Alright we have made it to the end of country number 3!! Each month gets faster and faster. Here is your month 5 & 6 recap of my time in Honduras!
Highlights
Coca-Cola: How much Pastor Rony at our second location loved Coca-Cola. He was constantly wanting and buying Coca-Cola and as somebody who loves it I did not mind at all. He was constantly saying necesito Coca-Cola.
Professional: Pastor Rony saying he was a professional at soccer, followed by his wife Esther dying in laughter and him glaring at her! Then our last night there he says he is a professional at soccer at fishing and then lastly at constructing babies… of course he said this all in Spanish so we stopped to make sure we heard that right, when he then pats his wife on the back smirking and saying “dos” referring to his kids.. Classic Rony..
Megabed: When we arrived in Urracco in June we had a few different rooms to split into. We had three guys in our room. Because it was so hot we had to buy a fan, but it didn’t get all of us. So my bro Micah for a few days was trying to convince Daniel Ford and I to create a “megabed” we refused for a couple days until we eventually gave in. Great decision, not only were we all getting hit by the fan, but it made it easier to watch shows and movies in bed. Great bonding.
Beds: The day I got to deliver beds to families was for sure a highlight as there was many tears shed out of happiness and prayers that were answered. Followed by many kids jumping on the new beds in pure joy!
Ministry
The two months I spent in Honduras were vastly different. In May I was on top of a mountain camping working with Catracho Missions which had also moved on top of the mountain to work with us. The dream for this mountain was to build a church, women’s center, even a school some day pending a lot of help funding. They also are or at least were wanting future teams to live here to continue on with what we did.
So most of the ministry we did was digging out the side of the mountain in order to place a structure there for the church. In this community you aren’t legit as a church or pastor until you have a building so that was a big focus. Building the church was a lot of work. Pickaxing, shoveling, cutting down trees, carrying trees and rocks, trying to place poles in the ground for the structure, and probably more.
Outside of the church there was some relational ministry around the area, where I got to do house visits one day but the women got to do more. We also had relational ministry just with the people we were working with. There was a lot of high schoolers that were there to help that were there more to learn English than a relationship they had with God. Us guys built good relationship with a good amount of them while we were there, but the ladies relationships really seemed to take off after we left. They put on a women’s “beauty for ashes” day where they gave them all their own Bible and they were filled with emotion.
In June as I have said us guys took off several hours further north to where it was hotttt. Probably 90+ degrees daily with however much humidity. Our place didn’t have AC and had ants crawling all over us. Although the house was spacious and more than we were expecting. Our host didn’t speak any English which was the case with our previous host on the mountain as well. However, this month was in the running for my favorite of the year so far.
Our host has an amazing heart. He is ready to serve the Lord in so many different ways and that was shown in the diversity of the ministry we were able to do. Manual labor: painting a house, clearing some land at the future church location, and help build a house in one day. Then we had relational ministry: house visits, bringing people new beds and praying over them, children’s ministry, helping with church services three days a week, and baptizing church members at the river. Pastor Rony was not worried about growing his church but just loving on people and pointing them to God. We indeed had a “good time.”
What I was surprised by
How much kids love to tickle white people..
The way relationships can still be built so beautifully even with a language barrier.
The nice cafe that was in the middle of our town/village in Urracco.
Getting to have food prepared for us by different members of the church and for them to host us.
Where I am Currently Growing
Working on expanding my prayer life more and more. Learning how to be consistent at praying when schedules aren’t consistent or chaotic. Consistent when I don’t always feel like it. Going past my own wants to just where I am at with God and maybe even hearing His wants. Praying for others more intentionally than I have before. Prayer is something I am constantly wanting to grow in, because it is legit.
Also trying to learn what it looks like to be a man. Coming out of manistry month and still reading and working through the book Wild at Heart it is a constant topic on my mind of how to be more of a man. Not just look the part on the outside but actually be one.
Prayer Requests
Start with right here right now with our health and trying to overcome COVID complications as a squad.
Next would be travel. We travel safely, and families visiting during our like 18 hours in New Jersey will travel safe.
Pray for unity within the squad and leadership just as we need unity around the world with a lot of things.
For our focus to be on God. That myself and the squad are still focused on the mission at hand in loving God and loving people as we are halfway through this crazy ride.
What’s Next
Alright so where in the world are we going next?! On the 28th we will be flying into New Jersey. The following day we will be hopping on a flight to head to… South Africa!!
I am super excited to go to South Africa! As much as this mission is to serve God and grow closer to Him, I was also really excited about the potential of experiencing many different cultures so I am pumped to get to Africa!!
What we will be doing and where exactly we will be I don’t actually know yet. Because we are struggling a lot with COVID right now we will be grouping up in South Africa to have our official month 6 debrief even though we have been sitting around all week and actually getting rested.. don’t totally understand why we need an official debrief other than to get our new teams. So we may be a week or two into July before we actually get to our hosts in South Africa.
So yeah getting ready to say goodbye to Central America and hello to Africa!
Love y’all a lot!! Jesus loves you a heck of a lot more!!
Peace!
Johnny D
