A week full of struggle, challenges and God!

Sorry for the delay…  this was written almost a year ago!!

 

This week was quite the week…

Full of unexpected turns and twists, but blessed the whole way…

Ill share a few stories from my week

Tuesday morning Pastor Moises and I rode out to the palm processing plant where we are hoping to sell the palm fruit from the miqueas farm (cutting out the middleman and selling directly to the extractory plant means bigger returns for the Miqueas farm Project!) however when we were there we got a call from Miguel (the foreman at the Miqueas farm) that one of the neighbors was up in arms about us fixing his fence and that we needed to come and straighten it all out because work was halted on the fence repairs we are trying to get done before the rhambutan harvest.

What was supposed to be an hour and a half to discuss terms of a contract with the palm company turned into all morning

and…

the majority of the afternoon talking to an ornery neighbor who wanted us to pay him to be able to fix his fence (I know we didn’t understand it either).

At 4pm Pastor and I arrived back to Miqueas home havingaccomplished more than enough for a productive day on the mission field!

Wednesday morning I awoke assured of it being a new day full of productivity and ease. Once a week (usually Wednesdays) I venture out into downtown El Progreso and sometimes SanPedro Sula to buy the items needed for continued maintenance at the Children’s home and continued work on the farm.

Shopping days are particularly fun because I get to buy all the tools and nails and screws I need and its actually what Im supposed to be doing!!

Just imagine a big bearded kid in a candy shop!!

I parked near the corner in front of one our local hardware stores like I have a hundred times, went inside and ordered the few things I had on my list, paid the owner and congratulated him on his brothers recent marriage and was out the door ready to finish up my shopping at the local feed store (farm stuff!!). As I walk out the door one of the guys outside says “Hey Clay, isn’t your truck a big green one? I think they just towed it.”

As everyone waited to see how I would react at being left on foot I simply set out walking looking for someone who could tell me what I was supposed to do or who even had my truck.
With thoughts flashing through my head of filling out paperwork for a stolen vehicle I made my way through downtown towards the municipal offices to ask for help. I thought with any luck the police have taken it, but than again maybe that might not be so lucky…

The municipal palace of El progreso where I got upgraded to “VIP” treatment!

Upon entering the offices I remembered a member of our church and somewhat of a local celebrity that I knew was the vice mayor and his office was near by so I made my way to find him. When I found his office his secretary told me that he was not in the office and wouldn’t be back until the next day. Surely I could not wait that long so I began wandering around the municipality asking directions to the municipal police office.
The lady sitting behind the desk in the municipal police office seemed to be laden with work and the current case, but a lady walking by (behind the desk) noticed me standing there and came over to ask if I had been helped (im not sure how she could have missed me). As I explained my story to her she was very upset that my car had been taken and brought me straight back into the executive offices of the local police and with one conversation and a few phone calls had located my truck.

Apparently one of our esteemed national police officers decided I was poorly parked and whipped a tow truck around in the time I was in the hardware store and made off with the big green truck.
Although she could not help me she assured me she would take care of it and marched me into the office of the lawyer that represents the entire city of El Progreso.

Upon hearing my story the lawyer began making phone calls of a whole new level commissioners and coronels were all too happy to do him a favor and upon shaking my hand put me in a vehicle marked “property of the sovereign state of Honduras” with a municipal police escort and his personal representative to take me to get my truck back.

Before I knew it we were sitting in front of the deputy commissioner of the national police in El Progreso who informed us that there would be no ticket assigned due to the misunderstanding but that I would have to go pay the fee for the tow truck as it is a private party and with that receipt my vehicle would be handed over to me.

This may have been a problem because as far as cash was concerned I literally had 0.00 but while the escort drove I once again reminded God that I was here working for him so he would have to take care of it for me.

We walked into the shop (the lawyers representative, municipal police officer and myself) and met the owner marvin.
When the lawyers rep explained the situation to him he turned and looked at me and said;
“umm… youre a missionary, right?”

I nodded.

“Hey me too!” he grinned “Im helping to plant a church in a rough neighborhood on the other side of San Pedro. Don’t worry about the fees, ill take care of them for you”

The receipt he gave me had no numbers on it, but scribbled across the front of the paper was what translates into “PAID IN FULL”

Wow!

With that receipt we headed to the impound lot to reclaim the truck. Although he wasn’t very cooperative at first, “that lawyer guy is not the boss of me”, the guy in charge of the impound lot was quite helpful after the lawyer made one more call to the police commissioner.

Throughout what could have been a very frustrating day God’s hand was all over me (and the truck).

And for those of you who were wondering, Yes I still went to the farm store after I got the truck back!

It was quite a week for the work truck, who has become a big part of the Powell family here in Honduras.

We celebrated 200,000 miles this week.

Got him confiscated for the first time!

Had our biggest palm harvest to date at the miqueas farm 2500 lbs of palm fruit

And got great news for the car parts needed to keep him running strong. Good friends of ours here told us that they wanted to donate the entire cost of the car parts!!
We also got money donated for the shipping!!!

Thank you for all those who support for Cynthia and I here in Honduras, We definitely see the results of your prayers and donations.

 

For comic relief, this is a man transporting 50+ chickens to market!