Back in the USA...

We had a nice visit to El Picacho City Park on Saturday morning with the team.  The statue of Jesus at the top of this park is HUGE.  We had some amazing views of the city.  We had an opportunity to do some last minute souvenir shopping before going back down the mountain to pack up for the airport. 

We arrived back in Harrisburg, PA around 10:30 on Saturday night.  It was so great to see Jared again!  It’s always great to come home!

Thanks for your prayers as we travelled and spent our time in Honduras.  I must say, we have an awesome STEP team serving in Honduras this year.  It brings joy to my heart to see these young people excited to serve the Lord.  I’m excited to see what God does in each of their lives as they finish up their time in Honduras and come home in May.  Please continue to pray for them—Jesse, Yolanda, Holly and Janelle.

Our Amazing STEP Team!

As I mentioned in the last post, Thursday night was our last night of evangelism.  We had a terrific time at Suyapa’s house celebrating our week with the Honduran teens we met.  They are an amazing group of young people who are so on fire for God.  What an encouragement they were to all of us!  Suyapa, of course, made some amazing food.  Her daughter, Keyla, made some of the food as well.  What a treat!  There was cake there…thought about the retaliation on Jesse, but I think I’ll keep making him wait.  I’ll catch him more off guard in New York when he comes home for debrief!  J

For our last night of evangelism, we went to a neighborhood where the local teens have not evangelized so much yet.  All of the neighborhoods we’ve been in this week are full of gangs and drug dealers.  We always travel in groups when we go.  God was certainly with us—always—as our Protector!  This last evening of evangelizing was a highlight for me.  Each of our STEPpers shared the Gospel message with several people…of course in Spanish.  I’m so proud of them!  They are working hard with the language and it takes a lot of courage to evangelize to complete strangers, especially in this setting.  Our STEPpers are an amazing group of young people!  Although the “week of evangelism” in our STEP program is complete this week, our team desires to continue to meet with these local teens during the balance of the program here and continue to evangelize.  Praise God!

After our late night on Thursday night, we had an early start to our day on Friday.  We left Tegucigalpa around 7:00 a.m. for our 3-4 hour drive to the waterfall park—Pulhapanzak.  What an awesome day!  It was a great day for the entire team to just have fun together after a challenging week.  When we arrived at the park, we hiked a trail to view the falls.  Then, we started off with a zip-line tour. 

There were 11 “stops” on the zip-line tour.  ALL of us did the tour.  What a great time!  The final line went over the falls.  It was beautiful!  After the zip line, most of us took the challenge of doing the hike behind the falls.  I don’t think I’ve ever done anything like this before!  It was AMAZING and CRAZY…all at the same time!  We hiked along the falls for a bit and then walked/swam through portions of the water at the base of some of the smaller falls.  Once we reached the huge falls, we linked hands and walked under/behind them!  You couldn’t ask for a better team building activity!  J  It was intense!  The water was just crashing down on us!  You end up in a small cave.  We took a short break there and then had to go back the way we came!  As we got to the smaller falls area, those who wanted to jumped off of a 10 ft. cliff into the water below.  Of course…I wanted to.  That was just preparation for the big 25 ft. cliff jump at the end!  At the end of the hike, some of us took the plunge and jumped from that 25 ft. cliff—breathtaking!!  When I looked down, I thought, “I can do this,” but once I took that first step and was falling, I thought, “what am I doing!?”  I’m so glad I did it though! 

After our water adventure, we had some lunch before driving back to Tegucigalpa.  The sun was setting towards the end of our drive home.  The sky was just beautiful—enjoy the pictures!  We topped off our day with dinner out at “El Gordo’s” (gordo means fat in Spanish—how’s that for a name for a restaurant!?).  Thanks to an anonymous donor who provided the funds for our team dinner!  We spent some time reflecting on the highlights for everyone for our week.  It was an awesome time sharing together. 

Saturday morning we’re planning to visit El Picacho City Park to do some hiking and see a statue of Jesus Christ overlooking the city and then Kim and I will be heading to the airport to return home to the States. 

Thanks for your prayers this week!  Please continue to pray for our STEP team here as they begin to get involved in various ministries and continue evangelizing.  Pray that they are able to continue to practice the language.  Pray for continued protection for them.  They will return to the States in May.

