The Last Days

Hello World!
Well, my time here at El Sembrador is drawing to a close, and I can't express how blessed I am to be here.  Thank you to all those who prayed for me and supported me, my time here wouldn't be the same knowing that God has been watching out for me.
I am leaving here on Friday morning with Jerry, heading for Teguc.  It's kinda perfect, because next week is Santa Semana and everyone will be on vacation.  Or I should say the students will be on vacation.  All the missionaries are having their big annual conference, so they'll be busy with meetings and all that sort of thing.
Gabriel

Hello Everyone!

Hey guys just wanted to check in and say hi.  I know it's been a while since I posted anything.  Anyway today was really because we got to go down to the river.  We rebuilt the dam that sends water into the canal, that runs to El Sembrador for all the water needs here - except drinking water, they have wells for that, and the water actually tastes good!  Anyway after we were done of corse we all went swimming and had the most biggest water fight ever!  So yeah, fun times.  I really hope I don't get sick from all the junk in the water.  And praise God I haven't gotten sick at all while being here!
I'm still working with the boys most of the time, or helping people with other projects like installing electrical meters, fixing tractors, hacking computers, taking photos for the new website, whatever needs doing :)
Thank you all for keeping up with me and praying!  I'm sure it's only by your prayers that I'm still safe and well.
P.S. I have always wanted to publish a book, and I'm thinking about making the short story I wrote about the mice into an illustrated children's book.  Of course I'd have to change parts of it and take out some of my trademark humor, but any thoughts?  I want to keep all the basic plot elements, unless I find a way better idea :)

The Very Special Mouse. Part 2

They were almost all the way to the kitchen when the Very Beautiful Mouse slipped off a drawbridge that was covered in slime.  She fell and fell and fell until she smacked into the floor.   When she picked herself up, she realized where she was.  The Very Beautiful Mouse had landed in the middle of a giant maze filled with all kinds of dangerous creatures and ambushes. Without any hesitation, the brave little mouse jumped down to save her.  He barely missed landing on her, and luckily neither of them were hurt.  They both got up, brushed off their fur, straightened out their whiskers, and started walking.
Naturally, the Very Special Mouse had a great sense of direction, so he had a general idea of the way out.  Now he just had to find a way to make it.  Every once in a while they would come across something blocking their path, but none of the snares were very difficult to get around.  They easily jumped over bottomless pits of lava, dodged poison darts, and tip-toed through minefields.
 Finally they turned the last corner, and saw the exit in the distance.  But there was one more thing they had to do.  In between the two mice and the way out was a big stake pounded into the ground, and there was a long chain tied to the top, and at the other end of the chain, was a great big cat!
Now, everyone knows that cats and mice are sworn enemies for all eternity, so the Very Special Mouse knew he had a fight in front of him.  But the Beautiful Mouse had an idea.  She had been reading about the great cat charmers old and she thought she would try it.  She told the Very Special Mouse and he agreed it was worth a try as well.  They started singing a grand duet that filled their little concert hall.  At first the cat just stared hungrily at them, but after a while he started to show signs of something happening.  The growling changed to purring, and he sat down and went to sleep.  Shouting for joy, they raced through the hole in the wall and emerged in the kitchen.  They both were starving, and in no time at all they had gone through several cheeses and cakes and all kinds of delicacies.
Now what they didn't know was that the King and Queen had been secretly watching them, and were very impressed with how easily their beautiful singing put the cat to sleep.  The King and Queen wanted the two mice to stay and entertain the other Lords and Ladies whenever there was a party in the great house.
They ordered all the traps to be thrown out and burned, and had their most skillful scribe write an invitation for the Very Special Mouse and his Beautiful Mouse.  The mice would be given a brand new cupboard to live in right next to the kitchen so they could have all the food they wanted.
Of course the mice accepted at once, and from then on, they all lived happily ever after.
The End.

New Job!

Hey guys, I'm now working in the Pharmacy while the medical team is here.  So far its been really fun, and i'm learning new words like masticable (chewable) and cucharada (tablespoon).  For the rest of the week I'll be going with them out to the villages, and I'm sure to have some interesting stories from that!
Anyway, I'll keep posted if anything exciting happens

So much blood.

So, we watched the Passion of the Christ tonight out on the soccer field.  One of the most powerful movies I've ever seen.  It was my first time watching it, and I couldn't stop thinking about what He did for me, how much He gave.  And think about it, Jesus suffered and died willingly for us because He loves you and me.  Truly there is no greater love than this.
Gabe out.

Short story production setback

Sorry guys, I accidentally washed one of my little notebooks with about 3 new pages to my story, so now I have to try to remember it all.  I'll get some more up though :)

Ice Cream!

Yay!  I'm so happy the Tienda is selling ice cream!  When I first got here they hardly had anything, and were frequently running out of soda, but now they've seem to have their act together.  Ice cream's a lot spendier than the other stuff tho.

Prayer Request

Please pray for Terry Hawk.  He is in the hospital right now, and his face is paralyzed somehow.  He had a very bad sinus infection recently, and they don't know if that caused it or if he had a stroke. 
Terry is one of the sons of Don Hawk, the founder of El Sembrador, and God has really used him down here in Honduras.  He and his wife are in the states right now to see their two new grandchildren being born, so pray for the whole family as well.
Thanks,
Gabe

It's been, one week.

