December 2010

It's been a while since our last post and MUCH has happened. After the barge got stuck off the coast of St. Helene, we were discouraged, but certainly not defeated. It was certain we would not be able to get all materials shipped over in one big shipment, so many smaller shipments would need to be made. Thanks to the help and team work of many people, the first shipment of 500 cinder blocks took place on November 11th!!



A boat was loaded with what it would carry, get as close as possible to St. Helene, then the materials were manually off-loaded from the boat to a small barge. The barge was towed in by a small dory, and then manually off-loaded onto the only truck on the island. That truck then went up over the only 'road' on the island from the north side (where the water is deeper and allowed the boat to get closer to shore) to the south side and was manually off-loaded to the site of the new school. Phew! Talk about hard labor and persistence! And this process was repeated over and over again.

Here's a dory pulling the barge in to shore.




Here's the boat heading back to Roatan as some kids from St. Helene watch while standing next to the first shipment of blocks.







But now, after countless mini-trips, enough material was delivered that construction of the school has actually begun! These first photos were sent to us on December 9th.







A gas-powered cement mixer is used to prepare mortar for the blocks. Can you see one of the kids watching from up in the tree?







As of the day before this posting, this is the latest picture we have of the progress on the school. Weather permitting, it should be ready for the kids to start their new school year on February 1st! Everyone is very excited!




As 2010 draws to a close, we are energized by this and other positive things happening at ALF. Particularly, we are excited as we notice that the 3 individual branches within our foundation have started to inter-connect. At the request of the good people in Woodville, Texas, the Discovery's teen training is starting there in January. Two people we know from Roatan have attended our adult Discovery program in Austin, and now a school in Woodville has committed to becoming "pen pals" with the kids at the school in St. Helene to share culture and ideas. As people become aware of and help each other...it quickly becomes a small world and we learn how inter-connected our lives are.

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

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!