God is ALWAYS in control...

Time is going so fast here…and our days are full!  It’s been a few days since I’ve been able to update you all on what is happening.  So much is happening!  The enemy is constantly trying to stop our evangelism plans, but God is good!  We are continuing to push through!

Tuesday night was our second night of evangelizing.  We joined the group of Honduran teens here that evangelize in these neighborhoods regularly.  Tuesday evening’s evangelism experience was different from Monday’s in that on Tuesday, we went to a different neighborhood and were inviting people to come to church with us that night. 

Our group split in two groups to go to two different neighborhoods.  Our group  ended up having a van full of local children to take to church.  We filled every available spot (and even NOT so available spot) in the van! 

Tuesday evening ended up quite differently than we all expected it to.  Long story…and I’ll share more on that one-on-one.    Holly and Yolanda are the only ones from our group that were able to get to the church service that night.  Due to some mechanical difficulties with our van, the church had to send another van to us to load up the kids we picked up.  It ended up being quite a long night, but God is good!

On Wednesday morning, I had some time to meet with another one of our leaders here in Honduras to just discuss how things were going for him with our BIC churches here and to also brainstorm other ideas or ministries that we could plug in to.  He lives up in the mountains and takes public transportation most times, so we walked to a local Dunkin Donuts for our meeting.  We ended our meeting close to lunch time so we ended up going to have basically, Mexican tacos for lunch.  We tried taking a bus, but got on the wrong one.  So, we got off and ended up walking to the restaurant.  After lunch, I got the taxi experience to go back to the house.  We had our team devotions and prayer time, continuing our study of Nehemiah.  The study was appropriate in that we talked about how the enemy was attacking Nehemiah and trying to stop his building plans—just as the enemy is trying to work against us this week as we try to evangelize in the community. 

On Wednesday afternoon, our team spent some time at Jericho Ministries.  This is one of the ministries that our STEP team plugs in to.  Jericho Ministries began as a ministry to get women off of the streets and away from prostitution.  These women were provided with a safe place to be, learn skills to find a job and learn about Christ.  A sewing workshop began out of this ministry.  There are three phases in the rehabilitation program—a one-year residential program, readjustment to city life and follow-up for the graduates.  Jericho Ministries has expanded to include a school for children, too.  Betsy, the woman who started it, also has an amazing testimony!  This ministry is such a blessing to the community!

Wednesday night’s evangelism was to yet another neighborhood.  We joined a new group of Honduran teens and ended up walking around the community and inviting youth to their cell group for that night.  We met a lot of the teens they have been meeting with regularly.  The church here that we’ve been working with for the evangelism has quite a ministry!  It’s awesome to see these young people so excited for Jesus!  I tried to take a few photos of the community as we were walking, just to give you an idea of what it looks like. 

One of the teens we met from the church is named, Katherine.  She spoke English very well and is actually in college studying to be a doctor.  I had a lot of good conversations with her.  She’s an amazing young woman!  She actually seems very interested in taking part in our STEP program someday.  Who knows?  On Tuesday evening when I was with Katherine evangelizing, she asked me what types of Honduran foods I’ve been able to try.  I hadn’t had too many at that point.  So, she proceeded to buy a green mango with salt and vinegar on it.  It was quite an interesting flavor…I sort of liked it.  Then, Katherine invited me (and anyone else on our team who wanted to) to come to her house the next night, Wednesday night, for dinner.  She would make us “pupusas”, which is like a tortilla filled with cheese and then topped with shredded lettuce and diced tomatos, onions and peppers. 

So, on Wednesday night, after our evangelism time, Kim (Jesse’s mom) and I ended up going to Katherine’s house for dinner.  The rest of the STEP team had made arrangements to join their host families for dinner, especially since it had been late the last few nights.  So, Kim and I joined Katherine and her family for dinner.  When we got to Katherine’s house, we actually ended up helping her to make the pupusas.  That was a fun experience.  Katherine told us how her mom was an excellent cook and she was sure that when she returned home from church, she would NOT be happy with the pupusas that she was making for us.  Well, she was right.  It was almost 9:00 until we actually sat down to eat what we made and her mom returned home from church and took one look at what we were eating and was “horrified!”  She was teasing Katherine and proceeded to make us HER version of pupusas.  Katherine’s dad and younger brother joined us too.  Our “pupusas” were too thin…the ones that she made were much thicker with more cheese.  I had to tell Katherine that I did, in fact, like her mom’s better.  Everyone got a good laugh about that.  We had a great time sharing together.  This is one special family.  Katherine’s mother has an amazing testimony.  The short of it is that she pretty much died three times (various surgeries) but came back to life.  I’m pretty sure that God still wants her here!  Kim and I ended up visiting Katherine and her family until 10:30; and I had yet another privilege to drive in Honduras—3 times now!  Who would have guessed?!

