Open Eyes Ministries Blog

We reach the end of our journey. The last day is bittersweet because as much as we want to be at home to be with our family, we also feel that there is so much more that can be done here.

We have about 12 hours of travel ahead and it is our prayer that we make it home safe so we can begin what we have learned here in our local church so that this mission trip not be the end of the adventure but merely the beginning.

Love and Peace from Hondus. Louisville here we come.

Today has been a whirlwind, we made it to the black beach. I have never seen black sand before. Of course black sand is Mucho Caliente, Very Hot. 3 of us made the mistake of wearing tennis shoes instead of sandles and to get out of the boat we had to jump out into the water so we then had to walk up the beach in the hot sand. I have never seen Brad run faster than I did today, and Waitmon could have made the Olympis with his lighting speed. Of course I brought up the rear, no pun intended.

When we got back to the hacienda, Terry and Arlene set up a party for us because it was Intern Michelle's 19'th birthday today and Waitmon's 40th birthday tomorrow. We even had a pinata. Plus who else can say for their January birthday that they got to go to the beach and see 3 different countries all in one day.

Tonight, as hard as it is to believe will be the last of the worship services before we come home. I know that Brad will bring the power of God tonight as he preaches at a church of faithful people who held church under a tree for 3 years. We met them on Thursday and found that they need $2,000 US to complete an educational building that serves 90 children who will not have a place to meet once the rainy season comes in May.

We as a team are cosidering raining money to help in this endeavor. If you are interested helping, please let one of us know. If you don't have our contact info you can post a comment on this blog with your info and I will be more than happy to contact you.

We will be leaving for church soon and I have to start the upload of the mass of pictures and video. Brad's camera was downloaded for the first time today and all his video will be mixed in with Day 8 so check them out later after they upload.

Pray for us as we travel home tomorrow and for those who will be at the airport, thank you and we will see you soon.

http://picasaweb.google.com/rbarnett73/OpenEyesHonduras2008Day8?authkey=Tg-is4Cx56o

Today has been a day with many changes. We started the day as we had with the last few with 2 fiestas which I think Amy already covered. In the afternoon the men went to the prison and the women went shopping yet again. I just don't understand what the need to shop is, but as long as they are buying me something I don't care.

I stayed behind to prepare a sermon for tonight's service and to work on Terry and Arlenes computers and newsletter. Later we found out that the church that we were to go to forgot to invite anyone and they were not going to have a service so we had a night off. This could be good because we have an extremely full day tomorrow. We are going to St. Marco to evangelize, to give out gift pack to the homes (St. Marco is one of the poorest areas around Choluteca) we will then serve lunch to the children through the open eyes ministry project that feeds them 5 days a week.

We had fun with David (Dah-veed) today with a funny picture that I was able to snap yesterday (see Day 5 photos). He put on a fake hair strip. Today, since I had some spare time, I took his head and put it on the bodies of Brad, Arlene, and some Brazillian dancer. We all had a good laugh at that one. I may post them later, but tht will depend on how much he comes up with before Sunday.

It seems wild that we are almost ready to return home. We truly have only tomorrow for ministry. We are spending Saturday, other than a service in the evening, at the bech and sight-seeing. There may not be much as far as blog tomorrow, but we will make sure to post something.

There has been many hearts breaking here, including a number of people on the team, we just pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to tear down walls and build up spirits here in Hondurus, but also back home as well.

The pictures are posting right now as I blog at the following link. There are also some extra videos in day 4 and day 5 as well.

Lastly, I think we have created a monster, his name is King KoKo Kong the Scrabble King - a.k.a. Waitmon Beeler

God Bless

http://picasaweb.google.com/rbarnett73/OpenEyesHondurasMission2008Day60?authkey=iRO4QkVYN84

Today as suspected was a long day. We went to San Marco do Colon (Saint Mark of Columbus) which is on top of the mountains. As expected there are a lot of pictures because of this. We spent the day door to door winessing and givng away food to one of the poorest areas that we had visited.

