Update from Jamey and Lesley Smith, serving in Danli, Honduras
we had some southern accents around lately!
We had a great time hosting the mission team from Jamey’s home church, Faith Baptist Church in Covington, Va, just a few weeks ago. The team was able to bless a woman in our church by building her a home, complete with real walls, a real non-leaking roof, and secured doors to protect her family. It was a wonderful experience to see the extended members of their family, our church members, and the mission team members come together to build this home and all learn a lot along the way. Building a brick house by hand is no joke! Among other things, the week also involved a VBS program which was taken to two rural communities, a public daycare center, and our children’s development center.
Jamey being stuffed with balloons by 4 year olds at VBS, and Jamey translating live for the first time.
Having Jamey’s parents stay for a week after the team left was great as well. We loved that they were able to see where we live and what our lives are like on a day-to-day basis in real life, not just over the phone. We, of course, showed them around different parts of Honduras, got some projects done around the house, and Jamey’s mom came to teach at the CDI one day as well.
science experiments, VBS, and all sorts of kid fun
The Danli CDI has been a very exciting place lately! With the visit of the FBC mission team, not only did our students receive two days of VBS fun, but they were so blessed to all be given new sandals and new toothbrushes, along with new supplies and games to be used at the CDI. The kids have adorably been wearing their little sandals everyday to walk to the center. Even more exciting, the FBC team also brought us a supply of children’s vitamins to start giving to the children daily. We are so grateful that we can give these nutrients to our kids.
As we prepare for our intern to leave in just two short weeks, we are using her skills to our full advantage! First, she combined her roles of health promotion intern and CDI intern for a hygiene and proper handwashing class for the kids, including a glow germ activity to demonstrate the difficult places to clean on your hands and the importance of using soap. Also, she has been teaching a series of science lessons with experiments for our students to get the hands-on experience that they don’t get in their public schools. We are thankful that Caroline, our intern, has been able to spend these last 6 months with us and we look forward to enjoying all that her last two weeks has planned for her. We will be continuing to post pictures and updates of our science adventures, among other things, on our Danli CDI Facebook page. Stay tuned!
As mentioned in our previous update, please let us know if you would like to receive a list of more specific prayer requests for each of the children in our program in order to help us continue to pray for them individually.
Edgardo, one of our church members conducting a health survey in Urrutia.
total water project
We’ve had some exciting things happening with the Total Water project in the Urrutia Community. We’ve started a heath survey within the community in which we’ve talked with over half of the community at this point. The main point of the survey is to help us as the local church to continue to form more relationships within the community. The other reason for the survey is to do an evaluation after construction is complete to see how effective the project was. We will do another health survey after the project is completed.
Tomorrow we will start our health promotion classes with the women in the Urrutia community. We are very excited about this as an opportunity for us to continue making more relationships with the women in our community. Some women from our local church here in Danli will also be participating in the class with us. Please pray for God to open doors with this and for this class to help reduce some of the sickness that currently exists in the this community.
The most exciting news that we want to update you on is that construction will be started on the first stage of the project very soon! We have $20,000 of the total budget right now to be able to construct the first stage. Praise God! This will include one of the treatment systems and connections for 30 homes! These homes are the closest to the well which will be a huge help in preventing contamination of their water source. Please be praying for us over these next couple of weeks for all of the logistics and details that we are working out right now. This will be Jamey’s first time leading a construction project in his second language!
If you know anyone that might be interested in giving towards this project to help us reach out final goal of $85,000 to complete the project, please direct them to www.totalwater.org and follow the instructions on giving.
Thank you so much for all of your prayers, encouragement and support! None of these would be possible without you. We love you all!
Jamey & Lesley Smith