right here at home. This trip reinforced to me how all of God’s people really are easy to love. It doesn’t matter what kind of language barriers we face, the language of love transcends that! “

“I want to go back tomorrow! I loved Honduras! It is one of the most beautiful places filled with beautiul people. When we were at the dump ground I had the best time playing with bubbles with 4 precious little boys, but what got me were the young men that were probably 16-20 years old that were chasing the bubbles and playing with them just like the little kids were. They had probably never played with bubbles in their lives, but on that day they had some fun and that was cool. My favorite thing was building houses and seeing the faces of the families who had a dry, safe place to sleep for the first time. These people blessed my life in ways that I can’t even explain. It was an amazing trip. I am hooked!”

“Well i did not want to go.. and was told i should.. ha! So i went.. and while i was there i was an emotional wreck! I saw some amazing people whom are happy and feel blessed by the lord and they have 1/2 of the things i have.. how could i want for anything now.. i am not owed it.. they are proof we need little to survive. I saw Jesus in their eyes.. they were so greatful for the work we put in, the time we took, the clothes we gave, the medical help we were able to give.. i was inspired and touched.. i want to live my life different now.. and i am planning on it! I loved Honduras!!!”

“A number of people have said “I bet that trip was good, because it makes you appreciate how blessed you are in the USA”. I say yes to that, but more importantly, to me there is a recognition on my part that God didn’t bless us so richly because He loves us more than them but because He has great expectations of what we should do with what we have been blessed with.”

“I am going to have to agree with the other moms, I did not want to leave my kids for 8 days. It made me so upset thinking about it, but I am so glad that I listened to Randy, who had seen Honduras before and fallen in love with it. So now that I was blessed with going, I too have fallen in love with all of it. I will never ever forget the little 2 year old that had the streaks in her hair due to malnutrition, that laid in my arms cuddling for 2 hours. I will never forget her big brown eyes, her sweet sweet smile. I will never forget her holding on to me and squeezing tighter! Though I will probably never see her again, I will always remember Jesus in her eyes! After this trip I have learned that it is okay to leave your very blessed child or children for a few days to give love to children who are not so blessed. Thank you Trey and Randy for pushing me.”

Giving yourself away to others is very rewarding, and as I’ve said a million times, taking spiritual risks bring huge rewards…

Tonight Lea and I will sneak off to Dallas to see Jack Johnson live in concert. We’re very excited.

So, who’s at the top of your “must see in concert” list?

Jesus said, “Follow me…”

• The church is to be the body of Christ in the world. Jesus’ followers are to be His hands and feet to others. Somehow the church has done a great job of making believers, but a horrible job of making followers of Jesus. We do a great job being Jesus’ mouth, but a poor job of being his hands and feet.
• Being a believer is easy. Being a follower is hard.
• Jesus didn’t come just to save me from hell … He came to call me (and you) to a lifestyle change.
• Jesus didn’t call me to a life of just going to church, but a life of adventure by being his hands and feet to other people. I feel most fulfilled in my faith when I’m accepting that adventure.
• My job is to draw people to Jesus, to call them to follow, to challenge them to be Jesus in other’s lives …
• To bring people to Jesus, it must happen by showing people Jesus … not scaring the hell out of them.
• If we lose a generation of people it won’t be because we didn’t entertain them enough, but because we didn’t dare them with the gospel and the adventure that’s involved in following Christ.
• When Jesus said, “follow me,” he was saying “watch me,” and “see me.” He was telling people to see how he lived and do it the same way. If people watch Christians closely, will they see us looking like Jesus?
• “We need to stop complaining about the church we’ve experienced and work on becoming the church we dream of.” ~Shane Claiborne
• When it comes to Christianity, maybe even more important than what you believe and how you believe, is how you live.
• What I long for is a Christianity that looks more like Jesus.
• “The largest barrier to Christ has been Christians who shout loudly with their mouths, but have nothing to show with their lives.” ~Manning

So, what are some things that you’ve been thinking about? Do you have any thoughts on the things I mentioned above?

