The crates were scheduled to arrive in San Salvador yesterday, the 30th. I will not get an official notification of their arrival until sometime Monday. Monday is a holiday in El Salvador (day after Halloween!), so nothing will happen at Customs. Oh Well, we have waited almost a year for them to get this far!

Sometime during the past 3 or 4 years someone donated a sewing machine in a pink plastic case. It was shipped on one of the containers last year and stored with some other machines. We did not realize that it was unpowered.
A lady with 4 children-one with leukemia- had her unpowered sewing machine stolen--but they left the cabinet and treadle mechanism. Well, her need became known and Lori was able to replace her stolen machine with this one! She was delighted to get the unit. She is a trained sewing machine mechanic and was able to get it operational quickly. Only God could have made a plan like that work. I had met her children back in January when they used me to practice their English. They are all charming kids and well-mannered.

Our team waiting to be served lunch after a hard morning of work.

Dea, Mary, and Melvin enjoy some time at Tomasita's before a meal!

This is Tomasita, owner of the Restaurante Tomasita in Ocotepeque, Honduras. We ate there several times and were treated very well with good service and good food. We also enjoyed some good country music by Kenny Rogers and others. Will show some photos of our team eating there in the next few days.

Please read Ruth's (Erin's) Blogpost for yesterday. This is a poor community for sure, but the people are real and the situations are real.

http://www.ruthinlapalma.blogspot.com/

Sister Pedrina makes us all feel tall! She is a terrific Chrisian lady who can climb hills and stairs like a goat.

Another view of the first worship assembly in the new Ocotepeque Honduras building.

The crates are now at Charleston AFB, SC, and will be taken to an AFB in Florida on the 23rd and then to San Salvador on the 30th. Now we start the planning process to get them 'up the hill' to La Palma, opened, sorted, stored, and distributed.

If you lived in La Palma last night, you could have bought 25 oranges for a dollar! A large truck broke down and they were having a 'truckload' sale!

No word on the crates that were shipping down there. Maybe we will find out something today!

This young lady is a favorite of many of our missionaries. I had this photo take so they could see her.

Mary took this great photo of the activity on the street below our hotel on the night before the big parade.

This shows some of the congestion in the parade at Ocotepeque, Honduras. We felt sorry for the participants who had prepared so long and had to stand so long before the parade began.

We left 18 crates at Little Rock AFB today for shipment to San Salvador and then to La Palma. These crates contain tools, school desks and supplies, wheelchairs, walkers, canes, medical equipment and supplies, clothing and toys, and household goods for the school, church, clinic, and orphanage.

This will be a long day--driving to Searcy and taking the crates to LRAFB.

We got the call to move the 18 crates to Little Rock AFB where they will be airlifted to Charleston AFB to await space available to San Salvador. There are lots of items in these crates for the school and the people of La Palma. We woill move them tomorrow to the Air Force Base.

Lori, Monte, Ruth, and Nathan are in San Salvador until Thursday afternoon to get their visas renewed. During that time they may not have access to internet, to don't expect blogs or FB posts.

We are $5370 short on funds to complete the Ocotepeque, Honduras church building. The work is completed, except for the installation of jalousie windows, but there is an outstanding loan for the final work. If anyone would like to contribute toward the repayment of this loan, please contact me. Ralph

Read Monte's blog about the first worship in the new Ocotepeque building:

http://lallifamilymission.blogspot.com/2010/10/good-beginning.html?spref=fb

The La Palma Christian School needs musical instruments. There is a need for trumpets and other small brass instruments, and small percussion instruments including snare drums. Woodwinds would be OK but we would need to supply several spare pads to keep them operating.

If you have any of these items and would like to donate them, please contact me or a member of the team. Ralph

A medical mission to the La Palma region is planned for March 26-April 2, 2011. This will be a great adventure and opportunity to help those less fortunate than we are. We have some very dedicated nurses already signed up, and we have some great helpers planning to go---but we do not have any doctors yet. Please pass the word on this and help us get doctors recruited. We welcome anyone who has a desire to help others and is willing to be inconvenienced in their life for a short time--but you are guaranteed to feel a great sense of accomplishment and experience love from those you help out.
We also can use some more translators!

This is a photo of the Ocotepeque building with the floor in place except for the elevated pulpit area, which should be completed by now.

The church in Ocotepeque plans to meet for the first time in the new building this Sunday!

It appears that the approval has been given for the shipment to El Salvador. We were told to prepare to take the crates to Little Rock AFB! Good News!

A few days before we arrived in El Salvador in September, there were problems with buses being robbed. To make sure we were not taken advantage of, the Tourism Police provided our bus with 4 policemen. We were very secure. By the time we left the problem had been resolved (by arrests) and we did not need security on our return to the airport.

This is the view looking southeast from our hotel balcony in Ocotepeque. The new church building we worked on is right in the middle of the photo--a building with a white side and 4 window openings.

The La Palma Fire Department has become special to us in many ways. We have had several training sesions with them, and they seem very professional. In September they loaned us this 24 foot extension ladder to take to Ocotepeque. Without it we simply could not have accomplished the work we needed to do. We thank them sincerely.
To the left you can see the other ladder that the local workers used. It was not an option for the work we were doing.
Ralph

Here we are in Hot Water!

Aduana is Customs. Aqua Caleinte is hot water. We were signing in to Guatemala, and only a short time later we signed back out--by paying $3 each to Immigration!

This is the footing/foundation across the front of the Ocotepeque church building where the platform for the podium will be. These big rocks are professionally placed in mortar/cement to provide economic strength. This guy was a very hard worker.

Lori reports damage to church member's home in La Palma--http://soylori.blogspot.com/

From Reuters News:
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.

Double storm causes widespread destruction

Poor farmers in El Salvador could have half their crops wiped out after the country was battered by two storms in less than a week.

Every school and university has been shut in the wake of Hurricane Mathew and tropical storm Nicole, reports children's charity Plan International.

Following a severe rainy season, 60 per cent of the kidney bean crop is at risk and 40 per cent of corn destroyed - both main staples of the Salvadoran diet.

"Damage to other produce crops has also been reported and this year's Salvadoran coffee crop has been severely damaged," says Plan's country director in El Salvador Rossana Viteri.

"Also, basic grains are going up in price due to speculation and there is a high possibility of a food crisis for the end of the year."

Hurricane Mathew brought nearly seven inches of rain last Friday (24), triggering 101 landslides.

More than 2,350 people were forced to flee their homes as rivers burst their banks and three people were killed.

Then on Wednesday (29), tropical storm Nicole dumped nearly nine inches of rain across El Salvador.

Many families are now staying in flimsy palm huts without floors and walls, with food in short supply.

Read Lori's story about this kind lady. She has been so good to the people of La Palma and very helpful to our teams. In September '09 she guided a group of us up into the mountains on the greatest trip you could imagine to help people who simply cannot help themselves. She seems to know where everyone lives and who needs help the most, and she delivers. As Lori stated, she is in the right profession. Her compassion seems to know no boundaries.

http://soylori.blogspot.com/

Heavy rains continue throughout the region. The highway from San Sal to La Palma was partially blocked yesterday by mudslides.

These rains affect the lives of the people in several ways: they cannot do many of their daily activities (drying clothes, etc), some cannot get to work, goods don't reliably get to the market, and transportation is difficult if not impossible. Also, it affects their health.

Please continue to pray for the shipment to be approved. The next meeting is Tuesday, and we want that to be the approval date.