WOW, What a Summer! Update by Mark & Lori Connell
From the ready room, the work of summer clean-up has begun…reports, web, and Facebook updates, emails, receipts….all the stuff that seems to pile up during the haze we call deep space summer. Mission Matthew 25:38ff started with a group of 105 and ended with a group of 3 and we had everything in between, and right in between we went where no man has gone before with a group of more than 160 and 4 groups at once! We soon realized that resistance was futile and moved at warp speed to figure out how to transport, feed, and water that many people at one time in a country where warp anything is unheard of, and not understood…..Dagnabit Jim!
All kidding aside, it was an incredible summer and so much was accomplished to benefit the poor here in Honduras, all because of the love and dedication of so many. All of our TORCH Missions teams were filled with volunteers who did not lack enthusiasm, courage, and determination. Every day, volunteers invaded the city and worked diligently to improve the lives of those living in extreme poverty, knowing that with each action the love and mercy of The Christ was being poured out over a hurting and desperate country. Mother Teresa once said, “Being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, forgotten by everybody, I think that there is much greater hunger, a much greater poverty than the person who has nothing to eat.” For a people who can look to no one and nowhere for help, the work done here in His service over the past few months became a direct reminder that they are not forgotten, that they are not unwanted, unloved, or uncared for. Thanks to all of you that continue to make all of this a reality.
In just over 2 months, or 8 weeks, or 60 days, or 1440 hours, however you choose to look at it….more than 80 homes were built for the homeless, thousands of bags of food delivered to hungry families, visits to orphans at nearly a dozen different children’s homes, inmates at the juvenile girls prison were ministered to and given a clinic (the first in 15 years!), hospital prayer ministry took place nearly every day, medical and dental clinics held in remote locations and in city villages for people who otherwise have no medical care, concrete mixed and poured for a variety of projects, land leveled for a woman and her handicapped son to receive a home, food, and clean water shared at the local dump community, a community daycare painted, new fence and new playground added, etc., etc., etc. It is amazing to watch and be part of such an amazing amount of work.
