Honduras, like Peru, but greener. Is that a word? Anyway... The smell of diesel fuel fills the air when you’re driving around, the streets packed with busses, motorcycles, and odd vehicles carrying people everwhere. We started with 15 people in our group from the States, somehow we fit all our luggage and everyone into that one white pickup truck. Pile in the luggage and pile in the people, haha.
There is poverty here, but it surprised me how good some of the cars people were driving. I guess it’s like being in the slums of any city, you see the rich and the poor, both sides of society mashed into one city. Unlike Pere there are very few labeled taxis. There are a lot more busses and cars that are takis than actual taxis. Of course, maybe this is my limited experience in Peru, I don’t know.
I’m praying for Christ to show me what He has for me on this trip. Why I’m here, seeing what I’m seeing, doing what I’m doing. This is a special opportunity, I want Him to show me more of Himself through this trip..
Would I be content to live here? Would I be content to trade places with someone here? Questions that we are asking our selves as a group. Do we trust Jesus enough? Speaking of Jesus, this group LOVES Jesus! It’s been neat to see it in them.
We ate lunch at Burger King in Tegucigalpa, the capitol where we flew in, getting in around 11:30am local time.
We read exerpts from the book Radical and heard a sermon on it tonight.
Let’s risk it all. For the sake of our children, our lives, for the sake of 1 billion people, let’s risk it all!
[Will we die in our religion, or die in our devotion?]
A fire will only last as long as the fuel is there. So is passion and zeal for Jesus. Don’t quench it, add more to it. Stir it up!
You go to the need. Follow Jesus outside the camp. It means going to where the prostitues and drug dealers are. We’re made Jesus a clean and more respectable Jesus than the Jesus of the Bible. But that’s not who He is. Let’s look at Jesus for who he really is. The Jesus of the Bible is going to the dirty and poor. He is going to the outcast, those who society has thrown out. God’s plan for this world is through us!
The only real thing of this world is Jesus! If he’s not our one and all than we have none at all!
Father, make me a bold witness for you!
What does it mean to be followers of Christ, really? We have to be obedient.
Is Jesus enough for me?
We have to first be content with Him. What does He really want?
[Entire Abandonment and Absolute Faith]
We’ll have to put extra effort into showing the love of Jesus. These are hard people. Pray for unity, for compassion, for a miracle. be bold, be out there. They don’t have hope, or are not putting trust in it.
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[To love is better than comfort]
I feel so in love with this country and the people here. Right now all I want to do is ministry here. Work with street boys, learn the language and have relationships with people.
----------------------------- Nov. 2
We woke up after a good nights sleep and ate breakfast. We woke up around 5:30am which felt like 7:30am. I slept with my mini sleeping bag on the concrete patio outside. Surprisingly it was pretty comfortable.
I am so in LOVE with this place! I can’t believe how much I already love everything. I love the community that you feel as a team doing this kind of thing. We all sleep in the same room, use the same two bathrooms for all 20 of us. I can’t wait to see what God has next for me this week! He is so good!
The team is 15 members from the States, 12 from a church in Minnesota, and my two cousins Lynnea and Jether and I. We met 5 more people from Honduras. Three of them are American missionaries. One of them is Larry Smoak’s niece, who’s family lives in Brazil. She’s around my age I believe, her name is Lillian. There is another girl who is around the same age, her name is Blair and she’s taken a semester off from college to come to Honduras, she lives in Norfolk, Virginia. Mary is from the church where the rest of the team is from, and she’s been in Honduras since January. Joel and Erick are two Hondurans who came down as well. Joel has some mental health problems but loves Jesus, and Erick is around 24 years old and speaks a bit of English. All five of them came down from a small village, Las Mangas outside La Cieba, where there is a campus for people to stay for periods of time. They help with an orphange, the school, and it’s what Larry Smoak started.
