Roatan - September 2010

This is a good news/bad news update:
David just returned from an extra trip he made to Roatan specifically to get the materials to St. Helene for the school. The GOOD NEWS is that construction on the school officially began on Monday, August 30th!! Luis, our General Contractor, and his team started digging trenches and laying forms for the foundation. The kids were so excited they helped dig, too! Now they just needed those materials… That’s where the bad news comes in…



The BAD NEWS is that, although David and Kevin did a LOT of hard work getting all the materials ready, and though the barge DID get loaded with ALL of the supplies, and even-though it actually DID depart early Saturday morning to make the delivery to St. Helene… in the end, the seas were just too rough and, after getting stuck twice along the way, the captain decided to turn around and head back to Roatan. You can see in this picture how close they were to being successful. That is St. Helene in the background. The barge got to within a couple hundred yards before getting stuck on the sandbars twice. Such a true experience of "So close, and yet so far!"

Of course we won’t give up and the materials will eventually make it there, but it has been one incredible obstacle after another getting these materials delivered. A huge “thank you”, however, to Edward Ake of Island Concrete and his team for their patience, understanding and a stellar job loading all the supplies onto the barge until well after midnight. We appreciate you more than we can say!


This project would not be happening at all without the tremendous amount of donated time and services of Kevin Wesley. Thank you, Kevin, for making this all possible!


If you would like to contribute to the building of this school project, go to the Donation tab on our website: www.abundantlifefoundation.net , click on Roatan and the Top S.H.E.L.F. project. For each donation of $100, the children at the school in St. Helene will paint your name on a cinder block to be a permanent part of the building. Here are two blocks ready to have names painted on them. Will one of them be yours?!

Roatan - August 2010

Another busy and productive trip to Roatan. The main emphasis of this trip was to get the school started in St. Helene. The temporary school has taken a beating with recent storms and the blue tarps that serve as ‘walls’ are shredded. We had hoped to actually transport materials to the island before leaving, but the roof and windows were still on order. We had a nice visit in St. Helene in preparation of the shipment and were thrilled to see the effort being made to clean up the community. Looking good!!

Because the shipment was not made to St. Helene before the end of this trip, David will be making an additional trip down to oversee the transport. Oh, David and Kevin were also able to lineup a General Contractor and 2 lead workers from Roatan to oversee the construction while we’re not there, and we will be hiring up to 8 men from St. Helene’s north-side community itself to provide the rest of the manual labor needed. Among other things, Lindon has been trying to get the plans approved through the municipality, which is another must before construction begins. Together we are all making it happen!

In the meantime, we have started a fund-raiser to help pay for the building called: “Put a Block on the S.H.E.L.F.!” (St. Helene Education and Litter-Free project). For a $100 tax-deductible donation, the children from the school in St. Helene will paint a cinder block with your name on it as a permanent part of the school and a reminder to them of all the people who value them and want them to receive a good education. Check out the Roatan section in the main website for details of how you can help!

Roatan - June 2010 - update

David just returned from a quick solo trip to move the school project forward on St. Helene. In order to get the school finished before rainy season, we should begin construction in early August, and there is a lot to do between now and then!

David was able to meet with the barge company and line out details about the transport of materials. Critical to the transport is finding a way to the island through their reef system. We think we have found a route, but it needs to be re-confirmed with the shipping company. Based on where we think the barge will land, we will need to make a road to get the supplies to the school site. As it turns out, this will cross private property, so approval is needed from the owners, and they have been hard to find! We are also still in the process of getting legal title of the property donated for the school setup in a community foundation so that noone can come back years from now to claim it for their own.

While David was visiting St. Helene for all the logistical details, he noticed that there had still not been any work done on cleaning up the area. It was reiterated that the school will not happen without the community upholding their end of the bargain, and that we would hold off transporting the supplies for the school until we see significant evidence of their efforts. By the end of his visit, he was informed that the community held a meeting and had devised a plan to start the cleanup effort. We donated $80 for them to buy rakes to help them get started. We’re excited to see how beautiful the north-side of St. Helene will be and how it will match the beauty of the people we have come to know and love!

David made it by the children’s home to say hello to the kids and was able to hand-deliver a birthday package to sweet Helen from her mentors - a group of girls in a girl’s club. They all got together and raised money to buy her a set of pink, monogrammed towels with her name on it. She loved it!

Roatan - June 2010

Last-minute trip to Roatan with the specific purpose of transporting the heavy material supplies to St. Helene while we had the generous offer of the free use of a barge through the end of the month. Unfortunately… or fortunately… (depending on how you look at it!) the barge owner decided it would cost him more to take his barge out of service for 3-4 days to do our job than paying to have another company do it, which is what he has committed to doing. This is a very generous donation and we are very grateful!! Also, this has now freed us up to wait until we are ready to begin the actual construction of the school before we transport the materials. This helps us in two ways. First, the materials will not be sitting on St. Helene for the next month or 2 at risk of being stolen or broken. Secondly, it allows us the opportunity to gather all the supplies we need, both large and small, and transport them together in one trip.

Since we had promised the north-shore community of St. Helene that we would be arriving that week with supplies, they seemed skeptical about us when we showed up empty-handed. We held a community meeting and explained the situation and that the project was actually going very well and is moving ahead nicely. The heavy materials that were to be transported that week do exist and are being stored safely in Roatan until time to build. Meanwhile, everything continues to move forward nicely. Everyone was satisfied with the progress.
We also talked at the meeting about how to clean up the community of trash and put processes in place to keep it ongoing. Their ideas centered around possibly finding a location for a dump site and using the dozer on the island to dig out a pit to use, but there is concern about the wind continuing to blow the trash around. A solution is still pending!


