The trip of miracles, a time of testing, true faith in God.

Team #3 encountered severe testing in its resolve to reach Tegucigalpa. We were scheduled to fly out of Philadelphia on Valentine’s day at 6 a.m., which meant we had to leave Elmira no later than 11 p.m. the night before in order to check in at 4 a.m. (for international flights). Well, the worst snow storm of the year came together that day, and when we left Elmira and headed for Route 81, the last news we had gotten was that the road had been closed to all traffic.

But somehow, we managed to drive south on Route 81 when no one else was moving north or south. We made it to Philadelphia on time, only to get stuck on the tarmack for nearly two hours due the a system failure of the Northeast air traffic control. This made us late in Miami for our flight to Teguc. But, ON THURSDAYS ONLY, they have two flights and we were just in time to catch the second one. EXCEPT that when we were clearing the gate to board it, they announced a delay due to a mechanical problem. A half hour later we were on our way, and we arrived, safe and sound, although exhausted. Mike and Glenda had no way of knowing we missed our connecting flights, but they finally caught up with us and we were on our way to their house, and settled in in quick order.

We made our way up the side of the mountain to Escuela de Venezuela and there we were welcomed once again by the school’s director, Celio Flores. A well educated, meticulous and God fearing man, who loves the children that attend this primary school… all 220 of them.

Work began on the construction of a two story cinderblock building that will house a cafeteria on the first floor, and have a library, computer lab and director’s office on the 2nd floor. It will be wired, and have running water as well as air conditioning.

Most of our help on this trip came from the children of the school and from the moms and dads that could help. We were supervised by a wonderful brother, and a Baptist pastor, named Giron. He was EXTREMELY patient with us as we learned how to sling mud and lay block. That’s Pastor Giron on the left, and Mike on the right. The beautiful city of Tegucigalpa (population roughly 1,800,000) provides a wonderful back drop to all of our activities.