Finally, the day has arrived to go to language school. However, now we’re not sure how excited we are to leave and have to adjust to a new environment. We are just getting comfortable in our present location. But, the plane tickets say this is the day so off to the airport we go.
We go through all the hurdles to get on the plane – we are flying Taca. Oh, never heard of it? Neither had we until we got to Honduras. However, after flying Taca we found out it is a very professionally run airline. We leave San Pedro Sula at 7:10 and arrive in San Salvador, El Salvador at 7:50. We leave San Salvador and arrive in Guatemala City, Guatemala at 9:10. As we are standing in the immigration line at the airport we can see the luggage carousel and all four of our bags are already on it. Yea. This is great. We pass through immigration and have a gentleman put our bags on a cart. He says come this way and we follow. As he flies past customs we hand the lady our custom form and out the door we go. We see the man holding a sign with our names on it. He pulls the van up, they load our luggage, we tip the baggage man, and we are in the van headed for Antigua by 9:35. This has all happened so fast and so smoothly since leaving our home we are wondering when the wheels are going to come off. They never do.
After about a 40 minute drive from Guatemala City to Antigua we pull up in front of the house we will be staying in for the next three months. We unload our bags. Our driver (who is a full-time fireman and just does this as a side job) takes our bags inside. We meet our host family and find out it’s the family we requested. How awesome since two of our teammates, the Smiths and the Willis, stayed with this family and they loved them.
We take our bags to our room. Get a brief intro to the house. The family leaves for church and we begin walking to town to get a bite to eat. Both flights were so short we didn’t even get something to drink much less to eat.
It’s about a 10 minute walk to town and about a 20 minute walk to our school each day. It was strange seeing so many people wearing sweaters and coats after being in Honduras for three months and sweating from morning until night and then some. As we get to town we look at our watch and it’s not even 11:00 am. This is strange. We have been on two international flights and three countries and we’ve only left our house a little more than five hours ago. In case you’re interested we had pizza for lunch.
Tomorrow we start thirteen weeks of Spanish for four hours each day, five days a week. Our heads are already hurting and we haven’t even started yet.
Friday, April 4, 2008
March 28-29, 2008.
In our last meeting with pastors they decided it we needed to have a campaign/crusade in El Banano to support the church and the pastor there. We’re not sure the entire history of the church but it used to be pretty strong, the pastor had some moral failures, and the church has been struggling every since. We have a new gentleman, Elias, who is the new pastor. He is a former drug addict who was baptized just last September and seems to have a real love for Jesus and for people. The pastors want to help him and encourage him. They also wanted to have the campaign before we left for Guatemala. So, they picked the two nights before we left for language school. Because we want them to take the reins we agreed to whatever they decided.
On Friday morning, March 28th, the short-term team that is here wanted to pass out beans and rice to needy families we decided it pass them out in the same community we were starting the campaign that night. What we didn’t realize is that the houses are not very close together, the roads are such that the bus can’t take the team to the house, and mucho much (a little spanlish thrown in just for fun) walking will be required to get it all passed out. To make it worse for the past four days we have had clouds and cool (for Honduras) weather. The day we are passing out the food the sun is bright and it is very hot. The team worked so hard passing out the food. The only time any of them stopped was when they passed out (yes one did), they thought they were going to throw up (yes one did feel this way but never did), or their bodies just would not go anymore (believe a couple fell into this category). We were impressed and thankful for how hard they worked to make sure everybody got some food.
Friday evening we pick up Saul and head to the church for the campaign – or so we thought. When we get to the village the campaign is not going to be at the church. Nope. The campaign is going to be at the main intersection of the two dirt roads in the village. Some of the pastors along with some helpers have rigged up lights on banana trees, put together a small stage with a podium and lights, and brought a nice sound system from the church in La Sabana. The sound system is blaring music and it’s good stuff. We got the name of the artist and are actively looking for the cd. Maybe we can even understand the words after language school.
They have plastic chairs set up in the middle of the intersection. Yep, right in the middle of the intersection. Next thing we know they are bringing more chairs and setting them up. Understand it’s suppose to start at 6:30 and it’s now 6:20 and we only have about 12 people there. They proceed to setup about 60 – 70 chairs making sure they leave room on both sides of the rows and between the front row and the stage so the cars can get past them while the campaign is going on. And yes, during the service we had cars drive through and on man ride his bike drinking his whiskey pass between the first row of seats and the stage. Man, this is GREAT! This is what it’s about.
