We made it to Honduras! Right now I'm writing this from a hammock at Zion's Gate Ministries in Tegucigalpa on our 4th full day here. It's 6:30 and almost dark outside, and pretty soon I'll be too cold in my shorts, fleece sweater, and flip-flops! It's SO beautiful here- landscape, weather, people… God is so good!
Our squad had to travel in two shifts from Quiche, Guatemala- the first left on Monday July 29th and arrived in Honduras late on July 30th. My team and I left in the second shift around 9:45am on Tuesday July 30th. We loaded all our bags up on our contact's truck, took a local bus/van thing to the center of town, and walked from there to the bus station (about a 5-10 minute walk, not counting getting lost). To clarify, these are not your normal public transit buses. These are like jazzed up (painted) school bus with metal seats- affectionately dubbed "chicken buses." It's normal to have 3 people to a seat with people standing in the middle aisle. I was the third person in a seat- aisle side- and because of the curvy, windy road, I was constantly sliding off of my seat into the seat next to me (or the person standing in the aisle next to me…). The first leg of this lasted for about two hours, and from there we waited around for our second bus that would take us the rest of the way to Antigua. When the bus came, we had to flag it down, yell at our people who were off buying snacks and goodies, grab our big packs, and run across traffic to make sure they didn’t leave without us. It was totally all God that we didn't have anything stolen, anybody left behind, and we made it to Antigua sometime mid-afternoon!
In Antigua, we stayed in a hostel where we had running water, internet, a roof, and beds!! It was SO nice after a month of sleeping in a tent and not having much shelter from the rain! I can't even describe how good it felt to sleep in a bed with a blanket instead of a sleeping bag!
We left Antigua the next morning at 4:00am in a shuttle bus for Guatemala City, where we met a tour bus at 6am sharp to drive from Guatemala City through El Salvador to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The drive from G City to Tegucigalpa lasted about 13 hours, but it was 13 hours of sleep, movies, chatting, reading… it was SO nice!
We arrived at Zion's Gate at about 8:30pm, ate some soup, hung up our hammocks and set up camp in a big meeting room for the night, and had a night of glorious sleep!
If Zion's Gate's ministry could be summed up in one word, I think it would be "life." We just live life together here. It's a 24/7 ministry. There are about X kids that live here- mostly street kids from a couple areas in Tegucigalpa. We love on them, build relationships with them, teach them English, play soccer with them, eat with them, etc. They live here, and they're just part of the family here. They're taught how to work, they go to school, but it's their choice to stay or not. They have to commit to following the rules if they want to stay. Most of them come from an environment of drugs (paint thinner, glue, marijuana, etc.), and they've either heard of Zion's Gate through the grapevine and have just showed up, or one of the staff has formed a relationship with them over time and they've decided to give it a try. It's SUCH a neat ministry. They're not begged to stay, but they're empowered to make good choices and to see a purpose and a plan for their lives. These kids are so hungry for love.
Even after a few days here I can tell how much different this month will look and that God is doing something totally new in me, in our team, in our squad, and in Honduras! Stay tuned for more blogs!