“Everyone is going to know what we’re doing in this hotel room!!”

I must admit, God knew what he was doing when He sent Lea my way, and to top it off, He has blessed our marriage with four amazing boys. We’ve enjoyed our 22-year journey together as we’ve grown into best friends. We’ve made plenty of mistakes, but the one constant thing we did, was not give up.

Thanks Lea for a great 22 years. I’m looking forward to another 22.

Lea and I in El Salvador, on our way to Honduras

Service to others is fun, and I love the fact that our church wants to “be the church” and “do church” and not just “go to church.” I love the fact that they have a heart for service … just like Jesus.

My friend Stachia said it best, when she wrote on her Facebook status late last night, “I love my church family! Tonight they went out into the community and mowed yards, hauled trash off, passed out bags of school supplies and fed hot dogs to anybody that wanted one. It was a great evening of fun and fellowship.”

I have to agree with Stachia, “I love my church family.”

After working we shared our supper and passed out school supplies.

Everyone in my group worked SO hard. There were lots of laughs, sweat and many tears. The tears were expected. I loved watching our group serve others and then sit back and listen to them talk excitedly about what was accomplished. I couldn’t help but think of the story when Jesus sent the disciples out to work and how much he must have enjoyed listening to them talk about the things they did. I’m not Jesus, but I loved watching our group stretch and grow. My group now knows why I love Honduras, but the great thing is, they have now developed their own passion for Honduras.

Here are a few last pictures…

This was the last house that was built on Friday. It was a $1500 home with a $150,000 view.

Looking out the window of the house, you see our house building team, and some of the family that would be living in the house.

As mentioned earlier, each new home was given a house-warming gift. A suitcase full of bedding, blankets, cooking supplies and a few toys for the kids.

On the last night one of our own, Logan, gave his life to Christ. We had to go find water.

Isn’t that a great picture?

The only picture I could find of our blanket run. As mentioned earlier, someone had donated a bunch of blankets and late one night we took them to the hospital, where we found people sleeping all over the hard floors and on the stairways. Quietly we went around with the blankets and covered up cold sleeping people. Many were covered up with a blanket who never knew we were there.

And, I’ll remind you of the same think I reminded our group…  Find your own Honduras everyday. If we look around us through the eyes of Jesus, we’re sure to find a Honduras close by. It may be a family down the street, a co-worker or a single mother who supports her family on a minimum wage job. You can find your Honduras in Childress, Dallas or anywhere, when we begin to see people through the eyes of Jesus.

Some of the clothes we were donating and giving away, found their way into our fashion show.

Paul’s suitcase was lost the first three days, so he wore “give away” clothes the first part of the week … and never complained one bit.

We found time to swim & play in the water after one of the clinics.

Eric shows that climbing skills run in the Green family.

Dee needed a spotter on this “triple flip.”

One of my favorite pictures. Only in a small Honduran village can you sleep in the back of a pickup that’s parked on the street and a cow come walking by and sniff you.

Why did I like this picture? Because how many dentist’s offices allow dogs to watch?

After examining her, Dr. Darter looked over at me with a half grin and said, “I don’t need an interpreter on this one, I already know exactly what’s wrong with this woman, she’s got the blue-tongue.” She’d been eating candy we’d given her.

We ate some great food.

We were fascinated by the Honduran kid’s big brown eyes, and they kept talking (and pointing) at Cooper’s blue eyes. The kids in this village hadn’t seen many blond-haired blue eyed kids.

By far my MOST favorite picture of the week. She’s not Mother Teresa, but I called her Mother Leah. Despite a long tiring week, she still had a lap and some love for a little Honduran boy.

Houses are not always easy. Many times you have to carry the lumber up the side of a mountain to the place you’re going to build. All the people we built homes for were living in terrible conditions. Here’s Amber showing off her muscles.

