Currently, a large team of 30+ MTSU students and faculty are working on a variety of projects in Honduras. You may follow along with their efforts at the MTSU Honduras Project. Please stop by their blog and wish them well.

Besides kind of putting everything in one place, the new things added were a link to paul's teaser video, 12 photos from Chansin and a new article set by Chansin and I:

"Below are accounts of Chansin and Nathan as they enter the same home in Honduras for the first time. Chansin writes of the team’s first visit to the house. Nathan writes of the group’s second visit, when they return with a large mattress to complement the family’s broken cot:"

(Scroll Down past the visuals to get to the article part)

In just a few hours, the first Belmont Vision of the Spring 2006 semester will hit the campus. I haven't seen it yet but I understand that Chansin and Nate have written articles and published pictures from their Honduran experiences early this month. The Belmont Vision Online will also carry additional photos and a reference to video projects...sooooo, the 3 minute clip on this post is a sneak preview of our day at Clemintina's soup kitchen and one of the painting days at the nearby school.

The rough edits on this clip are compliments of Windows Movie Maker (not my favorite editing software but it is packaged with Windows XP and it works on my handy laptop)...and the background music is a free download by Tariq Harb playing a Handel Minuet on classical guitar. There is more video coming. This is just a sample from the raw video files that have been digitized thusfar. Enjoy.]]> http://forum.belmont.edu/honduras/2006/01/video_sneak_preview.html http://forum.belmont.edu/honduras/2006/01/video_sneak_preview.html Reflections on Future Projects Tue, 24 Jan 2006 23:35:00 -0600 Music of the Big Band era surrounded my childhood. One of those old standards, Among My Souvenirs, has been stuck in my head for the last day or so, following the discovery of a handwriiten note from an orphan that I met named Areliah. We did not talk very long...I simply don't command enough Spanish to carry on a long conversation. She was quite curious as to what I was doing and I took a few minutes to let her record several seconds of video. After I played back the tape for her on the camera's small LCD screen she asked if I had a paper and pen. She sat next to me and penned the following note (in Spanish), and then handed my notebook back with a warm hug.

To Paul from Areliah,
Hello, how are you? I hope that when you go away that you will remember much about me. You are the first American friend that I have known in my life. May God bless you and be with you the rest of your life.
(signed)Areliah

It is probably a good thing that I did not know what she wrote at the time, I may have attempted to smuggle my small friend home in my luggage. Of all the things that I brought back from Honduras, Areliah's simple note has to be my favorite. It speaks volumes about the people we met and compels me to remember the importance of the little things we do.

And for those who are not familiar with Among My Souvenirs, the last verse goes like this:
"...And, as the teardrops start,
I find a broken heart
Among my souvenirs"

Now, where's the Kleenex when I need it.

Matt has contact sheets from his black and white film, a set of 35mm color slides, and a handful of prints from his color print film...probably enough for a good show.

My Top 40 Honduras Pictures

“I’ve been changed” ... “I look at life differently.” People say these things when they come back home.

But how? In what way are they different? I don’t hear that answer quite as often.

Before I left for Honduras, I was worried I’d have nothing to say. I asked God to move in my heart so I could come back a more mature disciple of Christ.

Now it’s time for me to evaluate. How have I changed, and what has been accomplished?

During our last afternoon in Honduras, we visited five orphanages. There wasn’t much time to spend at each one, but the children welcomed us and opened up to us within minutes.

I could tell they longed for attention. I didn’t even have to seek them out. At one particular orphanage, as soon as I stepped inside the gates, little Maria in a ruffled purple blouse grabbed my hand. We were instant friends.

Thanks again to all of you who prayed, added comments to the blog, and supported this team financially and otherwise. Thank You. Thank You. Thank You!

The MTSU faculty on the team were a joy to work with (and they are already scheduled for two more trips to the area). Jenny Rogers, the executive director of the KidSake Foundation, has a passion for the mission and ministry in Cane, Honduras that is contagious. As for the Chansin, Nate, and Matt...Belmont has every reason to be proud of the manner in which they represented their institution and their faith...to say that it was amazing to see them in action does no justice to the great things these young people did.

There will be some follow-up stories comming now that we have more accessible/reliable Internet access. Those of you who signed up for email notifications will receive an alert when more pictures, stories, and videos are uploaded.

We are weary. We are blessed. We are greatful. We are Home!

Anyway, all of us made it through Houndras immigration and are resting at the American Airlines gate awaiting our departing flight. If we have access in Miami, we'll drop you a note...if not, we'll see you in Nashville (or Dallas).

Adios!

He replied with lofty words and political jargon.

I nodded slowly, pretending he made sense. I hated the fact that life was not simple. I was drawn to my friend’s knowledge.

What I didn’t realize was that I was one of those rich people in the world. I should have asked myself: Why don’t you give a percent of your wealth to the poor, Nate?

Jenny Rogers, a single mother of three, read letters from her best friend’s brother. Chief Jones was in the Air Force and based in Honduras. He wrote home about the Honduran people and his experiences.

Jones’s stories made their way into Jenny’s hands. They were stories of desperate Hondurans accosting the airmen as they threw their trash and spoiled food in the dump... Stories of villages in the mountains where the poor Hondurans generously shared the little they had with the visiting airmen... Stories of shoeless children who waited for visitors at the airport to carry luggage and raise 10 cents to buy food.

“They were letters that would make you cry, and you would feel such compassion for the people,” Jenny said.

Four months after reading the first letter, she traveled to Honduras herself to see how she could help.

We left their house promising ourselves to do something about it. Beds are expensive, we were at the edge of our budget and we didn’t even know where to find a bed for sale. But we wanted to give those children a place to rest their heads. The cold, dirty floor and crowded, broken bed were not sufficient.

There are always one or two pictures that stick out each night.

At the public school in the small town of Cane, close to the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa, a shot came to me.