Team Rover landed in Honduras last Wednesday around mid day. Quickly realizing the Spanish courses I slept through in high school would be have been a huge help to me now. Everything about Tegucigalpa is like an altered reality of the states. Across the street from the airport we found ourselves buying Little Caesars. Crossing the street was like dodging a stampede of wild animals. Everyone honks and stares at the “gringos” as we walk through towns and the city. We found ourselves taking a taxi to our bus stop after waiting in the airport for a few hours.
Trash filled streets and swarms of people…
At training camp we have a market day where everyone from WR staff dresses up and takes all 200+ racers and shoves them into a tiny make shift market. Bombarding us with vehicles, pick pocketers, drug dealers, police, bums, and people we can not understand as we try and take our “bills” to vendors to buy our dinner. Like an explosion of people coming at you from every angle. Fast forward 2 months and here we are Team Rover, find ourselves on the street with our packs and suitcases filled with supplies for our ministry hosts in a more than real scenario. Fear doesn’t show up until it has you where it wants you. I can’t describe the feeling of seeing a group of adult men point and look at your belongings discussing what you can only assume is if they are going to take them or not. Shout our for Alumni Squad Leaders! We were blessed with Christian Yoder as our first leader this month, she got us off the street and out of the eyes of unwanted attention. As we waited what seemed like an eternity for our bus to Pena Blanca I recalled the words of friend spoken to me hours before my flight.
The devil only feeds you his fears so that you fear what he fears, if you’re afraid to be somewhere, it is because he is afraid for you to be there. Remember that you are a walking beacon to the darkness. Take your thoughts captive and turn it around on the evil one.
You best believe he has something to fear when a group of 7 radical jesus lovers walk through the streets of Tegucigalpa and to the ends of the earth for that matter.
After we finally boarded it was even more apparent that we were not wanted on that bus. I took some quick videos of the streets as we drove out of the city and eventually went to sleep. I awoke to the bus coming to a halt and being told that this was our stop. Stumbling off the bus giving a quick look around I realized that this must be a mistake. My eyes met a shopping strip off the side of the highway. Before I could even question the situation our bags were being pulled from the under storage and the bus was driving away. We were dumped out on the street clearly not at our destination. Out of the darkness appeared a man holding a shotgun, (id like to mention that every street corner I found myself on at this point had someone armed guarding something.) “Harmless” but still not something you are accustomed to seeing. The police even showed up and at this point it really sank in that I was not at home. Luckily our ministry hosts eventually pulled up in a van to our rescue, #PTL
I don’t have any other way of saying it but I wouldn’t have changed anything about our journey through Honduras to our ministry site if I had the opportunity.
This month we are blessed to begin our first assignment working with the Eternal Family Project. We are assisting, teaching and sharing life with these beautiful young women. I hope to be the best example of a male role model for these ladies. I have had the privilege to teach music, 2nd/3rd grade math, 5th grade math, and PE. I am so blessed to be in their lives. I couldn’t have asked for a better month 1 for the world race.
I will be doing video updates as well, be on the look out!
Here is the link for the ministry I am serving at
http://www.eternalfamilyproject.org
FOLLOW MY TEAM ON THEIR BLOG PAGES!
Alumni Squad Leader – Christian Yoder
http://christianyoder.theworldrace.org
Ashley Nirmalnath
http://ashleynirmalnath.theworldrace.org
Kat Schatz
http://katarinaschatz.theworldrace.org
Morgan Palmer
http://morganpalmer.theworldrace.org
Regina Russo
http://reginarusso.theworldrace.org
Paige Thiele
http://paigethiele.theworldrace.org
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