I am just blown away by this country, the green rolling hills that are the elevation of the Rockies, the culture and community. There is not a moment I’m outside that it’s not breathtaking views and a fresh cool breeze. I am feeling God tear me down so he can build me up. He is using the bricks thrown at me to build a foundation to be strong in him.
Thursday, January 10th – O squad checked out of the hotel in DC and put our backpacks on…Sleeping on the floor of the airport anxiously awaiting our flight to Miami. We arrived at IAD at 10pm and couldn’t check our bags until 4am. Most of us weighing our bags over and over and double checking our 50lb weight limit.
Friday, January 11th– 4am came around really fast and before we knew it we were on the plane to Miami. With knots in my stomach I knew when I arrived I had an hour to say last goodbyes to family and friends. Tegucigalpa here we come! As the plane was landing we are circling in the middle of the city surrounded by mountains. The airport is this little landing strip in the middle of all the commotion of the city. Cars and malls surround the airport, its nothing I’ve ever seen in my entire life. The city smells of burning trash because that’s their waste management system. We got picked up in a school bus, which also happens to be the public transportation system for Honduras. Our ministry was about a 30 minute ride outside of Tegucigalpa called Zion’s Gate. The compound is beautiful! Our ministry host, Tony, converted an old dance club called “The Cotton Club” into a place where he houses young boys off the streets and from the dumps of Tegucigalpa and Los Pinos. All the boys have made a commitment they want to change their lives and get to know God. All of them are here willingly and are trying to get sponsored to go to school. Learning we have on co-ed bathroom with cold showers and no-flush toilets was a surprise. I know I should have expected that, but, I didn’t. I did some nail manicure ministry and went to bed, I was emotionally exhausted. I really felt out of my element never being on a mission trip in the past, and missing everyone back home.
Saturday, January 12th– It’s so hard getting used to sleeping in a tent; I really need to invest in a pillow I think it will make it a lot easier. We went to this amazing national park in Tegucigalpa called Los Pichaca. You can see the whole city and it’s overlooked by a big statue of Jesus. It was such a blessing to be able to pray over Tegucigalpa at the stop with all of O squad. I got to play with a wild monkey at the park, surprisingly very people friendly minus stealing your food. The girls of O squad blessed the kids in Zion’s Gate ministry with zip line rides. I also got the girls ice cream cones; it is so nice to bring a smile to their faces. I took so many pictures my camera died right before we left the park. We all ate local plantain chips and salsa, it was sooo good. The little boys here at Zion’s Gate are hilarious they tell you to close your eyes and put a little firecracker in between your feet. The lord is so great and powerful after worship and prayers we started with the testimonies of our world race squad. God was breaking the chains of feelings people had for years. God was cleansing the dirt off of us which is a great way to start the year. I’ve never experienced so much unity and community. When I tell you the Holy Spirit was moving within us that night I am not exaggerating.
Sunday, January 13th – I took my first FREEZING cold shower; I’ve been kind of avoiding it since I got here. I walked to the Pulperia, which is like a corner store; it was so nice to get a Coke. It tastes so much different in Central America because they use real sugar. I got a coke, Doritos (which are made with jalapeno), and two lollipops for a dollar (20 Lempiras). Having a relaxing day and setting up my ENO hammock was perfect! We had church at 4 and some of the boys from Zion’s Gate shared their testimonies. The boy that was translating for the pastor his name was Jesus; he tried to commit suicide yesterday and is here on special permission from his parents. He is going to treatment tomorrow it was such a blessing to pray for healing of his mind and body. One is the other boys, Ariel, had shared about his family life. He is from Los Pinos. He was telling us how one time he witnessed his father stab himself in the heart with a knife and was bleeding out in the living room. I was sitting next to his older brother Ronny, and his younger sister Amalia and they started sobbing very hard. I laid my hands on them to pray when I heard Ariel talking about his dad’s final suicide attempt. He hung himself in Ariel’s mother’s house in Los Pinos. With the family being separated he was making a statement on how it was because of her. He talked about how the neighborhood talked bad about the family for months accusing them of his death. The night consisted of prayer and a dance party with the local Hondurans. Friends playing the guitar and singing worship music. I am so blessed to be Gods hands and feet working as a missionary. Tony’s ministry is so inspiring and God has been revealing to me what I should be doing with my life. My heart is aching for these kids and families.
Monday, January 14th MY BIRTHDAY!!– We were supposed to start ministry today but it got pushed back on account of there being so many of us, the morning consisted of us learning about the other ministries we will be working with here in Honduras. The whole squad sang happy birthday to me in Spanish. Tony also shared another testimony of a child named Christopher. He’s only been on the compound for 5 days; he’s been back and forth a few times working with Tony and his ministry. He is from the streets of Los Pinos. After he left Tony’s one day he disappeared for a few days and his mother had not heard from him. She called Tony saying she didn’t know if her son was dead or alive. Tony rushed to Los Pinos and immediately felt as though he should dig through the trash dumb behind his mother’s house. He found Christopher under several days’ worth of piled garbage with dried blood on his face. He had got high of of paint thinner (the most common drug used amongst teens in Central America) and had passed out, he was nearly dead. Tony cleaned him up and fed him and brought him back to the compound. Today was an amazing birthday, I played soccer with Anderson, and he’s a 7 year old boy that lives on Zion’s Gate compound. The policia handcuffed Pamela and I together, it was hilarious, they got a kick out of it. I climbed on top of the roof to watch the sunset over the mountains and it was absolutely beautiful. For my birthday Tony let me use the internet for a couple minutes to call home, I absolutely missed talking to all of you for a week, it was nice to hear your voices and tell you I love you. When I walked outside everyone was around the bonfire, which was a perfect way to end my amazing birthday…There’s only one thing, apparently they celebrate it a little different in Honduras. I got egged and floured! I had about a dozen eggs in my hair and at least a pound of flour poured on top of my head. It was a mess! Taking a freezing cold shower at 9:00 at night was not as refreshing as it sounds. It took like 20-30 minutes to get the egg shells out of my hair and the flour unstuck from my back. It was so fun though I can guarantee I’ve never had a birthday like this one. Everyone on the squad signed a homemade card for me; it was so awesome to have such good community THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO MADE MY BIRTHDAY AMAZING!!
