I have arrived in Honduras! We have limited Internet access, so right now I am sitting in a HUGE mall in the middle of the city. To get here we left Antigua at 4 AM and had a 15 hour bus ride. We are living in an old bar that has been abandoned for 18 years and has now been bought by our ministry contact, Tony. His dream is to turn the property into one of the premier youth camps in the country. Tony goes into Tegucigalpa, the most dangerous city in Central America/the world, meets kids who live on the streets and brings them to his house and does life with them. He finds these kids living in dumpsters, involved in gangs, not knowing their parents, high on all sorts of drugs, and he brings them in and invited them into his home and his life. His motto is "Don't miss the opportunity", and you can tell it by the way he lives his life.
I'll start by saying it is so hard to try to write down all my experiences in a blog. I wish all of you could come down and travel with me to experience what I have been going through. I can't wait to have the chance to talk with people face to face and just share what I have been learning and walking through. This blog is only scratching the surface but I will do my best to explain.
This month my team and I are working in a school. The school is run out of Professor Maria's house in Tegucigalpa. She has about 20 students who have been rejected out of the schooling system. we have about 2 hours every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday where we come in and teach English. It's crazy to me how excited the kids are to learn English. I look back and remember how much I hated Spanish in school, I treated it like a waste of time and now I realize what an honor it was to even have the opportunity to be in school. This country is so far beyond anything I have ever experienced.
When we walked into the mall I had no idea how to process it. I've only been out for the country for a month and I already can't process things like how you can have a shopping mall in the middle of the slums with Wendy's, Walmart, Dunkin' Doughnuts, and American stores. It really makes me wonder what people really think of the way we live in America, you really don't realize it until you have been removed from it. I am not condemning it, but I think it is important to take a step back and think about the way we are living, why we do what we do, and realize how truly blessed we are.
We are the first squad to ever be entirely together in the same place for an entire month. So with that said there is never a quite moment here, there is always something going on or someone yelling or laughing or laughing while yelling. We have been encouraged to get to know people on other teams during dinner and whenever we are just hanging around. It has been really fun and I have met some amazing people who are in the same place I am. The other night I had dinner with my friend Kelly. I have always been able to joke around with her but I never had a "deeper" conversation with her. We started talking and she was asking me what the Lord has been teaching me over that last month and I started out with saying "not much…" And until she started asking me more specific questions I didn't give it a lot of thought. But when she got me started talking I couldn't stop talking! The Lord has been so faithful in revealing himself to me and he has taught me so much over the last month.
This month we are the first North Americans to be involved in the church and the community where we are. The church is just starting out in the community and they are trying to start up community programs and draw people in to the church. I was reading in 1 Corinthians 3 where Paul talks about building a solid foundation so that the people that come behind him will be able to build on. I really feel like this month we are starting to build a foundation and we are helping to pave the way for the people that will come behind us. It has been really fun getting to know people in the community and spending time with them.
I am really excited to see how the Lord continues to stretch me and to use me here in Honduras. Almost daily it hits me that I am in Honduras on The World Race, it blows me away to realize how blessed I am. I am living in Central America, in a beautiful setting, I'm surrounded by people who challenge me and encourage me, I have been sent to spread the love of Christ, and I am learning so much about who I am and who I am in Christ.
Every night we climb on top of the water tank and watch the sunset over the Honduran mountains. Its crazy that in the last month and a half I been in 3 different countries and been a part of something so much bigger than me.
Thank you everyone for giving me the chance to travel around the world and live this dream.
