Mike McCoy photo R.J. Riddle discusses his trips to Honduras as part of a General Baptist Mission team. Riddle has helped with several construction projects at Faith Home in Honduras.

Central America is hot, humid and miserable most of the year. R.J. Riddle knows first hand about scorpions, viper snakes, iguanas and other pests in Honduras because he has being going there for the past five years as part of a General Baptist Mission team. They minister and help with construction projects at Faith Home, which is in a rural area 20 miles from San Pedro Sula. That city has over a million people.

Faith Home is made up of eight group houses, a team house, two schools, a bodega (shop and training building) and houses for three missionary families. The fenced in 55-acre compound is home to around 80 Honduran youngsters, under the age of 18 years. These children have been placed there by the government, as victims of abuse or neglect. The really young ones stay at the compound, but as they reach 13 or 14 years old, they do have access to public education in Honduras. At the age of 18 years, they start to live in transition houses just outside the compound and get jobs to try to integrate into the Honduran society.

Riddle looks forward to his annual visits. For the last two years his wife, Susie, has made the trip with him. They sponsor a child; eight-year-old Estephania Melgar, who lives in one of the group homes.

"She has learned to say hello, thanks, and speaks a little bit of English," says Riddle, "But she has a hard time communicating."

Riddle hopes that next year she has progressed in speaking English. It is important for the children to learn English. Riddle says that speaking English helps with the transition from Faith Home to the job market, because Hondurans who speak English are almost "guaranteed of a job."

Riddle says his missionary trips have been in the months of January through March, though he doesn't plan to go back in March again. Even in February the temperatures are in the 90s, and the humidity is terrible. It's hard to work on the projects because of the weather.

Last year 18 team members came from Missouri, South Carolina, North Carolina and Michigan to build a bridge. Riddle, who has an associates degree in architectural drafting and design, designed the bridge and oversaw construction.

The bridge was necessary because the group houses were separated from the laundry facilities and other buildings by a valley. While the valley was small, during wet weather it became impossible to cross.

"It may be a poor country," Riddle explains, "but the women are very clean."

He says doing laundry for all the families and the 80 children that live there is quite a task.

Riddle drew up the plans before leaving for Honduras in February last year. He contacted the missionaries there about supplies. He was told that if he needed hardware, he would have to bring it with him because it could not be purchased there. He determined that he needed about 80 pounds of screws in two different sizes.

"We could only get 68 pounds of crews packed in our luggage without going over our limit," Riddle says.

The bridge was 108 feet long, five feet wide and 8 to 10 feet high. It has to be made of treated lumber, because the termites are terrible. Riddle laughs as he tells about a baseball bat that was left and eaten by termites to the point that it crumbled.

When the bridge was completed, they had four screws left.

"We really needed some more," Riddle adds, "So I sent them over with the next group going over."

His wife, Susie, worked a lot in the kitchen. It is a huge task preparing food for 80 children, eight teams of house parents, six full-time missionaries and the visiting missionaries, Riddle says.

While in Honduras, the missionaries lived in the group home. It is a concrete block building with a large open area with bunk beds down both sides of the room. It has running water and sewer service, as do all the houses in the compound. A pump is used to fill a tower on one of the mountains and the houses are served by a gravity flow water line. They drink bottled water though, and are told to not even brush their teeth with the ground water.

It is fortunate that there is window air-conditioning units. They are allowed to use the air-conditioners only at night. Riddle says that was fortunate, because sleeping would be almost impossible without them.

All buildings inside Faith Home are made of concrete blocks because of the termites. Riddle says mosquitos and "Nosee'ums" are also a problem and make life miserable. "Nosee'ums" are what Hondurans call chiggers, he notes with a smile. Though the insect and animal populations there are not a laughing matter for the missionaries.

Children at the home have a great deal of contact with other cultures through the missionaries. As they begin to get older they are allowed to make trips to town for shopping to integrate them into the Honduran culture. They can also attend public schools at a certain age to help with making the transition from Faith Home into Honduran society.

The economy in Honduras primarily revolves around banana and pineapple plantations, Riddle says.

"People there work from daylight until dark for a dollar a day."

The missionaries buy rice and beans in the city and pass out bags to the people who work in these plantations. They also distribute Christian literature and spread the word of the gospels. "That is why we go," says Riddle.

They also take candy and balloons to the kids in the plantations, which to them is a treat unlike anything they can imagine, Riddle says.

"There is no stinginess or greed," Riddle says of the kids.

That is not to say the country is perfect. Armed guards are placed at restaurants and other places in the city to protect citizens and tourists from "hoods and stuff" says Riddle. The countryside is harsh and the people that live there are accustomed to theft, and other sorts of harassment's.

San Pedro Sula is a modern city, however, with American type restaurants, businesses and churches. Riddle says he and his wife attended an English speaking church there. They even had communion at one of the churches there on a past trip. Church services almost always have an interpreter; either translating for an English speaking minister to the Hondurans or a Spanish speaking speaker to the American missionaries.

Riddle is looking forward to going again next year, at least he hopes to make the trip. Each missionary must pay his own way, though his church helps. Riddle goes to Bethany General Baptist Church west of Bernie. He has attended church there since 1986 and became interested in missionary work through the pastor, Brian Johnson. Johnson went and spoke of his experience which led to Riddle becoming interested.

Riddle graduated from Bernie and got his associates degree at Three River Community College. He came to Dexter and worked at Busy B Lumber Company and Dowdy Lumber Company before buying the Coffey and Camp Lumber Company owned by Loren Coffey in August of 1993.