So for the last two weeks, my team and I have been doing ministry on the most beautiful little island in Honduras called Roatan. I’m still kind of at a loss of words about these last two weeks other than WOW GOD. And when I say wow God, I mean WOW GOD.
You see, going into this month of ministry I was super stoked, but also a little nervous. I was super stoked for the fact that our ministry consisted of assistant teaching in a bilingual school in which I always thought would be an awesome experience. It was absolutely amazing! While I sometimes wanted to ring my 1st grade kids necks, I loved them dearly as they stole my heart, which made it very hard to say goodbye. Especially when on the last day of school they made me a bunch of handwritten cards saying how much they love me and are going to miss me. Ahh, I just loved it. I was able to lead the class in prayer every morning and got to teach social studies about the United States and also teach English every day of school. And I also got to help them work on their Christmas program. It was so much fun.
However, the part I was nervous about, along with the rest of my team was both personal and team finances. Roatan is very expensive for a World Race budget. I personally have a small spending money budget and we as a team have a limited food budget and we knew that it was going to be really difficult to make that work on the island. The reason is, is that Roatan is a very popular cruise line destination for its sheer beauty! It is literally the most beautiful place I have ever been. It also is one of the top destinations in the world for snorkeling and scuba diving as it has the healthiest reef in the world. All of this makes for it being a very popular vacation destination. I’m still so much in awe of it’s beauty.
But little did we know that God was about to show us His beauty and blessing in more ways than we could have ever dreamed of. From the moment we stepped foot on Roatan we were welcomed by our hosts Gary and Susie, with so much love and excitement for us being there. They took us to get food and told us all about their story and about the school we were going to be teaching at for the next two weeks. Over the next two weeks God poured out blessings on us far greater than we could have ever dreamed. And He did it all through different people native to the island. We met this man church named Sherman who is basically the funniest, sweetest, loving old man I have ever met and he is pretty much known by everyone on the island. He invited us to his iguana farm where he has over 2,000 iguanas living along with couple monkeys. He then also builds boats for a living and took us out on the water for a tour. Then through another friend of our hosts, we got to go snorkeling not once, but three different times. It was the most amazing and breathtaking experience of my life. There is a whole new world under water and the beauty of it blew me away. Also through our host and their connections we were able to go to a private beach at a resort for the day. Through more people we got to hold and play with monkeys and parrots and sloths. All of these things easily adds up to a few hundred dollars a person that God abundantly blessed us with for free. Like what? How does that happen? God is good.
And you know how I said we were a bit nervous about our food budget? Well God left us speechless with that one. I believe it was our second night there and our host was taking us all over the island showing us where things were. We about ready to say let’s head back so we can get something to eat, but our host decided to take us to one more place that she thought would have a great view which happened to be at a restaurant. We went there just to stand on the dock and take in the beauty and as we were doing that, the owner of the restaurant whose name is Dale, came over and started talking to us. We told him that we were missionaries and on an 11 month journey and what we were doing on the island. And in the midst of that conversation he asked us to join him for dinner on the house. And so we obviously accepted the invitation and let me tell you, it was some of the best food that I have ate in a very long time. And over dinner, Dale talked with us and wanted to know more about us and the mission trip we were one. And he would tell us his stories of all his journey’s. After dinner we went over to thank him for his hospitality and generosity and in the midst of thanking him, he told us he would like to have us every evening for dinner until we leave. What??? We were all absolutely speechless and in shock.
I’m still in awe of everything that God blessed us with these past two weeks. We were expecting not to be able to do much of anything or eat like we wanted to without spending a lot of our own money, and here God lays it all on our laps. He was like, “Here you go my children. Don’t ever doubt me. Thank you for answering the call. Now be blessed.”
“And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.” – 2 Corinthians 9:8
