Faith Installment March, 2013

 Nick and Lily attend Academia Los Pinares which is located very close to our house.  We believe that this school is one of God’s blessings in our life for the kids.  Here is a story, and photo of the School’s Knowledge Bowl Team.  On February 7, 8 and 9 Nick and the Knowledge Bowl Team of 9^th and 10^th graders competed against all the bi-lingual schools in Honduras.  Four students from those classes were chosen during the year to compete in a “Jeopardy” style tournament.  Nick was chosen after a competition and meetings in September and October; finally the team was chosen and they began weekly meetings, studies and practices.  The three day event is moderated by parent volunteers and teachers according to standardized questions and answers in English.  Over three days of competition, the Pinare’s A team, junior varsity made it to the quarter finals, then the semi-finals and… they made it to the finals.  This competition is time limit based and each team receives points for each correct answer there are subtracted points for each wrong answer and there are also bonus questions after each correct answer during each twenty minute match.  To complete the match there are five final questions given.   Each question carries up to 5 points and then the final score is tallied and the winner is announced.  We are excited to announce that Nick’s team, after a back and forth struggle, won on the last question, the final score being 46-43.  Mom and Dad are very excited to see this!

Well, we might as well continue to be proud of our students!  As you can see in the picture Lily and Nick did make High Honors for the first semester; with Lily receiving all A’s in all her courses.  Just to give you an idea, there are around 60 youths in 9^th grade, divided by three sections.  As far as friends, there are four close friends in that list for Lily and Nick, and we are happy about that also.  Lily also has been appointed as the Chaplain of her class by the teachers.

We would like to introduce you to the newest addition to our family, Robert Raineri, Jr has joined the staff at our son and daughter-in-laws, Bob and Heather’s house on 1/27/13 at 4:08 am 8lbs 10oz 20 1/2 inches long. Congratulations, all are doing great, and have given up on the sleep idea for a while.  For those keeping score, this is our fourth grandchild; boys are winning at this point 3 to 1.

What is going on in HR and the Mission House?  It has been a busy beginning of the year.  As of March 9^th our 11^th team has left and we have a week off of brigades.  The 11 teams have worked in 22 Honduran churches ministered to over 29,000 Hondurans and 38 floors have been installed.  What do we do during off weeks? We have meetings.  We catch our breaths, review what the prior weeks have taught us, pray for the next teams and eat pizza.  No really, Pete has begun training our managers on the management of employees and team members.  After training we took the managers out to eat pizza, it was a great day and now we are praying over what role we have in training.

Our current home group is studying the book by Mark Batterson “Circle Maker.”  And what is better than a book study is the food and snacks that come with it.  This is a book about circling our issues with prayer and acknowledging how great God is that he gives us this prayer ministry.  Our attendance is around 8 people each Thursday night at 7 PM.

Early warning:  We will be in the US sometime around the end of June to mid-August.  The dates are not set yet, but we will be able to make it to the US and see our family, friends and supporters during that time.  Please let us know if we can speak to your group about the ministry that God is doing in Honduras.  Amazing stories and testimonies are taking place each week.  We are also due to go East this year to visit supporters and family and our granddaughter.

Thank you again, we are blessed to be here, your hands and feet in God’s field.