Honduras 2019

Hello again Friends and Family!

We are so thankful for your help in making our trip to Honduras possible!  We had a really good week, and we're so thankful for your prayer and support!

This trip was very special because we were returning to spend time with dear friends!  We always feel so welcome and loved when we go to La Providencia, and this time was no exception.  It was like a big family reunion!  

There are currently three families who live at La Providencia.  Instead of institutional care, orphaned children are placed with a mother and father who commit to raise them as their own.  Please pray for the Honduran lawmakers as they are the ones who determine a child's reunification, continued foster care, or adoption.  Please pray for God to protect all of these children and give wisdom to those who must decide what is best for the children.  

We always love spending time with the Salgado family.

The Amaya family is such an encouragement to us.

Here is Beth with one of the children from the Rios family (the newest family at LP).

We also got to spend time with other friends who work at La Providencia. In this picture are the wife and children of LP's national directory, Henry.  Ellen Ferguson, top left, is a friend from our home church who now lives in Honduras and works at another Christian school nearby.  

This beautiful girl is the baby that our friend Katharine is currently caring for.  In addition to working at La Providencia, Katharine also does emergency foster care.

Heath, Ethan and Jesse had a great time catching up with their friends in the construction/maintenance department.

​The girls and I enjoyed seeing all the students we got to know a few years ago.​

We also got to help out with several projects while we were there.  Beth, Erin, and all 5 kids worked all week on organizing and cataloging all the supplies in the school supply room.  ​

Heath and Ethan and Jesse built book shelves and helped with repairs.  

 And we all helped with food preparation . . . from cleaning banana leaves for use in wrapping tamales, to "assisting" chickens in their process from farm to kitchen.

We also helped with art, music, and Bible classes, and even Awana!

It was very special to spend time with our friend Oneida.  She is a single mom whose daughter attends La Providencia.  Her house was recently destroyed by flooding, and she is living with her sister while saving up money to build a new house.  In the picture you can see the mud bricks that are being prepared for building.  Her prayer is to get a loan that will enable her to put a good-quality roof on so that the bricks won't get destroyed when the rainy season starts.  Spending time with her is always humbling, because she demonstrates such strong trust in God, that no matter what He is in control.  I've never heard her complain, though her circumstances (financial and otherwise) are so much harder than anything I've experienced.  Please join us in prayer that God will provide for her housing and continue to give her strength and joy, and that we would have that same strong faith!

As always, we learned more about caring for orphaned and vulnerable children by hearing about La Providencia's next-step plans.  A major prayer request for them is the decision and ability to continue adding a grade each year to the school.  The oldest students are now in 9th grade, and 10th grade is a completely different level in Honduras.  High school grades have additional requirements and need more financial resources than the younger grades do, and it will be very difficult to add high school.  However, if they don't add 10th grade next year, it's likely that up to half of the current 9th graders will just drop out of school and never finish.  Please be in prayer for wisdom and provision for this important work!  Pray for La Providencia's leaders to have wisdom and unity in figuring out the best ways to help children.

Thank you again for your prayer, encouragement, and/or financial support.  This trip wouldn't have been possible without you, and it means so much to us to have each one of you working with us in this ministry!  For more information about La Providencia, you can visit the website at www.providenceworld.com/la-providencia, or ask us if you have any more questions about the ministry or our time there.  We appreciate you very much, and pray that God will bless you and keep you always close to Him.

In Christ,

~Heath, Erin, Ethan, Jesse, Tabitha, & Rayanna

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Going Home!

Tabitha should be discharged this evening!  We are very thankful for the excellent medical care, wonderful nurses, medical insurance, and a very spacious hospital room!  Our prayer request is for Tabitha's long-term kidney health.  Thank you to everyone who has been praying for and helping and encouraging us this past week.  We appreciate it very much!

