Greetings from Honduras!

A young man showed up at the mission and wanted to help us work. He is from another Caribbean island. His mother had him involved in a bad life and he recently left the country. He said he wanted to change his life. He had been working for a bar owner that brought him to Honduras, but he wanted to run away from him due to miserable working conditions. He is eager to paint, weedeat the yard, or do other things to help. He came with no friends or family.

We had another death here in the village. An elderly lady who had lost her husband a year or two ago had a tumor in her head and went to the mainland for treatment. She was near death there, but indicated she wanted to come home and died the same day she returned. The family had a wake each night until she was buried. The singing began at 10 or 11 pm and continued until dawn or so. The sound system volume was so loud it carried all through the village. The singing was accompanied by loud, rythmic clapping.

People came in from around the island in minibuses and taxis. Her children living in the States flew in. The day of the funeral, as the casket was being carried through the house for transport to the chapel, the crying in the house turned into screams, wails, and stomping of the wooden floor. As the funeral songs were sung, different women would wail. The casket was placed in the back of a pick up and the crowd walked up the hill to the graveyard. The casket was slid into a freshly made cement vault above the ground and the screaming began again. The men placed cement blocks and mortar, sealing the tomb opening as the onlookers cried out things like "my mamma, oh my mamma..." Jesus instructed us to weep with them that weep. It is important to be there to support the people in their time of deep grief.

Honduras had its national elections Sunday, November 27th. Before the elections, cars and pick ups decorated in the color of the appropriate political party go from village to village with loud speakers blaring, playing patriotic music interspersed with the driver making appeals to potential voters over the loud speaker. One candidate paid for a barbeque late one night here in Politilly. Two men from opposing political parties on a nearby island got into a political argument and reported shot each other to death. Hondurans take their elections very seriously and turn out in large numbers to vote. Buses and taxis are hired to go into the villages to take voters to the polls. The bus will be decorated in blue to pick up blue voters, or red if it is to pick up red voters. After the election, there was quite a parade of vehicles filled with celebrants over their candidates' victories. People were loaded in buses and in the backs of pick ups, waving flags and shouting to the passing traffic.

Our school year ended the first part of Nov. It was a very busy, profitable year. We had seven young ones to complete the ABC course, which teaches children to read. They are happy to be able to read. Some of the older student are getting into the harder English and we had one student to complete a course in Biology.

The students have to leave the school the year they turn 18. Kendra Hamilton turned 18 this year. It is sad to see her leave. She has been with the school since it started and was a very good student. We tried to get her to give a speech at the end-of-the-year program, but she was too embarrassed.

We planned to have the program the week after school let out. Then we heard about the lady who died here in Politilly being sick and near death. She was the grandmother of some of the students. We would have the students come to practice and have to tell them that we didn't know when the program would be. Every day we would hear that they didn't think she would make it through the night. We finally decided to have the program on the next Monday, then she died and her funeral was that Monday. Everyone is closely associated here and a funeral is a community event just as a wedding is. We have found you must be flexible. We had the program the next day, Tuesday.

The students had all been memorizing lines for their school plays. They had one play on the parable of king preparing a feast for his son's wedding and the other one was on the parable on the Unjust Servant. Sarah wrote most of them and they did turn out well. The students will remember those stories for years to come. The audience seemed to really like them.

We gave certificates and small gifts to students who excelled in different areas. Someone had donated a brand new bicycle and it was decided to give it to the student who had done the best in the most areas. One 11 year old girl, Denisa Hamilton, didn't miss a day the whole year, was never late, and did not get any demerits. She said her verses well this year, was the second highest in the number of 100% test scores and seemed to improve over all. She was surprised and very happy to take home a bicycle. She is one of 11 children and a bicycle isn't a necessity in a family of that size here.

After the program, the mothers serve a meal. We had almost 130 people this year. We ran out of food again. Any time there is food being 'shared up' as they say, there will be a large crowd to enjoy it.

The next day we started having wind and rain again. There was a rumor that another hurricane was on its way and would be here the next morning. We looked on line and found that a tropical storm appeared to be headed this way. We found it interesting to hear the local reports about the storms that were coming. The rumors could almost make you panic until you remembered that it may not be true. Part of the problem comes from translating Spanish to English. And then we have the sky watcher-predictors, just as we have in the states. This was the third storm of the season that affected us. The first one was a little exciting to us since we'd never experienced anything like it. Needless to say, by the last one, we were tired of them. The electric was off for over 30 hours again. We couldn't get any news. We didn't know if it was coming or going, weakening or strengthening. Some houses were damaged again and many trees were down. It sounded like our roof was going many times. The Lord had mercy and kept the real thing from getting the island. Anyone of the storms could have been devastating.

We still don't have the shipment that is on board the ship that was beached in Alabama by hurricane Katrina. We talked to the owner of the ship recently. She said that a canal was to be dug starting around the first of Dec. Then the ship would have to be docked and inspected by the insurance company and the EPA. They would decide if the ship has to be unloaded. If all goes well, it might be here around the first of the year.

We may have another problem with the shipment, however. We have a new president because of the recent elections. The man who is now over import duty (the fees) knows us and that we are associated with a mission. He had told us that the duty would be at the lower rate because of the mission and the donated goods. If the shipment doesn't get here before he leaves offices, we will have to deal with a new man. Pray with us about this since we don't know the future and the Lord does. We want Him to work it out for His glory and our (the mission's) good.

The young people of the congregation have decided to draw names for Christmas gift giving. This is the first time they have done anything like this. Some of the girls go out into the bush at night and "look crab". The next morning they pick the crabs and then sell the meat to make their money. They do this on nights that their dad doesn't hunt crabs. When he does, they are busy most of the day picking his crabs. We really admire their determination to get out and work so hard to earn their own money.

We plan to go to the mainland soon, visiting Rio Esteban and then be at prison for meeting on a Sunday morning. Pray with us that we will do the Lord's will and that He will make these efforts effective.

The progress on the building has had several obstacles - the plumbing and electrical supplies are in the shipment that hasn't arrived. After the recent push in the building project and the meeting we held, the mission is in debt, slowing the purchase of materials. With the building boom on this island, lumber shortages are common and the prices keep climbing. We have had tropical storms and plenty of rain to slow us down.

Christian Love,
Doug and Lenita Wall