A great picture of two doctors, Green & Darter, who did more than see patients.

Our girls weren’t afraid to get dirty and work. (Kristie, Amanda & Kristin)

John & Lonnie. FYI: If you build a home with John, make sure you don’t work directly under him. He may drop a hammer or himself on you.

Clay doing the roof.

An excited family has a new home. One of the things I love is that before we leave a home, we give them a “home kit.” Which consists of a box full of blankets, sheets, pots & pans, a teddy bear (if there are kids) and other things for their new home. That’s always so fun watching them open it.

I had to include this picture and tell you the story behind it. As you notice, it rains a LOT in Honduras. We got wet everyday. They finished this house just about the time the rain started. Everyone working, and the little family that was getting this new house, all ran inside to get out of the rain. As everyone sat listening to it rain, in a very dry house, the mother became so overcome with joy and emotion that she started weeping. Finally she and her family wouldn’t be living in a home where they were constantly getting wet when it rained. Needless to say, there wasn’t anyone with dry eyes in the house.

The dump.  I’ll be honest with you, I don’t like the dump. It is the complete opposite of building a house. When you finish building a house you feel good about what you’ve accomplished. You’ve given someone a home and everyone is happy. When you finish at the dump … you simply hurt and cry. It’s a place that lacks a lot of hope, but you can’t quit.   The good news is that there are plans, big plans, for bringing some hope to the Tegucigalpa dump. I can’t wait to tell you more. But in the meantime, we went to the dump twice last week to feed hungry, dirty people. Due to the heavy rains, the stench was worse than I had ever smelled.  But what really matters is that hungry people got fed.

I hate seeing children at the dump.

Here’s something amazing … I’m not sure it’s ever been done before, but the ladies broke out their fingernail polish and began to polish the ladies fingernails. They’d take a wipe and clean their hands and then paint their nails. All the woman were so excited to have their nails done … IN A DUMP! I can’t get past that.

The hand on the right belonged to a little old woman whose hands were so tired and worn out. At first she was embarrassed when the ladies asked to paint her nails, but she gave in and had hers done. As you can see in the following picture … she began to cry and then hugged all the ladies for her new manicure.  Heartbreaking that a woman her age would be found digging through trash at this stage in her life. But that day … she did it with pretty nails.

Thanks for letting me share with you about something that I’m very passionate about.

As close as we can figure … around 700 people were seen in two days.

Those that read my blog last week know that we saw that we came up short on our medications. In order to have a second clinic we were going to have to buy another $1000 of drugs. Many of you jumped in and gave immediately. God’s people are amazing. Yesterday I deposited the money you gave… get this now … $996 into the bank and sent a $1000 check for the cost of the drugs. Cool isn’t it?

There were people lined up for the first clinic long before we got there. It took place in a little church not far  from the dump.

Just over this hill, where you see all the buzzards, is the dump. There were many dump people seen at this first clinic. Our docs and dentist all agreed that the people seen on this day were the least heathy of the two groups.

Dr. Pratt did a great job of meeting physical needs.

Dr. Eric Green pulled a lot of teeth.

Dr. Green caring for an infant. If you didn’t get to read the story about baby Jesus … stop what you’re doing and go read it now … HERE.

The medical clinics were great places to give away clothes.

We did a VBS, puppets and bible stories at each clinic. Beth sat for hours coloring with kids.

The sweet face of a Hondruan child.

Lauren Bratton took care of patients too.  The second clinic we did was in a remote a place as anyone could ever imagine. It took an hour and a half bus ride on a dirt road through the mountains just to get there.

Eilene Pratt saw lots of patients and our pharmacy crew (Amber & Kristi) here did a great job passing out the meds.

I finally talked our dentist, Dr. Green, into letting me pull a tooth.

One of my favorite pictures … Amanda K. loving on a very scared Honduran woman who was seeing a doctor.

