Its not the heat but the humidity

I find it ironic that we had to come to hurricane country to escape a hurricane. Therefore I will not complain about our weather. The sun rises about 5:15 and sets around 6:30p.m. Someone always seems to fire off a few fireworks around 5:30a.m. They love fireworks here. They make them locally and people fire them off all the time. We live on a mission compound which hosts groups almost every weekend and when each group arrives they are greeted with a fireworks display. By 10:00a.m. its quite hot and steamy and being from New England it seems to sap my energy quickly. Most people siesta a little from 12:00 to 1:30ish and the public schools let out at noon but ours is going from 7-2. By late afternoon/early evening a little breeze picks up and its very pleasant until the Thunder storms pop up, almost every night. Last night was one of the stronger ones we've had. The electricity is always going out but we have been very fortunate and it usually has come back on within 20 minutes. The compound has a generator and they fired it up last night because a group was here so we never were without power long and were able to keep track of the hurricane. We don't have the weather channel so Fox news (one of the few news channels in English) is our source of info. We have a satellite TV service which provides 3 Latin american sports channels, 2 ESPN channels and 2 Fox sports channels along with NFL, Speed and Golf channels. Last night I had a choice of 5 different soccer games. There is usually at least one Baseball game on each night and each channel shows them differently but only one broadcasts in English. You can hear the English very faintly in the background but its broadcast in Spanish. They call Home runs like a soccer goal, long loud and drawn out and strike outs are Ponches.
The last two weeks we have been very busy at the school getting our classrooms ready, getting to know the other teachers and support staff and some of the policies and procedures of the school. Seven years ago Darla Ely and a local lady began the school with a Kindergarten class  Darla continued the school and added a new grade each year. 6 grades are all that's required so the 7th grade (which I'm teaching) starts a whole new level here. Darla and her husband Wayne have been here for 35 years in differing capacities and are in the process of retiring and returning to the states. Which puts the school in more of a transition mode than usual. Darla is training a local girl to become the school director with associate directors of Kinder (our own Jen O'Brien) Maintenance and Buisness. They also have the opportunity to buy a huge warehouse on the edge of town which they plan to convert into a school if they can get the financing.So things are very interesting.
My classroom was originally going to be a mobile classroom but that changed and we are converting a shop-like room into a classroom so a lot of my time has been spent helping Wayne with all the work of putting up sheet rock walls, Hanging bulletin boards, fixing and hanging white boards in each classroom, and making new desks for my class. We've been working til about 4:30 each day. School starts Sept. 1 so only three more days to get a lot of work finished. I'm teaching 5 daily classes - Math (pre-algebra), English grammar, Life Science, World History and Reading along with one Bible class and two Art classes a week. A different teacher does PE and Computer for the whole school and a third teacher does 7th grade Spanish and Social Studies which has to be taught in Spanish per Honduran law.He speaks no English and I speak no Spanish so we make a good team.
With everything else thats going on I'm trying to put together lesson plans for all my classes. Day one will be getting to know the students and day two Darla set up a field trip for my class to see a native dance competition. Now that could be an adventure. Friday night is meet the teachers night. Now the best part. When I got my books for the classes I discovered that what had been ordered were interactive handbooks but no text books or teachers manuals for Math, Grammar and Science. Pat is somewhat in the same situation with no teachers manual for some of her classes in 1st grade. She has been busy on line trying to find them so that we can either download them or order them and try to get them to a doctor who's coming down the 13th. Ah - life in Honduras. We did get our first pay check. Pat's first pay check in 4 years and mine in two months. We get paid every two weeks 5,000 Lempira's each.One U.S. dollar is approximately 20 Lempiras so you do the math. Ha! I think Pat in her devious mind knew if we ever got down here we'd never be able to afford to get back. When I left the States July 8th I tipped the scales at close to 260 pounds. Last Thursday August 25th on the clinic scales I weighed 237 lbs. Its not the heat its the humidity. Stayed tuned, more adventures coming.