I’ve had quite a few late nights, most with interrupted sleep, so prayers are appreciated.  I’m doing well, but I am tired—please pray that I’ll be able to maintain my health.  I’ve been going on morning runs with Aquilla, the dog, and that has been interesting!  All in all, things continue to go well here. 

On Thursday morning, Barry took Kim and I to see The Micah Project, another ministry in the city that the STEP team will get involved with.  This is a home for boys.  The ministry is to get them off of the streets.  Most of them are addicted to sniffing glue.  The home provides a safe place where they can study, learn a trade and learn about Jesus.  The one photo shows a “shop” on the roof of the building that is used to teach them carpentry skills.  Another picture shows a local church in the area.  The yellow house right above the church is actually the local drug lord’s house.  The neighborhood is pretty rough.  The Micah Project meets a great need in the area.  They are actually in the process of expanding the ministry and moving it to a more rural area.  We had an opportunity to see that land as well and hear about some of the plans they have. 

Tonight (Thursday) is our last night of evangelism.  We’re actually joining the group of Honduran teens tonight for a “celebration” dinner at Suyapa’s house before we evangelize.  We wanted to thank them for their role in our week and to just be able to spend some time with them.  We’ll be evangelizing with them after our dinner.  Please pray for safety tonight in our travels and as we walk the streets of the communities.  Pray for open hearts to hear from Christ. 

It looks like tonight will be another late night.  And, tomorrow, we have an early start.  We’re travelling quite a distance to a waterfall for a fun day to end our week.  We’re all looking forward to it!

Thanks for your continued prayers for us!

Some Honduran Culture...

Since I've been staying with a host family the last few days, my internet access has been limited.  Here's another update on the last few days. 

On Sunday morning at the BIC church, they had a baby dedication service.  On Sunday night, Holly and I went to Noe and Suyapa’s house.  Noe was away for work, so it was just Suyapa and her children, Keyla and Jarvin.  We had a Honduran dinner of eggs, beans and cheese.  Suyapa is an amazing cook and so gifted in hospitality!  We had a fun “girls night” since Noe was away.  Keily does an amazing job of painting nails, so she treated me to a manicure and a pedicure!  That was a special treat.  So, Holly and I spent time with Keyla and Suyapa for a few hours that night while doing my nails.  We had a great time sharing together—only in Spanish!  I was trying to give Keyla dating advice.  We did a lot of laughing!

We went to bed for the night and tried to sleep.  They live more in the country, so there were dogs barking, and roosters crowing…all night long!  I thought roosters were only supposed to crow when the sun came up!?  Needless to say, we didn’t get much sleep.  That’s kind of been the “normal” for me on this trip.  There have been a lot of various interruptions during my sleep at night…more of those stories will be told one-on-one.

Living with this host family for the few nights, was a true Honduran experience.  They do not have any running water in the house.  So, toilets are flushed with a bucket of water (like in India) and the shower is a bucket bath.  Since we were only there for the two nights, Holly and I decided we weren’t going to do the sponge bath—we got showers at the Horsts house each morning instead.

Holly and I got up early on Monday morning to go for a run.  It’s best to go really early to avoid the traffic and fumes.  We were hoping to see the sunrise, but the mountain sort of blocked our view.  We did see some crazy electrical wires, though!  It was great to get out and run!  Suyapa served us a bean and cheese sandwich for breakfast, along with some orange juice.  It was tasty!  Holly and I ended up walking to the Horsts after breakfast, rather than waiting to get picked up.  It was about a 2-mile walk. 

