This is one place we never sing, "Rain, rain' go away!"  After almost a month without rain, we began to pray last week for God to deliver some blessed showers our way.   And He did!  We have had some squalls move through at night or perhaps once a day, but this morning we awoke to a good heavy downpour.  And it was very overcast with more short showers most of the day.  What a wonderful way to spend a Saturday, especially when our whole team is SO exhausted.  Our boat is being repaired and basically, remodeled.  Teacher Training met every day this week with great success.  Student matriculation (registration) was held for three days and will continue.  Our visiting doctor and his wife left this week after a ten day stay.  Busy week.  But today the rain let us take a break, pull away from the work load, and maybe get a nap. 

one month into our 2009 year!

Today is exactly one month since we arrived in Helene for 2009.  We spent almost a week downisland in West End for a sort of prep time/mini-Team Steam.  We had our newest intern- Dominic Alvarez, back as a "fulltimer" and a fresh intern who has visited Helene with his church - David Chase.  These guys are a perfect match for our team and are really fun individuals. 

Dominic will be teaching and training in the English School.  He has led out in our Teacher Training that started this week and done an excellent job presenting the information.  David will be responsible for maintaining our property and buildings...the "to-do" list really never ends for him.  Our former team member Paul Moore spent two weeks with David showing him the ropes in a fast forward cram course on electricity, water system, generator, boat, etc.  Deirdre, Larry and I are so grateful to God for the team He has put together for 2009.  It is definitely a new start as we face many changes this year in our ministry and direction for the site.   

WE'RE BAAAACK!

A month ago today Larry and I caught a ferry from La Ceiba to Roatan to return to Helene.  We had a glorious four month break as we celebrated the birth of our granddaughter and the engagement of our oldest daughter!  Family and friends are by far the hardest ones to say goodbye when we leave.  But as we arrived on the island a week later, we were welcomed and excited to greet our island friends.  LOTS of changes going on this year as we return with FIVE staff.  Since we arrived, we have already had several groups of visitors including one of our favorite dentists and his wife.  One of the biggest goals in my ministry here with the school was to get the word out about our new community school board.  They will make the crucial decisions for our English school this year as we continue to train island teachers and begin a new school year in a few weeks after teacher training.  The children are constant in asking when school will start.  I remind myself that the first year we came here, school did not start until June, so not to worry about our late start date.  God has been preparing things while we were gone and is in the very middle of prep right now.