Since we’re spending 11 months in 11 different countries on the Race, I figured a recap of 11 things would be appropriate. Here is a recap of our last month in Honduras, and the other country recaps will come in reverse order.
1 / Our Location:
Tizatillo, Francisco Morazan, Honduras
Tizatillo is about 10 miles south of Tegucigalpa, the capitol of Honduras with over a million residents. Other than city northward, there is not much around Tizatillo except for homes, small stores (Pulperías), schools, and chicken farms. It is right on the main highway, CA-5, which runs north through the country and connects Tegucigalpa with San Pedro Sula, the second largest city.
After arriving in Honduras, we spent a few days debriefing in Valle de Ángeles, a small tourist town northeast of Tegicigalpa in the cloud forest.
2 / Our Ministry:
During the month, we worked with a ministry called Zion’s Gate, which is run by a man named Tony. Zion’s Gate is somewhat of a community center, where Tony seeks and invites street kids and outcasts to live in a vibrant community of faith, so they can reclaim their lives and grow as future leaders. Everyday, the ministry serves the people God brings them and fulfills local needs. Tony’s blended family currently numbers twenty: seven teen boys, three teen girls, a seven-year-old boy, an eighty-year-old grandma, a twenty-year-old mute woman, five missionaries, and him and his wife.
The main project our groups worked on was turning the ministry property into a park. Tizatillo has no park or public place for school children or families to visit, so Tony opened his property up for that. He doesn’t believe in having a gate (which is ironic considering the name), and anyone is welcome to come. Because of this, the local government has offered to make it a public park and pay for the power utilities if Tony continues to develop it and puts lighting up. Our groups spent a lot of time digging rocks and setting up flower beds around the entrance. We also spent time painting rocks to decorate the property, because there are so many of them and they look awesome with bright colors.
For other work this month, we also:
- Began construction on a large rabbit house for the ministry’s rabbit breeding business. Apparently Honduran kids and families love pet rabbits, and the ministry has sold a lot of them.
- Taught at the local public elementary school (with no curriculum whatsoever) and a bilingual private school that was further away. It’s also common for Honduran teachers to leave the room once we start helping.
- Went camping with the boys that live with Tony. They took us on a hike to a creek and we had a cookout with s’mores, which was the first time a couple of the kids had tried them.
- Took it to the streets. Tony’s idea of church is going outward instead of just staying in a building. So on Sunday mornings, he “takes it to the streets” with joyful groups to spread the love of Jesus, hold Spanish signs, and pass out snacks. He's made the national news a couple times for this.
- Visited the areas in Tegucigalpa where the boys are from
- Visited a domestic abuse ministry a few hours away, that focuses on helping women raise children from rape
- Visited a garbage dump and handed out food and water
(Currently there is no website for Zion’s Gate, but it will be in development soon. If you want to make a donation to the ministry, go here: bit.ly/zionsgate)
Taking it to the streets: Someone pulled over to ask for prayer
3 / Where We Lived:
Our whole squad was together for this month, which meant that all 50 of us lived and worked at Zion’s Gate. We all camped outside on the property together and shared a bathroom with three toilets and two showers. (Seriously!)
Also, for any of you wondering about our safety living on an open site, we were in good hands. Since so many American groups spend time working at Zion’s Gate, Tony convinced the police chief to station officers at his property 24/7, to keep the visitors and park safe and to slowly change the international reputation of Honduran police. Incredibly smart move on his part.
Our whole squad was together!
4 / My Team:
As I’ve grown (too) used to on the Race, we had another team change before the month started. My previous team of seven (HolyFIRE) had dwindled down to four during our time in Europe, so two guys were added to our team, both named Ryan. This was great news, because now our team has three guys and three girls, and it is the most gender-balanced group on a female-dominated squad.
Our new team is named Catalyzador, which means “catalyst” in Spanish. We want to be catalysts together and work to bring change. Plus we wanted an awesome Spanish name.
Team Catalyzador! Ryan G., Angela, Erin, Liz, Me, and Ryan M.
5 / Other People:
Tony: A little over 10 years ago, Tony didn’t know where Honduras was on a map but decided to go on a mission trip there. On the trip, a local pastor offered to let him move in with his family for a few months, which he returned to do later. During that second trip, Tony realized he’d spent 40 years of his life living in the US and wanted to spend the other 40 living and working in a place like Honduras. So with little Spanish, he packed up and moved there, eventually marrying a Honduran woman and starting the ministry we worked with. Tony is bold and has gained a lot of respect in rough areas nearby. He’s a legit guy!
The boys: As previously mentioned, Tony has a large family. Since there are so many boys there, we spent a lot of our down time with them. (Along with the campout, my other highlight with them was a movie night and sleepover.) They all used to live on the street and most of them were caught up in drugs and crazy situations. They are free to leave the property whenever they want, but Tony does set rules for each of them and they learn to appreciate their new life.
Other Missionaries: The other five missionaries are mostly people who worked with Tony on past mission trips and came back after getting fired up about his vision. Three of them were past World Racers, and out of two of them are staying there indefinitely and another is looking to start a similar ministry somewhere else in Latin America.
