6/5/22
After a pancake and bacon breakfast, we headed from the Mission House through Tegucigalpa to Ciudad Espana. After coming through in rain and darkness last night, it was good to see Tegucigalpa in daylight. The city is surrounded by mountains and we traveled on several of them today! It was a scenic drive to Ciudad Espana.
Upon arrival at the church, we noticed a number of children in the courtyard. By the beginning of worship, there were probably 50 or 60 young children through middle school age many of whom came without an adult! Several loving adults took great care in leading the children through prayer and then an hour of dancing in front of the congregation as everyone sang songs accompanied by a keyboard and drums. The sermon was delivered by a pregnant female pastor who is due in 15 days! She reminded us that God is with us, fights for us, and calls us by name, we only need to respond.
Following the service, the church folks served us a very tasty chicken and vegetables and rice dish. Interpreters were throughout the room, so we could visit with other worshipers. Ruth was thrilled to be able to visit with Rebeca, the student she sponsors for school. Rebeca’s family was also present. The Honduran Sponsorship coordinator, Amanda, introduced us to many of the church leaders.
We ended up heading to Park of Christ in our church attire because of uncertainty of the weather. (It’s winter in Honduras and that means more rain.) The view from the base of the Christ statue was in credible. A couple of our more in shape members ran up a set of steep concrete stairs (while the rest of us wondered if it would be an incident that would have to be reported). We saw the section of the city that were destroyed by hurricane Mitch in 1998. The Christ statue was placed in memory of the thousands who lost their lives in that storm.
Enroute back to the mission house, we stopped at a and upscale grocery store and purchased more snacks. Our cook, Cindy, prepared a wonderful dinner that was topped off by pineapple upside down cake (made from scratch!) our Honduran leader, Milton, exhibited great cooking skill in preparing the sauce for the chicken😀. Cindy and her assistant Gina, joined us at the table for dinner. We are really coming to love and appreciate our hosts and interpreters!
Milton, Jorge, Franklin, Bessie, and Maria are worth their weight in gold for the members of our group who can’t speak Spanish! After dinner, we planned our first day of lessons, were reminded today is PENTECOST and shared selected persons we met today that we will pray for. Milton seems excited about our service opportunity tomorrow…hang on, we’ll tell you about it then!