Well, it's been 1 week since the the boys got here.  I've been able to spend a bunch of time working with the younger ones, and a fair amount with some of the older ones too.  I usually play soccer or basketball with them at night, and there's always meals to hang out with everyone.  Things have been going fairly smoothly so far, but the 'kindergarten' needs a quite a lot of "direction." 
I started some seeds for the garden today, so we'll see how many of them come up.  I don't have that much variety yet, but we're getting some more seeds soon.
Taking pictures of the concert and everything was really fun, but lots of them turned out kinda blurry.  I don't like night photography without my tripod.  I should have just brought it.  Oh well.  I'll just put it as a must for next time I go anywhere.
One of the girls here on a work team is a designer person, and she drew up some plans new front gardens.  I started helping with that this afternoon, and it's going to be quite the sight.  We're doing a multi-layered thing with a bunch of river rock in the background, and putting in a new sidewalk.
Out for now,
Gabe

Work update

The boys are all here now, and it's so much fun :)  Turns out they don't start school for about a week, so they will just be working during the day for a while.  Most of them are out cutting grass along the road and canal, but this year there are about 10 that are younger.  Omar and I have been put in charge of them, and we call it our "kinder," or kindergarten class.  So far we've been doing landscaping maintenance around the school.  I've been driving the tractor around a lot to pick up the leaves and such, but we also trimmed the big palm trees.  Omar and I got up and a big rickety scaffolding with axes and machetes to cut them down, while the boys picked up branches and cut some lower ones.  Did you know palm trees have big thorns?  And also if you do it right, you can chop a branch off with one swing of the machete.
Gabe.
P.S. I think it's funny that when you come here, they give you a bed, haircut, Bible, goggles, measuring tape, file and a Big Ol Machete :)

Sermon Notes - The Very Special Mouse

Once there was a very special mouse who lived in a very big house on the top of a hill.  All the other mice were jealous of the little mouse because he lived in a better house than them.  They had to steal little crumbs that fell off the table and in the kitchen, but the very special mouse got to eat cheese and pie and pudding all day long, whenever he wanted.  But it was not all fun and games.  The King and Queen who lived there were constantly trying to trap him.  Every day the King and Queen would find a new way to trap him, and each day the clever little mouse would find a way to get past the traps and eat the food.  Whenever one of the other mice tried to mike it past the traps they couldn't, and that is why none of them could live there.
One day while the very special mouse was playing outside, he saw another mouse that was more beautiful than any he had seen before.  He decided to invite her into the big house and show her how to get past the King and Queen's traps so they could both live there together.  At first, the new mouse was too scared to try, but after a few days she agreed to follow the very special mouse through the traps.  They were almost all the way to the kitchen
The End.

What's it like?

Well, I'm sure you are all dying to know how I'm doing, what I'm doing, and what I'll be doing later on, so I'll just come right out and tell you.  I got here on Wednesday, but really didn't do anything except meet people and get settled, so Thursday was my first 'real' day.  It's actually a really good time for me to come here because it's towards the end of a big transition here at the school.  The boys will all be starting school on Monday, and it's going to be the first year that a Honduran is the director.  In the past, the WGM missionaries have been running things, but they are transferring more responsibility onto the Hondurans and the Church.  But this year, Cristian - a former graduate of the school - is running the show.  This past week has been crazy getting everything ready for 100 boys to come swarming in, so I've been able to jump in and help with all kinds of odd jobs, but one big one in particular.  The front parking area was re-done, and we cut squares of sod out of one of the pastures and put them in.  Then we took out some sidewalk and put a new one in.  It looks really nice now, but it cost me 5 blisters ;)  I also helped paint the school building, and that was a big pain.  We used oil-based paint, probably the worst paint I ever used.  It was next to impossible to do it perfectly, because if you rolled fast or pressed more than lightly, it would leave these awful dark lines on the wall.  So yeah, I've been busy. 
The weather here is around 80-90, maybe 95, but it get's cool in the evenings - almost exactly like an Oregon summer, except it gets dark here around 5:30 - 6:00. 
Tonight I went with Jeremy and some of the workers to the gas station to watch the "big game."  They had a projector and a big screen, with massive speakers, and there was around 75 people all watching Honduras play USA.  Of course, Honduras won 3:1,  but it was a very fun game.
Tomorrow I'll ride into Catacamas - the local town - to go to church, so that should be fun :)
Next week should bring a bunch of changes to what I've been doing so far, and I'm still kind of curious as to what I'll be doing the rest of the time.  They don't do a lot of farming here, mostly just raise cattle and hogs, so I might end up helping more with the school side of things.
Oh, and I've been able to talk to pretty much everyone using what Spanish I already know, so that's nice.
Hasta Luego!
-Gabriel

Hola from Honduras!

Hello!
I arrived safely at the guesthouse, where I will be staying until Wednesday.  Yesterday I went with the Moyers - a young new missionary family that flew in the same day as me - to buy a mattress for their apartment.  Just driving around the city here is an experience in itself.  The mattress store was kind of strange.  There was a big metal gate, and there was a guard carrying a 12 guage (with a rope sling) that let us in.  Security is a big thing around Tegucigalpa, because there are motorcyclists that will grab cameras and purses and whatever and speed off.
Prayer requests: safety, communication.
-Gabe

Texas Sunrise!

Airports are so much fun, aren't they?
The Casi Cielo wasn't as good as when I make it at home.
I put some stuff on my photobucket, so it should be pretty easy to see pictures now.

Hello, and goodbye

Watching 24 right before my midnight flight :)

Well, I'm just getting the final things together before I leave.  I wanted to tell you all how much I appreciate everyone who supported me financially and through prayer, may God bless you all!