It is with great sadness that we note the passing of our friend HR Gray on Friday, April 13, 2012 in Copan, Honduras. 

Read by HR Gray at October 13, 2011 Family Night program at West End

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We greet you in the name of the Lord hoping that the receipt of this letter finds you enjoying the many blessings of our Creator spiritually as well as materially.  That is our greatest desire.

Brothers and sisters, the reason for this letter is only to express our deep gratitude for helping to get the project we needed so much because without the help of God and without you, our dreams would have never become reality. Because of this we now feel very happy to have the school in our community where the children will receive the gift of knowledge.

Without any doubt, God will bless you greatly.

Sincerely,

The families and students

 

From HR Gray, September 20, 2011  Dedication of the New School on September 14, 2011

	"This is the banner the people made to put on the temporary stage for the dedication."
"Me presenting the picture of the members and explaining about how much you have helped them. The woman in the pink shirt is the director of PROJECO - the office that pays the teacher."
	"These are the students on stage with their signs of welcome. The woman in the green dress is the teacher."
Some of the students doing a traditional Honduras dance. The girls are wearing traditional dresses. They had worked very to prepare for the program and did very well.
	Much to my surprise and delight the people of La Ruda contributed money to have a plaque of appreciation made for me. I was very touched and grateful!
The unveiling of the plaque. The people are very proud of this plaque. Yes, that's Darwin up on the ladder with me!
	Some of the people admiring the plaque. Everything stopped for about half an hour until everyone had a chance to see it.
Here I am giving out the bags (made by West End's Spiritual Sewing group.) Once the kids saw these they were waiting anxiously for their name to be called. I think some were afraid they wouldn't get one! They were delighted with them and when I left La Ruda every student had their bag on their shoulder!

 From HR Gray, June 21, 2011

It is with great joy and gratitude that I can tell you that we have a school! Aroldo, our builder, stayed late Saturday evening to finish up some last minute detail things so that the kids could use the school on Monday. The rain has started and he knew that soon travel would be impossible. In fact he walked down off the mountain Sunday morning and hitched a ride back to Copan. The municipality got the desks and sent them up on Friday. I'm sure the kids were thrilled and delighted to have a nice new building and new desks! As you can imagine I'm very anxious to see this and get some pictures for all of you to see as well but I don't know when I will be able to go up there. We have had rain every afternoon since Saturday. This afternoon we got more than three inches in a little over an hour! I went this afternoon and had the picture of West End's members printed - 10 X 16 - and bought a frame. I will get this ready, and at the first opportunity I will get it up the the school so they can hang it in the new school. I want the children to see all the wonderful people who have cared for them so much. I don't have the plaque for the school yet. I went to La Entrada last Thursday only to learn the man there is only an agent and the price he quoted me was way too high. I will go to San Pedro soon and have the plaque made there. I'm sure it will be much cheaper. But it may be Dec. or Jan. before I can get it up on the school. But I just praise God that we got the building ready before the rains came! God bless you all for your prayers and support. What a blessing for the people of La Ruda!

HR

The Old Retired Guy

From HR Gray, June 8, 2011

Hi Skip!  We have a roof on the school and my heart is full of joy! On Monday when I went to La Ruda they were working on the foundation for the porch. When this is done they will start to mix and pour cement for the floor inside. The doors went up to the school this morning. God continues to bless us. There has been some rain in the last few days but not enough to mess up the roads yet.

 

I went to La Ruda yesterday and I'm happy to report great progress! My heart is filled with joy! The walls are almost done and the builder told me that by the end of the week he will be ready to put up the beams for the roof. He is working with some of the local people to obtain the beams.This will help us as we can get the beams near the site (transportation is so expensive - gas is almost $5 a gallon now) and it will help them as well. This is an off season for coffee and so most of the people in La Ruda aren't earning any money at this time. The Lord continues to bless us with good weather (although it is hot!) so I feel certain we can get the roof on before the rains. After the roof is on and the concrete floor poured we will need to do the detail work - doors, windows, bathrooms, etc. But I hope the children can use this space while we finish up.

I hope Easter was a blessed, happy and holy time for you and your family. It is always special for me as I remember the suffering of Jesus and the great promise that came from this. The people here in Copan really feel that this is a special time. As in many towns in Central America, they make "carpets" of sawdust in the street. They work all night Thursday to make these and then Friday night the holy procession passes over them. I will send you a picture of the carpets.  I went to La Ruda last Friday and I'm very pleased with the progress. The foundation is coming along nicely and should be finished this week. I took pictures which I will send along.  Thanks for the link to the News-Herald story. I thought they did a good job with the presentation. I hope the BBQ sale will be a great success. Please let the people know how grateful I am for their prayers and support.

 

This is the work on the foundation. The guy in the blue shirt and baseball cap is Aroldo, the builder I sent who is in charge of the work there. The men of the village are all working very hard as they are very excited about the school.

 

This picture shows the work in progress and some of the men of the village who are working.

　

Here you can see how enthusiastic everyone is. Even the children want to join in the work!

This is me and Darwin - the boy that I told you was so interested in the poster of the animals. Notice the house in the background. This is very typical of the houses in La Ruda. It's unfinished adobe. When they have money they usually plaster the adobe with a thin coat of cement.

 

 I got a message from the builder this morning (April 19)  that they are ready to start the foundation -- all the digging having been done. I ordered a dump truck of sand and twenty bags of cement to be sent tomorrow. As the dump  truck can't go to the village they will leave the sand at a location about two miles away. Then we will have to pay a man with a four wheel drive pickup truck to take the sand on to La Ruda. This in effect will double the price of the sand but there is no other way it can be done. I'm very pleased with this progress. If the weather holds out we may actually get a good start on the walls before the rain begins. I'm hopeful but I know it is in the hands of God and everything will work according to his will.

Every day I think about what a blessing this will be for the children of this village and I rejoice that I can have a small part in this project. And I'm so grateful to everyone at West End for supporting me in this effort. My thoughts are with all my friends at West End in this joyous Easter season!

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