Last night I met someone who’s name is Steven. He is from Indiana, but is working with a mininstry called Micah Project 2.0 and they do a street boys project, taking in boys off the street. He’s pretty legit. He is really cool, speaks spanish seemlessly, and is just fun to hang out with.
John 12:23-26
“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternity. If anyone serves me he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.”
When you plant a seed, you lose using that seed for bread. You chance that that seed will grow up and produce many more seed out of the plant, but it means thinking long term. In the short term the wisest thing would be to make flour and bread out of it and eat it. We focus on the gain.
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I am absolutely in love with this country and the people here. I love being here. It is so awesome.
[We have to prepare for the miracle]
[God’s ability, but my responsibility]
You have to believe. Take the nest step. Obedience to Him.
How do you know if God is talking to you? Try the door, see if it is locked.
The food here is delicious. I love experiencing culture through food. Rice and beans. Tons of carbs! We’re sitting around talking about Jesus and the far away sound of Honduran music plays in the background. I feel such a close bond with the people here on the team. I had a nice talk with Blair at lunch time, got to know her better, learned about her family and life.
-------------------------------Nov. 3
It is Saturday, we’ve had our first night in the village. Last night it rained while we were sleeping. I was in the spot that had a hole in it, and had to move my head to get out from the drips. I was also hot because I slept in my sleeping bag the whole night. I sweated all night long. But I’m loving it. I really am. I’ve been using the word bonito, but they say I can’t use it quite the same way as I use it in English. I like to use the word beautiful for everything in English, I love the word.
It took us a good 4 hours of driving on good paved roads and than rocky dirt roads with huge pot holes to get to the village where we parked our vehicles. The last 1/4 mile is so steep that almost no two wheel drive car can get up it. But the Honduran driver we had driving the other vehicle suprisingly made it up no problem. We unloaded and the village of La Vainilla came and took most of luggage and carried it for us.
It was about a 20 minute walk down to La Vainilla. We got here and unpacked a little bit and than hung out with them. I played soccer, or real football with half a dozen of the Hondurans from the village. A good ice breaker kind of game. The girls on the team played with the real young children and wives. We ate lunch there, plan rice and beans. We gathered into a group and we all said something. The president and treasurer of the village and all the men and women said something, thanked us for being there. Then we took turns saying things to them from our group. After that we ate supper and talked as a group. We shared our thoughts and what we thought about everything so far, than we lay down tarps, get bedding and everything ready for sleeping which took a good hour or so.
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I read the first two chapters of Philippians this morning and was struck again at Christ’s humility comind down to be one of us, not grasping equality with God a thing to be counted. In one sense we are a little picture of that. Coming to this village, eating what they’re eating, sleeping in their houses, seeking to break down every barrier as possible to show Christ’s love to them.
The sun rises high and bright and it’s hard to believe that I’m in the remote mountains of Honduras.
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A poem that came to me this morning, pertaining out trip here.
Honduras
Over gravel, dirt and dust,
through the shadow, I will trust
Wild mountains, rugged trails
Before morning, the cock wails
Surrounded by beauty and by love
All good gifts come from above
We’ve come to dig, but first we’ll see
Make Christ evident in me
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An observation. The people dress like in the States, often skinny jeans for the womena dn typical clothing for the guys. It’s not like because they live in mud huts they wear dirty clothes or old clothes. A lot of these people are wearing all the top American brand names. I don’t know where they get the clothing, but it’s the same style as America, with maybe a little Honduran flair. :)
They have parasitic grass growing on the powerlines from the moisture of the air. Crazy!
I am always struck by how well you can still communicate with words. I realize how weak I am in Spanish, really next to nothing. I know greetings and some nouns. I feel so helpless at times. But it’s when I can’t use words that I smile. I find myself smiling at these beautiful people all the time. :) I can’t belive how much I love and will miss these people when I’m gone. It already feels like home here. It all fells so comfortable, and I’m so use to it all already.
Sitting on the dirt next to newly made friends. Playing football with them. Sleeping in their community, eating with them. Walking with them.
English Vintner
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