Thursday, 4/23, we drove to Moroceli to meet with Mayra, wife of Padre Carlos, the Episcopal priest in Moroceli. As I said yesterday, our church, All Saints’ of Lakeland had partnered with the mission in Moroceli. We funded the purchase of a building for a templo, the buiding being a cigar factory which had closed down. The purpose of the visit to Moroceli today was to ascertain their desires and plans for the restoration of the building and conversion in a church building(templo).
Mayra
Mayra was prepared for us with a drawing of how they wanted the building configured. Padre Carlos was at a twoday Diocesan meeting, so Mayra was the point. She is the power behind the pulpit anyway. A very bright and fine lady.
We had an extended discussion with Mayra, Dionysio Palacio the Junior Warden and Manuel Rodriquez the Senior Warden. Duane, the contractor in our party collected information on supplies needed for the first renovations.
Dionysio Palacio
I indulged my usual preoccupation with kids. They almost all love to have their pictures taken and see them in the LCD screen of the camera.
After eating lunch with Myra, we took the supply lists to two hardware stores in Danli. The owner of the first store, Sammy, is a Palestine Christian whose family exited Bethlehem over several years. Sammy had studied at FIT in Melbourne, Florida, and joined some of his family in Honduras. His store really was more of a general store than just hardware. He is a slick operator, like the shopkeepers I met in Bethlehem.
Jeannie Loving is one of our contacts in Honduras along with Rev. Canon Kathy Pennybacker. Jeannie is a SAMS missionary. SAMS – South American Missionary Society. Jeannie is a native Texan, from Lago Vista, north west of Austin.
Jeannie
She is a true missionary, loving the country, people and her job. Her last name is quite fitting. Fluent in spanish, she taught the language for 20+ years in Texas. She is also a former Peace Corps volunteer.        Jeannie has been in Honduras for a little over a year, I met her last year when I was in Honduras in late February and early March.        She knows an incredible amount of people for the limited time she has been here. She resides in Danli, one of the larger cities in southern Honduras.
We bought some padlocks for the doors on the building in Moroceli and chairs for the sanctuary, so we stopped back by there on the way to Zamoramo to deliver them as so they could secure the compound with the locks and have something to sit on.. After leaving Moroceli, there was some serious discussion about the value of a cerveza to alter a man’s (or woman’s) attitude. Being perceptive individuals, we know the cafeteria at Zamorano didn’t serve alcohol, so we went straight to the La Casona Del Valle Restaurante again for dinner. Two cervezas, a bottle of wine and a plate of good honduran cooking (pescado for moi) we all felt more human.
