Team #20 – VICTORY HIGHWAY Ephesians 2:10 “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

PART 1

1. This is what the school looked like with its multi colors. 2. Needed revamping. 3. The ALL lady crew painted lightning fast. 4. Primer on all 18 classrooms. 5. Finished product!!!

When team #20 arrived in August, a group of young and middle aged team we knew that we would need to find work to keep them busy. One of the projects that we always wanted to do before the year was out was to paint the entire school one uniform color. As you can see in the top two photos that this school had multi colored buildings. It looked like one addition after another and when you combine 18 classrooms, a dental clinic, two main offices and a computer room it was a conglomerate of colors. The teachers would complain to me in why we didn’t start with the painting because when they came to work they felt it wasn’t a school. So this team went to work priming everything first so all the past colors would be completely erased as you can see in the two middle photos. Now it was time for color. The teachers went with a peach trim and cream color base. The entire school was transformed within one week. It is incredible what paint can do. So take a look at top photo and then bottom photo and see the difference. This reminds me of humans. We can paint the outside to make it look better but how is our inside. Is it different colors and ununiformed? Do we need a paint job to clean up our hearts in how we think? We are God’s workmanship and our paint job is that we are created in Christ Jesus by His blood to do this work in Honduras that He prepared in advance to do.

PART 2

The other big project this team had to tackle was pouring 3 concrete floors and the main beam that stretched across the entire front of the building to tie all the walls together.  It took the team a half day to lay down all the wire mesh and install all the plumbing for water lines and sewer lines. However the big task was these very big floors. It took the team 3 days to mix concrete by (thank God) machine. Mixing in itself was a task because all the buckets had to be filled and loaded in to the mixing drum. The hard part was moving the concrete to Giron where he can level it and trowel it. As you can see in the 3^rd photo it took three of our men to push and pull the wheelbarrows up the ramp to pour the concrete. We were mixing concrete every 5 minutes. That is a pretty quick turnaround. On top of pouring the floor the team had to deal with mechanical issues from the mixer. Such as the main fly wheel came off its shaft with a fully loaded drum of concrete. This pour tested the teams’ patience and they stepped up with the attitude of Christ. No compliant nor poor attitude. Just the fruit of the Spirit was displayed. As you can see in the bottom photo it took a toll on our team members. Ah the youth, how we admire them in being able to take a nap in this form. Without body ache or neck ache.

PART 3

1.Natasha loves hugs from the children. 2. Tom has his sticker ministry and also handed out chalk to the children. 3. The influence of Tom and his chalk. 4. Samuel participating with Glenda’s group. 5.Amber in the face painting mode.

Our Saturday program always gives great amounts of pleasure to our teams. The teams either hear of stories about our Saturday youth program or they have experienced it and can’t wait to pass out candy, face paint, jump rope, play soccer, have chalk wars, and give craft projects. One of the major new traditions the teams like to do is to purchase food for the children and hand it out to them. This team handed out Chinese rice with bread and juice for drink. Remember many of the children that are in our program usually haven’t eaten since the day before or it was a piece of bread and milk or coffee. I think hugs and interaction with the children is a huge life builder. It doesn’t matter if you speak Spanish or not. It is amazing how the teams connect. Look at the team’s leader in the 3^rd photo. He is being attacked by a ton of children with chalk. Anybody who has gone through this usually doesn’t want to experience it again because the children will cover a person from head to toe. It is amazing how our children connect with the team so well. They don’t have an ounce of shyness in them. Our hope is with the teams influence and our continue support of these children they will break the bad customs they have been so accustomed to. To prepare these children in advance for the work that Jesus has called them to do.

PART 4

1. Jennifer is learning how to crochet baskets from strips of T-shirts
2.  Crucita showing off the base to her basket
3. The finished basket
4.  Learning how to weave hairbands
5.  No, she isn’t Rambo. She’s a grandmother who loves her new hairband. 

As many of you know our teams always bring sewing projects for the ladies to learn. I think many will like this one. It has a go green attitude. As you can see in the first two photos the ladies are working on baskets by sewing them in the form of crochet. What you don’t know is that the material they are using is from old t-shirts that are torn into strips and then made into a beautiful basket as seen in the 3^rd photo. Like I said I’m always impressed in what the ladies bring from the States. Another neat idea is to take the same material and braid it into hair bands. As seen in the bottom photo. No, she is not Rambo but a grandmother who has the attitude to survive like Rambo. This lady knows what it means to go through hard times as she use to live in a wooden shack raising her children on her own until they left home. Some of her children did turn out to be drug users, or left for the states illegal. But she has survived the pain and loss with faith in Christ Jesus. This is so common in Honduras, woman left to raise their families on their own and with very little help and resources. It is amazing how they can stay focused in their faith. I know that classes like this helps her to escape for the few hours per day from her realities she has to face when she goes back home.