We left for Honduras on July 21, 2001 and returned July 28, 2001. The mission trip to Honduras and the village of El Quebrachal was emotionally and physically challenging, but very rewarding. The trip was organized through Honduras Outreach Inc. (HOI) and our church, Grace Presbyterian Church, which is located in Springfield, Virginia. HOI provides support services to villages located in the Agalta Valley, Honduras. HOI 's Mission of Ministry is "Helping Hondurans Help Themselves" and they do achieve that mission very effectively.

Grace Church, through the leadership of Charlie and Conoly Barker, decided in 2000 to adopt a Honduras village through the HOI model village program. The village adopted by Grace Church is named El Quebrachal (Pronounced: El Kay -bruh-shal). Grace Church has committed to the two-year model village program for El Quebrachal, which is solely sponsored by Grace Church through HOI. The HOI model village program supports a selected village by helping missionary teams from the United States travel to the adopted village in Honduras so improvements to the village can be achieved. The model village program's goal is to equip each dwelling in the village with a concrete floor, a chimney, a latrine, and additional rooms and roofs as needed. Some villages ask for additional support to help build a school and/or church. Additional support can be given to HOI through the Scholarship Program and through special donations to help HOI continue to fund the ranch facilities in Honduras. The Scholarship Program provides monetary support to needy high school children in the HOI support area of Honduras. The ranch facilities are called Rancho El Paraiso and these facilities provide housing accommodations to missionary groups from the United States. One to three US missionary groups come to the Ranch every week. They arrive on Sunday afternoon after spending the night in Juticalpa and leave on Friday. HOI provides a Honduran guide for the missionary group, daily transportation to the village and full sleeping and eating accommodations for the week.

The 2001 Grace Honduras Mission Team was composed of eighteen individuals. The team member names are Sarah Cipriano, James & Jay Click, Mary Ellen Davis, Kerry Fradley, Ross Fugill, Toper Generazio, Joan Lewis, Beth Ann & Sarah McClelland, Joe & Greta Miller, Jerry & Jeannie Patee, Ralph Thwaite, Christina Tosi, Randi Wise, and Katie Yarbrough. The 2001 Grace Honduras Mission Team flew into Tegucigalpa, Honduras, which is the capitol of the country, on the afternoon of the July 21 ^st. The airport has the third shortest runway for jets in the world and the landing was a memorable experience. From Tegucigalpa, we were bused to Juticalpa where we spent the night. The bus ride was about 3 hours long and started our trip into the Honduras countryside. It is interesting how HOI initiates the missionary group to the Honduras culture. We spend the first night at a hotel in Juticalpa, which had a hot shower and a window air conditioning unit. Then we were bused to the ranch from Juticalpa. This trip was over some fairly rough ride for about three hours. We spent the second night at the ranch, which has no TVs, no telephones and no air conditioning. This integrated us further in to the Honduras village culture. We actually stayed at the ranch for the next five nights, but every morning we would leave for the village, which is located about 1 hour and 20 minutes from the ranch over some very rough and dusty roads. The village, El Quebrachal, consists of about 362 people and 63 family houses. They have neither electricity nor telephones nor clean water. Their main mode of transportation is by horseback. It seemed like, over a three-day period, we were transported back into time about 300 years. Although some things at the village were more modern than 1700 vintage, most of the surroundings represented a village of the 1700's in America. One of our group members had been to some other third world countries, and he indicated that this village was the poorest that he had seen.

During our four days at the village we conducted two major missions. One was the support to the school and the other was support to the room addition construction projects. One of our five teams spent the morning in the elementary school (grades 1 through 6) and provided Bible school lessons, crafts and English lessons. During the first morning at the elementary school, hygiene kits were distributed to all the students. The other four teams helped the villagers put up 16 roofs and mudded about 7 rooms. The roofs were constructed from framing materials such as small trees and limbs and some scrap lumber. The tin and nails were provided by HOI through Grace Presbyterian Church's contribution to HOI for the model village program. The mudding of a wall was performed in three steps. The first step was to mix the dirt and clay with water, which was performed by a villager. Then the mud/clay was carried by hand to the wall where it was placed into the wall lattice. The wall lattice was constructed from small trees and scrap lumber that were crossed to form a square lattice. The mud/clay was placed in the lattice square. About half way up the square, a rock was laid onto the mud/clay and then the mud/clay mixture was packed around it. This provided support to the wall structure. After some molding by the villagers and drying, the walls became very smooth and solid. In looking at the situation in the village, it looked like the villagers had worked about 3 months preparing for our arrival and they will probably work another month in completing all the projects that were started. We only spend four days in the village, but the net effect is that the villagers did most of the work. The over all result was that the village was able to grow significantly and gain in knowledge with just a short visit from us. This is certainly God's work.

On Wednesday afternoon, we had a meeting with the head of the village, Don Pedro Carias. The meeting was held to discuss some medical funds that were left last year for HOI to administer to the village. Don Pedro said that the money was a nice gesture, but the most important thing that we provide to the villagers is our presence. Our being there gave an incentive to the village that was immeasurable. From that point on, I knew our mission was a success and the spirit of the Lord was with us.

On the last day at the village, the team organized a Fiesta for the villagers. Watermelon and drinks were provided and an instamatic photo was taken of each family. The family photo and Family Care Package was given to each family and personal notes from a member of the Grace Presbyterian Church congregation was placed in each of the Family Care Packages. The personal notes were written in English and translated into Spanish by Kent and Julie Buckley-Ess. The villagers had a wonderful time dancing and celebrating with the mission group. The villagers were all wonderful and delightful to know and the time spent with them was a "grande" experience.

The 2001 Honduras Mission group flew out of Tegucigalpa, Honduras on Saturday July 28, 2001 and landed at Ronald Regan National Airport at about 10:00 P.M. Saturday night. The Honduras Team 2001 was one of the best teams I have ever known and it was a real pleasure to get to know them all.

The 2002 Grace Honduras Mission Team will leave Ronald Regan National Airport on July 13, 2002 and if you would like to be part of that team please let Joe Miller by dropping a note in his mail box at the church or by calling Joe at (703) 313-6216.

Best Wishes and God Bless,

Joe Miller

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