Angie held a class for the teachers at both churches and we divided the school supplies between the 2 schools. Both of these schools serve children food multiple times during the week and we were able to be part of this service today. It's amazing how children respond to duct-tape and a soccer ball.

The trip up and down the mountain twice today took its toll on most of the group and they have already gone to bed, but me, Angie, Amy, and the scrabble king are still up playing scrabble and I'm still blogging.

It seems odd that the end of the week is rapidly approaching, but we are already losing parts of our group. Julio went home to Nicaragua today and Pamela leaves us tomorrow, but tomorrow we celebrate. Michelle is celebrating a birthday and we get to be part of that celebration and Waitmon's birthday is Sunday, so I am sure tomorrow will be interesting. We are heading to the southern coast of Honduras to a beach tomorrow to have a break and to sight-see and I am sure shopping once again so I am sure the blog will be late again but full of pics.

I'm sorry if I am rambling, but It's late so I will leave you with the link.

Beunos Noches

http://picasaweb.google.com/rbarnett73/OpenEyesHondurasMission2008Day70?authkey=pevMArY-hHw

Today was another amazing day.  God is so Great!!  I do not know why we forget that sometimes.  We had 100 salvations today between two fiestas and the men going to the prison.  Then tonight we went to the Maxi Bodega (Grocery Store) and bought food for 40 families through a donation from a friend of one of our team members.  We will take the food tomorrow when we go to San Marco.  This will be the poorest area we will be in so far, so we are excited about going to spread the gospel and show them God's Love through the food.

Written by Amy

241...  That is the number of salvations that we had today.  Praise GOD!!!!  We did two fiestas in the morning and then some shopping in the afternoon and an early chuch services this evening.  The fiestas are like VBS in less than 2 hours (per Angie).  We go out and gather the kids and their families and then there is a drama, games, candy, the gospel and response time. It goes by so fast but it is a blast.  The church service was like no other I had ever participated in.  Well it is getting late and everyone else is in bed.  Chat more tomorrow...

Written by Amy

http://picasaweb.google.com/rbarnett73/OpenEyesHondurasMission2008Day51?authkey=Q688DdZoqIY

Today has been a great day so far. I would say that a few of us are starting to succumb to the heat, but we are still all ready when the time comes. Today we did a few more fiestas and at last count there were around 241 young child who prayed to accept Christ today. We ask you to pray that Satan will keep his hands off of them and allow them to grow strong in the Spirit.

We found out that the men may still go to the prison tomorrow. The women will have to go shopping or something else considering because of the lock-down, all women have to be strip-searched. So I think that they are going to opt out of that trip.

We are leaving to do some brief souvenier shopping so I will post the pictures and video later this evening. We have service at 5:15pm this evening. Brad will be preaching this evening and I am sure he will do a great job as usual.

We will post more later...

written by Rich.

Tonight was an interesting evening. As we were sitting down to dinner we found the source of the mistery electric smell that we had been smelling for the last couple of days. The electric meter on the outside wall of the hacienda caught fire and began to arc. Of course when that happened the powere went off. I was thankful I had already printed my sermon for the night.

The service was also interesting. When we pulled up to the location of the service a truck pulled up and chairs came out. Another truck pulled in with sound equipment and a few other vehicles blocked the rest of the road. They hung a light and then we began, right in the middle of the street. It was quite the adventure.

I made it through my first translated sermon and was told I did well, but I am my own worst critic and felt bad that I read the majority of it once again. One day will come when God will give me the confidence to go without so many notes.

For those that are following this blog, I also figured out how to add our videos to the site as well so if you have not already seen them I placed them under the original day when they were taken.

