Our theme for today was Ninos (Childen) & Hombres (Men)
Carlos fixed a super breakfast of omlettes avocados, ham, & plantains.
We made our way back to El Obraje to continue our various projects.
Throughout the morning real progress was made as we worked alongside our Honduran friends. Big rocks were pried out of the drainage ditch & we completely chipped away the concrete walls to make way for 2 more windows.
Humor? One of the priorities for being on a mission trip is to be flexible & go with the flow. This discussion reminded me of one of my favorite Knock-Knock jokes:
KNOCK KNOCK
Who's there?
CONTROL FREAK.
Control fr.....
(Interrupting) NOW YOU SAY CONTROL FREAK, WHO?
We had sandwiches & chips for lunch & we were going to return to our projects when a large contingent of children from the community descended on us & began practicing their English, while we tried to practice our Spanish. It was a loud, chaotic time & also great fun.
The highlight of the day was joining Pastor Alejandro's Men's Group at Lluvis de Bendicion. Between our 2 groups, there were approximately 30 men. We were led in song by a fantastic Honduran guitar player & singer. We had prayers in both languages & both Pastor Bill & Pastor Alejandro read our scripture from Paul's Letter to the Romans. Pastor Bill shared a fantastic message for the men, to not be tempted to face life's struggles alone & that every man in that room has much in common & is united in God. Our translator, Franklin, was so overcome with emotion that our other translator, Rigo, had to step in to continue the translating. Our gathering concluded with several ladies from the church providing tasty treats & coffee/tea. Afterwards, Pastor Alejandro noted that 5 men who had attended our gathering had never stepped foot in the church before & all 5 expressed interest in returning next week.
We toured El Obraje's soccer field, played with some of the kids, held several Piggy-Back races, & basically enjoyed the shady field & cool grass.
Honduran Fact: Honduras celebrates Armed Forces day on October 21 each year. It commemorates the day the military forced Julio Lozano Diaz, self-appointed dictator, to resign in 1956. Diaz had been the right-hand man of President Juan Manuel Galvez. Galvez, ailing physically, travels from the country in 1954 for medical treatment. Diaz assumes power & refuses to leave. The military finally ousts Diaz in 1956 & a new general election is held.
We returned to Danli & made a pit-stop at La Colonia to buy some treats for the kids we see tomorrow & also to buy some back-up supplies for us.
Carolos prepared a great dinner of chicken, pasta, & potatoes - perfect way to recover from a hard day of work.
Kip led a powerful devotion based on the question of "Why did we come on this trip?"
Blessings,
Your Faithful Honduran Bloguero
Our theme for today was dust, mud, & laughs.
Carlos fixed a super breakfast of eggs, plantains, fried fish, & pineapple. We departed on time for El Obraje to visit Lluvia de Bendicion church for our day of work.
We met with Pastor Alejandro, who gave us a tour of the sanctuary, the computer cafe', & the church grounds. We introduced ourselves & then met our fellow workers for the day.
We then split into 2 groups to start on our projects:
One group was in a large room at the back of the church that they need to split into 2 rooms. Our 2 tasks for today were to work with Augustine & his crew to help chip the concrete off the walls to smooth them down & then after they cut out the frame in the concrete for an arched window to chip out that concrete as well, to provide more light & ventilation in the room.
Humor? Weirdly, we discovered as we were working that the church's Wi-Fi did not support Microsoft programs. Apparently, it had no windows.
The other group worked on digging a drainage ditch in front of the church under Augustine's instructions, clearing it of rock so it is ready for some concrete walls to be formed on the sides.
The morning flew by as we were all busy working. We had a nice lunch of sandwiches & chips.
We toured the Republica de Guatemala School - Director Alejandro said the kids always ask about the name, but even he wasn't quite sure of the reason. The kids go to school from 7:00 - 12:00, so they were already out of the school by the time we got there. We got to see their classrooms, visit the computer lab, & hear about what it's like to operate a school in Honduras. Afterwards we returned to our projects & got them to the point where we could safely leave them for the day.
Honduran Fact: Honduras celebrates Francisco Morazan Day on October 3 each year. It marks the birth of Francisco Morazan, former Head of State of Honduras & the 2nd President of the Central American Federation (1830-1839). He was recognized as a visionary & great thinker, emphasizing freedom of the press, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, & public education. He was opposed by many powerfingul factions & was forced into exile in 1840. At the age of 49 he was martyred during a populist revolution in 1842 in Costa Rica. Hondurans commemorate the day with a reading of his biography, “Procer of Honduras.” (Procer = Hero)
We then drove into downtown Danli & walked around the downtown area, enjoyed some treats from the local cafe & relaxed in the central park.
Dinner of pork ribs & rice was prepared by Carlos. Today was Franklin's 55th birthday with a birthday cake, which he had earlier noted was his fondest memory of his birthdays growing up. (Franklin is one of our translators.)
We concluded the evening with a devotion focused on the value of being part of a Christian Men's Group by looking at John 21:1-14. (This was confirmed shortly, by our lingering & laughing for another 1 ½ hours at the dinner table.
Now for some Aleve & a good night's rest, so we are ready for another great day.
Blessings,
Your Faithful Honduran Bloguero
An amazing day filled with God-moments.
We started our morning at the Mission House with a breakfast of eggs, plantains, & toast. We packed up & started our return trip to Ciudad to help paint the outside of the Juan Wesley School.
One group arrived on time. The other group was delayed due to a slight mix-up in directions. However, this delay gave the passengers of Van-2 a fantastic view: Instead of a boring paint job, we encountered a noisy party of 30-40 students & teachers & our ½ our gang busily climbing ladders, painting the walls white & the blue trim all while the music of Chicago was blaring on a loudspeaker. What a fantastic paint party!