Ok, back to the story. At 6:40 they have all the pastors, leaders, and myself gather in circle and begin to pray for the service. We’re thinking it’s 10 minutes past the time to start and we still only have the same 12 people here. We are feeling bad for the pastors because they have put so much work into this. We pray for maybe 10 minutes and when we look up there are now about 40 people here. Amazing, but it gets better.
Tonight our kids from Faith Home (Hogar de Fe) are responsible for the music. The only problem is it’s 7:00 and they are still not here and we haven’t started the service. Once again, the only people that seem too concerned are us Norte Americanos. About 7:10 a big yellow school bus pulls up and about 60 people from our local churches get off the bus including our kids with their instruments. After a brief sound check we start the service about 50 minutes late. We end up with about 150 people at the service. All the seats are full and people are standing everywhere and many are sitting on or in the back of the few pickup trucks parked on the side of the road. It this great or what? (Well, except for the massive number of bug bites we got)
What was so exciting about the bus is that we didn’t know anything about it. The pastors felt free enough to take the initiative to arrange for the bus and any expenses associated with it without feeling they had to consult us.
They made Brad preach on this night. He tried to get out of it because we want people to see the pastors as the leaders – not Brad the “missionary.” But, they insisted, so we felt obligated support them in what they worked hard to plan.
After the message the pastors and a few others went to each person individually that was not a member of one of our churches and talked with them about where they stood with Jesus Christ.
After it was over we had to take everything down, move it down the street to a gentleman’s house, and lock it up to prevent theft. Which means the next day they will have to set everything up again. We got home about 10:30. Took care of some details that needed attention before our leaving and then went to bed – very excited about what had just happened.
The next morning Saul said he needed to talk with us. The pastors had talked the night before and decided it would be best if we didn’t come the campaign the second night because we had to get up at 4:00 am the next day to leave for Guatemala. They were worried we would not get enough rest. It’s nice to be working with people who care so much about each other. So, we took their recommendation, stayed home and packed for Guatemala.
March 22-30, 2008
We spent the week working with the team that is here, organizing our storage room and finding out what we have, distributing supplies in the medical clinic for the upcoming medical/dental team in May, making arrangements for the same team to come in May, working or arrangements for two vacation Bible school teams to come in back-to-back weeks the end of June/first of July, and making preparations to leave on Sunday March 30th for three months in Guatemala. Otherwise the week was pretty uneventful. We couldn’t get many of the arrangements made the previous week because it was Holy Week and not much is open or operating.
March 22, 2008
We have realized our life now consists of continually living in an environment where we are never sure we know just exactly what if going on, what is being said, what someone is asking us to do, or what we need to do/be doing. It can be a little unnerving to do this day after day after day. We can only imagine what it’s like for those who live in cultures that are so much more different from their home culture. Wow!
March 20, 2008
We went to the grocery today and while there we wanted to get a key made for some of our teammates. The key-making place is just a small wooden shack on the corner of the street. We had been there last week and they had a large selection of blanks so we had no trouble getting all the keys we needed. Key making is big business in Honduras because security is such a concern and everybody locks up everything. Many times the problem you have in getting keys made is the places have a limited supply of blanks and often they will not have the blank needed to make your key.
After seeing the large supply they had last week we made the bad assumption this would be a quick process without any hassles. Never assume that here. Cindy and Paul waited in the van while Brad walked across the street to get the key made. This shouldn’t take long – right? There is nobody else at the key place. Brad will be first in line.
Not so! When Brad hands them the key he notices they don’t have the large quantity of blanks hanging on the wall like they did last week. Strange! The lady making the key pulls out a small plastic bag filled with blanks, dumps them on the table, and begins to sort through them. She can’t find one that works so she calls her partner over and they both are sorting through the small pile of blank keys on the table. After several minutes it becomes obvious they can’t find a blank. Brad is thinking he just won’t get the key made today.
They, on the other hand, don’t seem to be too concerned about the situation. They begin opening up several drawers and looking through drawers full of all kind of stuff including a blank key here and there. Next they pull out a small metal box that is locked. Apparently there are more blanks in the box but it’s locked. The man gets out a key, Brad’s assuming it’s the key to box, and tries to open the box with the key. The key won’t work. So, how does he get the box open? Remember we are at the place where they make keys! He uses a screwdriver to manipulate the lock and open the box.
Not a real confidence booster that the key they are about to make is actually going to work. Oh, we of little faith. Inside the box they find the correct blank. Make the key. And guess what. It works great.
The two minute or less expected time to get a key has turned into to about a 10 -15 minute process and a very educational process at that. Once again, we learned the lesson: Never assume because it worked a certain way last week it will work the same way this week. Very bad way to plan your daily activities.