Tabitha's Medical Situation

As many of you know, Tabitha is in the hospital with a kidney infection.  Short version of the story:  She was admitted on Tuesday (May 23), and will most likely be there until June 1st.  She is feeling completely fine now, but she has to complete her antibiotic treatment which is only available via IV, and that's why she can't come home yet.  Heath and I are taking turns staying with her.

I know some of you have asked how to help.  If you can come visit her (us), that'd be awesome!  The main problem right now is boredom!  Visiting hours are 9-9, at a Baltimore hospital (email/message me for details), children are welcome, but no one who has cough/cold/flu/etc.  If you can call or skype/facetime with her she'd enjoy that too.  Use my number or Heath's.

We're doing OK on the homefront, especially now that it's a weekend and Heath isn't at work.  Thank you to those of you who already helped us with our kids these past few days!  Very appreciated!!  Depending on Heath's work schedule next week we might need more help, but I'm not sure yet.

A couple of you asked about meals.  While not at all a necessity, I do hate to cook even under normal life circumstances, so I wouldn't object if dinner magically appears!   ha ha ha  =)

Thank you to everyone who has already let us know that you're praying for her.  We do appreciate that very much!  Please continue to pray for her health, and also for her spiritual well-being.  Most of us wrestle with the question of why God allows bad things to happen, but usually we don't have to face it until we're older.  She's already asking, at her young age, why she has to go through all this--why God let her be born with all these problems.  And she understandably feels quite upset about it. Pray for wisdom in discussing these things with her, and that God grants all of us peace and trust in Him.

If you don't already know her medical history, here is a bit of background and detail:  She was born with complex birth anomalies, which affect many systems of her body.  She has had many surgeries, has daily procedures (enemas and catheters) to keep her functioning (which give her high risk of UTI's), and she has stage 2 kidney disease.  Since this past October she has had several infections.  This is her third inpatient hospitalization in six months.  The doctors have not found a specific reason that she is getting so many infections all of a sudden.  Because of this history, she is resistant to many types of antibiotics, which is why she is on this very strong one that she has to stay at the hospital for.
We are very thankful for excellent insurance, and that we live so close to advanced medical care.  Our  worries/prayer requests are for her future.  The doctors have given us some ideas that will hopefully reduce infections, but it doesn't seem like they actually know why--it's more of a "try and see."  We do have more conversations with the doctors coming up--pray for some very solid answers.  Looking down the road, it is a scary thought that she is resistant to so many antibiotics, especially when she is at such high risk for infection, has had life-threatening infections, and already has damaged kidneys.

Thank you for your prayer, encouragement, and support.  We appreciate it very much!

March Newsletter

The Runkles Family at  LA PROVIDENCIA (Siguatepeque, Honduras)

A Full February!