There are also more photos from the team at the following link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/rbarnett73/OpenEyesHondurasMission2008Day41?authkey=HO1JhQ-K9Xw

Today we went into the neighborhoods and told the people that we were going to have a fiesta.  We sang songs and played games with the children. Then we did a drama called The Sin Box, a few of us got it on video. I  looked around and I couldn't get over how excited even the adults were, they had such a good time, and so did we.  We were supposed to visit the prison and I thitnk Rich has already told you the reason for that, so we went to something similar to a nursing home.  When we got there the supervisor asked us to meet with all of them out on the porch because they had been out of water for the past two days and did not want us going to their rooms for obvious reasons.  They were so excited to see us and about all of them told us they had no visitors, and this one tiny little lady sang for us, Shawnee got her on video, I think.  We gave the ladies house slippers and the men got hats and as soon as they got them they put them on and just smiled.  Their smiles were so sweet, but it just didn't seem like a drop in the bucket.  They were hoping we were a medical team, because they have no doctors and they really are in need of that.  Tonight we had a worship service in the middle of the street, Waitmon gave a wonderful testimony and Rich preached a great sermon.  I guess it is time to go to bed it is almost midnight.

Just want to say hello to Walnut Hill Ele.  I heard you guys didn't have school today, so maybe you will be able to follow our journey when you get back!!!

Angie and Waitmon

Hello all!! Today has been awesome. God is good! It is refreshing to be here and see people who are hungry for the Word and so hospitable. We are tired, but it doesn't seem to be bothering us. God is good!

written by Brad

This morning we started with devotions led by Shawnee. We then got to go to 2 different communities to do "FIESTAS." These are little dramas and games done for the kids of the community in a mass evangelism attempt. We then invite them to come to Sunday School and also target some of the adults that come out to see what all of the commotion is about.

We made up for the lack of pictures yesterday I think and they will be uploaded soon. We found out yesterday while we were at the hospital that there was an uprising at the prison that we were going to visit and 3 men were killed and 2 others were shot in the fighting and were brought to the hospital we were in. Terry has decided that visiting the prison today was not the wisest thing to do so we are going to an "old folks home" (no direspect intended). We may however visit the prison yet this week.

We leave soon so we will blog more later.

http://picasaweb.google.com/rbarnett73/OpenEyesHondurasMission2008Day40?authkey=60sWhN_63HE

On a brighter note from the earlier post, we found that Frosty's from Wendy's from Honduras are much better that in the US. See the pictures for pricing. For our son Isaiah, I have even taken a picture of the "Baco-nater" sign so he can see that he can eat anywhere.

I have posted the few pictures that we had for today at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/rbarnett73/OpenEyesHondurasMission2008Day3?authkey=55SPlKQ5ZLk 

We have an off night tonight, but we will begin nother day bright and early tomorrow with "sin-box" fiestas. We are then slated to visit the local prison and then I am preaching for the first time at an outdoor worship service. Lord willing I will not fumble over my tongue.

Keep us in prayer.

Written by Rich

Hello! I am in the midst of a grueling game of Scrabble so I can't type long. We are having a wonderful trip and God is working both in the people of Honduras and in us. God is good. The gospel is powerful. Pray that we remain faithful to what He has sent us here to do.

 written by Brad

Well, Brad just won the Scrabble game...  I just lost Waitmon's pen.  But Shawnee had it in her folder, what a relief.   Today was great.  We went evangalizing in the morning.  Our team was a little slow to start, but we got the hang of it and the last house we went to was a Catholic  woman and we were able to lead her to Christ, with the help of our awesome interpreter, Pamela.

 written  by Amy

Day three began with another breakfast of fruit and something that resembled a burrito but it tasted like funnel cake with cheese. It was muy bien. I don't have pictures from this morning because we spent the morning door to door speaking with people about Christ. I am please to announce that the team witnessed and aided in the conversion of 15 people to Christ.

We gave out candy and New Testaments aand a lot of candy. I don't have a lot of time, bcause Brad, Waitmon, Ronnie and myself are off to the radio station were Brad will be preaching and I will be singing on the radio.

I hope to have some pictures later.