Just want to start this one off by letting you know that we have made it to our ministry site in Honduras safe and sound! We are about an hour outside the capital at a ministry called Heart of Christ. I’m sure I’ll tell you more about the ministry later, but right now I really want to talk about God’s hedge of protection – and I want to start by telling you the story of our most recent travel day.
Friday, December 2nd started off just like all our other travel days have – crawling out of bed at a crazy early hour. I believe I got up at around 5:30 am (which honestly normally wouldn’t be too bad, but I didn’t get to sleep until about 1:30 – only four hours earlier). The whole squad started packing up the bus at 6:30 and we were on the road around 7. We all believed that it would be about a 6-8 hour trip, plus an additional hour for my team, but boy were we wrong.
The first two hours of driving went by fast and without complication. We arrived at the border expecting it to take us about 2 hours to both exit Nicaragua and enter Honduras. However, while trying to leave Nicaragua, a border guard who was inspecting the bus saw we had a few guitars and ukuleles and decided that we needed to complete these separate forms in order to continue. So we tried doing that. However, to make a long story short: we ran all around, had to fill out some of the same forms more than once, and spent hours in lines while workers were on lunch break. What should have taken 1 hour took 5. All to leave Nicaragua with our own guitars.
Finally, we were able to leave Nicaragua and start the process of entering Honduras. We all filed back out of the bus and lined up inside to go through customs. This actually went very smoothly, but still took us about an hour. So it took us 6 hours just to cross the border. Then we all piled back into the bus and were on the road again – believing we had four hours of driving left and then we’d be there. Nope.
After about two hours of driving, we got pulled off by some cops at a traffic check. The police come on the bus and tried asking some questions. Eventually, they decided we were fine and let us keep going. So we go to leave but the bus is broken. So, we are at this police station not able to leave. Our bus drivers begin trying to fix the bus, but it clearly was going to take a while so eventually the police allow us to leave the bus. The bus drivers try for hours to fix it, call a friend to get parts but all the parts stores are closed, and eventually give up and tell us they need to call a different bus to come pick us up. We were there for 6 hours. During this time people slept on the parking lot ground, had a dance party with the police, sat inside the air conditioned office, watched movies, played cards, etc. During this time it also got dark.. and late.
Eventually, at around 11:30pm, the new bus arrived. We moved all of our stuff over and finished the drive. Then my team, at around 3 am got on the bus that our ministry host was waiting with and drove another hour to our ministry site. We got in around 4:30am. What was supposed to be a 9 hour trip turned into a 23 hour day.
Why did I tell you this story when I said I’d be talking about God’s hedge of protection? Because God was definitely looking out for us. Honduras is a very dangerous country. It has the nickname “murder capital of the world”. It is much more dangerous than the last two countries we have been to – it’s corrupt, there’s a lot of violence, and it’s definitely not good to be out at night. Yet there we were, at night, with a broken down bus. Rather than just being pulled over randomly on the side of the road, God placed us at a police station. Another bus was eventually able to pick us up. Our host was still waiting for us… HOURS AND HOURS LATER! We didn’t have to then go try and find a hostel in the middle of the night. God provided.
Then, during our meeting yesterday, our first day here, our ministry host was going over everything with us. She made sure to tell us what we needed to know about Honduras and the ministry. One big topic of discussion was security. She talked about God’s hedge of protection. She let us know that Honduras is not a safe country, but if we live in God’s wisdom and His hedge of protection, He will take care of us. We can either choose to live how we want to live and do what we want to do, or we can use wisdom and discernment. God wants to protect us. But we have to do our part. We can’t do things we know will put us at risk and just expect God to take care of us. We have to be careful. We have to be wise. But we don’t have to fear.
Going into this month, I’d just ask you to keep my team and my squad in your prayers. Please continue to pray for our protection. Pray that God fills us with His wisdom and that we are ready and willing to hear from and be guided by the Spirit.
Please also pray for this country. I’ll tell you more in the near future, but we have already heard some heart-wrenching stories that are not uncommon here. Pray for peace, pray for love. Pray that God continues to be on the move here and that His love spreads uncontrollably. Please also pray for our ministry hosts. They have been here for over a decade and have done some amazing things in this place. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.
Thank you so much to all of my supporters. I would not be here without you, and this trip has already been life-changing and it’s only the beginning of month 3. God is at work. He is using you and He is using me. Thanks so much for being part of this journey.