A Visit from our Home Church! During the second week of February, we were blessed to have a team from our very own church (Mountain View Community) here to help!  It was great to see some familiar faces, and meet a new one too.  Everyone was eager to help and learn about La Providencia.  Their time and effort and encouragement mean so much to us!  Thank you to all of you who were came, and to all of you who had a part in sending the team.   House #3 is Almost Ready! Finishing touches are being put on the new house, and the new couple should be moving in later this month!  Heath enjoyed having the extra help from the Mountain View team, and the house is looking great!  We're looking forward to welcoming the new family soon!  Please be in prayer for them as they settle in.   A Musical Treat! Youth Orchestra of the Americas put on a concert here in Siguatepeque last month.  Even with only a few days' notice, we had several La Providencia students that were able to come.  It was perfect timing because all the music classes have been learning about the various instruments of the orchestra over the last few months, and they got to see them in real life!  For most of them, this was the first time they'd ever seen a live orchestra, and most of them really enjoyed it.  Erin was very excited to be able to be with her students for this special experience! Oneida's Birthday! Oneida is a local lady who comes to clean our house three times each week, and her birthday was on Valentine's Day.  We had fun giving her a little surprise to celebrate, but the birthday isn't really the point.  The point is what a blessing it has been to know her!  I (Erin) never thought I would hire a housekeeper, but I'm so glad we did.  Not just because she keeps our house decent (which would be nearly impossible with the schedule we have this year), but because it has been a pleasure to get to know her!  She is funny and friendly, and she shares our faith in Christ.  Getting to know her and her daughters, see their home, and hear their story has also helped us really understand what life is like for the majority of people in the area, and see La Providencia doing what it's here to do.  Her younger daughter is receiving a free, Christian, bilingual education, including lunch five days a week.  They see Christ's love in action as La Providencia not only blesses families like theirs, but also provides families for children who have none.  Life is not easy for them in any way, but there is hope through Christ and through His people serving in this community.  For us, she is an example of joy, contentment, and perseverance through difficulty.  As wonderful as it is to have a clean house, her friendship and what we've learned from her are of infinitely more value! COMING UP . . . -Exams for the students March 14-17 -new family moves in sometime in March -next visa-renewal trip March 18-24 PRAISES . . . -great visit from Mountain View team -good health for our family -3rd home is almost move-in ready PRAYER REQUESTS . . . -wisdom in parenting, spiritual blessing for our children -wisdom and unity for Providence staff in planning for next year -for the new family and the children they will be welcoming

Central American Road Trip

Living in Honduras without going through the official residency process means that we have to leave the country every 90 days to renew our visa.  And we can't just cross the border and come back.  We have to go to a non-neighboring country and be there for at least 72 hours.  Translation = forced vacations!

For our first trip we decided to go to Belize.  It's the closest, and supposedly easiest, country for these trips.  Most people take a ferry there, making the trip not that long.  But the days we have off from school didn't line up with the Honduras ferry schedule, so we would have had to first drive to Guatemala, leave our car there (there's no vehicle ferry), pay for 6 of us to take the ferry and then be stuck without a car in Belize.  So instead we opted for . . . The Central American Road Trip!

Now, those of you who know me, know that I love a good road trip.  The kids and I drove almost 4,000 miles last summer, and I loved it!  So, what's a measly 800 miles, especially with two drivers?  So we made our plans.  For the most part, our plans worked out.  But there were plenty of opportunities to prove the verse, "The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps."

We originally thought it would be a 9-12 hour drive, based on Google Maps' estimate plus figuring in the likelihood of bad roads, border crossing delays, highway robbery, and the like.  Two days before leaving, Heath was fortunate enough to find out that Google's recommended route included a non-legal border crossing!  There's only one place between Guatemala and Belize where we could cross legally and get our passports stamped (which was the entire purpose of the trip).  So with the new route, the estimate became 12+ hours, with no time left for bad roads, border crossings, or robbery.

We had paper directions printed out, but most roads in CA don't have names, so the directions said "turn left" or "turn right", but that's as helpful as it got.  We didn't think about our phones early enough to get international cellular service activated, so once we left Honduras we only had phone help if we were near a wifi signal.  But hey, my sister and I at the ages of 14 and 18, drove from Illinois to Oregon by ourselves in the days when no one had cell phones, and we thought nothing of that.  Surely this little trip would be fine.  AND...did you know there's a GPS app you can use even if you don't have cell or wifi?  My genius husband found that, and it's good he did or we would probably still be lost somewhere in the mountains of Guatemala!

We left Siguatepeque at 5:20am.  It's not really safe to drive at night in CA, because of crime as much as because of the immense potholes and the unmarked speed bumps at random places meant to demolish the vehicle of any unsuspecting drivers.  The sun sets around 6, so we set out on a mission . . . no time to stop and smell the roses . . .or, uh, palm trees.

