This trip was such a blessing for me and my walk with God, but I know we impacted lives in Honduras as well. Pretty much every day there, we went out to houses already selected by the local church, talked with those who lived there, shared the Gospel with them, had some discussion, and often prayed with them. It was amazing to see how God was moving through our team. We also got to hand out the donations that were given to us to take. It was such a moving experience to be God’s hands in providing for the members of the Danli community. So often we give donations to an organization and never really see the end result. It was such a blessing to be able to see the donations given in Blacksburg, take them with us as luggage, carry a duffle bag with food and clothes through a neighborhood, and then deliver them to people who genuinely needed it. I will never forget having the chance to put shoes on a child’s feet. The following are some of my notes, thoughts, and prayers while I was in Honduras.
Sunday, March 4- Adios USA!
God has already done so much for this trip. I’m currently on the plane above the Gulf of Mexico on the way from Houston to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Let me go back to yesterday and describe our adventures so far. We made it up to a church in DC around 8:30p, had a small team meeting, divided up into travel groups, and then we crashed. We woke up around 2:40a and went to Reagan Airport… Well, we landed safely in Teguc! It was quite an exciting landing since there are a lot of mountains around. From there, we took a 2 hr bus ride to Danli! We finally made it to the church building. The church runs a tortilla factory and a kid’s program both as social/outreach venues. Then we sorted all the donations, hung out, and ate dinner. It’s time for bed! Tomorrow should be awesome!
Monday, March 5
Wow! Today was a crazy day! Never before have I shared/helped share the gospel with so many people. We started this morning by eating breakfast. Then we went back to the church and packed food bags that we would take with us throughout the day. After we finished packing food bags, we gathered up/divided up the donations for each group. One group stayed and built beds and all the other groups went to share the gospel with people. The first house was of a grandmother, Esperenza, her daughter, and her granddaughter. I didn’t know what to say, and I was really nervous. Next, we went to Cindy’s house which had a partially dirt floor and cardboard walls. She accepted Jesus into her life! After lunch, we went back out, and our first house was where we met Lester, Anghel, Nieyla, and the rest of their family. We ended up mainly talking to Lester, who was a very bright kid and knew about God. We stayed there a while, prayed for an older relative, and then left.
We went up the hill to talk to Wilmer, age 20. That is when Lester and all his cousins came up and had followed us there! When we finished talking with Wilmer, the kids kind of mobbed me. So the rest of our group went to an adjacent home while I talked with the kids about anything from Jesus to dogs to sheep to them asking me to sing for them. I started singing “Jesus Loves Me” and then they finished in Spanish when I forgot the words! I ended up seeing and playing with those kids several more times today. At the last house, I tried to use my Spanish a little too much and said that fish (pescado) separates us from God instead of sin (pecado). That was pretty embarrassing…
Tuesday, March 6
Today was the day everyone started getting sick. By the end of the day, about five of us weren’t feeling well. We went out in the mountains to share the Gospel. It was pretty close to “the ends of the earth” as the Bible says. After lunch we went further into the mountains and shared more with people, often handing out food and clothes and such. I even got to put shoes on a little girl’s feet!
Wednesday, March 7
It is pretty late (11:21 pm) since we just got back from playing soccer. So, bullets for today:
- Ate toast, bananas, and corn flakes for breakfast
- Packed food bags
- Went to share the gospel with several people/families
- Ate tacos with chicken and pico for lunch
- Went back out and shared with Sonia after going to 2 houses with no one home
- Shared with family who got the bed one group made
- Left at about 4:45 PM- went and ate ice cream and had group reflection time
- Ate pizza for dinner
- Hung out, then basketball, then soccer!
Thursday, March 8
In the morning, the bed that we were going to build was already built, so we stained and varnished it while the others packed the food bags. Then, we went to Miguel’s neighborhood to share the gospel. We had to climb up this crazy steep hill to get to the first house. We only made it to that house and 1 more in the morning, lunch at Miguel’s, then 3 more
in the afternoon.
Friday, March 9- Saturday, March 10
We went to the local market. It was neat getting to walk around and see everything. After dinner, we went to the church for a service that was kind of a send-off for us. Several people got up to thank us for what we were doing. Steve (our group leader) shared about our team, and then Sabrina (one of our teammates) got up to share about her experiences as a first-timer. Katie, who is going to Honduras full-time this summer, also shared. We got to worship with them which was an awesome experience. They played some songs that we knew in English, so as they were all singing in Spanish, we were singing in English, and it was awesome. It was definitely a kingdom moment!! Then we went back to our houses for the night.
The next morning, we got up, finished packing our things, ate breakfast, then all hopped on the bus for the 2 hour drive to the airport in Tegucigalpa. We checked in, said our good-byes to the translators, and then went through security. We finally made it to Reagan and the plane landed about 12:30a. It was almost 2a before we got on the road home, making it about 7a getting in to Blacksburg!
~ David McCann