I don't think we're in Kansas anymore Toto!

      Honduras after just a months observation is a country of great contrasts. Beautiful Spanish style houses right next or across the street to a mud hut. Beautiful mountain vistas, exotic flowers and tall majestic palm trees with litter and animal feces strewn dirt streets running throughout. The people are friendly and laugh with us at our feeble attempts to communicate with them but most of them will steal and cheat you blind if you turn your back. But I've also known many North Americans who do the same. They are very bureaucratic with their paper work but corrupt in practice with everything seeming to run on the bribery system.Armed guards (and I do mean armed-shotguns and machine guns) are everywhere yet you'll see a little 3 or 4 year old girl walking down the streets all by herself. You can buy drugs in the pharmacies over the counter which you can't in the states but the hospitals shelves will be empty. We may complain about the high cost of our medical care but at least we have it. These people are desperate for medical care. I'm trying to learn not to rely on anything because the electricity or the Internet provider will go down just when you wanted it most. The climate, food, and culture are definitely not New England but I'm beginning to adjust a little at a time as I watch a Gecko crawl down our kitchen window. Jen O'brien arrives on the 10th like well needed reinforcements, teachers report on the 16th and I'll have a better handle on what's happening. They want me to do devotions for the teachers and help make the Bible a bigger part of the school. Classes start Sept. 1 and the adventure truly begins.Children are the key. Perhaps along with teaching them English, we can introduce them to Jesus and His love, righteousness and justice and it may begin to have a small impact on the country.  Thank you for all your prayers and support.

Lempira's Revenge

Lempira is the Honduran Indian Chief who was betrayed and conquered by the Spaniards. So like Montezuma the Aztec Chieftain in Mexico, Lempira took out his revenge on me early. I must admit I have been a bit overwhelmed the first two weeks. The heat and humidity slaps you in the face as soon as you walk outside the airport terminal. It just seems to sap the energy out of you. I rode around the city of San Pedro Sula shopping with Wayne Ely, the Husband of the school's founder and director Darla. Then the hour and half trip to the farm in Las Varas. The Farm was a mess, leaves, dust and toad turds all over the place and we had to clean it before we could sleep on the beds. The second thing that strikes you is the filth, and third, the horrendous road system. I was not prepared. The first night I laid in bed and Prayed "what have I done?" I woke up realizing I was so distraught the night before that I forgot to take my glasses off when I went to bed and popped a lens by sleeping on them. Again, panic before Pat calmed me down and found a small repair kit and tightened them up. We had not planned on staying on the farm when the teams arrived but Our house was not going to be ready til the end of the week so we moved in with Wayne. His shower heater always popped a fuse so then started a long string of cold showers. Since we have no transportation we depended on someone from Cristo Salva or Wayne to get us around. Tuesday night at the church service (a different church each evening) I started feeling sick. As rain began to fall and Mike Tuttle began his sermon I walked out the back of the church and threw up violently as well as (you don't need to know). At this point things are steadily going from bad to worse. The next day Pat went to the Clinic and Wayne showed me around. We had chicken noodle for lunch and at two thirty I asked Wayne to pull the truck over to the side and promptly lost lunch. I totally could sympathize with the rich young ruler and wondered (whined really) how much more I had to give up. The next day Pat stayed and Wayne took us into the city where we bought our refrigerator, air conditioners, water cooler and washing machine for cut rate prices and we were able to move into our new home. Despite my whining God provided for us in a marvelous way and over the weekend our house became a home complete with internet although no cable as of  yet. I now began to feel like Jonah after Ninevah repented. Perhaps I enjoyed being miserable and lost sight of why I was here and what God was doing. The place we're living is like a tropical paradise with tall Palm trees, people who are friendly and who have gone way out of their way to make us feel comfortable, and the school is excited to have us here. We were going through the book of Acts for our Bible study in Eliot, so I decided to finish reading the book here. In Acts 23:11 an angel appears to Paul and says, "Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome." In the margin I had written God will help you finish His job. It stuck me that now I had to put into action what I believed in my head. The story continues with Paul being shipwrecked, but prior to the ship wreck Paul and all on board ship spent 14 days tossed violently by the sea and not eating anything. I had been here exactly 14 days when I read that and realized I had nothing to complain about. It's not going to be easy but God provides and things are going to be alright. Until next time God bless from Sula, Santa Barbara, Honduras.