The drive out of Honduras was uneventful.  Beautiful scenery coming through the mountains, no problems with anything.  We made good time to the border, and managed to go through the emigration process and get officially out of Honduras with no bribes, and no problems with removing ourselves or our vehicle.  Thank the Lord!  We crossed into Guatemala and were looking for the Immigration Office on their side of the border, but we didn't see anything.  Did we miss it?  Are we illegal immigrants?  Will they let us back into Honduras?  These were the thoughts running through our mind for about 10 miles, until finally we saw a tiny little cement building, about the size of our living room, and a little 10" rusted and faded sign saying "Immigration."  Wow.  Good thing we didn't blink!  We stopped and took care of getting our passports stamped and paying a small entrance fee.  We didn't have any Guatemalan money, so the man had to go outside and ask his friends if anyone had Honduran Lempira so he could give us change.  Then we were on our way again.  Things were going great!

Shortly after noon, about a third of the way through Guatemala, the traffic stopped.  There are no super highways, and most roads are only one lane in each direction, so we didn't think this was so unusual.  However, when people started turning off their engines and getting out and walking around we got slightly concerned.  We had a deadline and hundreds of miles to go before dark!  This was unacceptable!!!  Now if something like this happened at home, we would probably just take a different route.  But according to the GPS there was no other route!  So we sat there for about 4 hours, debating whether to keep waiting or to try to find a hotel.  Of course, before we left I had researched our hotels and had chosen safe, somewhat comfortable ones.  Finding a random hotel by driving around the area was not in my plans!  But by about 4:30 we realized there was no other option unless we wanted to spend the night in our car.  So we back-tracked about an hour and managed to find a hotel that looked decent.  It was tolerable, but it turned out to be the most expensive and worst quality of our whole trip!  We had dinner, and squeezed our family into a room that slept five.  Good thing our girls are small enough to share a twin bed.  The stay was mostly uneventful, except for the fireworks.  Fireworks are a big thing here.  People set off home-made ones for every occasion, so we frequently hear them in the middle of the night and usually sleep through them now.  However, this night in Guatemala, I'm pretty sure the next-door neighbors were firing off a cannon!  It happened at least three times . . . just as we started to doze off into sleep, BOOM!  An explosion that almost shook the building jolted us awake.  20-30 minutes would go by, and then BOOM!  Again.  Not the most comforting feeling when sleeping in a strange place.

stuck for 4 hours; at least we had movies to watch!

cozy quarters at the first hotel

We survived the night and resumed our journey in the morning.  After driving a few more hours we made it to the border with Belize.  This border crossing was much busier than the other, but no one official gave any directions.  Thankfully, some boys wanting to make money from the tourists hang around to assist us clueless people.  They directed us through the steps of stamping our passports, having the car sprayed for bugs, paying the fees, and going through Belizan customs.  Did you know English is Belize's official language?  It was quite shocking to see and hear English all of a sudden!

Just after crossing the border we stopped at a Mayan ruins site called Xunantunich.  First we drove the car onto a little hand-cranked ferry to cross the river.  The site consisted of HUGE structures that had been built by hand more than a thousand years ago.  Very impressive.  And there were no safety rules.  If we had similar things in the States they would have been blocked off, glassed in, law-suit proofed.  But here . . . climb to your heart's content!  So we did!  From the top of the biggest building it was an impressive view.  Beautiful!  And we managed to make it back down with all four of our children.  Success!

The rest of drive was uneventful.  Heath did all the driving, and he became very good at noticing the unmarked speed bumps, avoiding dogs and pigs and cows and people that were in the road, and not hitting any of the cars passing on blind curves.  We made it to our lodging--Jungle Jeanie's by the Sea.  It's a collection of little cabins in the jungle, right on the shore of the Caribbean Sea.  Very cute.  Other than it being extremely hot and humid and mosquito-ey, and the water being filled with seaweed, it was a nice place to stay.  The kids had a wonderful two days of swimming and kayaking.
















We also took a little mini hike through the jungle.  Supposedly jaguars and monkeys inhabit the area.  We didn't see any live animals (well, unless you count the swarms of mosquitoes), but we did see a footprint that we're pretty sure was from a jaguar.  It was fun to see all these new places, and we all enjoyed the break from the routine.

