Honduras Trip - Day 3

The last day we were in Honduras, the Allen's took us to where their oldest boys attend school. It's called The International School and the website is www.internationalschool.hn if you would like to check it out. It's a private christian school that's close to their house and we were very impressed with it!

Front gate to the school with guards. The school is on the top of a mountain!

New soccer field

Lunch / Snack area

The front sidewalk of the school

High school building. Kids graduate with a Honduran and American diploma. It's an English school where all the main subjects are taught in English, but the extras are taught in Spanish. Music, art, PE, etc. are in Spanish. And most of the kids who attend are Hondurans so Spanish is the language spoken in the hallways and lunchroom.

Beautiful view from a sidewalk of the school

Picture of the front gate with the guard

After visiting the school, we went to a family's store in a nearby town. The Allen's were purchasing some items from this store for a mission team coming down, and they warned us about this town. The people we met were nice, but they said it was a very rough area full of gangs. Not a good place to be when the sun goes down.

Nice view up there though

Only one road up and down through this town

Back in the city, passed a musical band playing in the back of a truck

And on to lunch with the Allen's and Zelaya's at a restaurant called El Patio. All Will wanted was a steak called "El Conquistador"

There it is...what a happy guy...he ate the whole thing

Last we went to a cool park at the top of a mountain. If you can't tell, it seems the whole country of Honduras is one mountain after another, so everything is pretty much at the top of different mountains. This park was full of pine trees!

Unbelievable views from up there...see the crazy airport runway in the middle? Tegucigalpa is the second most dangerous airport in the world because of the difficulty of landing the plane. Pilots have to have a special license to be able to fly into this city. There just isn't a straight scientific way to land the planes and they have to turn continuously before landing on a short runway. Here's a link to a crazy video of an airplane landing in Tegucigalpa: http://youtu.be/v_z5HtME9n8

Of course...rain rolling in

A few years ago, homes were destroyed and lives were lost as an enormous mudslide happened during a hurricane. Homes were never rebuilt, and now you can just see the grassy area where the tragedy happened. Costa Rica doesn't have hurricanes...I guess Honduras does.

Family pic overlooking the city of Tegucigalpa

Huge Jesus statue on the mountain overlooking the city

Jack loved this park and climbed and played everywhere. He said it looked like Narnia.

Then we had a foggy, dreary and rainy drive back down the mountain to the Allen's house. That's just life in rainy season in Latin America. We had a great trip and the Allen's were wonderful for letting us stay with them and see their life in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

We are still praying and exploring the real possibility of us moving to Honduras to work after our year of language school is finished in August. Please pray for us to have wisdom in this process and for doors to be opened where God wants us to go. We are excited about what lies ahead!

Honduras Trip - Day 2

On day 2 in Honduras, we traveled up to a town on a mountain called Tegucilapita. It was about a 2 hour drive and Jennifer was so nice to ask if our kids could stay at home with her for the day. It was quite a day! Our group for the trek was Will, Matt, Melvin, Carol and me.

Tons of windmills all over the mountains...pretty cool

Stopped for refreshments at a store on the side of the road

The church that has been built on the mountain. Our home church, Grace Evangelical, has paid for a Honduran pastor to come live on the mountain with these people, be their pastor and be trained in theology. So neat to be able to see this in person!

There are no doors on the church, so they put limbs with thorns on them in the space so that wild animals won't come in the building.

The main well for the people on this mountain. The well was actually really deep and filled to the top this time of year (in winter). In the summer months it is completely empty. I have no idea how these people get water in the summer!

View of the road from the church. People walking to a funeral. More about that...

When driving to this mountain, we heard Melvin on the phone speaking to someone in Spanish. Will swore he heard him say the word "funeral". After he got off the phone, he asked if it was okay if we could attend a funeral he had to do while we were up in Tegucilapita. A 94-year-old man died the night before, and since they don't embalm people, he had to be buried within 24 hours. This is a picture of the house where the funeral took place.

Melvin told us to be prepared for the people to ask us to take the casket up the mountain on the top of our car after the funeral so they wouldn't have to walk it up for the burial. Ended up the guy's son couldn't make it in time for the funeral so they were going to wait until the son got there that night to bury him. I was relieved. Sounded like a movie scenario to me.

Inside the house at the funeral. Melvin is preaching with one ray of sunlight in the house through a hole in the roof. The coffin was built the day before and painted light blue with a candle burning on top. Yes, the lid was open but I didn't go up close to look inside. They welcomed us in the room and pulled us up some chairs. I couldn't believe I was sitting in a mud home with no electricity in Honduras at a random man's funeral. How crazy is that? We went in a back room with Melvin to pray with the daughter of the man who just died. She was sitting in an empty room with only a hammock...I guess that's her bed. I just put my arm around this hurting woman and wished so much that I could speak to her in Spanish. In due time.

