Day seven, winding down

This day we had the opportunity to spend time at a street vendor, browse a souvenire store, travel the long road to the beach where we were staying, and play some by the ocean.

So for all the hype about sleeping at the beach, it was not bad at all. We had a lot of fun playing all afternoon as a group. The ocean was good fun, and had some huge waves. We all had the opportunity to just let loose with nothing to care for but ourselves.

Now for all of the playing we did and work we did all week, I thought I would be sleeping hard the last night. But at 2:00 am I found myself laying awake, and I headed for the beach. What an awesome time I had just writing, praying and processing. It turns out there were a few of us there, but I did not see anyone else until the sun started coming up.

During my time I took the opportunity to write down many of the things I was feeling. The most life changing of those being a prayer that I prayed over and over that night. I prayed that I would be as excited about my relationship with my wife and with God as I was excited about anything alse in the world. I want to have energy toward those to parts of my life overflowing. I want there to be boundless energy toward those two relationships in my life. That is the toughest thing that I could imagine maintaining, but I want it!

The other thing that I realized about the trip is how easy it is to be the person that I want to be when I am surrounded by the right people. It is so important for me to have people that I can count on to lift me up and keep me in line, as opposed to dragging me down and distracting me from what I need to be doing.

Now, I am writing this several weeks after returning, and have seen lots of resistance to living out both of those goals. I have been truly overwhelmed with simply catching up on life, I am just completing posting my trip on my site, and have not sent a single thank you letter for the support I received. But I am renewing those requests in writing this, and I welcome everyone who reads this to check on my progress. I only caution you that I also realize that the only way to be successful at something so big is to admit where I am struggling, so if you ask, well, you asked for it, and you'll get the truth about where I am at.

Day six, hiking out, and a youth service

This day, by no planning of my own, became very meaningful, and more powerful than any day so far on the trip.

To start the day, we hiked out early. Unfortunately, my knee started hurting pretty early in the hike, and that left me a little impatient and grumpy. This was the result mostly of fear of failure and pride mixing in my head, not to mention some pain. I figured out early that I could do best if I walked really fast and rested. That set me apart form most of the group who were pacing themselves. I was happy that Carlos was happy to walk with me and push me as much as I was willing to go. As we walked I was able to settle down once I realized that though it hurt, my knee most likely was going to make it, and I could slow down some.

Needless to say, the arrival at the end of the walk was a tremendous experience. We were greeted at the bottom by one more person just welcoming us in this country. She is definetly the most unique, and persistant. She held this headstand for what seemed like an eternity while we walked up, got out our camera's and took her picture.

So after a long drive back to the farm, we were able to get cleaned up just in time for the youth service. I was caught a little off guard since we all thought that we would have time before the service to relax, but it was earlier than we expected. This would not have been such a big deal except that I planned on speaking to the youth, and had not spent any time preparing. But it was a great time of worship, even though we did not know most of the words. After worship, we were all introduced to the youth, and told a little about outselves. Particularly they wanted the youth to understand our committment to marriage, family and faith. We were the example of something that is lacking in that area, men focused on the right things.

After that both Darrel and I had a chance to talk to the youth. These youth are all sponsored by the mission to attend school in the advanced grades. In Honduras, you need to pay for school after grade 6. So the Mission sponsors and mentors the youth. These are the future of Honduras, so I talked to them about the benefit of following biblical principles in pursuit of their goals. That concept has changed my life and brought a lot of peace to me, so that is what I shared. It felt really good to have the opportunity to pass on some of what has been so important to me. It was also great to be a part of what I see as a very important part of the future of the mission in Honduras, these youth are the future.

Day Five, a floor, more stumps and a soccer game

The second day in the mountains, we were ready to tackle a floor, more stumps, play a soccer game, hold a prayer service and give away a bunch of stuff.

A lesson in ingenuity. We broke the pick ax handle. Using the trunk of a tree, they provided a new one for us, it took about a hour.

The creation of a floor.

How they mix concrete in the hills. It was another nice thing to learn. We were able to mix concrete using the actual concrete as its own container as we mixed, when the entire container was mixed in we has a pile of wet concrete to use, no other container required. Hard to explain in short terms, but it worked well.

Floor and ceiling complete.

One last push to get out a huge stump.