Another year older and deeper in Debt.

Well I turned another year older since last post. I'm glad I'm a Christian with the assurance of my Blessed Hope because this life goes by way too fast. Two things I've discovered since last post. It is extremely difficult to divest yourself of all your possessions. What do we take with us? Not much because shipping costs are a bear. (let's see if they can figure out what that means in Honduras?) (Probably like a Gila Monster, or a Tarantula, or a Scorpion, or the Wolf spider or the dreaded man eating Tucan - whoa I'm scaring myself). What am I doing in Honduras and How did I get here? What do we chuck? Unlike Pat I don't plan on living in Honduras forever (I can hear Larry the Cable Guy now- 20 years later and here I am, still in Sula) so I don't want to toss all my books and notes - I just may pastor again. And what about my teddy bear? I slept with him until I was 15. I can't just .... #2- God always provides. Uncle Sam gave us a large refund which I was not expecting which allowed us to ship all the remaining medical supplies to Cristo Salva which took up half our basement. We were able to sell the car with just a medium soaking but still able to sell the truck to Ben for a smaller price. But the biggest miracle of all is our two Hispanic angels. We had two large dinosaur TV's which I thought we would never be able to get rid of. However, during our Yard Sale and following take it for free just take sale (Unbelievable but people were rummaging through our yard for the next five days and took everything but one lamp 3 shades 5 cups and a doll) Pat had a Spanish Bible study which a young man inquired about and Pat started one of her infamous conversations with and low and behold he and a friend came and took both TV's, some (how do you spell those things you put clothes in) (I hope they don't need to learn that word til 8th grade) and some chairs. We call them Angels. Well- tomorrow a trip to Friendship to drop off my books and keepsakes, Then Wednesday the Freezer goes to Ben in Northampton. Final dump and Goodwill drops on Thursday and Friday we say good-bye to beautiful South Eliot Maine.

   Welcome to my Blog. Pat thought I should do this because everybody tells us "Pat I can understand going to Honduras, but Gary?" My sentiments exactly. So what am I doing in Honduras and how did I get here?
    The book of Acts records that the apostle Paul wanted to travel east into Asia preaching the Gospel but the Holy Spirit prevented him and through the influence of a dream he went west into Macedonia instead and from there eventually to Rome and Christianities influence on Western civilization is History.
     My story is very similar. I never wanted to go to Berkshire Christian College. I went to then, Gorham State College until I had a Jesus encounter and ended up at Berkshire. I never wanted to be a Pastor, I was a Teacher, but after not being able to find a teaching job I ended up as a youth/associate pastor in Haverhill, MA under Rev. Paul Bertolino. I never wanted to work in youth camps but out of the blue Marguarite Sylvestor asked me to direct Camp Washington and with NO prior experience I did for the next 10 years with subsequent work at Camp Faithful in Plainville CT and at Camp Marion. I never wanted to be a senior pastor but ended up at Beals Island. I wanted to pastor in Bangor but ended up in Springfield, I wanted to pastor in Melrose but ended up in Eliot. I wanted to stay in Eliot but I'm going to Honduras - go figure.
    I can honestly say that God's way has been best and I've had some wonderful experiences and have meet some wonderful people and friends everywhere I've gone, so when Pat said there's a school in Sula looking for and English only speaking 7th grade teacher, something inside said why not give it a try. So here I go, hating the heat (its really the humidity) limited in Spanish to Olla, Si, Manana, and Mi Casa su Casa (which being married to Pat is truer than you could ever imagine, and teaching Math (about which I know absolutely nothing) Science, English and World History. Please Keep me in your prayers and I'll try and keep you posted here.