The road up the mountain. Seriously the roughest and craziest thing I've ever driven on!

On the ride back down, we stopped by a sick woman's house. She had stepped on a rusty nail the day before and was taking Tylenol but still wasn't feeling well. On our way up the mountain, we stopped by a pharmacy to buy her a tetanus shot (for $20) to take to her. Will jokingly asked if Melvin needed him to give her the shot. Melvin said "Sure, someone has to do it". Don't worry...the girl's sister gave it to her.

Unbelievable views

Green rolling pastures

Beautiful mountains

Beautiful children

Next we stopped by the pastor training center where Will is wanting to work. Such a huge and awesome building with so much potential!

Rooms inside for dormitories and work rooms

Melvin taking us on the tour

Vampire bats all through the building. Would probably be a good idea to get these out of there before mission teams come to stay.

The huge meeting room

Melvin, Will and Matt

Melvin's wife Carol, me, Will and Melvin

Kids next door playing soccer

Stopped by this little store on the way home for a Coke.

Best Coke I've ever had.

Honduras Trip - Day 1

We went to Tegucigalpa, Honduras on October 6-9 to search out a ministry possibility for our family after our year of language school here in Costa Rica. Will feels called to train pastors in under-resourced areas of Latin America, and several connections led us to explore the very real possibility of working with El Camino de la Vida in Honduras with Melvin Zelaya and the Allen family.

I'm going to break the trip up into 3 different posts for our 3 days we were there.

Day One:

Thank goodness for Nintendo in airports

As soon as we got there (only a 1 hour flight), we immediately left for the mountains for Thursday church at one of Melvin's church plants. It's in a town called Las Casitas (won't be found on a map) and Will actually took our youth group to work there several summers ago. They dug ditches to keep the water away from the church, mixed concrete to build a wall for classrooms and bathrooms on the back and painted.

Church in Las Casitas

Here's the ditch from several years ago...still there and still working!

Here's the wall from several years ago. They now have concrete poured for the floor and continue to make progress on the back side of the church.

Jack climbing on the Land Rover. Kids were running everywhere and kept watching Emma and Jack the whole time. The people in Honduras are darker skinned, so my lily-white children stuck out big time. But instead of trying to talk or play with them, my kids decided to freak out and ignore them. When is this Spanish stuff gonna start making sense to them??? So frustrating.

Inside the church. Missionary Matt Allen on the left. He leads a small discipleship group of guys before church on Thursdays. There are only a few men who attend this church and the rest are women and children. We sang and Melvin preached for about an hour to around 20 people. Melvin's wife, Carol, takes the children in another building next to the church and teaches lessons and songs to them. A toddler ran circles around the room during the service and one lady nursed her baby the whole time. How do you concentrate on preaching with all that going on???

Check out that sunset outside! So beautiful up on the mountain. This area got electricity only a few years ago and Melvin says that church attendance has dropped a bit since then. Now people just want to sit around and watch tv! There were no bathrooms so our kids had to go outside. I have a feeling they'll get pretty used to that. We then finished the day with our 2 hour drive back to Tegucigalpa. Some random lady waved our car over and gave us some corn on the cob she just boiled. I don't know why but I ate it...it wasn't very good.

Jesus Calling

I'm really enjoying the devotional book Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. It's a great start to my morning and gives me some thoughts and Scripture to think about during my day at school. They are a quick read early in the morning when I can't seem to focus on too much.

We've been praying for our trip to Honduras for a while. We wanted the Lord's guidance, His peace, and His wisdom as we traveled there to consider the possibilities of ministry in Honduras for our family. It was really early the day we left, and I decided to read my devotional at the airport waiting for our plane.

Here was the entry for that day....Friday, October 6th:

Be willing to follow wherever I lead. Follow me wholeheartedly, with glad anticipation quickening your pace. Though you don't know what lies ahead, I know; and that is enough! Some of My richest blessings are just around the bend: out of sight, but nonetheless very real. To receive these gifts, you must walk by faith - not by sight. This doesn't mean closing your eyes to what is all around you. It means subordinating the visible world to the invisible Shepherd of your soul.

Sometimes I lead you up a high mountain with only My hand to support you. The higher you climb, the more spectacular the view becomes; also, the more keenly you sense your separation from the world with all its problems. This frees you to experience exuberantly the joyous reality of My Presence. Give yourself fully to these Glory-moments, awash in dazzling Light. I will eventually lead you down the mountain, back into community with others. Let My Light continue to shine within you as you walk among people again.

"We live by faith, not by sight." 2 Corinthians 5:7

"Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary." Psalm 96:6

"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." John 8:12

"For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light." Psalm 36:9