Some of my team and I got to go to Roatan during Semana Santa (Holy Week). Roatan is an island off of Honduras in the Caribbean. And my goodness, y’all. It was breathtaking.
During Semana Santa most everything in Honduras shuts down including the schools and orphanages that my team has been working at. Once we found out that there really wasn’t going to be work for the team to do, we started plotting what we would do with our time. After travel plans A through Q fell through, we finally had our trip to Roatan sorted out. Ish.
We were staying in Roatan for four days. However, we only had the house the team was renting booked for three of those. Which left the first night up in the air. Our master 20-something plan was to get to the island and figure out where we stay that night even though we knew most everything would be booked. We all felt the Lord would take care of us because that’s what the Lord says he’ll do. However, it was still unexpected when we were sleeping in the living room of some vacationing Wisconsin natives we met on a boat earlier that day. Sierra and friends, if you’re reading this, thanks for letting us crash in your living room. I hope you enjoyed the cookies.
Everything was going fantastic until the night before Easter when my stomach decided that it didn’t want to be friends anymore. It reminded me of our newfound rivalry every hour or so through the night. Early the next morning, when my team went to go host a sunrise service we’d been inviting locals to, I had some time to myself to think. I realized that while becoming reacquainted with the contents of one’s stomach is never fun, I wasn’t sad.
Staying in bed while my friends snorkeled the second largest reef didn’t weigh me down. Something I’ve come to learn on this trip is that even though I might be missing out on something, I can still go to God for joy. I could be just as content lying with God sick in bed as I could be lying out on the beach. Not because of the Zen state of mind I’d taught myself to be in, but because I’ve been learning to go to God for my joy.
