January 2011

Happy New Year!

We brought in the New Year in Roatán and have more updates for you on the school. This was the first time we got to see the construction in person. Prior to that, it was through photos being emailed to us by Kevin. What a thrill to see it and touch it! Here is a view of the school as you see it walking up the hill from the dock.


We visited St. Helene twice during our stay. The first time, everyone was still on holiday so no work was being done, but the second time, everything was in full swing. They are moving fast and we really do believe, barring any long-term bad weather, the school should be ready for the start date in Honduras of February 15th – VERY exciting!!

With us on this trip was Ian from Piranha Systems (the one in the goatee) who will be doing the waste water system for the toilets in the school. His system is a 'green' aerator system that purifies sewage so it doesn’t contaminate the environment which, being so close to the ocean, will protect the beautiful reefs that surround St. Helene. He was excited to see the school and we greatly appreciate his generosity in doing this project for the cost of materials only. The man to Ian's left is Luis, the construction manager overseeing the project. He is doing a fantastic job!

The materials continue to be delivered one dory full at a time. We knew it was a lot of work, but to see it first-hand was impressive. Once they get the dory loaded in Camp Bay in Roatan, they make the 40 minute trip to the north side of St. Helene where they off-load everything by hand from the boat into a wheelbarrow. At the end of the dock, they have to manually carry everything to the top of the beach head that's a good 15-20 foot rise, throw everything back into the wheelbarrow to haul it up the hill to the school, and then off-load it again… to be repeated hundreds and hundreds of times!! Talk about putting 'sweat equity' into a project!



















The old hut they used as a school last year has taken a beating, but thankfully it won't be needed much longer. It is only being used right now to store the school books and desks that will be moved to the new school once it is completed.

David will go back down in a few weeks to monitor progress, then we will all return together in early March for a grand opening celebration and dedication of the new school!






Things are definitely moving quickly. Here's a photo of the school that just came in as I was about to post this blog entry!

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.

November – Roatán

Since getting stuck on the sand bar (see September 2010 entry), we have been hard at work exploring alternatives for getting supplies to St. Helene. A possible solution was considered in October, but rainy season was in full swing and we decided to postpone a delivery attempt. Although we came on home, Kevin remained hard at work and on November, 11th, despite being a rainy day, the seas were calm and the FIRST DELIVERY OF MATERIALS TO ST. HELENE was made!! It was just the first 500 cinder blocks, but it’s a start! Shipments have been scheduled out (weather permitting) for the next 7-10 days: rebar, gravel, sand and cement. By then we will have all the materials necessary to start construction and our crew can get back to work. Many thanks to Kevin Wesley for making things happen, Wally Bodden from St. Helene for the use of his barge, and Kelcy Warren for the use of his ship!

Here is a picture of the ship that took the materials from Camp Bay (Eastern Roatán) to as close to St. Helene as possible.













After the ship came in as close as possible, the materials were transferred to this barge and then escorted in to shore.













The blocks now sit just off the beach, within 100 yard of the new school site.



The people of St. Helene are very excited to see verifiable activity that the school really is going to happen! Their school year is just coming to a close and the new year starts in February. Now that we know we can get materials delivered, barring any unforeseen problems, the kids should start their next year of school in a new school building!

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!