This month has been incredible ministry-wise so far! We have been working with Open Doors Ministries ( http://www.open-doorministries.com ) at an orphanage, girls home and feeding station. Every day has been completely different, which keeps things interesting! I have done everything from painting to cleaning out a tilapia pond to making bracelets with the girls at the home to making tortillas and everything else in between. There is so much that needs to be done here and it has been great to come alongside Lauren ( our amazing, one-woman-show “boss lady”) and help her in whatever ways we can.
Last Friday, Lauren asked us to fix a sink at one of the feeding stations. She gave us what seemed to be simple directions to a 35 minute walk there. Main road, left at Puma station, straight down the dirt road, if you hit the river, you've gone too far. Got it.
Bryan and I set out walking around 11:30 am in the direction of the feeding station. After turning left on the dirt road, we realized that we did not have the option of just going straight on the dirt road- the road curved to the left or to the right. In typical World Race fashion, we started praying, asking God which way we should go. (Side note: You may be wondering why we didn't just ask one of the locals for directions. Well, in third world countries asking for directions is most unhelpful, especially when said feeding station is a small, unnamed cinder block building). Anyway, so we took the road to the right, came to another T in the road in front of a school and did ask for directions- in the general direction of the river. The lady at a small roadside food stand pointed us in the direction of the river, which we were told was about a 30 minute walk away (at this point we had already been walking for at least 30 minutes). We prayed again, asking for some clearer directions. As we looked up, we saw 2 white guys walking toward us! YESSSS! “Do you speak English?!” I yelled to them. “Yes, we do,” they said. Bryan and I hurried to the 2 guys dressed in black pants, white shirts, ties and name badges. We quickly recognized they were also missionaries- Mormons to be exact. We chatted briefly about what we were all doing here in Honduras and asked them if they could point us in the direction of the river. They offered to walk there with us, informing us that it was “rough and unsafe” in many areas close to the river.
As we walked and talked with our new Mormon friends, we asked questions about their faith, their two year required missionary journey and just about their lives in general. When we reached the river, we stood in the blazing sun, talking for about another hour. They were so open and honest with us about their beliefs and their journeys with God. We prayed for them. They invited us to their church.
After we parted ways, Bryan and I looked at each other and said “what just happened?!” We talked about our conversation with them over lunch and I told him that I felt like God was just giving me the word “grace” throughout our conversation. Initially, I thought this was for them- that they needed to understand God's grace versus a works-based faith. After pressing into it more, I realized that word was for me. I need to EXTEND grace to them and to others in my life who don't view life from the same perspective as me. As we started to walk again and were talking about if we should go to their church, I just said “We'll see them again.” Bryan looked at me perplexed and said, "Wow, that was bold. Do you realize what you just said… that we would see them again?" I honestly don't even know where that came from; I guess I subconciously was wanting to see them again so that I could figure out what what this whole "extend grace" thing really means and accept them as they are. So there's lesson #1: GRACE.
Little did we know, God was about to teach us more about his character throughout the day. We found the river, but now to find the feeding station. By this point, it was about 1:30 and the feeding station would be shutting down soon. After praying again (I told you: typical World Race style!) Bryan felt led to proceed to the right. So we started walking right along the river. Through poverty stricken families and across makeshift dump sites with full cow or horse skulls. Eek!! We passed several questionable characters and quickly realized that we were not in a safe area- exactly where Lauren and our Mormon friends told us to avoid. The path we were following cut away from the river, so we decided to follow it and found ourselves passing mud huts and some of the less friendly Hondurans. In their defense, they were probably wondering what in the world two gringos were doing romping around the middle of fields, back dirt roads and wayyyy out of civilization. We had no idea where we were, which direction the feeding station was, or even how to find our way back to the Puma station in which we had made the first wrong turn in the first place.
“God we are LOST and have no idea how to get back… please send us a sign, help us find our way!”
We hadn't seen a car, taxi or bike in a long time but after we prayed, we looked up and saw a taxi coming our way! Thank you Jesus! We flagged him down, asked how much it cost (I did some heckling with him- like I had an option though, we were super lost and needed a ride) and jumped in. I then thought the taxi driver said he was going to turn around, but apparently somewhere in translation “I'm going to pick up 5 more people” was lost. So, crammed in a tiny taxi with 8 people, we made our way back into town. We quickly realized that we were on the OTHER side of Wendy's (the complete opposite direction we had started walking at the beginning of the day). We just laughed, shook our heads, and praised God that He knew the plans He had for our day. So there it is. Lesson #2: Our plans are NOT God's plans. We may think we know exactly what we are going to do for the day, but then end up completely and totally lost, wandering down dusty, rocky streets, exactly as God intended.
