Almost two weeks into the Race!
What does that look like you may ask? Well, it looks a bit like….
• Exploring the city of Antigua with 64 of your newest & dearest “traveling companions� and climbing a tree or two.
• Realizing that the process of buying, preparing, cooking, eating, and cleaning up a meal 3 times will literally be all you do some days.
• Discovering the most incredible coffee shop and lovingly referring to is as the Happy Cow – which is indeed not its real name although I continually forget.
• Hiking up a volcano that had erupted 4 months previously.
• Getting coned into “renting� a stick. Yes, a stick.
• Roasting marsh-mellies over fiery lava rock
• Realizing that mayonnaise can indeed get more disgusting – by being sold in a bag.
• Strapping 13 giant backpacks to the top of a bus & experiencing a so-called 6 hour bus ride from Guatemala to Honduras turn into a 17 hour cross-country adventure.
• A van full of Racers climbing over each other to relieve sore bottoms, cramped legs, and practicing “preferringâ€� each other by fighting over the jump seat.
• That no matter where you are it takes 2 more hours to get to your destination.
• When you have a bus driver named Ricardo, get ready for him to be the best pot-hole swerving, semi-truck passing, rhinoceros defeating, 60mph curvy mountain road speed-demon driver you’ve ever met.
• Realizing that a single “energizing drinkâ€� will get you through anything – especially a Honduran police that won’t let missionaries through his check point until he realizes they have a Coke with his name on it.
• Realizing that the Honduran food industry does not have a correct understanding of product packing-to-real life proportion. See Alex’s video!
• That when you get to another country, you don’t really care how you look or how often you shower.
• It’s completely normal to be headed somewhere with no clue of where it is, or how you are going to get there.
• That rice & eggs can indeed look like mashed potatoes & chicken bits, and combined with soy sauce, bell peppers, chicken bouillon & a side of cinnamon toast can surprisingly turn into a rocking meal.
• Having to claim it & when you forget the throw the TP in the trash can & a teammate is calling you out to fish you mistake out of the toilet bowl.
• Riding in the car with a chicken on your lap – and it’s still alive.
• That when spontaneous dance parties erupt in the home you are visiting, Chacos should not be the shoe of choice.
• Experiencing a night of freeze tag, roasting marshmallows, communicating through charades, dancing to live Honduran music, kids with your camera, and having your heart fall madly in love with 20 of God’s children.
• Feeling the burden God can place on your heart for a people group.
• Holding a young girl a crying over what she is returning home to.
• Being called to bring hope to a lost community – to be bold. To love deeply. To walk in confidence of Christ’s dwelling among us and reclaim a community for Him.
This has been life. Already, these moments have been some of the hardest I’ve ever experienced. I can feel God preparing us for something big. Crazy big. He is transforming a city. My team & Allan’s team are in El Horno, Honduras for the next month building relationships with the people in El Horno and Las Pinos. Specifically, we are pouring into a “streetâ€� family-a mother living & working in the local dump with 7 kids living alone in Las Pinos. More about their story – which is a beautiful one – in my next blog. As of now, just pray for our teams. Los Pinos is hurting. They have no hope and don’t have any faith that their community can change. On Monday our two teams are driving into the city to pray over it and reclaim it. Pray for us. God is moving & He has called us to be a part of His transformation.
Love, Mary
Enjoy some pictures from these past few weeks…..