After we worked, we played. Another soccer game, and this time most of the village seemed to appear on the hill as we played. Afterward, we had a time of worship, prayer, and speakers for the people of the village. That was followed up by handing out lots of donations that were brought with us from home. I am not sure if all of us were just caught up on what we were doing, but I have not found any pictures of this part of the trip. Of all things to miss.

I was a little heavy after this day since I felt that there is so much more that I could have done if I just had a better ability to speak Spanish. I was happy to have accomplished tasks, and to be able to hand out necessary things to the people, but I also know the power of relationship, and I was not able to do much communicating with the people. It is a goal for any other trip I take to be better at the native language.

So we were preparing to hike back in the morning. I can say I was a little nervous this evening, since I had hurt my knee on the way into the hills, and each day it seemed to do well as I worked during the day, but hurt in the evening. I was not sure how I would make it back out, or if I should go without my pack. But each day I was able to get what I needed to do done before it started hurting, and I counted on that happening during the hike too.

Ryan did have to give up hiking on the way back. He has poison ivy so bad that he was having trouble breathing. I know it was a humbling and disappointing decision he had to make, but better to make it out alive.

Day four, a roof and some stumps

This is the view I woke up to, pictures do not do it justice. It was nice to wake up after the long walk and feel so good. Even my knee felt good in the morning. We started work

early, a few of us on the roof of the building, others chopped down trees, removed stumps and built a couple of things in the area around the building where we were staying.

This is one of the places we used to bath. It was cold, I heard @50

degrees, not

sure, I only know my feet felt frozen a few minutes after being in there. It felt good though after working and hiking.

Nick and Greg as we worked on the roof.

Finished!

It was interesting working on the roof. First of all, we had to adjust ourselves to how you build rustic. We also had to understand that way things work in the hills of Honduras. One example was supplies. We quickly ran out of boards, and were told that we would have some more in a couple of hours. What we did not know was that a local was making them as we worked. It definetly made me wish tobe more resourceful in my projects, we have it so easy.

It was also a chore to just keep fresh water. Below is a picture of the water filtering system we had. The water came from a tap that was a couple hundred feet from where we slept. The tap was fed from water a little higher in the mountains, but it flowed like modern plumbing.

Once the roof was on, the floor had to be leveled so it could be finis

hed the next day.

Some of the guys in the process of removing a stump. The tree in the right side of the picture was also taken out, stump and all, the next day.

We ended the afternoon with a soccer game in a field that the locals use. Many of them came out to play with us. It was fun to just play, interracting with them, even if we spoke two different languages, we could communicate through the way we played. The night ended with a bonfire and some worship.

One more anxiety that I saw go away, I have a great dislike for sleeping in a place with bugs around, particularly spiders. I usually just toss and turn in that situation, but not this week. Indescribable what it feels like to feel things changing in myself during the week.

Day Three, hiking in

Day Three, hiking in

The day were waiting for. Now, in Honduras, everything seems to be hurry up and then wait. So we all got ready to go, and then had spend some tine in the town waiting for money to be exchanged, get some gas and pick up supplies. Then finally on the road. The ride to the mountains was a rough one... Here we are changing a tire on the side of the road, I say we, but is was mostly Donny, Bob and Eric. I was off with Ryan meeting some locals, finding random bulls tied up along the road, and trying to steal a feather from a Turkey. Thanks for changing the tire guys! Oh yeah, the person with the cane in the picture is over 90 years old, he farms the land where we were stopped, and his family was very friendly. So once we fixed the tire, we were off to the hills. We parked the van and had some lunch before we started hiking, a little later than we expected to. It is a little intimidating now to think of what we did, heading into the rain forest, with only a mule and a horse to get us out if we get hurt. I guess that is what faith is all about. So we walked, and walked and walked. And that was just the first hill. The hike was definetly the most challenging thing I have done physically in a long time. I heard a couple of numbers on how the walk is made up, but one said we went from elevations of 6500 feet to 3000 feet, another said the bottom elevation was 1000 feet. To put that into perspective, a mile is 5280 feet. SO the trail took us up and down some tough terrain repeatedly, adding to the challenge, I kept thinking, we are not hiking, we are climbing! SO we hiked for about 5 hours on the way in. We ended the hike in the dark, with a couple of minor injuries, but overall well. Myself, I had stepped in a hole sometime around dark and so was really wanting to get my knee under some cold water, and the stream was the only source of that. At the end of the hike, we were very exhausted. Ryan went to work cooking right away! Thanks Ryan. Donnie, Eric and myself walked to the stream to wash off. Now this may not sound like much, but to me it was really one of the most amazing things on this trip. I was repeatedly seeing any anxiety in me fall away on this trip. The bathing in a stream that I am not familiar with was one thing I was particularly not looking forward to. So in the dark, I faced that fear, and had no problem. SO at that point I had faced three anxieties I have, language barriers, heights and the fear of whatever may be in the water. I was starting to like this mission trip thing!

