Life is a daring adventure
Going into Honduras all of us were told to be wise, to not live in fear this month but constantly reminded that Honduras is in no way safe, especially if you are a woman. It was hard for me because I didn’t want to constantly be in a state of worry. I felt calm and confident in the Lord but also there is nothing I can do if I am just constantly freaking out instead of just enjoying the fact that I get to live in Honduras for a month! I knew going into it that we wouldn’t be living in the safest places but I trusted that I would be okay, no matter the situation.
Situation:
Our first day in Honduras was nothing like we thought it would be, we left Nicaragua around 6:30 am and had expected with some delay, to be at our ministry around 3 pm. How wrong we would be, as usually our plans are never our own. The drive to the boarder was chill, watched movies, laughed, listened to music, all the things 46 people can do to entertain themselves on a 3-hour drive. As we arrived to the boarder we had no idea how long it was going to take, while our 3 amazing logistics coordinators went into the building we waited and within an hour they came out and the Nicaraguan women started to list our names to grab our passports and get on the bus. We sat as the bus driver got off and some thought maybe he had forgotten to do something. Nope. The boarder people didn’t like that we had guitars on the bus, in turn what could have been a simple 30-minute excretion turned into a 5 hour wait. Now in America if you cross the border into Canada you go through boarder control once, that isn’t the case here, you go through leaving Nicaragua and then you enter Honduras. It was at this point 3:30 pm and we still had to enter Honduras. Yet we were in high spirits, given we had to sit in the hot sun we still got to spend time with each other, eat some ice cream, and assume that the Lord was protecting us from something or just giving us more time together.
We got through the boarder, everyone got off, showed their passports, got them stamped, and then got back on the bus. We were back on our way to Tegucigalpa where our ministry host was meeting us. An hour into the ride we got stopped at a routine police station and an officer got on to check things out then proceeded to get off. Now we all thought we would be on our way. No. The bus driver needed to check the engine which turned out something had broken, they would need to go grab the part to fix it. We were all to just relax for an hour or two until they got the part if they could. We were told that the police in Honduras were corrupt so we were not to trust them too much. Since we were parked at the police station we were told to not be too loud and if we got off the bus we were to line up on the side. Now I can tell you that quickly went out the window after an hour of waiting people were laughing joking with the officers and playing cards. Some were sleeping on the ground, others were on the bus watching movies. Later our ministry host would tell us that the police are not as corrupt as we had been told to think and we were in a safe place given that we could have broken down on the side of the road or something. After 3 hours of sitting we got the verdict that all the auto stores were closed and the part was not coming, but that the driver’s family had a bus that was similar in size and was about 3 hours away.
At this point you would think that we all were just done. annoyed. cranky. Nope. We all just molded to the situation, and just relaxed. It honestly just gave us more time to spend with each other, and adapt to the fact that we never know what is going to happen. I think that is going to be a recurring theme in the next 8 months.
We got to our ministry host at 3 am in the pitch dark in one of the most dangerous places in the world, we were tired but we were safe. I look back at that situation and think what an adventure for a travel day, yet I never had a moment where I was fearful or thought that I was in trouble, or even annoyed that we were just sitting there. You can’t complain when you get to travel the world, but more than that we don’t have to freak out and be fearful. If I constantly let my fear over power me then I would never have many of the most amazing memories. I can’t let my fear of the unknown take away from the life I could experience. The lord heard us and was protecting us. All in all, no my safety is not guaranteed but my faith in Him to protect and watch over us all is.
