What do Beds and Iguana's have in common?

The answer to the question asked in this post's title can be found in the blog post from Nick and Denise.  Not much to add tonight to what they have already written. So I'll just include a few pictures to add some color and texture to their commentary. We are all very excited about the opportunities to give beds to families that have children sleeping on dirt floors. It may seam like a small insignificant gift in light of the poverty that is all around us. But for the family and child we help, if will make a remarkable impact.

Sick Day/Healing/Learning

Woke up at 4:30 to meet Montezuma.  He got his revenge.  But, I got mine by taking Cipro and Imodium.  Was only at 60% half of the day, but am feeling almost normal tonight.
Today we did accomplish a lot of work on the beds.  All of the wood is cut, most is stained and one bed is together!  It was good to see the finished product.  We'll deliver the beds later in the week.

As I was sanding with a power sander today, it seemed to me there was a sermon in this job.  I was sanding the rough edges off the wood that won't be seen.  God does that to us-He takes off the rough edges so we can be useful.  The wood that is to be seen and used must be sanded with a much finer paper.  This process takes much longer...for the wood and for us.  But to be used in His Kingdom, it is a necessary process.   Contemplating that tonight.

After we finished working for the day we went out to share our faith in the neighborhood around the Center.  We went with our interpreter, Marcella.  She really paved the way, explaining the Gospel to many people.  We were able to meet people, share our faith and hopefully plant seeds that will later be watered and grow.  The people here are very open to us coming to their homes.  They invite you in, offer you the chair or the bed to sit on and are very friendly.  Most of the homes are not much bigger than my living room (which isn't huge).  One woman has a daughter who is HIV positive and needs a blood transfusion.  Apparently it will cost $60 for 2 pints of blood.  We are going to look into helping her.  Turns out she is a member of the church and one of her grandchildren is sponsored by someone at Cedar Creek (Church).
Another woman needs food for her children-one is malnourished and in the hospital.  It was difficult to understand her whole situation, but we may be able to go back and offer some small assistance to her.  Everyone that we spoke to was given a Spanish Bible, and we were able to pray with/for most of them.
The whole experience was very humbling, almost surreal to be IN one of the places you see on TV (or at least somewhere very similar to the 'starving children' ads that we Americans have often learned to ignore).  They really are starving.  I've met them.

Lastly, I have to comment on the Cedar Creek gang that is down here staying at the same hotel and working on a different project.  They are a great group of kids and leaders, and were bold today sharing their faith.
On the light side, one of the girls bought 2 iguanas last night with plans to cook them up for dinner.  The cooks were willing, but not everyone was happy about that.  The iguanas spent the night on the bus, and by morning they had gotten the rope off of their mouths.  So, dinner was set free out of the back of the bus and I will spend another day not knowing if iguana tastes just like chicken.

Day 5

Today was a lot of hard work. We finally got a bed assembled. Sanding is still not done but should be tomorrow and we should start assembling the rest of the beds that are stained and sealed. We got to go out into the community of Limon and visit with some families. I guess here is what struck me as I was sitting in the homes of strangers. They are just like us except for the fact they invited us into there homes to speak with them. In the U.S. people are put out when someone comes to the door, really for any reason, let alone to share the gospel. Their struggles are just like ours. There wants and dreams are just like ours. They turn a blind eye to Jesus just like many in our culture. Here is maybe the difference I see, Jesus is not on every channel of TV or every radio station. In the U.S. there is really no excuse for not knowing Jesus but here they may not have really heard of or know who he really is. It is Gods servants that bring that message here. So I guess that is one reason Jesus has not returned cause there are still souls to be won, here and at home. Thank you Lord for allowing me to come here and have the eyes of my heart opened.

Today was a work day from Sunrise to Sunset (well not quite sunrise). I told our team before breakfast that today would be all about team work. A long day in hot and humid conditions working together to accomplish a goal. They did not let me down. Everyong worked hard all day and regardless of the task they jumped in an delivered. It was an awesome day of work. We completed cutting all of the boards to size and have 80% of the sanding complete. We have also started staining and sealing some of the boards, but tomorrow we will need to get most of the painting complete, so on Thursday we can start assembly. As Nick mentioned in his blog, Levi took a small group from Elevate and Cedar Creek teams out into some of the poorest of the poor in Honduras. These are the people we are trying to reach with our bed project. The homes they live in are without electricity and are basically built out of sticks, plastic tarps, and other items that as Americans we would throw in the garbage. This family of 5 had come to the attention of GCLA when their youngest was hospitalized for 30 days with Malnutrition. The child is now slowly recovering and the church is helping where they can. The family received a bed from one of the prior teams this year.