Another visit to St. Helene! The school still needs the trim painted (which we delivered on this trip) but is looking good!
We love being there when school is in session so we can say hi to all the kids! Here we stopped by during their English lesson and helped them with ther studies.
Now all that's left of the old school is an open dirt area that's being used as a small soccer field - of course!
This time we made our trip an over-nighter. Many thanks to Larry and Sheila Benson from Missions Encounter International, on the south side of the island, for hosting us and treating us to great conversation, fellowship… and food!! Here is Larry and Sheila (far right) and their team (from left to right)- Molly, Dominick and Ashley. All such wonderful, godly people!
We have come to love the people that make up this community - a very small one of about 22 families of 100 or so people. Through building the school we came to know some of them, but not all. So on this particular trip our commitment was to go door-to-door introducing ourselves to all 22 families and spending some time getting to know them, and they us. We hope to earn their trust over time so that we might all work together to better their community. We had an unbelievable time! Here are some of the beautiful faces of the north-side community of St. Helene:
Pastor Ted (on right) is a pastor at the church on the north side. He agreed to take us door-to-door to make the initial introductions. (Our daughter, Anna, was with us as always, and on this trip we also had my nephew, Billy.)
This is Truman, sitting on the front step of his home. Born and raised on St. Helene, he fishes and dives for lobster for a living, as do most of the men on the island. He doesn't do it commercially anymore, just to live off of. But the fish and lobster are getting scarce. He told us that lately (including the day we met him) he will fish all day and often come home with nothing. The waters used to be plentiful, but no longer. Life is hard.
Another woman, born and raised on Helene, taking care of her grandchild.
This is Rollins Rich, also born and raised on Helene, and is the 3rd oldest man on the island at 83! He is as spry and chipper as someone half his age! He is one of the only people we know of with a garden (about 1/4 acre) and he tends it all himself.
It was a sincere pleasure, and an enriching experience, meeting everyone. We look forward to getting to know them all better in future visits and working together to bring hope, healing and prosperity to this beautiful island.
Lastly, we would like to introduce you to our newest endeavor. We are partnering with a luxury condominium development on the island called "Grand Roatan" and, for every one of their 280+ condos they sell, together we will build a home on the island of Roatan for a qualified family. We are very excited about this project on many levels. Not only will it make dreams come true for locals who could never have thought home ownership possible, but also, it joins tourists with locals and bridges cultural divides. It also shows social responsibility giving back to the communities we come to enjoy and not only taking from it. We hope it will encourage other business people on the island to do similar forms of giving back. There are myriad details to work out, and undoubtedly many hurdles to face, so look for more details on our website as we work through them. But we have already bought our first 12 acres of land and built 1 'test home', seen here. "The Grand" is in its initial stage of construction and has only recently begun moving dirt, but we hope to position ourselves to have homes ready to be built as the first units are finished out.
