Greetings from El Horne, Honduras!
When we first started World Race we were told that our countries can change at ANY moment. Yeah, well I didn’t think that would happen the FIRST month! My team and team Rooted 19:30 were sent to Honduras for the first month of ministry. We are staying at our ministry contact’s finca (farm) in the outskirts of the capitol city Tegucigalpa. Our ministry contact for the month is an Americano named Tony. He has been in Honduras for about three years. Tony has been involved with two communities that he has been doing outreach in. One community is in Tegucigalpa and is called “Los Penos” which is one of the toughest neighborhoods in Tegucigalpa. Tony has built relationships there over the years, so what we will be doing is doing lots of outreach activities such as sports activities, building relationships, and just doing whatever God leads us to do. Many of the youth here are just so lost and just need someone to engage in their life. Tony says that a majority of the kids in Los Penos get high on paint thinner. Satan has had just such a strong stranglehold on this community by tying the residents down with depression, drugs, and gang activity. I know this sounds like a really dangerous community to be in, but Tony has built strong relationships in Los Penos and is VERY respected-even by the gang members. It seems like our main focus for the month is to do outreach in Los Penos and try and work a balance into the other community named El Horno.
El Horno is such a beautiful little village! Some of my teammates and I got to spend time hanging out with some of the people there and they are SO caring and loving! They welcomed us into their homes with open hearts and offered many items such as coffee and fruits to us. The people here are so incredibly special and their sense of family and community is something really awesome!
Our trip getting from Antigua, Guatemala to El Horno, Honduras was quite the adventure. Originally we had planned to take public transportation to Honduras, but we got a really sweet deal on a van to carry us all there. We had originally heard the trip was only supposed to be 5-6 hours long. No big deal, right? So Wednesday at 5AM we packed 13 missionaries into a 14 passenger van, loaded our packs on top and crammed inside. Well we got word that our journey was going to be about 8-9 hours the morning we left. Oh goodie! Then a few hours later, we were told it’d actually be about a 12 hour drive. Sweet. I remember stopping at a gas station for a break and we had thought that we were only about an hour away which would make sense because we were at about the 11 hour mark. WRONG! Turns out we were still THREE hours away from our destination. So, 15 and a half hours of dodging semis, cows, chickens, potholes, and people we finally made it to our destination. Oh by the way, solid yellow parallel lines in the middle of the road that normally mean “No Passing Zone” don’t apply here in Central America. I can recall the countless times our driver Ricardo passed going up a hill or around a curve. It was actually quite entertaining and eye-opening.
But anyways, I feel like I have so much to write in which I will save for later blogs. I don’t want to bombard ya’ll with an information overload on my first few days of being out in the field! I just wanted to drop in and let ya’ll know that I’m safe here in Honduras and I’m ready to get to work!
Oh yeah, on Tuesday of launch training we took an adventure and hiked up an active volcano. I think it was named Pacaya. The last time the volcano erupted was in May of this year. It took us about an hour and a half to hike up some really steep trails. Once we made it near the top the view was definitely worth it. We roasted marshmallows by placing a stick in a hole where lava was flowing. It was AWESOME! There was a few times where I could feel the heat coming up through the soles of my shoes!
Ok for reals, that is all for now. Thank you to all of my readers and supporters for helping me get on this incredible journey that God called me to!
That is all!
See ya!
PK
