Today was a fun day. We started the day by going to FEB21. This is a project in a gang run area of Tegucigalpa. We were told that when we got to the neighborhood we had to roll the windows down. The gangs don’t like dark tinted windows. They can’t tell who is coming into their area. The gang knows the truck we are riding in and the driver so we are safe. Iglesia Impacto (Impact church) is our destination.
The gang that runs this part of the city likes and even protects the church. Why would they do this you might ask? Well, they know that the church teaches their kids at their school, treats them at their clinic and feeds them at their church. Why would they run them out when all this help comes to them for free?
I was asked to do a video story about an elderly couple that was raising two of the kids that come to the project. Video is why I’m here so I jumped at the chance to document this. Then the reality of what I had volunteered to do sunk in. I have to walk about ten blocks round trip through the neighborhood with my not so little video camera and then shoot a video in a not so private front porch and then walk back to the church. All the wile being told not to take any pictures along the way and don’t go anywhere without one of the men from the project. God what where you thinking on this one? I’m a big, very white guy walking through a barrio that a gang runs with a large video camera hidden in my bag. I stick out like a walking billboard. But then the real reality of my God starts to come through. I am exactly where God asked me to go. I am doing what He asked me to do. I am helping His people. I am as safe here in gangland than I would be home in America. This fact became very real this week.
After a long day at one of the projects the girls and I came home to relax for a bit before dinner. After a long day of shooting videos, setting up spreadsheets, and teaching kids it’s nice to just take it easy for a bit.
I decided to go out on the balcony to enjoy the evening and the amazing view, a simple decision that didn’t seem life and death by any means. I walked out and stood for maybe a second or two when the wind caught the door behind me. This sent the door, a single plate of glass hurtling shut. As you probably already guessed the window exploded!
I was only a foot maybe two away when this happened. Here’s the real scary part of the story. They don’t use safety glass in Honduras. Well, at least not on this door. The door hit with such force that pieces of glass landed on the other side of the balcony a good seven feet away. Daggers of glass a foot long went flying at me! I was facing away from the door so I knew nothing of the danger until it was already happening. I only had workout shorts and a t-shirt on and was now standing barefoot in the field of glass that has flown all around me. 
Needless to say this was not what I had expected in the “safety” of our apartment. Once the shock of the initial explosion wore off I thought I better get out of the glass and check for damage. My legs felt like they had razor burn on them. I only found four small cuts on my legs and foot. They had small pieces of glass in them but nothing to terrible. And then it hit me. I have done more damage to myself shaving than a full sized plate glass door exploding 24 inches from me had! I must keep my angels very busy. I had nothing to show for this but four small band-aids on my legs at the end of the day. The door on the other hand didn’t fair so well. This accident was nothing more that a glass door, a very large gust of wind and bad timing. It could have happened in my house in America. God always provides and protects when we are following what He has told us to do.
As I thought about all of this one question kept coming to mind. Am I in more danger out in the barrios with the kids, the people, and the gangs or at home in America? The only answer I can come up with is both… if God didn’t tell me to be there.