Also discussed was the idea that the donated land for the school be setup in a community foundation so that it can never be taken away in the future. They agreed, and the title work on the property has begun. At the end of the meeting they asked if we would close it in prayer, which we were glad to do.

Plenty of things to do to get the project completed before rainy season, but we are well on our way!

Roatan - May 2010

Latest news from Roatan… the school in St. Helene is moving full steam ahead! The land has now been cleared and is ready for a foundation to be laid. A wonderful architect from El Salvador who is in Roatan working on a development project donated his services free of charge and created an amazing school design for us! The challenges have been how to create a school with as much natural light as possible (as there is no electricity) and how to do the restrooms… with no running water on the island! We are receiving so much help from so many people on this project! There is a man on the island doing a job to expand the cruise ship dock. He has agreed to donate the time and use of his barge – for free – to transport the materials to the nearby island. The only problem is that his job in Roatan is done at the end of the month, so we have to get all the heavy materials transported before he leaves. Speaking of materials, two of the developers on the island have volunteered to donate – at cost – much of what we need including all the cinder block, cement, gravel and rebar. It has truly been amazing to see the incredible generosity of so many people towards making this school a reality! We couldn’t do it otherwise and we are truly humbled.

As for the people of St. Helene, they are wonderful! It was great to stop by and see the kids in the temporary structure taking their classes. We asked if they were ready for a real school and they responded with a resounding “Yes!!!” In working with Lindon, their head teacher, we identified the classes being taught without any books. Thanks to the generosity of Ted and Cam O’Brien from PIER, we were able to deliver enough books so that every student has their own for almost every course. Usually the teacher either has to spend their own money to photocopy the lessons, or they write it on the board while the kids copy it down. So this is quite nice for them!

We had a wonderful time with the children at the children’s home, too! The four that we are sponsoring to bilingual school are doing well and getting good grades. I was able to sit and tutor 3 of them after school and it’s been wonderful to see how they are flourishing with the higher standards required at the bilingual school. Many of the kids had cards, letters and little gifts from their Mentor to be delivered. Here, Patricio is having the letter from his mentor translated to him. It’s wonderful to see their faces light up when they hear from their ‘friends’ from so far away!

Speaking of mentors… there is a new girl that has come to live at the home since our last visit. Her name is Carla and she is 11 years old. She is a sweetheart and, although a bit shy, she has an infectious smile and bright eyes! We look forward to getting to know her better, and I hope we will be able to pair her up with a Mentor soon. She could use a little extra love and attention right now as it must be so hard to come into a home with so many other kids without knowing anyone.

Woodville - March 2010

We have our location!!!

A community meeting was held the first week of March to discuss the future of Woodville, which included a discussion about the LIFE Center. The meeting was well-attended and Scott Yosko was particularly thrilled to see so many youth present and taking an active interest in the future of their home-town. The big news is that the LIFE Center Committee, together with the Community Foundation, decided on a location for the building!! And Judge Blanchette, representing the Community Foundation, signed an Ernest Money Contract on the property. The location selected is a 7-acre lot just south of Wal-Mart on Cobb Mill Road and is called "Shepherd's Place". It is a beautiful piece of property with plenty of pine trees and a creek on one side. It is located close to town and as everyone shops at the Wal-Mart, is convenient to the entire community! There are also an additional 50+ acres adjacent to the property that could be considered in the future for expansion.

This is a huge step! And this step, along with the feasibility study that is still underway, shows we are definitely moving forward!!

Roatan - March 2010

We just got back from a 2-week stay in Roatan. Some good friends, Giovanni and Judd, spent the first week there with us and we all stayed very busy! Giovanni brought down children’s clothes, toothbrushes and toothpaste that we hand-delivered with the Schulers to members of their congregation who are the poorest of the poor. They were all so grateful for the gift, and we were humbled and enriched by meeting every single one of them. Time was spent tutoring many of the children after school, helping them with math and English in particular. After tutoring they love to play Uno, and Mrs. Schuler awards the winner with a piece of cake – so the kids take it very seriously!


Our friends also took it upon themselves to fix the 15 bikes at the home, all of which were broken! The kids loved it and we never found them inside the house the rest of our time there... they were always out playing on their bikes!

We went back by the Alfreida Brooks school that we had visited before and checked out the security bars ALF helped purchase so the rooms could be locked up at night with no risk of their desks, books or supplies getting stolen. While there, we spoke to Darla, the young teacher we had met last September from the island of St. Helene. She had mentioned that the people on the north side of the island didn't have a school and were trying to build one, similar to Elfrieda Brooks, as a community school. We were very interested in finding out more to see if we could help. She arranged to have her dad pick us up in his boat and take us to the island to meet the people and learn what was going on.

The place they had been holding school through last year was no longer available to them, so until a new building can be constructed, they are having classes in this temporary shelter they have built. After meeting several of the community members and the two teachers, we agreed that we would help them build a school, but that their buy-in" (as we don't give away money without the other party having some skin in the game) is to clean up their community of all the trash. As we've seen in most of Roatan (except the tourist areas), the land and natural resources are not being respected and almost always consist of trash lining the beaches and common areas that the locals live in. They agreed. And so we are well underway to getting all the resources and labor needed to construct a solid school building, with much of the materials being donated 'at cost', and much of the work being done 'pro bono'. Our goal is to have the building finished by the end of summer.


Here is a picture of several of the beautiful people of St. Helene on the site where the permanent school building will be located. The project name we've come up with for this is "Top S.H.E.L.F." with the SHELF acronym standing for "St. Helene Education and Litter-Free" project. Check back later for more updates on this and all the other activities taking place in Roatan!