Definitely the most amazing trip I’ve been part of. I don't even know where to start, so I thought I'd just do a quick overview and then I'll tell some stories of things that happened this past week. If I miss anything, I'll just do another blog.
At the beginning of the week we didn’t have any large projects to do, just screening windows and showing the Jesus film. Most of our emphasis was to reach out to the people there to help them, show them God’s love, and pray for them. We wanted to interact with people outside the church as we built screen frames for their windows, and we were going to invite them to a fiesta which included dinner and the Jesus film. We thought we may also try a few other outreaches, whatever might come up.
There was one change. When we got to El Quebracho, Pastor Roberto asked if we could show the Jesus film in El Rosario, a village nearby. This required some change of plans, but we're flexible. Gregg, who was in charge of our outreaches, also wanted to go to a squatters village near Comayagua.
So here's how things went down this past week.
Saturday - left Dayton at 5:55 am and arrived in San Pedro Sula at noon (Central time). Went to a nearby mall for lunch (I had Wendy's), then drove to Canchias. We were the only team there and many of the students were gone on break. (Graduation is next weekend.) After dinner and orientation, we headed up, up, up to our cabins. (First time I haven't stay in Casa de Esther.)
Sunday - due to a the path being flooded, we were unable to go up to Ambassador Mountain for devotions. We went to the back patio, which has an incredible view, and started with a couple of songs. We had a great time of sharing and prayer, and then Amy, the Heart to Honduras staff person who was with us all week, shared the background and vision of Heart to Honduras. Around that time it started to rain, so our village tour was done by truck as we headed to Comayagua. We got to the hotel we like to stay at, the Hotel Santa Maria, and checked in. After quick showers and dinner, we headed to El Quebracho for church. It was so wonderful to see everyone again!
Monday - started our screening projects. We all went to the first house together and took measurements and then went back to the church to cut the wood and start putting the screens together. Then we broke into 3 groups. Two groups went out to get measurements and then would install the screen doors and windows after they were done. The third group, which I was part of, built the doors and windows.
My part was stapling the wood together and then putting the two layers of screens on (one layer is regular screen and then a heavier layer with bigger holes it put over it). Then we added firring strips over the edges. I believe we got 5 doors and a couple windows done the first day.
(lunch under the orchard trees behind Pastor's house)Monday night after dinner we went to the beautiful cathedral square. It started to rain, so we headed for a cafe where we got pastries or ice cream. We didn't get many pictures of the square, but we had a great time hanging out in the cafe waiting for the rain to stop.
Around 1:30 am I started having bad stomach pains. Around 3:30 am I (finally) got sick and was able to fall back asleep. I woke up Tuesday morning still feeling queasy but went to breakfast and devotions anyway. I was determined to go to El Quebracho with the team, but alas, I got sick again and ended up in bed all day. I wasn't able to keep anything down until that evening. So I also missed the church service that evening. Thankfully by the following morning I was feeling a lot better and was able to go out with the team again.
Tuesday - the day I missed, they did more screen doors and windows. They went to El Rosario to pass out cold bottles of water and pass out fliers about the fiesta. They met a man named Eddy who had been in a car accident and had a bad scar across his neck. It seemed he was lucky to be alive. They prayed for him and invited him to the fiesta. That evening they went to church and Ana was there with her three kids. (This was the only time she made it to El Quebracho, so unfortunately I missed seeing her this year.)
Wednesday - we stopped at a grocery store on the way to the village to pick up some bottles of water and ice. I went inside to see a Honduras grocery store and you know, it looked just like an IGA except there was a guard with a gun outside. (Heh, I got him to smile for my picture.)
Then more screen doors & windows. This time, however, some guys from the village were working on putting the doors & windows together. It was great to see the pastor's two sons working on them too.
While they were working on installing the doors and windows, I walked around to the tiendas (stores) in the village with Gregg, Kevin and Ever to get snacks for the outreach.
