Trip On!

The trip has certainly brought a new experience and one that has caused chaos to our daily schedule. The airport we are now, for the time being is 4 ½ hours away by car, a bit longer for our busses, so you can imagine the logistical nightmare we are dealing with.
On top of that every day we have to visit the local airport to work on return flight information. We are learning a new level of patience and flexibility. Hang with me I will post ad often as I find the time!


We have been working in a community named Via Oriental. Torch has been a part of this community for several years. The need is great and the families are struggling even more to survive with the rising food and fuel costs. We bought to “loads” of food yesterday that was packed up for individual families. Each bag contains rice, beans, four, sugar, salt, pasta, tomato paste, boullion, coffee, lard, the staples for a family and will feed them for about two weeks. Each load will do about 220 bags. Since last year the cost of that load of food has increased by close to 500 dollars. This increase is crippling to the people here. Our need to feed this year is greater than ever. Some would say “it is only a band-aid to the problem” But to say this is not at all understand the painful reality to poverty.


House building! 4 houses in 3 days..yeah we rock! In two days Mark has received 34 hand written requests for houses in ONE community…I am glad I do NOT have his job! Our house crews have been awesome! 4 families have homes that did not, as one of our volunteers said when she finished “that is just AWESOME!” we have had some new house crew leaders step up to the plate and take on the roll of crew leaders. Owen Parrish, Garrett Fox, Jason Jones..Thanks guys!! This is a task that really has an amazing sense of accomplishment…to walk away and know that a family has a house to live in and be sheltered is really hard to describe.


This year we are blessed with two dentist. We have been able to conduct 2 clinics in two different communities. This is a job I WOULD NOT WANT but Todd and Joe are awesome! They are bringing much needed service to the communities and relieving much pain for many people. Their dedication and patience is amazing to watch!




Enjoy a few photos of our first days. I will try to post often and get others to share their stories. Thanks for supporting those that are here! Jesus calls us to care for his people..that is what we are all about!