Greetings from Honduras!

We returned to Roatan August 25th, having been away for almost four months. It was an eventful summer for us - Andrea graduated from high school and Sarah married Michael Gellenbeck. That made coming back quite a bit different this time, leaving Sarah behind. I had opportunity to attend the Guthrie campmeeting, much of the campmeeting in Jefferson Oregon, and the Monark campmeeting. It is so refreshing to get back and attend the meetings. We were glad to find the saints in Honduras still encouraged. Fortunately, no one broke into the mission house this time.

Lenita and I took a two week trip to Africa, spending time in Kenya and Tanzania. It was the most interesting trip of my life. We met with saints from a large number of congregations in both countries. The hospitality of the people was superb. We stayed in their housing and ate their food. Their culture is fascinating and they are friendly and a deeply respectful people. We were encouraged by the response to the gospel, to the message of holiness, and by their hunger for truth. We thank God for giving us protection, inspiration, and strength.

We have been closely monitoring the advance of hurricane Felix and making preparations, but the Lord had mercy on us and the hurricane did not take the projected path which would have taken it directly over our island. Instead, the hurricane took a more southerly route and slammed into the coast of Nicaragua with the force of a category 5 hurricane. I feel for the people living on the coast there - many have inadequate shelter and not much escape method, so I fear the casualties will be substantial. Many of the Indians living on the coast have dories (canoes) for transportation and live in swampy, low lying areas which are especially hard hit by the large waves that accompany the hurricane.

We stocked up on food, water, gasoline, and butane, and prepared the new school room as a community shelter. I tacked down the sheet metal on our roof with extra nails and put cross bracing to secure the garage shed. The government officials came by Sunday and wanted use of the mission building as a public shelter, which was fine with us. The main effect we are having now is heavy cloud cover with light rain and winds. The bad news is that our town water is off again and has been for a couple of days or so. I was afraid that the hurricane would knock out our power so they couldn't pump water even if they did get it fixed, but I think that threat is passing. We have a single well pump for the entire village and plenty of downtime. We have had a couple of days now without a prolonged power outage, so we are grateful for that.

Last night we got Brother Dennis' dory out of the sea and hauled it to road in front of his house. Boats left in the sea can be lost in hurricanes. He plans to leave it on the road for a while, probably to scrape the hull and make repairs.

A replacement mission vehicle may be on its way in a week or so. The plan is to drive it from Oklahoma down through Mexico to Central America. The van will make things so much nicer - it is full size and will allow us to transport people to services even during rainy season. We had been using a small pick up truck for years, hauling people in the back. After the mission truck rusted to the point of not being usable, we continued using my small pick up to bring people to services. Hopefully the van will arrive in time for our tent meeting, which is planned for Sep. 30 - Oct. 7. We haul many loads of people during that time - attendance is good at the annual meetings. I plan to travel to the Guatemala border to meet the van and help them clear customs coming into Honduras. We will then need to take the van to port and ship it to the island.

To those who called our families checking on our safety during the hurricane threat, thank you for your concern. We also appreciate all of the support and prayers very much.

In Christ,
Doug, Lenita, and Family