Day 2, The invasion

Day two - The invasion

The start of day 2 had a group of guys ready to get something done, but told that in the morning we were going to just pack our things for the mountains and organize clothes we brought to give out. Once we overcame the shock of a much slower moving place that we are used to, we did manage to get a few small projects to do at the mission base. We then were given a tour of the base. One of the places we saw was where a group of women meet daily to make baskets out of pine needles. This is one ministry that is run here. It gives women, mothers, the opportunity to have some income in an area that has little opportunity for them otherwise. I began to see some of the things that make this place so special, and important. Many women are caught in a position where they are dependant on the men in the culture, men who often have notonly a wife, but a couple of girlfriends on the side, and offer little assistance to the women who mother their children. After the tour of the base, we took a walk through Yamaranguila, the small town where the base is located. The town was simple, had dirt streets and few businesses. The school was the nicest building there, but the kids that were at the school seemed well from a distance. The hardest part of the walk was passing an orphanage, not because of the conditions, but because we were all ready to get something done and just seeing the kids made us want to do something! So it was after lunch that we loaded up for the invasion. The plan was to help complete a few roofs and then to spend some time with the people who live there. Just arriving at this place was powerful. Another world from what we have seen. The people greeted us as we came in, happy to see the van pull up, the sign of people coming to help them with things they can not do on their own. This little girl grabbed Nick the minute we were out of the van and walked him the entire street to where we were working. A little bit of fun right from the start. Also in the picture you can see two houses, a contrast of what has been there and what teams like us come there to build. It was great to see such a difference being made. Self promotion, and proof I did work while I was there! It was fun to interact with the people at the invasion, and great to spend some time finishing a couple of roofs. While there I asked how they know where to start when the ministry goes into a place like the Invasion. It wasinteresting to hear that the ministry in no way tries to decide what the needs are. Each community has a leader, and the ministry leaders ask the community leader for a list of needs, and they start to fulfill them. There was truly hope in this area, children who were learning and have hope for a better future. How awesome to be a part of that.

Day One of Mission Trip

Day one: Travel

We met at the airport at 5:00 am. Checked in and headed to the concourse. We each had one bag of our own and one bag for the mission, filled with items that would be given away while we are in Honduras. Our flight was delayed due to the crew coming in late the day before, so we had some time to play. A little consourse antics that really seemed to be appreciated by those waiting with us. Once on the plane, they announced they would be taking a "short cut" to get us to our connecting flight on time. I'm not sure how you do that in a plane, but they did make up some time, and we made our second flight almost right on time. On the ground in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, the Airport was pretty small, looked like 7 gates total. A quick trip through customs and we loaded up the truck. On the truck is Henry Lowman, he runs the mission we are here to assist. What a sky, click on the picture and you can see some mountains in the background. We stopped by a Wendy's for lunch. Then we traveled to La Esperanza, where we had an authentic Honduran meal! Yes, lots of protein in this meal, it is best for Gringo's (that is us) to stick to cooked food, not too many fruits or vegetables available to eat. Opalaca's restaurant, we were the only people in the restaurant at that time. Chicken, pork and steak on a hot plate, black beans with tortilla's and fried potato's, nice intro to the culture. LaEsperanza, the town where the restaurant is located. After we ate, we headed to the mission base to settle in and get organized for our week. A meeting to debrief and again go though what not to do while there. The mission house where we stayed before and after hiking was nice. It had hot water to shower (4 minute limit) and water you can drink from the tap. So far it is not much to adjust to. That will change soon. A couple of things to note that learned so far: There are few driving rules in Honduras. The police to not have the resources to do traffic patrol, they occasionally set up a checkpoint and stop cars randomly, but do not enforce any traffic rules otherwise. That lends to some crazy driving. Also, bikes, horses and other modes of transportation all share the roads. Another point about the police, they all carry military assault rifles, but rumor has it most have no bullet's. There were lots of kids of all ages seemingly moving about free, in ways that would get the parents arrested in the US. On a sad note, we were told that they are better off outside than inside in many ways due to domestic issues in family's.