Tuesday, January 15th – I woke up at 4am to go to the Heart of Christ ministry. We had to catch the bus to Tegucigalpa so we could be there at 5am to catch another bus to our ministry site it took 2 hours to get there. Gracie picked us up from the bus stop and we all rode in the back of her pick-up truck to her compound, guarded by two big Rottweiler’s. As Gracie showed us the video testimonies of these children my eyes were welling up with tears. Orphans abandoned at birth, little girls pregnant from rape and incest, kids starved, abandoned and left for death. Gracie works with local authorities to try and prevent sex trafficking in Honduras. This day completely wore my heart down to nothing; I poured everything into these children. My teammates were rocked as well. The story that wrecked me was from this little boy named Moises, 3 years old, he was abandoned at birth and they found out later he had a tumor (lymphoid cancer). It grew until it was bigger than him weighing over 15lbs. They had doctors to come and look at his cancer yet no one would help. By the grace of God they finally raised enough support for Moises to have surgery. He has scars all down the side of his body. He is the sweetest little angel God created. Another child that weighed on my heart was Ivanna, she was starved to death and left to die by her mother. She has cerebral palsy so everyday living can be a challenge. Ivanna’s mother would force feed her to the point where she stopped eating. Eating is still a challenge; she is malnourished because she associates eating with the abuse of her mother. One of my teammates Shannon sang to her it took over an hour to feed her a bottle of milk. I praise Shannon for being so strong and helping Ivanna. It was also hard trying to council a 12 year old girl with a one month old baby, the term baby’s raising babies is exactly what it was. This girl wanted to play, she wanted to run and be free. She was raped and now she has a baby to look after. Needless to say I am a bit overwhelmed; my heart just breaks for these children. God loves them and I thank him and praise him they have someone as wonderful as Gracie looking after them and loving them.
Wednesday, January 16th– We woke up at 5am and went to build a tilapia farm. Moving boulders and rocks down a mountain to build a dam at the bottom so we can start on making a man- made lake. Theresa our ministry contact is such an amazing women of God. She has been working in Honduras for the last 20 year establishing her ministry. She works a lot with the 18th street gang and the prisons in the area. She is known as “Mother Theresa” by the locals. She is building this tilapia farm to feed the people of Honduras. Her farm is near the Valley of Angles which is about 7,000ft above sea level. Moving rocks and digging in dirt and cow poo has to be the most physically challenging ministry thus far. Everyone is sunburnt, were about to have our Honduras tan on. My team will be working at this ministry site all next week plowing the fields by hand to make the base of this pond. Please be praying for us!
Thursday, January 17th – Its teaching day! My team got to go and teach children at the loyalty bilingual school. Some of the children that live on the Zion Gate compound are funded to go here. The Pastor who started this school started with 3, 4 year old students. The school is now at a little over 40 students and they have preschool through 8th grade. Teaching children when there is a language barrier is a challenge. I find it easier to communicate with children in another language rather than adults. Maybe it’s because they don’t talk as fast and the vocabulary is limited. I had an amazing time though. We taught them some songs and dances. We then reviewed their homework. When we got to the ministry site there was no instruction we really had to be creative and improvise. I taught the 4th graders conversions and geography. It was basically a refresher course for me as well… Now if I can only understand the metric system… The teachers played kickball against the students during recess, of course the students won. School got out at 1:30 so I finally had time to attempt to wash clothes by hand. It really isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. The things we take for granted in America. Team Love Story had a bible study on the Holy Spirit tonight and I can’t wait to pick up and continue it next week. I can honestly say having Kellie as my team leader is such a blessing she is such a strong women of God and I am so excited to learn so much from her this year. She is such an inspiration and truly a blessing in my life. I love my whole team I couldn’t be happier! God knew exactly where he placed me this year and it’s exactly where I need to be to learn and grow. Please check out all the blogs from my team mates, Grace Chen, Alyssa, Kellie Surratt, Pamela Galvin, Shannon McGowan, and Julia Taylor.
Friday, January 18th – We are currently using the internet at City Mall which is in Tegucigalpa it happens to be the biggest mall in Central America.
Fitting this last week into words is beyond all human capabilities, I can write a trilogy just on the stories I’ve been told thus far in Honduras. With the lack of internet I can only elaborate so much because everything I have encountered has touched by heart so dearly. If you have any questions or want me to elaborate please don’t be hesitant to ask. I did this blog journal style; let me know what you think. Would you like a day-by-day or just an elaborate story that will touch your heart? I am trying my hardest to incorporate both. Love you all back home!! $3,400 until I’m fully funded!