Tomorrow I’ll show you two of the most emotional things that took place last week. One was good, the other one will break your heart. Oh, and wait until you see what we did at the dump. “This” may be a first.

On July 24th a group of 45 flew out of Dallas to go to Honduras and spend the week serving others. We had mothers, fathers, doctors, nurses, kids, a dentist, a hospital CEO, teachers, and on and on…

Honduras is the second poorest country in Central America, only behind Haiti. Although the land and scenery are beautiful, most of the housing is substandard. Many, if not most, homes in Honduras still have bathrooms and kitchens outside their home and they do their cooking over wood.

Many things you’ll see make you think you’ve stepped back in time.

The roads are not the best and it’s pretty easy to get stuck. I’m not sure what Parker is telling them here, but I’m thinking it’s something like, “If you don’t push, I’m going to have to help.”

We spent time at the hospital. It was a very poor hospital. We played and colored with the kids. Here’s Nate with one of the young kids with cancer.

We gave out coloring books, crayons and stuffed animals. Kristin was amazing on this trip. She had hero status in my eyes, because when she chose to go and serve in Honduras she knew she was going to miss her youngest daughter’s first birthday. She chose to go to Honduras and serve, and I hope her daughter grows up to be just like her.

Haley blowing bubbles with a sweet baby with cancer. Another COOL thing we did at the hospital was on Wednesday night about 10:30 we went on a blanket run to the hospital. Someone had donated a bunch of blankets and we went to give them away. We found people sleeping all over the hard floors and on the stairways, so we quietly went around with the blankets we had and covered cold people up who where sleeping. Many were covered up with a blanket who never knew we were there.

This is the inside of a home in Honduras. We were going to tear this one down and build the best home we could for this family … a cinder-block home.

Not much left of the home in this picture. Dr. Dee not only saw patients, but also built numerous houses.

When the old wood house was gone, it wasn’t long before the concrete floor was poured and cinder-blocks were put in place. A wood house generally takes half a day to build, the cinder-block homes take 4-5 days. This would be our BIG project for the week. This family was very special to many of us and we wanted them to have the best we could build. Daniel and Parker became experts at building concrete homes.

By the end of day one. (BTW: there’s something REALLY wrong with this picture. Something that really bothers me… can you figure it out?)

Day two we called in the dream-team to come help on this one. They did an unbelievable 10 rows of cinder-block. They were amazing. Eric Green can do much more than just pull teeth.

By the end of the week, Parker, our cinder-block house foreman was proud of the efforts.

Tomorrow we’ll show you medical clinics where around 700 people were seen by doctors and a dentist … the pictures are amazing.

Thanks for stopping by.

I spent the entire week with Lea in Honduras. I loved working and serving with my wife. Although we worked together and spent time together, we were more teammates this past week than we were husband and wife. In fact, I told her once this past week, “I’ve seen you all week, but I don’t feel like we’ve spent any time together.” What I missed last week were the little things like our quiet time we have every day over a cup of coffee.

By the time I got to our pew at church this morning, things weren’t looking much better.  Three kids had already placed themselves between Lea and where I was supposed to sit… right next to her.  Despite the commotion it might cause, I made the decision that I was going to make all those kids scoot down just so I could sit by my wife.  It was worth it.

When I finally got the seat I wanted, next to Lea, she scooted right up next to me. Then she put her hand under my arm and put her hand on my hand. Right then I felt them … even after 22 years of marriage they were still there. What were they? Butterflies in my stomach.

I hope they never leave.

The dozens of boxes in the back are large amount of clothes we were taking to those who have nearly nothing in this world. Even though we had a lot to share, we quickly realize it wasn’t enough. Many were turned away which broke our hearts.

Why would we be willing to pay money to spend a week in a 3rd world country … riding on a hot bus … giving up the comforts of home, just feed & serve others? Because someone needs to do it (John 13:34-35).

How about you next summer?