Where was dinner?

To our wives:

In case you are wondering, see attached for where we went for dinner.

Gourmet American food . .  

And here we are about to enjoy it

And that's how our day went.

It was long, lots of waiting, time to talk and make friendships and some frustrations over our travel adventures and finally one sit down meal. 

Most of us has skipped breakfast so we were hungry.

And about it for telling about our first day pof travel.

Thanks for reading.

Good night and God Bless.

Further adventuring

Hello,

We are in Houston and ready to lay over for the night.

Getting in was interesting.

We kept hearing about how bad the weather was.

Then the landing was smooth and nice.

There were so many jets that _had_ to land that we got stuck in a line... to get the jet off the taxiway and to a terminal to unload.

Nuts. We waited for more than an hour and fifteen minutes to taxi to a gate to unload from the plane.

Some time ask Craig about the lost dental chair that was part of his luggage.  The man is working on his sainthood points...

Once we got our stuff the fun of getting to a hotel started.

We called the hotel and they sent a van. One hour later, we were still waiting!

One of the guys called on behalf of Craig ( who was still trying to find the missing luggage/chair ) and he was  told it was because of the flooding.

 

About half an hour after that we said "enough of this" and got a taxi.

Mapquest tells us it's less than 5 miles from the airport to the hotel.

Really? I don't believe that airport shuttle could have been having that hard a time to get to us.

So we hired a Taxi. 

The driver didn't think you could get all four of us and our luggage in his mini-van.( Craig caught up later once they found the missing chair.)

He was amazed how much we got into his van.

And we're  Off!!

And we ran into roadblocks for closed roads.

The taxi ended up retracing our path and then driving a very roundabout route to get here. It tripped our miles and drive time . .

On the way we got to see more of Houston and more closed roads for flooding.

And finally we're  here.

To give you an idea how much rain they really got, take a look at the attached picture. That's the side street beside the hotel. Moments before a Dodge Charger went down  this street with his tires pretty  much under water.

Wow I suppose they really did get a lot of rain while were trying to get here.

Any how that caps off the saga of getting to Houston.

Thanks for reading,

Blair 

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device

Welcome to Houston

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device

Moving on . . .

Time for the next leg.

The weather got us.

We are boarding the jet and plan to leave in a moment.

We will definitely not make our flight to Honduras tonight. We will be in Houston overnight. We already have seats on the next flight out.

So, our trip is moving in stages.

As type this, we've pushed back and started engines.

We're off.

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device

And we are back in the air !

Next stop, well . . . Houston. 

Eventually.

Oops we just stopped getting ready to leave and have been told to expect a 3 hour stop here in Tulsa.

More details as we have them.

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device

Welcome to scenic Tulsa, first stop on our odyssey to Talanga Honduras

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device

Hey, we got in the air.

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device

Captain Craig is sweating the details . . .

For a while there we were stuck on the ground, waiting to depart while the pilot and air traffic control er debated war route we would take.

Here is our fearless leader studying potential connections and flight options via I-Pad.

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device

Let the adventures begin. . .

Hi Luis,

This is Blair Milster with a quick heads up. Our flight out of St. Louis is having weather delays. We do not know how things are looking for catching our connecting flight. We will update as we are able.

Thanks,

Blair 

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device

Meet- Blair Milster

Meet Blair Milster:

Ok, why do I go to Honduras and help out where I can?

I suppose I am a Do-Gooder.  I like to help people.  Where I can, I help. Maybe it's Cub Scouts, mission work or collecting donations for charity auction with my son's school. I like to help. The Honduras trips are a place where I can make a bigger contribution. I  use my Spanish and general handiness with tools to help build a community and a church.  These trips are rewarding in ways that the other stuff isn't.

How are these trips rewarding?  That is a tough one to answer. On dental teams, I have translated for patients who are looking at us and comparing us to visiting angels. The eloquence of the Spanish is difficult to convey in English. 

I remember one trip, I got a chance to talk with the father to a child who needed a lot of work.  Dr's. Moore and Fetsch  had stayed late to work on this little boy.  It was after hours and we were all tired. They had been working non-stop for many hours.

While we were waiting, the child's Father took a minute to say "Thank you". We chatted a bit more.  He then went on to talk about how much our work contributed to the church in Talanga.  He used personal pronoun in the phrasing. Clearly he meant me. I pushed it off as being the dentists' work and I am just a helper. He clarified that he meant all of us on the team.

From his point of view, having a team come down and help pastor Lois did incredible things for him and the church he was building.  His comments summarized to: "Yes, you bring dental care and economic benefit with what you spend.  You also show that this church cares about people and God.  You don't just send money or hire somebody, you come here and work with us. That does tremendous things for us."

I look back on that and think of Jesus' parable of the talents. What are we doing with the gifts we have?  Me, I try to help where I can.  Helping with the mission work has the greatest impact, so I will do that when I can. I also help a home, in the shadow of the steeple.

