So this month in Honduras for my team, “The Goodtimers” which includes all the guys from our squad of 45 we have been tasked with a month of ministry-finding mystery titled Unsung Heroes.
The basic idea is to research, and make contact with ministries in the country that Adventures and Missions has yet to partner with so that future World Race teams can go to these spots.
It’s been an awesome two weeks so far especially when you find a random contact like we did. Enter pastor Fidel Bardales of The Way and the Truth Ministry.
A man who would stop at nothing to make sure that our team of 6 guys was taken care of. From willing to drive a total of 8 hours to pick us up (which was a kind gesture that we just couldn’t accept) to finding a hotel and negotiating a price for us. The guy was so exited. One of my team mates said it best, he “treated us like Jesus would have” the entire time.
So after several laughs, talks and words of encouragement I took one thing to heart from our friend pastor Fidel. He wasn’t just our pastor or a friend, this guy’s our brother. I mean at the end of several of his sentences it would end off with “yes my brother”!
As the week continued we got the chance to join pastor Fidel at the “mother church” of the way and the truth ministry in a small town just outside of Choluteca Honduras, called something I don’t have the name for at the moment, for Sunday morning service. Where in fact it wasn’t like any normal service I’ve been to back in Canada at all. This day was the day known as Children’s Day, where kids owned the joint! Crazy enough to say kids loaded the church more then I saw adults!
So, some kids sung some songs and then we as a group were introduced, and might have lead the biggest version of Melodias en mi corazon with everyone participating! (Check out the video at the bottom)
Us: “Hey pastor Fidel we can do whatever you need us to do!”
Pastor: “alright, lead some games now!”
Hey, this is the WorldRace, we should be pros at this being unprepared thing.
At this point we were reeling! We split Into pairs and me and my buddy Casey Murry got put with the little little ones where we were drawing a blank….until we thought back to our days in Puerto Rico, month 1 (January).
So we remembered and played Papa Caliente (hot potato) with the 20 or so kids in our group. It was too much fun as Casey and I took turns saying the what seemed like a tongue twister “papa caliente” over and over as fast as we could while the kids passed around the thing we used as the potato. It was so on the spot we just used a nalgene.
But nothing can end a kids day much better than some piñata madness where all the kids get so close to the piñata that it looks like they’re just about to get wacked.
This church was great. It had so much life. we got to see so much this little church had going on with it and let’s hope one day other world racers can see what we saw that day. Pure Joy!
1 John 4:20
If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
1 John 3:18
Let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.