Humor? An old preacher once shared the legend that God had hired a painter to spruce up His heavenly home. Unfortunately, the painter had run out of paint before the job was completed & added turpentine to the paint to help it go further. God was displeased with the result & declared, “Repaint! And thin no more!”
Each of us made a point to connect with the students to help with our Spanish & to help them practice their English & to hear their hopes & dreams. To a man, we were inspired to see so many young people filled with optimism for the future.
We were served a delicious lunch of balleadas, followed by a soccer-drill as the kids tried to out-fox the old men at the soccer goal.
We then packed up & headed to Danli. During the drive we shared our impressions of the kids & the school & expressed how a simple investment could literally change the lives & futures of hundreds of kids.
Honduran Fact: Honduras & Nicaragua are home to the region called the “Mosquito Coast,” which became noteworthy in the U.S. with the 1986 film starring Harrison Ford. “Mosquito” does not refer to the insect, but rather to the Miskito indigenous people who inhabit the region.
Arriving in Danli, we were struck by the scene of an immense stream of migrants from Venezuela & Ecuador on their way to the American border. This was a gut punch.
We quietly shared a wonderful meal prepared by Carlos & tried to put everything we had seen & done into perspective.
Pastor Bill shared that night's devotion, focusing on Jesus' famous question to the Disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" We had an emotional discussion reaching a few conclusions - subject to amendment as the week progresses:
Blessings,
Your Faithful Honduran Bloguero
Today's theme is easy-peasy: Joy
We woke up well-rested after a great night's sleep & ate a fantastic breakfast of bacon & fluffy pancakes.
Honduran Fact: Honduras fought the “100-Hour War” or “The Football War” in 1969 with neighboring El Salvador. Existing tensions along the border escalated & erupted into riots during the 1970 FIFA World Cup qualifier when El Salvador defeated Honduras 3-2. The 4-day conflict resulted in over 3,000 deaths.
We were joyfully greeted & hugged by all the children of the congregation, which was a highlight for each of us. (Of course, Mark Williams, father of Callie, was greeted like Santa Claus.)
It was awesome to meet Callie's new fiance, Joel, & watch her in action at the school. Everyone who has known Callie through the years, was filled with pride - especially her dad.
It was fun seeing the kids of the congregation sing & dance for the opening of the service. Their energy & high spirits were contagious.
Pastor Hector offered a powerful prayer for a little girl suffering from an undisclosed illness. He followed it up with a great sermon on James 4:13-17 - urging us to follow the Holy Spirit.
Humor? A small boy was sitting in church & noticed a plaque on the wall at the front of the church. After worship, he asked the pastor what it was for. The pastor replied that it was to honor those who had died in service. The boy solemnly nodded his head & asked, “Which service? 9:00 or 10:45?”
Then we had a delicous luncheon with Juan Wesley students & University students. It was fun for each of us to visit with the students (through our awesome interpreters) & listen to their hopes & dreams.
Next up, was the testimony of 3 scholars receiving entrepreneurial micro-loans. Their excitement was awesome.
We toured the school & got a feel for tomorrow's painting project.
We then left to visit Cristo Picacho - A huge statue overlooking Tegucigalpa depicting Christ's Ascension.
Our day of touring, wrapped up with a quick return-drive to the Mission House for a filling dinner of spaghetti & meatballs & garlic bread.
We concluded our evening with a meaningful devotion led by Mark focusing on Luke 5:27-28 & then played some cards & gossiped about our day.
Blessings,
Your Faithful Honduran Bloguero
Hola from Honduras!
A great day of travel as we safely arrived in Honduras.
Our day of travel started at 3:30 a.m. at KCI Airport with Alex's wonderful blessing for our journey.
Humor: As we chatted about our Spanish language skills, I remembered when our son was 4-years old & trying to learn Spanish. He could never get the hang of the word “please.” Which I thought was poor for four.
Miraculously, all of our connections were right on schedule as we traveled from Kansas City to Dallas to Honduras.
During our lay-over in Dallas, we met another Mission Trip group heading from Overland Park to Honduras for the week. Fortunately, today's devotion helped us focus on being God's Ambassadors so we just compared notes & avoided a whole West Side Story-esque type of rumble between the Jets & Sharks.
Throughout the morning we also held our own Food Network Challenge as we compared & contrasted between 3 Fast Food Chicken Sandwiches. Our 3 competitors for our episode were:
To avoid needless controversy, I won't divulge our winning sandwich but suffice to say "everyone's a winner."
Honduran Fact: Honduras has been part of the Mayan, Spanish, & Mexican empires. In 1823, Honduras joined the United Provinces of Central America with Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, & El Salvador. When the United Provinces was dissolved in 1840, Honduras became an independent nation. The Honduran flag has 5 stars to represent their inclusion in the United Provinces.
We were met by our two guides/translators Jorge & Franklin & our two drivers, Ivan & Rigo, who safely drove us through the beautiful mountains of Honduras to a Wal-Mart. We picked up some snacks & purchased some gift cards to give to teachers at the school.
We then traveled to the Mission House & had a delicious dinner of pork chops, steamed riced, & coleslaw.
Jorge shared a powerful devotion about his father's life-after-death experience. Steve then shared a super devotion focusing on Mark 10:42-45 & the importance of serving others.
Afterwards everyone relaxed after a long day of travel, played some games, & reflected on a wonderful day as we began to develop friendships in Christ.
Blessings,
Your Faithful Honduran Bloguero