After seeing the large supply they had last week we made the bad assumption this would be a quick process without any hassles. Never assume that here. Cindy and Paul waited in the van while Brad walked across the street to get the key made. This shouldn’t take long – right? There is nobody else at the key place. Brad will be first in line.
Not so! When Brad hands them the key he notices they don’t have the large quantity of blanks hanging on the wall like they did last week. Strange! The lady making the key pulls out a small plastic bag filled with blanks, dumps them on the table, and begins to sort through them. She can’t find one that works so she calls her partner over and they both are sorting through the small pile of blank keys on the table. After several minutes it becomes obvious they can’t find a blank. Brad is thinking he just won’t get the key made today.
They, on the other hand, don’t seem to be too concerned about the situation. They begin opening up several drawers and looking through drawers full of all kind of stuff including a blank key here and there. Next they pull out a small metal box that is locked. Apparently there are more blanks in the box but it’s locked. The man gets out a key, Brad’s assuming it’s the key to box, and tries to open the box with the key. The key won’t work. So, how does he get the box open? Remember we are at the place where they make keys! He uses a screwdriver to manipulate the lock and open the box.
Not a real confidence booster that the key they are about to make is actually going to work. Oh, we of little faith. Inside the box they find the correct blank. Make the key. And guess what. It works great.
The two minute or less expected time to get a key has turned into to about a 10 -15 minute process and a very educational process at that. Once again, we learned the lesson: Never assume because it worked a certain way last week it will work the same way this week. Very bad way to plan your daily activities.
March 14 – 17, 2008
The trip to visit the churches in the capital Tegucigalpa, Choluteca, and Danli was very good. It was a lot driving (about 1100 kilometers) on two lane roads that wind through mountains. Brad went along with Saul and Miguel (the head of the pastors in Honduras). They let Brad drive the entire time because as Saul said “We want you to have the full experience.” Brad said he got pretty comfortable passing on curves and hills. A little different than driving in the States.
(Brad’s account of the trip)
We met several people who walk an hour or more each way to get to church. Very humbling to be around these people and see what they are willing to do to get to church. The first church was in Los Perles (about a 1.5 hour drive from Danli where we stayed the first night). It was about 8 hours of driving to from Hogar de Fe to the church on Friday. There were about 25-30 people there.
Before church we were able to spend some time with Juan Bonilla and his family at their home. Juan used to pastor a church but now has a serious heart condition and is unable to pastor anymore. He can’t read so his wife would read the Bible and then Juan would memorize his sermon and Bible references with his wife’s help. While at there house (which has dirt floors) their son, Jose Luis (one of our Bible Institute students) caught an iguana that was probably 4.5 – 5 feet long from nose to the end of the tail. I was afraid he was going to try and give it to me and I would have no idea what to do with it. Fortunately he didn’t, but I did find out later from Saul he offered to Saul but Saul declined it because he didn’t know what I would think about him taking it home. Saul says they are excellent to eat. Maybe someday. Not sure my stomach’s ready for it yet.
While visiting the Bonilla family Jose Luis’ sister told us she wants to come to the Bible Institute. So, we are making plans for her to be at the Bible Institute when they come back in May. IF we will just be patient and wait for God to bring us the people He wants He will do amazing things.
My Daily Moto Is: “Brad, Just don’t mess it up today.”
At the church they visited with the Pastor Diaz(who is one of the Bible students) before church. It seemed to mean a lot to the pastor, his family, and the church to have us there. It let them know they are supported, loved, and cared for. In fact, this was a common theme at every church and pastor we visited.
After church we drove the 1.5 hours back to our hotel at night. Night driving in Honduras is much more adventurous (read dangerous) than daytime driving. On the way back we had to avoid a cow in the road and later a horse in the road. We also had to avoid hitting a car that was stopped in our lane with no lights on. We avoided hitting several kids on bikes parked in the middle of our lane just talking and another car moving slowly in our lane with no taillights. Just another night driving in Honduras. It ‘s never boring.
On Saturday we drove another five hours to Choluteca to visit Pastor Ramone and his church. We visited with Ramone and one of his leaders, Milton, at Ramone’s house for about an hour. It was a fairly heated, open, and honest discussion of some problems that Ramone and Milton have with the way they feel they have been treated. I must say, most of their concerns are valid. All I told them was “Whatever you do make sure you are doing what God wants you to do. If you don’t you will never be happy with your decision. I also told them I would support them and hoped to continue working with them no matter what they decided.” After church we took Ramone and his family out for supper to celebrate pastor appreciation day with them. It was actually back in January but this is the first opportunity we’ve had to get down to see them.
