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.