Dear EGPC Family:

I want to thank the Session and all of you for taking the prudent action of cancelling worship on, March 15.

  From Honduras, I had emailed the Session Friday morning asking them to consider cancelling services and tried to get updates as we travelled home that day.  I commend them for making this tough choice   It’s hard not having our gathering to look forward to, but I am convinced this is the right thing to do.

We will need to consider what to do in the following weeks.
A little about our shortened trip to Honduras:Our school-building team had arrived  Wednesday afternoon.  We headed for the Villa Soleada Bilingual School Thursday morning, expecting to do painting and other building work on the high school to prepare for a big inauguration celebration on Friday.  And we looked forward to visiting with and tutoring students.  Several things then happened:

1.  The school administrators were concerned about the possibility of our infecting students, so we would not have close interaction with them.

2.  After several hours of work on Thursday, at about 1:30 we learned that the Honduran government had ordered the closing of all schools starting that day and extending for two weeks.  That meant no ceremony Friday.

3.  Shin and the school staff then arranged for the celebration to happen at 3:00 Thursday…and what a celebration it was, including an 8th grader reading in perfect English a thank you letter she had written.

4.  Our Sacramento team then struggled about what we should do…and we decided it would be wisest for us to return home as early as possible.  With Bob Azzarito’s hours’ long negotiating with American Airlines, we were able to re-schedule for a Friday departure…at no additional cost.  We were disappointed not to be able to complete more work on the building or spend time with students, but we agreed that leaving was the right course of action.   

I look forward to when we can all be back together.  And I look forward to sharing more about our trip.
Warmest blessings…and with thanks to God…Dexter