When we got to the Horsts, the team took some time to split up the HUGE amount of chocolate the Kim brought for them.  Chocolate is expensive here and the team (especially Holly!) were going through withdrawal.  Kim is their new best friend now!  We had to take the van to the garage this morning, so I had to drive the other vehicle.  THAT was something I didn’t expect…me, drive in Honduras?  Well, I did it—and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be!  Traffic is definitely crazy…you need to be an aggressive driver.

Our team took a trip to the Basillica of Suyapa on Monday morning.  So, here is come cultural information for you…February 3, marks the 264^th anniversary of the Virgin Suyapa, Patron Saint of Honduras.  Many versions of the story of Suyapa are told, but the official one goes that the statue of Suyapa was discovered by a man named Alejandro Colindres, a peasant worker, along with an 8-year old boy, one Saturday in February 1747.  Both were sent to work in the Piliguin Mountains.  As they were returning to their native village of Suyapa, they spent the night outside.  In the middle of the night, Colindres was awakened by something causing a sharp pain in his back.  Without looking, he picked it up and tossed it away, but soon felt the same sensation again.  When morning broke, he discovered a tiny, wooden statue of a virgin.  He took it with him and placed it in his mother’s house.  As the people of Suyapa heard the story of the tiny virgin, they were convinced it was a miracle.  This is how this legend began and ever since, people from around the country have made their way to the Basillica to catch a glimpse of the six and a half centimeter virgin and to offer prayers and ask for their own miracles.

After lunch, we had team devotions and prayer and prepared to join some teens from a local church here to do some evangelizing.  Our team joined 5-6 other Honduran teens and we went to a local community and went out two-(or three)-by-two to evangelize.  The teens that we went with do this evangelizing regularly.  There are a lot of gangs in the area where they go.  They have such a heart to reach the young people for Christ.  It was an amazing experience!  There will be lots more to share on that as the week goes on.  We’ll be doing that each evening from 4-6 this week.  Prayers are appreciated!  Pray that the STEP team would have clarity of mind to be able to speak the Spanish they have learned and to be able to share Christ with these people.  Pray for open hearts and minds of those we meet, to be receptive to the Gospel.

Monday was a pretty exhausting day.  We ended up  back at our houses for the evening around 7:30.  Suyapa made “baleadas”—LOVE them!  Suyapa is such a great cook!  Baleadas are sort of like a flour tortilla with some sort of sauce, cheese and beans inside.  So yummy!  Unfortunately, Holly and I were so tired that we didn’t have a lot of energy to visit with Suyapa and Keyla that night.  We went to bed pretty early.  And, amazingly, the dogs and roosters were pretty quiet all night!

Tuesday morning breakfast was “catrachas.”  These were also amazing!  It’s sort of a tostado with cheese and veggies (tomatoes, onions and cilantro) on top.  We had a nice visit with Suyapa and Keyla during breakfast.  We said our goodbye’s to Suyapa and Keyla and joined the rest of the team at the Horsts.  In the morning, we shared together in team devotions and prayer, ending our time before lunch with a team building activity.

The afternoon will allow time for the team to practice things for the Kids Club program, as well as some additional practice for our evangelizing tonight.

Let's have a picnic!

So, here’s what’s been happening the last few days.  On Friday morning, I met with Barry, Kimberly and Marshall to discuss details of our STEP program.  Friday was the last day of language training for our team, so we joined the four STEPpers and their language teachers for lunch to celebrate.  The team has come a long way in learning the language.  I’m really proud of them!  After lunch, we went back to Barry & Kimberly’s house.  Another pastoral couple joined us in the afternoon to share with the team about evangelizing, especially to Catholics.  We had some great discussion on what Catholics here in Honduras believe.  It was an interesting session.

On Friday evening, Kim and I joined the team for dinner at Jesse’s host family’s house.  Romelia, his “mom in Honduras” was an amazing host!  What a lovely family!  Most of her children were able to join us as well.  We had a great visit with them all.  Romelia just lost her husband a few months ago, pretty much a month before Jesse arrived.  So, she is still in a time of grieving.  Please pray for her.  She is so blessed to have Jesse there and to be part of our STEP program in that way.  What an amazing Christian woman!  Romelia also cares for her 98-year old mother...what a beautiful woman!

