It was about a year ago when Kathe Peterson, one of our synod staff people, first invited me on a mission trip to Honduras. When I first brought the trip up with St. Mark's church council I wasn't even sure that making the trip would be a good idea. One thing I did say is that if I went I would go with the idea of learning the ropes so that I could plan a future trip and invite members of St. Mark's to come with.

The time has come to make those plans. I have given these future plans a lot of thought and I have discussed them with a number of people and the church council.

A few years back the village of Conguacota, the village where we stayed and worked on the church, did not have a water system. People walked to a stream to gather water.

The stream was used for bathing, for laundry, for watering livestock, and as a source of drinking water. In villages where this situation exists, people are susceptible to parasites and water borne disease.

A European group provided funding for the village to build a concrete tank on a mountainside above the village. The tank collects water from a mountain spring. There is an underground PVC pipeline connecting the water supply from the tank to the houses in the village. The elevation difference between the tank and the town provides sufficient water pressure making a pump and a water tower unnecessary.

I don't know how much the system cost. Based on nothing more than a wild guess, I would say that we would need to raise about $20,000 to finance a similar system in another village.

This seems like too much for St. Mark's to handle alone, but it would not be too much if many of the churches in the Laurentian Conference joined together to support the project.

If we support a project, then it would be good for people in the area to work on that project. I think we should plan a trip to Honduras that would take place in the beginning of 2005.

I envision about fifteen people making the trip, and I hope some of the people are from St. Mark's. If you are interested in being one of those people please let me know.

Based on the description of the project I think it is safe to assume those who go will probably end up sleeping on a concrete floor in a town where people take baths in a stream or river. I predict the trip will be one to two weeks in duration.

Here are some things that I would like the people of St. Mark's to do for this upcoming mission project:

· Pray that the project will be a success.

· Consider coming to Honduras.

· Encourage others in the congregation to travel to Honduras.

· Consider making contributions for the project, or for the travel expenses of those who will be a part of the mission team.

· Learn more about Honduras by visiting the web site, www.ccdhonduras.com.

· Learn to speak Spanish.

When we were working on the church, we did a lot of moving dirt with shovels and grub hoes. I think the beads of sweat running into my eyes caused me to think about how many tractors with back hoe attachments were sitting around idle back on the Iron Range. How many dump trucks are there in the area that have been put out to pasture but with a bit of fixing up could haul dirt in Honduras?

I would love to see a unused dump truck from the Iron Range pulling a trailer with a tractor and backhoe attachment traveling to Honduras so many villages could put it to use installing water systems.

We have another project at St. Mark's that moved closer to becoming a reality at our June church council meeting. That project is to install an air conditioning system for the sanctuary. At the June meeting we selected the low bidder to perform the work, and we anticipate construction beginning soon.

We do not have enough money in our designated fund to pay for this project. So we will need to raise more money or pay for the project by using the reserves from our general fund.

We are asking for contributions to the air conditioning fund so we don't have to deplete the general fund. The council also decided to hold a fund raising dinner on the evening of August 17th. Half the money raised at the dinner will be used to pay for air conditioning and the other half will go to a Honduran Mission Project fund.

At the same time as we pay for the comfort of the people worshipping at St. Mark's we will be putting money away to provide clean water for a village in Honduras.

I hope some of you are interested in traveling to Honduras, and I hope others of you are interested in helping to plan, pray for, and finance both our air conditioning project and our upcoming mission project.

May God bless each and every one of you.

Sincerely,

Pastor Birk