On this trip, I expect to translate a bunch, relearn some Spanish I have not used much lately, get lots of exercise, see friends and help build a church community.

Meet - Mark Drury

My reason for joining this mission

 

By nature I am a skeptical person and somewhat slow to step out of my comfort zone.   I showed up for a few local mission projects,   It felt good to work with others to help spread the word of Christ.   I went to Joplin and found the same feeling and was able to see the tangible work which was done.

 

I am looking forward to a week of hard work and experiencing a different culture.  I am sure that I will find that I have more in common  than not and hope to make some new friends both from Sunrise and  Honduras.   In the nature of full transparency, I am hoping that working out with a shovel and wheel barrel is more effective than my YMCA membership has been.

Meet - Lou Milos

Lou's reasons to go to Honduras:

1. I have always been interested in serving on a missions trip

2. I can use my talents and abilities to help in this project

3. I want to experience and understand the culture and people

4. To better appreciate God's blessing in my life

5. To strengthen my relationship with Christ and to have a heart for others through service

6. To be open to learning whatever God has to teach me through this experience

    

   Thanks Sunrise for providing this opportunity. 

Meet - Clark Kessler

In his words:

My reasons for joining in this mission

  

Over the years,  Pastor Jim, Craig and others have enthusiastically shared results of Sunrise's connection with our brothers and sisters in South America.  Participating in this journey offers an opportunity to experience faith in an expanded light far from the norm or routine.   I am hopeful that new connections made will shape a broader perspective between us. 

 

As many of us feel the increased noise and distractions of today's world, I am excited for the chance to "leave it all behind" and focus on faith and community.  Getting our hands dirty in the construction of the physical church is a visual metaphor for building a broader foundation in my faith.

 

I've wondered where will this mission will lead.  Great question, let's find out!

Meet - Craig Boring

Craig Boring -

In 2005 I went on my first mission trip to Honduras and was forever changed.

I was able to meet the great people of Honduras, especially Talanga, and get to know them as friends and fellow Christians.  I have been blessed that God has allowed me to go back to work with our friends in Talanga numerous times over the past ten years.  Those visits are to work as partners in Talanga to spread the good news of Christ and to help those less fortunate  with Dental or Medical care.  It has been a privilege to work  along side Pastor Luis in that community.  His energy for helping people and to share the word of God is inspiring and contagious.  I also come back from my trips, full of the spirit to help more, not just in Talanga, but elsewhere.  Jesus instructed us in Acts 1:8 to witness to the ends of the earth, and Talanga Honduras is my way corner of the world that I put my faith and deeds to work together..

Team Picture

Good evening,

Here is the 2015 Sunrise construction team going to Talanga Honduras.

I will be posting more details on the team in the next day or so.

Thanks and have a good evening,

Blair

Sent from my T-Mobile 4G LTE Device

Test message

Hello,

This is one of two test uploads that I will send.

I am testing that I can run this blog remotely.

While we are in Honduras, I plan to use my smart phone to post to this blog.

This is a test of the post feature using my gmail account.

Comments are welcome. They confirm that the post is visible to outside world and not just me when I am checking from a machine that BlogSpot.com recognizes due to my having logged into Google from that machine.  So, can I get a couple of comments?

Tuesday,  I will post a picture from the team meeting at Sunrise as we have a final gathering before leaving.

Thank you for reading.  Please stay tuned as we get this adventure rolling.

Regards,

Blair

Blair Milster
bamilster@gmail.com
636-293-0795
www.linkedin.com/in/blairmilster

Hello and Top of the Day to You !



This is Blair posting to you from the comforts of St. Louis MO!



I'm posting today as a test to confirm that this blog is still on speaking terms with me and the rest of the world.  If you see this, can you post a comment to let me know it is visible to the world?



Moving forward, I am testing this because we are getting ready for another mission trip.
This one will be a construction trip.  My next post after this will be a "Who is going" post that talks about who we are, why were headed for Talanga, Honduras what draws us to this.



We leave on Saturday 31 Oct 2015 and return a week later.  While we are gone, please pray for our wives and families.  It never fails that when your spouse is out of town ( or the country ! ) that is when something goes wrong. Flat tires, dishwasher leaks and sick children all watch the calendar for those dates as being the perfect time to happen.




Ok humor aside, I know that bad things can not plan for when to go after our families, it's just that mid-size stresses seem to grow into major stresses when handling them alone instead of with your accustomed partner. So, prayers for our wives and kids would be appreciated.  We ( the construction team ) will be working together with a common goal on a busy project with good support. We'll be fine.  Our wive's nerves? . . .  let's hope the kids and fortunes behave while we are out of town.




Anyhow thanks for reading. Please stay tuned for more.




Tuesday we will be packing out for the trip. I will post a picture or two then.




Saturday morning at 0600 we fly out from Lambert.




Have a good day,




Blair and the rest of the construction team