Teach Them To Fish Microindustries

So, we are working out the kinks of large scale food preparation… Last week we fed 107 people and today we fed 176. What a blessing! It is truly amazing to witness the love of God in the sharing of food. It is a truly humbling experience for which I am forever grateful.

The goal for next week is 200. We are learning to smoke chicken in a donated 1200 lb smoker (Thank you Dwane and BK Harrison). It has the capacity to cook 30 whole chickens. We smoked 10 today. Dwane is teaching us the art of smoking meats. We are also figuring out the donated convection oven (Thank you Mitch and Rachel Spruill). Father Bob baked 14 lbs of chicken with onions and carrots. The ladies cooked 20 lbs of rice with tomatoes, bell peppers, carrots, and onions on a traditional grill since the donated rice cooker has some electrical problems (once repaired it can cook 300 servings of rice at a time – say a prayer we can find the parts). They also cooked 10 lbs of beans and made over 200 7 inch maseca torillas.

On the technical front, we’re still working on adding PayPal and recurring donations to the website. I’ve been in IT for nearly forty years and trust me when I say it is difficult to make the software of several different companies agree with each other. I suspect it is the Universe trying to teach me humilty and patience… 🙂

Thank you all for the love and support of this project. The situation here is getting more desperate since there is no money coming in from tourism and no prospect in the near future for it. There is an amazing amount of support from local businesses but they are running out of money, too. Keep us in your prayers.

The Peace of the Lord be with you…

TTTFMicro.com lives! We finally got all the connections made and (most of) the bugs worked out. There are still some cosmetic things we need to correct but it works! Payment processing is through a company call Stripe. They are a very safe and reliable credit card processor.

All of the donations we are taking now are specifically for the soup kitchen we are spinning up. You can donate by credit card on the site or send a check made out to “Teach Them To Fish” to:
Trinity Episcopal Church/Teach Them to Fish
509 W. Pine St.
Hattiesburg, MS 39401

All donations are tax deductable.

Next we are going to add PayPal for those familiar with it and after that a recurring donation option.

We are also going to add a ‘Projects’ option to the menu for those wanting to form a team to come down to help the people on the island or mainland Honduras. It will list the suggested number of team members, location, type, duration, and estimated cost. We will coordinate with you and your team to get you here, start you on your project, and get you home safely. We have been working successfully with the Diocese of Honduras for many years and would love to help you make the connection.

So here we are again, my friends.  For those that don’t know me, my name is John DeLancey from Trinity Episcopal Church in Hattiesburg Mississippi.  I have been part of an extraordinary group of people at Trinity called Teach Them To Fish that has traveled back and forth to Honduras for the last 14 years.  Our mission has been to teach the people various trades and skills so they can support themselves, their churches, and their communities.  Over a year ago, they sent me down to Honduras to live, love, teach, and learn about its culture and beautiful people.  It is a great honor and privilege to serve here.  They are a loving, hard working people.

I am living on the island of Roatan just off the eastern coast of Honduras.  We have built a microindustry here called Roatan Glass Art.  October of this year will mark two years since they started.  The decision was made early on to make this micro for women only since there were so many women raising children on their own.  A group of six women have learned the art of glass fusing to make jewelry, suncatchers, mobiles, and more.  We are selling these items at the church, in an Etsy store, and several stores around the island.