The next morning we drove the three hours back to Tegucigalpa to visit two churches on Sunday. One met at 3:00 pm and the other at 7:00 pm. We picked up the pastors, Oscar and Mercedes, at their home and drove them to the church with us. They normally walk and it’s about an hour walk each way.
In between services we took Oscar, Mercedes, and Tino (the pastor of the 7:00 pm service) out to eat for pastor appreciation. While eating we found out that Tino’s father had passed away three weeks ago. This was heartbreaking because this is the first we had found out about it. This was an eye-opener to our failed communication with the pastors and churches who are not close to Hogar de Fe. We have immediately implemented a plan for Saul to call these pastors at least once every two weeks just to see how it’s going.
After the 7:00 pm service we took an elderly woman and her granddaughter home. They too walk to church and it’s about a 45 – 60 minute walk one-way. The next morning we drove the four hours home. Definitely ready to see Cindy and be home. It’s nice to be able to call our house “home” now.
Observations from the trip:
We need to try and personally visit these pastors and churches once per month. It may not be possible every month but we should try. Please pray about a better method to let these pastors and churches know about and experience our support.
It was a very encouraging experience to see what these men and women are doing and their commitment to God and the people of their churches.
Every church we visited began with many of the people on their knees praying before the service began. Hum??????
I think the pastors enjoyed the opportunity to be able to share and talk freely without feeling as if someone was there to critique them, criticism them, tell them what they should be doing, or not listen to what they had to say.
Since I speak muy poco Espanol I could not really enter in to the conversations with the pastors. So, I left it to Saul and Miguel to work with the pastors which was great because the goal is for them to begin running the show as soon as possible anyway.
I did learn that even when you can’t speak the language you can still mess with the kids. So, while Saul, Miguel, and the pastors were talking I spent time playing with the kids.
On the way home Saul, Miguel, and I were able to discuss what we had learned on the trip and what we should about it. Well, it was with Saul interpreting since Miguel speaks no Ingles.
I’m afraid we’ve created a situation where the pastors and churches think most problems are solved with money and the is suppose to come from us, “The Mission”, through the donations of North Americans. In every church I shared God’s plan to reach the world with message of the Gospel and His expectation that all His people should be participating in this great endeavor. We need to move from the receiving phase to the giving and support stage. It doesn’t matter how poor you believe you are – God expects all of us to be a part of His plan and He believes in us enough to trust us to fulfill His plan through the empowering of the Holy Spirit.
We are trying to expand the pastors and churches’ vision to see 2.3 billion people around the world that have never heard the gospel and begin seeking God to see how they are to be a part of reaching these people. Please pray with us as we continue to encourage our churches to join God’s efforts to reach the world. I truly believe this will be a major break through for our pastors and churches when they realize they are capable, they do have the resources, and they can play a major role in God’s plan to reach the world.
(Brad’s account of the trip)
We met several people who walk an hour or more each way to get to church. Very humbling to be around these people and see what they are willing to do to get to church. The first church was in Los Perles (about a 1.5 hour drive from Danli where we stayed the first night). It was about 8 hours of driving to from Hogar de Fe to the church on Friday. There were about 25-30 people there.
Before church we were able to spend some time with Juan Bonilla and his family at their home. Juan used to pastor a church but now has a serious heart condition and is unable to pastor anymore. He can’t read so his wife would read the Bible and then Juan would memorize his sermon and Bible references with his wife’s help. While at there house (which has dirt floors) their son, Jose Luis (one of our Bible Institute students) caught an iguana that was probably 4.5 – 5 feet long from nose to the end of the tail. I was afraid he was going to try and give it to me and I would have no idea what to do with it. Fortunately he didn’t, but I did find out later from Saul he offered to Saul but Saul declined it because he didn’t know what I would think about him taking it home. Saul says they are excellent to eat. Maybe someday. Not sure my stomach’s ready for it yet.
While visiting the Bonilla family Jose Luis’ sister told us she wants to come to the Bible Institute. So, we are making plans for her to be at the Bible Institute when they come back in May. IF we will just be patient and wait for God to bring us the people He wants He will do amazing things.
My Daily Moto Is: “Brad, Just don’t mess it up today.”
At the church they visited with the Pastor Diaz(who is one of the Bible students) before church. It seemed to mean a lot to the pastor, his family, and the church to have us there. It let them know they are supported, loved, and cared for. In fact, this was a common theme at every church and pastor we visited.
