Great News from Santa Fe

Well, I know I promised 'yall some good news last week. I have some, but I'll get to that in a minute.

How about that Easter worship service? It was great to see the number of people packing out the sanctuary wasn't it? To me, the highlight was when the teens went to the top of the waterfall with the flags and banners tromping out to the fantastic music that Maxine and gang had put together. WoooHooo!!

And now....drumroll please...The Good News about Santa Fe is...and this is really quite an accomplishment...it may not seem like it until you have been in Honduras a few times and gotten to know the Honduran psyche a little bit...but...out of 44 households in the village 44 have verbally agreed to participate in the program that we proposed! Out of that, 15 have decided that they would like to build new homes!

Ok, cool, you say. Yea, more than cool when you know a little more about what we proposed. First, we offered everyone a package of 5 benefits. A latrine, a pila (concrete sink with a washboard), a bio-sand filter, a resumidero (like a dry-well so there would be somewhere for the wash water to go), and an improved cooking stove. This was offered at a very reasonable cost to the villagers. The exciting part of it is that in the past many of the people in other villages have not wanted to do it because we asked them to participate financially. These people get it! You watch. The health of this village will improve dramatically in the next year. We have done a survey where we asked many health related questions and we will do another one in about 18 months when we are ready to complete this project. It will be great to see the change.

Another exciting thing is the number of people who want to "buy" new homes. This is a major financial commitment for them. We do subsidize the cost of the home, but it still costs them a substantial amount of money. Especially when you consider that the per capita income of the people in Honduras is $1100. per year, or about $3 per day. This includes the very rich and the very poor. Per capita income is the total income of the country divided by the number of adults, so there are many with incomes way above this and many with incomes way below this. By the way, the per capita income in the US is $48,000.

The other good news is that a couple of weeks ago we decided to skip to the top of the pyramid of hope and begin to develop some village pride in Santa Fe. We went to the school and proposed a "clean up" day where the kids would go around and pick up garbage. When the adults saw what the kids were doing many of them joined in and helped! A classic example of the kids teaching the parents. By the way, the teacher was really impressed that we would care enough to make the effort to teach the children how important it is to keep things cleaned up.

There are many more things happening each day in all four of the villages. I just don't have the time to tell you about all of them, and make a living too!! I am in contact nearly every day with Daniel, or Chet, or the office in Tegucigalpa. The money that you have committed is being put to good use!! You are truly being the hands and feet of Christ. Thank you for that!!

Stay tuned!!

Tomas