After lunch we loaded into the bus with six guys from the village and headed to a squatters village down the road. It was a large field where people had taken whatever materials they could find to piece together homes. Zelaya, the president that was removed, gave these people the land even though it wasn't his to give to them. We started walking around and many people came out to us. We gave them bottles of water and the small bags of chips we had and then prayed for people. While we were praying for one family, the wind blew a large piece of their roof off the house. So much of what I have seems frivolous after seeing what little they were surviving on.
That evening we went to church and Chris took the youth outside and Ever translated for him. Then men also met outside with Luis translating for them. And the women met inside with Michelle speaking and Amy translating. It was a great evening with a lot of prayer and encouragement. When we're there it no longer feels like "us" and "them." It's all of us being a church, being family.
Thursday - the day of the fiesta! In the morning we started the day by finishing up the screen doors and windows. A group, including Kevin, Gregg and Michelle, went to the store to get groceries for dinner for the fiesta.
We went to Pastor's house for lunch and discovered that the ladies are hung decorations for Kathy's 60th birthday. After we ate they came out with a cake and sang several birthday songs for Kathy. Afterwards there was a pinata which Kathy did a great job beating until the candy came out. So much fun & laughter!
While this was going on, the ladies from the church had already started cooking the chicken for dinner. After the birthday celebration the men left to start packing the truck and setting up for the fiesta. The women stayed at the house and chopped vegetables for hours. Then everything started going in the big pot and as the food was ready, we had an assembly line that would put the food on the plate with a fork and two tortillas and then wrap it in Saran Wrap. We did 300 dinners this way.
The men went to El Rosario early to get things set up and all of us ladies who worked on dinner road in the bus over together. At 7pm the people from the Quebracho church started handing out dinners to the people waiting to watch the movie. We passed out cups of water after they got their dinners.
Then we started the Jesus movie, en espanol. (This would be the one put out by Campus Crusade, not the Passion movie.) After the movie Gregg got up and explained how everyone can have Jesus living in their hearts and led a prayer asking Jesus to come into their lives. Then 50 people stood up to say they had prayed the prayer. Afterwards we prayed for people and started packing everything up. It was a long day, but so exciting.
Friday - Pastor Roberto, Olga, and their two sons, Levi and Limber, joined us for breakfast and devotions.
Then we headed to see the new camp that Heart to Honduras is building. Due to the presidential problems, many teams canceled their trips this summer. This has created some financial problems for them, however this freed up a lot of the staff people to work on the construction at the camp. In June there was one building, and now there are 4 buildings, a gymnasium, and a soccer field that's halfway done. It's amazing!
We went to Power Chicken for lunch and then went shopping at the mercado. I got some souvenirs, Christmas gifts, and some cigars for Jason. Then we went to Casa El Meson bed & breakfast for the night. (The women stayed in one room in a building behind the house and the guys stayed in rooms in the front of the house.)
Saturday - our last day in Honduras. We had Gary flying back to Louisiana, and Michelle was flying into Columbus, but all of us were leaving around 1pm so things worked out well. All our flights were on time and we made it home by 9pm that evening.
We had such a great group of people and did a lot of laughing. The staff people that Heart to Honduras provided were great and really got involved with our group. We were able to make connections with the people of the church and also others in the villages of El Quebracho, El Rosario and the squatters village. But most importantly, we got to see the people of the church there doing what we do at our church in Dayton. They're reaching out to the people around them, and "showing God's love in a practical way."
Gregg told us about a book he read where it said that the gospel could be summed up in four phrases: 1) Jesus did it, the disciples watched. 2) Jesus did it, the disciples helped. 3) The disciples did it, Jesus helped. 4) The disciples did it, Jesus left. In the same way, we came to El Quebracho, showed the people there what had been taught to us. We did it, they watched (the first year). We did it, they helped (the last few years). They did it, we helped (this year). And now we're gone and they'll continue what was started.
Once again I left my heart down there. I miss them as always. They are an extended family and I look forward to seeing them again. They have picked up some English from us and we've picked up more Spanish from them. The best part was hugging them and hearing Olga say "I love you" and me hugging the women I spent hours with on Thursday telling them "mi hermana." (My sister.) Our hearts are knit together and we are truly sister churches.
More pictures can be found here... http://quebracho.shutterfly.com
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