6 / Ministry Days:
There was a good calendar set up for all of our teams to have work, but here is what our ministry days looked like for the most part:
- Wake up super early, thanks to the 5:30 am sunrises and bright sunlight unmercifully blasting our tents
- Spend quiet time and grab breakfast (sugar cereal, milk, and bomb coffee) before work
- Start working around 8:00, head to whatever ministry our group is assigned to, work until lunchtime
- Lunch around 1:00, always good ol’ beans and rice with corn tortillas
- Work from around 2:00ish, until dinner time
- Dinner around 6:00, usually some combination of beans, rice, eggs, plantains, cream sauce, or tortillas
- Down time after that, team time somewhere in there too
7 / Travel Days:
Our travel from Ukraine to Honduras was the longest trip we’ve had on the Race. Here’s what it looked like in a nutshell: (times approximate, aka made up)
Sunday April 28:
- 9:30 am – Left ministry site in Ukraine, drove 90 minutes to Kiev airport
- 3:00 pm – Flight to Amsterdam (the Netherlands), about three hours
- 5:00 pm – Landed in Amsterdam for a short layover (clock switched back one hour), power walked to the other side of the airport to the right gate
- 5:45 pm – Flight to Atlanta, about ten hours
- 10:00 pm – Landed in Atlanta (clocks switched back eight hours), start of a domestic overnight layover where lots of people had friends and family meet up with them
- 10:20 pm – Found myself in a back room being investigated by the TSA after attempting to film a friend’s reunion with his girlfriend. Because of that I missed their reunion as well as another friend who got proposed to.
- 11:00 pm – Went to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings with a group, reunited with my teammate Alex, who went home the month before
Monday, April 29:
- 2:00 am – (After being awake 27 hours) Fell asleep on a bench in the terminal, woke up whenever the security alarm went off
- 8:00 am – Flight to Miami, about (?) hours. I was dead asleep on this flight and literally can’t remember anything
- 10:00 am – Landed in Miami, waited a couple hours
- 12:00 pm – Flight to Tegucigalpa (Honduras), about three hours
- 3:00 pm – Landed in Honduras, went through customs and immigration, then got picked up by a bright yellow school bus
- 4:30 pm – Finally arrived at our debrief site, 4 flights and 40 hours later!
8 / Awesome Adventures:
Off Days: Since we didn’t have internet all month, the majority of our off-days consisted of going to the mall for the entire day. There we were able to eat different food (that wasn’t beans and rice) and hunt down places with wifi like American scavengers.
Beach retreat: At the end of the month, Tony took our group to the southern coast for an overnight trip. We set up our tents on the beach and enjoyed a relaxing time on the Pacific coast, overlooking El Salvador. This was one of my highlights of the entire Race!
Going Home: Yes, I went home for a week to go to my sister’s wedding and that was a very interesting experience. I was at home just long enough to get culture shock and had it all over again when I got back.
Exploring the beach
9 / Driving Experience:
(My goal is to drive in every country, and so far I’m 9 for 9. See my Driving in the Philippines Blog for more info.)
Tony has two SUVs that he uses to get to the big city. When our team got a day to spend with him in Tegucigalpa, he let me drive his big Ford Expedition through the cramped city streets, through hectic Latin American traffic. My defensive driving skills improved during that session.
Also, I drove the other SUV to a mechanic in the city. That gray Kia is junky and clunky, so it frequents the mechanic shop regularly. Along with an extensive list of problems, the interior is completely shot, the rear windshield is a black garbage bag, and none of the “power” windows roll down. It was beastly hot driving around in that jank tank, so I was relieved when the window fell partially down while going over a speed bump.
10 / Phrases Learned:
I studied Spanish in high school and college, so I’ve been excited to spend time in Central America. There is still a lot I want to learn, but I know enough to hold conversations. This is much easier than being in Ukraine and not knowing a lick of Russian or Ukrainian.
11 / Big Lessons Learned:
I’m a big journaler in my walk with the Lord, and that’s usually how I process through lessons I learn. This month, I did all of my journaling in Spanish, and God spoke back in Spanish, which was awesome! During the month, I went through three short periods of different focus in my relationship with him. At the time, they were defined by three different verbs that I realized I was using a lot to describe how and where he had me:
Seguir: to follow, to pursue
Enseñar: to teach, to show
Confiar: to confide, to trust in
One thing I love about Spanish is that its verb driven and objects can directly be attached to the verbs. As I wrote to God and included him as part of the verbs that defined where I was, the verbs become reflexive and took on new meaning:
Seguirse: to follow somebody, to ensue (occur as a result)
Enseñarse: to learn, to accustom, to habituate
Confiarse: to entrust to somebody, to open heart up
As I pursued the Lord deeper in Spanish, he used my knowledge of that language to illustrate and explain lessons in new ways. Since my knowledge of the language is still growing, there are certain ways I have to describe things that puts them into new ways. And God can understand my grammar mistakes too, which is a big plus.
Well, that about sums up our month in Honduras. Overall it was a great month with the whole and great ministry. More recap blogs to come! 🙂