After church we drove the 1.5 hours back to our hotel at night. Night driving in Honduras is much more adventurous (read dangerous) than daytime driving. On the way back we had to avoid a cow in the road and later a horse in the road. We also had to avoid hitting a car that was stopped in our lane with no lights on. We avoided hitting several kids on bikes parked in the middle of our lane just talking and another car moving slowly in our lane with no taillights. Just another night driving in Honduras. It ‘s never boring.
On Saturday we drove another five hours to Choluteca to visit Pastor Ramone and his church. We visited with Ramone and one of his leaders, Milton, at Ramone’s house for about an hour. It was a fairly heated, open, and honest discussion of some problems that Ramone and Milton have with the way they feel they have been treated. I must say, most of their concerns are valid. All I told them was “Whatever you do make sure you are doing what God wants you to do. If you don’t you will never be happy with your decision. I also told them I would support them and hoped to continue working with them no matter what they decided.” After church we took Ramone and his family out for supper to celebrate pastor appreciation day with them. It was actually back in January but this is the first opportunity we’ve had to get down to see them.
The next morning we drove the three hours back to Tegucigalpa to visit two churches on Sunday. One met at 3:00 pm and the other at 7:00 pm. We picked up the pastors, Oscar and Mercedes, at their home and drove them to the church with us. They normally walk and it’s about an hour walk each way.
In between services we took Oscar, Mercedes, and Tino (the pastor of the 7:00 pm service) out to eat for pastor appreciation. While eating we found out that Tino’s father had passed away three weeks ago. This was heartbreaking because this is the first we had found out about it. This was an eye-opener to our failed communication with the pastors and churches who are not close to Hogar de Fe. We have immediately implemented a plan for Saul to call these pastors at least once every two weeks just to see how it’s going.
After the 7:00 pm service we took an elderly woman and her granddaughter home. They too walk to church and it’s about a 45 – 60 minute walk one-way. The next morning we drove the four hours home. Definitely ready to see Cindy and be home. It’s nice to be able to call our house “home” now.
Observations from the trip:
We need to try and personally visit these pastors and churches once per month. It may not be possible every month but we should try. Please pray about a better method to let these pastors and churches know about and experience our support.
It was a very encouraging experience to see what these men and women are doing and their commitment to God and the people of their churches.
Every church we visited began with many of the people on their knees praying before the service began. Hum??????
I think the pastors enjoyed the opportunity to be able to share and talk freely without feeling as if someone was there to critique them, criticism them, tell them what they should be doing, or not listen to what they had to say.
Since I speak muy poco Espanol I could not really enter in to the conversations with the pastors. So, I left it to Saul and Miguel to work with the pastors which was great because the goal is for them to begin running the show as soon as possible anyway.
I did learn that even when you can’t speak the language you can still mess with the kids. So, while Saul, Miguel, and the pastors were talking I spent time playing with the kids.
On the way home Saul, Miguel, and I were able to discuss what we had learned on the trip and what we should about it. Well, it was with Saul interpreting since Miguel speaks no Ingles.
I’m afraid we’ve created a situation where the pastors and churches think most problems are solved with money and the is suppose to come from us, “The Mission”, through the donations of North Americans. In every church I shared God’s plan to reach the world with message of the Gospel and His expectation that all His people should be participating in this great endeavor. We need to move from the receiving phase to the giving and support stage. It doesn’t matter how poor you believe you are – God expects all of us to be a part of His plan and He believes in us enough to trust us to fulfill His plan through the empowering of the Holy Spirit.
We are trying to expand the pastors and churches’ vision to see 2.3 billion people around the world that have never heard the gospel and begin seeking God to see how they are to be a part of reaching these people. Please pray with us as we continue to encourage our churches to join God’s efforts to reach the world. I truly believe this will be a major break through for our pastors and churches when they realize they are capable, they do have the resources, and they can play a major role in God’s plan to reach the world.
March 15, 2008
Brad is traveling through Honduras visiting churches and Cindy is home by herself. During the night she hears a noise outside the side door to the house. It’s obvious it is not a person but some type of critter. She goes outside to find a medium sized iguana on the screen door to the house. Cindy gets a stick and with some encouragement gets the iguana to move off of the door. The commotion of the iguana leaving disturbs the birds in the nest above the door (a nest Cindy was not aware of at the time). The birds are frightened by the all the iguana commotion and fly from their nest right over the top of Cindy’s head. It was a little nerve-racking to have some unknown creature flying directly over your head while she’s focused on trying to stay away from the iguana who is fleeing the screen door.
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