Dear friends and family and everyone in between –
Hello! It’s a new month in 2015 and for me that means a new country. This month I am in Honduras. Originally my squad was going to Nicaragua for our 4th country, but we had a route change. Unexpected changes, big and small, happen all the time on the world race and they can even be something as drastic as a whole different country to go to. Every month the 8 teams on the squad are placed at a Christian ministry location within the country they’re presently in.
There is one month during many people’s World Race where your squad leaders place you on a mission called Unsung Heroes! This ministry is unlike any other. In short, you aren’t placed anywhere as a team. Your team spends the whole month organizing it’s time to finding existing Christian ministry contacts in that country that are “unsung” and have yet to be found and contacted by the World Race. It’s flexible, chaotic, scary, exciting, and all those new-adventure type feelings you can think of.
My teammate Brandon (whose blog you can find on the left side of this page!) has been designated as our team “Unsung Hero” coordinator to train us on how to find and meet contacts, how to organize the whole month, and how to approach everything we do could possibly do. It’s crazy how although we are doing this mission, this month we have SO much is in our own hands. We have to find our places to stay, new contacts, and we get to listen to God in new ways.
After a collective 20 hour long bus ride and 3 border crossings, my squad arrived in Honduras. We unloaded everything off our bus and my team was headed to our reservation at a hostel in Tegucigalpa. Upon arrival we spoke with the bus terminal workers and they informed us that the hostel we wanted to go to was in a very dangerous part of the city. Our plans flustered, our wifi options lacking, and our faith shaking, we didn’t know what to do. Enter Gracie. Gracie is the contact host for one of the other squad teams this month and she was there shortly after our bus load of people arrived, greeting our squad and helping us get to where we had to go. I made my way over to her and asked her the best hostel to stay at in Tegucigalpa. She replied with a short “none” and I was caught off guard. She noticed this and further explained that everything was most likely booked because of “Semana Santa” or Holy Week, the week before Easter. As nice as this sounds, she said this was probably the most dangerous weeks of the year to be in the capital because of the extensive celebrations and craziness that flood the streets. Quicker than I could hesitantly respond she said we could stay at her small compound in Talanga, a small city about an hour from Tegucigalpa. She said that for a week or so my team could join her and the other squad team and figure things out. We could be the “icing on top of the cake,” she graciously added.
Gracie’s place is incredible. First though, let me note that we are learning how messed up the problems in this country are. Gracie’s place takes in Honduran girls who were subject to rape, violence, incest, or drugs. Talk about being in the middle of real life issues right? These girls she disciples, feeds, and employs on her staff. They become her family because through it all she loves on them so well. She shows them that what has happened to them is not who they are. She assures these girls that their worth is in their relationship with Jesus.
Phew! So here I am with my team! We are seeing the Lord’s grace and favor in the midst of hectic situations. We are confronted with so many unknown things every morning that we have no choice but to pray and ask the Lord about any and every thing. There’s no doubt the month of April will be something that stretches my faith beyond belief. We are leaving Gracie’s mission home in a few days and we are headed to the capital to encounter who knows what. The month of unsung heroes is truly..TRULY..a nomadic life of listening to the Lord with expectant hearts.