On the way back we had already planned to stay a night in Guatemala.  So we went to our pre-planned hotel, which was a very neat place to stay.  It's not a hotel really, but a collection of rooms and cabins.  There was no AC here, but they did give us a fan and mosquito nets.  The food was delicious here and reasonably priced, so that was quite a blessing.  We were going to take a hike up a mountain there, but the mosquitoes were more than I could take...even after dousing myself in OFF.  Heath and Jesse started to go on while the rest of us turned back, but soon the trail was just a mud path, going steeply upward, surrounded by jungle plants probably hiding creatures from Jurassic Park.  And it was getting dark soon, so they decided to come back too.

The next day we drove back without any problems.  The kids were excellent travelers, thanks to audio theater CDs of Lord of the Rings and Narnia.  It was good to get back "home" after being on the road.  Though not everything went according to my plans, God protected us from many potential dangers and gave us a mostly-enjoyable time.  And here we are, ready to start the next three months, with new stamps in our passports and new memories in our hearts.

October Update

October Already! It's hard to believe we're in our third month here already!  It's also hard to believe it's the middle of October!  Outside everything is still green and very much alive, and the weather is still warm.  The nights are beautiful though . . . cool breezes of fresh air through the open windows, and frequent HUGE thunderstorms. The La Providencia students have exams this week, meaning the first quarter of school is finishing up.  Teaching is still a big challenge for Erin, but it is slowly getting better.  Heath and Ethan continue to enjoy their work on the buildings:  the new house is coming along well, and the most recent addition to the school is getting its finishing touches.  All four of our kids are doing well here, and homeschooling is going smoothly. A medical and dental team were here this past week.  The students at the school all received a dental cleaning, and many children from the community had important surgeries done.  La Providencia does a great job of reaching out into the community to help people, beyond just the students at the school. Our visa is only good for 90 days, so we have to leave the country every 90 days to renew it.  We have a few days off of school later this month, so we'll be driving to Belize to spend a few days.  Please keep us in prayer for a smooth trip . . . safety first of all, also problem-free border crossings, and a relaxing time as a family.  Thank you!  We could also use prayer for wisdom in planning the other trips we'll have to take.  We have to go two countries away each time (not to a country that borders Honduras), and travelling within Central America isn't as easy or cheap as we had been hoping. Orphan Sunday is coming up on November 8th!  Find out if your church has anything planned, and if not, maybe you could be the one to start something!  See www.orphansunday.org to see what it's all about! And don't forget to "like" La Providencia on facebook if you want to see more pictures and read more about things happening here!

