I am so sorry for neglecting my blog for over a month. I have found these days that pouring into the people right next to me has been so important, that I have been neglecting those of you following this crazy journey of mine.
My month in Honduras was crazy from the beginning.
As we left Haiti, I wasn’t really that excited about coming back to Central America. For me, Central America is one of those places that I simply cannot escape. God keeps bringing me back here. My first mission trip ever was to Costa Rica. As I left then, I simply thought to myself… “This was cool, but I probably won’t ever come back to this part of the world again… and I don’t really mind.” Then a few years later I spent the first three months of my race in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. As we flew out of Honduras on that day in April two years ago my thought was a little more cynical. “See ya NEVER Central America.” Little did I know just over two years later I would be back. It wasn’t that I didn’t like it, it was that I was just kind of indifferent to it. I loved El Salvador, but I wasn’t sure if I loved it enough to go back.
We flew in to Guatemala City, where the temperature was a perfect 68 degrees. I wasn’t sweating for once in two months. It was so wonderful. The next morning I got on a bus and all I knew was that it was headed for Honduras. I didn’t know the route we were taking or anything. As we drove out of Guatemala City something was different. Nostalgic. Something made it seem like home, like finding a part of my heart that had been left behind. I was prepared for the bus ride and after a while I decided that it was time for me to sleep. I grabbed my headphones and my pillow and snuggled up by a window. Some people on the squad woke me up briefly to find out where my passport was so I could cross the border. I barely opened my eyes enough to tell them where it was. I figured we were just entering into Honduras and would be in the capital a few hours later. Sometimes at the border they don’t even require you to get off the bus to get stamped into a country, so in my sleepy state I assumed this was what was happening. A little while later I awoke to our bus stopping for some food for a few minutes. As I sat up and looked around my friend Erin said “Morning Sunshine! Welcome to El Salvador.” I was so confused, intrigued, happy, giddy. It was a strange mix of emotions. It was true, we drove through El Salvador. We got into San Salvador and I saw the first bus station I was dropped off at there. And I knew the area near the mall. As we continued on our way to Honduras I knew that we were going to drive near the city I lived in. Sure enough, the road was all too familiar. I stared anxiously out my window, waiting for the view that had been sketched into my heart in February 2012. Suddenly we came around a curve and I knew it. I knew the mountain, and there in the valley, snug as it always had been… San Vicente. I could see the bell tower and I knew that the Microwave (the house we stayed in…) was just a few blocks away, and our church only a few blocks in the other direction. I remember where the Pollo Campero is, and the best place to get Pupusas. The grocery store and the pharmacy. In a moment it all came flooding back. The sweet babies I got to love; the mom who tried to give me her daughter; the schools where we were asked for our autographs; the team times; the church services; the questions about my theology; the spiritual explosion God brought to my life in El Salvador. It was almost too much. As we passed the turn off I felt the tug from the piece of my heart that I left in San Vicente. We continued to drive on towards Honduras. This was the same bus route that I took from El Salvador to Honduras on my race. The same rest stops, the same border crossing. It was all so familiar. Even in the dark, I could feel the familiarity. A few hours later, I could see the lights from Tegucigalpa here and there as we drove through the mountains. At one point I knew we weren’t very far away from the city. I looked out my window and knew the view all too well, so I looked out the other side of the bus and right there on the left was the ministry I worked with in Honduras. Everything was so familiar and also new. My time in Honduras was so different. I traveled to five specific locations and spent significant time with three teams. I saw so much of the country and gained many more stories. While there, I came to the conclusion that I am no longer completely opposed to spending time in Central America. If it happens, it happens and I am okay with that.
I set foot in five countries and basically relived the first three months of my race in the span of about 48 hours. It made me reflect back on how much I have grown in the last two and a half years. I can see a difference in myself. Thank you all for being a part of this journey and process with me. I seriously could not do this without you. I am so grateful for those who have stuck with me and listened to my crazy stories and asked me the hard questions. You guys are amazing. Please continue to stick with me through this journey. I am still fundraising to be out here on the field, please consider supporting me financially for this Squad Leading journey.
I promise I will blog more…
Much love,
-A
