A good nights sleep, except for getting up at 3:30 A.M. and trying again to connect to the internet.
Started the day with morning devotional after breakfast. Before that, I asked for help again to connect my laptop. A lovely young lady, Michelle Alvarado, came up, and after a few minutes, took my laptop to the IT department for help. After the devotional , she returned the laptop, connecting with no problems. We boarded the bus about 9:00 A.M., and headed out to our first stop, the small community of El Rancho. The church there, Santa Maria de Virgen de Mercedes, was founded in 1984. The current vicar is Rafael Chavez. Rafa is the oldest brother and sibling of Dagoberto Chacon, the Dean of the Deanato of El Paraiso and Rafa’s boss. Dagoberto has 18 siblings.
Dagoberto Chacon on the left, Rafael Chavez on the right.
We checked out the church and the new house behind for the parsonage, then got together in the small sanctuary and Rafa and another fellow got out their guitars and we had a singalong in Spanish. The three songs were:
Mi Pensamiento Cresto
Pescador De Hombres (Fish for men)
Padre Nuestro (Our Father to the tune of the Simon and Garfunkel classic Sound of Silence)
I must admit that I got teary during singing Padre Nuestro. Rafa has a great CW voice and the whole thing was moving. These are wonderful people. I got some fairly good photos of the kids.
Three pretty young ladies.
Mother and child.
We left El Rancho and headed back down toward Villa San Francisco. On the way Kathy P. pointed out a blue water tank on a nearby hill. Another project of the Episcopal Diocese and missions. The Diocese also works with the Texas Water Ministry, a charity that drills wells for water all over Central America. Potable water is a major problem in Honduras and one of the most effective mission project is to try to alleviate this where possible. For example, Moroceli recently was getting water one day in eight. Think how much water we waste every day, and these people get water once a week if that.
Vila San Francisco was a dusty town of maybe 20,000 people.
Quiet in mid day. The church, Navidad de nuestro Senor Jesuscristo, was closed, we spent a few minutes looking at the kids running around, got back on the bus and headed for Ojo de Agua.
Nice smile.
It was a long dusty road up to Ojo de Agua. The name of course means water of the eye. We were joined there by Javier Chacon, the young fellow who makes the crosses and bracelets we are selling in Lakeland to raise money for the Mission. They are building a new church right abutting the old church building which is literally being eaten by termites.
Javier delivered 100 crosses we had ordered and showed some samples of different styles of crosses and bracelets. There was a buying frenzy by the folks who had not seen his work. He had a cap which said “Business is Good.â€
Back down the long dusty road to the intersection where we had lunch at the Pase Adelante Restaurant. I had pollo, chicken which was grilled with refried beans and rice and a salsa. Really quite good. The chairs in the restaurant were colorful.
The restaurant was next door to an Esso station where we loaded up with water and other necessities. We saw some of Javier’s work for sale in the restaurant. Crosses were $1.50, whereas we pay $2.00. Interesting.
An interesting funeral home.
On to Moroceli. we met Fr. Carlos Alvarado and his wife Mayra at their home. I took a photo of Padre Carlos for Fr. Al. 
There was a vocational class in progress when we arrived, taching young men of the community electrical wiring.
We checked out the cigar factory next door which is for sale. Padre Carlos wants to buy it for their church in Moroceli. 
The guide I bought for Honduras has about twenty words on Moroceli, mainly about the cigar factory owned by a Cuban expatriate who enjoyed giving tours. For reasons unknown to me, it is going out of business. Fortunate for Padre Carlos, it is available, would be suitable and is next door to his house. 
From Moroceli, we went a few miles to the tiny town of Cacao where services were held in a home. The homeowner welcomed us to her humble casa. With the Holy Spirit moving as it did, her home was anything but humble.
Back to Zamorano, dinner and compline.