September Update

School has started!   This has been a very busy month for everyone at La Providencia!  School started on August 19th, and most of what we've been working on has been related to that. Heath and Ethan and Jesse worked with the other men to finish the new administrative offices (which our very own Mountain View youth team worked on this summer!)  They also painted the new walls and repainted several old walls.  They also tore out the wall separating the library from the old administrative office.  (The ladies from our Mountain View team last spring spent many hours in the small library working on organizing it.  You would all be very excited about the expansion!!)  Now that the school building projects are finished, Heath and Ethan are spending most of the time working on building the new family home.  It is very hard physical work!  But even Ethan is working all day out there and enjoying his job.  He's going to be disappointed when we start our homeschool year and he has to take time out of his work day for that! I (Erin) have spent my time mainly in the school.  We had a couple of weeks to prepare . . . organizing the classrooms and planning lessons.  We've now had a week and a half of school.  I start teaching at 7:30 in the morning, and am finished at 11:45.  I'm teaching 2nd grade English every day, 2nd grade art once per week, and one music class per week for each of the 6 grades.  During the hours I'm not teaching, I work on organizing the library.  There are still hundreds of books to be cataloged!  The teaching load is more than I was expecting because there is so much lesson planning involved.  It's also overwhelming to try to manage a classroom full of children, especially the young ones who don't know much English yet!  But the second week has been better than the first, so I'm hopeful that it will get easier. We've figured out a schedule that works for our family.  Erin and Ethan ride to La Providencia with a friend at 7:00 every morning.  Heath brings the other kids over around 9:30.  They entertain themselves for about two hours.  Then, after we eat lunch, Erin takes the kids home, and the afternoons will be our homeschooling time.  Heath, and sometimes Ethan, finish the work day around 4:30 or 5 and ride home with the same friend that takes Erin in the morning.  It's a bit complicated, but seems to be working ok. We are making friends with many new people, and the La Providencia staff are all very welcoming and supportive as we get adjusted to this new culture.  We started Spanish lessons this week, and it's very exciting to be learning and understanding more and more of what's going on around us. One huge blessing for La Providencia is that all the money has been raised for building the 3rd home, which means the 4th home will be funded as well (because of a very generous donor)!  It is very exciting to see how God has provided, and to be a part of this exciting next step at La Providencia! It has been a trying month in many ways though.  In addition to all the differences we shared in the last newsletter, we have also had financial challenges, a minor car accident, frustrations with getting our shipment, and other things.  But we are thankful that God is faithful no matter what and that we have good friends (old and new, near and far) who are carrying us through.  We appreciate your prayer and encouragement so much! One immediate prayer request we have is for our shipment.  We sent a large amount of personal items, all our homeschool curriculum and supplies for the year, clothing and all the kids' toys, many of Heath's tools, as well as books and electric pianos for La Providencia by ship.  Our shipping costs were covered by those of you who have been financially supporting us.  We were told there would probably be no customs fees because it was personal items.  However, we have now been charged $1300 in customs, and our shipment has been "red stamped," which means they are going to open it and go through everything on Monday.  This will not be done in our presence, and we were told nonchalantly by our friend who's helping us through the process, that some of our things might not be there when we go to pick it up.  Theft is expected; bribery is not uncommon.  And it appears that there isn't really anyone to appeal to about it.  Please, please, please pray that a person of integrity inspects our shipment, and that all of our things make it.  Yes, it is just "stuff."  But it is "stuff" that people have donated for La Providencia, "stuff" that we need in order to educate our children, "stuff" that will enable Heath and the men to work more efficiently, "stuff" that we can't afford to replace and will make our time here much more manageable.  Please pray with us that it makes it!  Thank you! Thank you all for joining with us in this ministry! ~Heath, Erin, Ethan, Jesse, Tabitha, & Rayanna~

Expanding the Library! Building Family Home #3!

