Catacamas, Honduras. One of the most beautiful towns I’ve had the pleasure of dwelling in. Imagine waking up to misty mountains every morning, with hills covered in various different greens and slight blues. There are cows grazing amongst the fields with chickens of course. What really makes Catacamas stand out is the pace of living here is so chill. Even though it is a mountain town with lots of country, there’s still quite a few busy streets to satisfy this city girl. The markets are filled with a mix of clothing, bags, fruits and vegetables. In the heart of Catacamas is a Central Park with the largest tree I’ve ever seen. It’s roots are right in the center where it could seat at least a hundred people and as it grows upward, the branches and limbs cover the entire park which is about a block long and wide. Also, I asked our wonderful host, Pastor Nelson where the best coffee in town in (of course) and he said this shop right next to a Texaco gas station. He was 100% right, the coffee was delicious!
We have the pleasure of living on Discovery Christian School’s Retreat Center. It’s full of recreational glory, we have a basketball court, a pool, a huge kitchen and we sleep in the dorms. There’s a sweet family that lives on campus with us, Ignacio (who we recently found out also goes by Nacho) and his wife Bilma. They have 4 kids as well but they are adults and teens and two of their daughters, Yeni and Julie stay around the house with them. Over the past two weeks, we’ve slowly started to spend more time with them. Bilma has had us girls over in the mornings for coffee and she loves to tell us how much she appreciates having us spend time with her and give her hugs. We’ve only been here for two weeks and all this family wants to do is love on us and spend time time with us. Central America is like that though, the people here love and love and love. Last night, we had a bonfire and invited Yeni and Julie over for s’mores and at first they said they might come. After a few minutes the girls head over towards our team with their Mom, Bilma as well. They all tasted their very first s’mores with us! A few minutes later, Nacho joins in also. The whole family tried something new with us. Bilma and the girls head back to their home, but Nacho decided to hang out a little bit longer with us. We originally just wanted a relaxed, comfortable night just hanging out as a team, but that’s not God wanted for us that day. We ended up talking about the gospel to Nacho that night. I had assumed that since we were staying at a Christian campus, that everyone here already believed and followed Jesus. Nacho told us that he was currently doing his own thing because he didn’t feel worthy that he could have a relationship with God. He felt that his life needed to be completely filled with obedience for him to go to church. Bilma goes to church all the time, but he just didn’t feel worthy. My heart broke for Nacho that night. He knew so much about who Jesus was and that He believed in God, but he just had a hard time believing that God would love him, wholeheartedly. After Nacho shared, Ben shared his testimony with him and told him that God never stops loving us. We get to make a decision to pursue a life following after Jesus’ footsteps.
“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light – for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.” Ephesians 5:8-9
The Lord has been teaching me about what it means to step into evangelism and plant those seeds. God doesn’t just place people in my life randomly. Everything happens for a reason. Nacho and his family have blessed us so much and they are tapping in to receiving the wonderful gift that comes from knowing Jesus. Please keep Nacho in your prayers, that the Lord would shower him with love and that the enemy would no longer tell him lies about how he is unworthy, because he is! We are all worthy of having a relationship with Jesus no matter who we are or what we’ve done or what we’ve been through. Jesus is constantly seeking a relationship with us, and wanting us to seek after Him back. He is forever faithful and I can’t wait pour into all of the Nachos that we’re going to meet on this journey.
Love, B.