August Update

Settling In We've been here for a week already!  Here's how it's been going . . . Our flight from home was uneventful.  All of our luggage made it (that's 22 pieces counting carry-ons)!  Our first couple of days were spent unpacking and setting up house a little.  During the week we continued our settling in process by getting phones, internet, finding out how to pay bills, grocery shopping, and all that fun stuff.  It's been interesting!  We are SO thankful for help from Katharine, who is the head of the English teachers at Academia La Providencia and all around Lifesaver for us foreigners!  Even if we knew Spanish, which we don't, I really don't think we could have done any of this without her!  Some differences in how things work between here and home . . . There are very few addresses or street names, so when you're telling the internet company how to find your house it requires a page of detailed notes, describing which block of which dirt road, and what color gate and how many dogs you pass on the way (kidding about that last part).  Tigo did manage to find the house and successfully get our internet working on Friday. Getting cell phone service requires someone with Honduran residency who is willing to sign their life away for you!  A few of us went together to get phone service, and we were there for about 3 hours! There are armed guards at grocery stores, banks, and many other places.  You are not allowed to use cell phones in banks, and you have to wait for a guard to open the door and let you in.   It's an interesting mix of city and country life where we are.  Our first night here we were awoken by many different sounds.  There were the usual (but strange for us country folk) city sounds like traffic, people, etc., and then some explosions which we later found out were fireworks which are used for celebrations of all kinds, often starting in the middle of the night.  But to balance out the city sounds, we also have dogs barking and fighting (SO MANY dogs here!), roosters crowing, and birds chirping (in Spanish evidently, since they sounded nothing like our birds at home), and to top it off--donkeys and cows being walked down the street!  It made for a fun first morning! Mopping and cleaning need to be done at least once, if not more than once, every day!  The dust from the dirt roads, and the fact that the windows need to be open almost 24/7, leave a lovely dust coating that constantly covers everything.  Everything!  Dishes, computers, slippery tile floors, dining room table, beds, feet, windows, screens, everything!  I chuckled when I heard that most people have a housekeeper, thinking they must be spoiled, but now I understand why and can't wait to hire someone to help with the overwhelming cleaning tasks! Geckos, lizards, and tarantulas.  Praise the Lord the only tarantula we've seen so far is a dead one Jesse found today.  The geckos and lizards are somewhat fascinating.  Fortunately, only one gecko has been found in the house so far (well, not counting the tiny baby one that was inside a pan I had planned to cook dinner in.  Plans changed that evening.)  And we saw a lizard outside the other day that I'm sure came from Jurassic Park . . . looked just like a baby dinosaur. Sunlight hours.  The sun is up from 5:30 am to 6:30 pm, and won't change much throughout the year.  There's also no daylight savings time.  That will be great in the winter!  Right now, it makes us feel like it's bedtime around 8 because we're used to it being light much later! Not everything is different though.  Our family relationships are about the same--for better and for worse! With the internet, it's almost like we're still close to you all, and we even have English TV which we did not have back at home!  (It was cheaper to get the internet with TV than without.)  We have Wendy's and Pizza Hut in our town (but the Honduran food is much better and cheaper).  The people are like people anywhere--beauty and flaws, varying personalities, walking the journey of life just like we do.  With the other Christians here, it is exciting to experience fellowship:  even if we don't speak the same langauge or share the same culture, we have the same basic goals and serve the same God.  That makes all the differences pale in comparison! What have we been doing with La Providencia so far? This picture was taken at the La Providencia celebration picnic at Pulhapanzak Falls.  Everyone enjoyed a day of celebrating the exciting things happening at La Providencia, and meeting the new people  The waterfall was beautiful! The rest of our work days have been getting things ready for school to start (on August 19th).  Heath has been doing a lot of painting in the school buildings, and has also been working with the crew who is building the new Family Home on campus.  Erin has been organizing the school library and a classroom, and having meetings with the other faculty to plan the year.  Ethan has been helping with a lot of the painting and cleaning as well.  Jesse, Tabitha, and Rayanna have pitched in too.  We have just over a week to go before school starts.  Still a lot to do to get ready! In addition to working, we've enjoyed meals with many of the La Providencia staff, church with some of the other new people, fellowship with our new neighbors, and meeting many new people!  The Hondurans are friendly and welcoming, and there is also a large network of American missionaries in the area.  We're certainly not alone down here! That being said, we do miss you all, and would love to have visits!  Our home is not quite as guest-friendly as we had thought.  We have three bedrooms, plus an extra "homeschool" room.  We don't have a bed for that room though, so we're not sure yet if we can accommodate guests in our house (assuming no one wants to sleep on the tile floor!)  Hotels are very inexpensive though, so there is definitely that option, if we're not able to host here at our house.  We do have an address to use for mail:  Heath & Erin Runkles; c/o Katharine Marrow; APDO#115; Siguatepeque, Honduras.  We've heard mixed things about the reliability of mail actually getting here, so send at your own risk! Thank you all so much for your prayer, financial support, and emotional encouragement.  We are so thankful for the part each of you play in our lives and in this ministry.  Keep in touch, and God bless! ~Heath, Erin, Ethan, Jesse, Tabitha, & Rayanna