On Saturday, we had a fun day together as a team.  After breakfast, (and by the way…Barry is an amazing cook—banana pancakes one morning and eggs with onions and peppers another morning—what a treat!) we drove out to a local park for a picnic.  Again, Barry did an amazing job with pulling this one off, too!  Hamburgers, hot dogs, homemade baked beans and macaroni salad, and other veggies—it was a feast!  After quite some difficulty for Barry & Jesse getting the charcoals lit (they just wouldn’t get started!), we all sat down to enjoy the food.  We had another young couple from Honduras, Veronica and Andres and their 2-year old daughter, Ellah, join us.  We had a great time sharing testimonies together and just laughing and fellowshipping together.  We had expected it to be warmer than it was, but it was actually quite chilly! 

After a few hours at the park, we drove to the “Valle de Angeles”.  This is a local town for tourists.  We spent some time shopping for souvenirs.  After a bit of time there, Barry asked if we wanted to go La Tigra park which was at the top of a mountain…it would be quite an adventure driving those roads with the van.  Were we up for it?  You bet!  We’re always game for an adventure!  I don’t think we knew what we were in for.  It was quite a crazy, bumpy ride!  Towards the top, we needed more weight in the back of the van, so we all piled in the back…with me almost diving head first into Holly!  It’s hard to believe that this road is the main road to the park and into the town of San Juan Cito (the city at the bottom of the hill).  When we started up the hill, we actually saw the clouds covering the mountains.  Once we got to the top, the clouds had dissipated. 

When we reached the top, we had about 45 minutes until dark.  Barry asked the Park Ranger if we could walk to the top to the lookout—we didn’t have much time.  The guide thought it would take us about an hour to go up and back.  Again, Barry asked if anyone was up for it.  Several of us jumped at it—Yolanda, me, Jesse and Barry.  Off we went.  It was quite a hike up the mountain!  It was pretty strenuous and you could definitely feel the higher altitude.

The view was amazing at the top!  Well worth the hike!  It was a great day!

On Sunday morning, we attended the Spanish BIC church at 8 a.m. and then an English-speaking church at 10 a.m.  The plan for the rest of the day is to rest just a bit and then I’ll be visiting with each of the STEP girls and their host families for some time this afternoon.  For the next two nights, I’ll be staying with a host family (Noe and Suyapa’s—where my birthday party was).  Holly, one of our STEP team is going to join me, to help with some translation (which I’m very thankful for!)  I’m looking forward to spending the next few days with this family.

I've been "caked"....

Well, it's been quite a day!  Kim and I arrived safely in Honduras today around 1:00 in the afternoon.  I had a pretty cool conversation with a woman on the plane....what is it with me and people on planes??  I love how God works!

Barry picked us up at the airport.  The traffic here is ridiculous!  (Not as bad as India, though!).   After some lunch and a bit of rest, we were joined by Kimberly and the STEP team to go to a "social gathering" at one of the couples from the BIC church here.  Well, the "social gathering" turned out to be a surprise birthday party for me--pinata and all!  They got me good!  I thought something may happen while I was here, but not on my first day here!

When we arrived at the couple's house, there were balloons everywhere.  I didn't think anything of it--all of the times I was in Nicaragua, they always put up balloons for everything!  I figured it was just to celebrate our arrival in Honduras (because that was usually what happened in Nicaragua).   Well, it didn't take long before I found out it was a birthday party for me--2 days early!! 

So, this amazing couple opens their home and serves us some awesome food.  Then, I'm taken into the house and blindfolded while they hang up a pinata outside.  Well, if you can believe it...the pinata is a HUGE butterfly!  And, they had butterfly party horns, too!  This family knew nothing of my butterfly stories or what butterflies mean to me.  It was pretty cool how that was all part of the party, too.  God sure is funny!

After MANY tries at breaking the pinata (me and many others attempting it), we finally got to the candy!  Then, it was time for the cake.  Of course, they had the trick candles.  And...the tradition for birthdays that I was warned about....getting cake smashed in your face.  I KNEW it and was EXPECTING it...but Jesse got me good!  Believe me, I chased him down, but couldn't catch him in my flip flops running on the loose gravel.  No worries though...I have quite a few more days here for my retaliation!

After the cake, I was presented with so many cards, half of which I actually transported here!?  They were in an envelope for me to give to Kimberly here.  Nice job, Leah, and BICWM office staff!  Thank you for all of the nice cards!  The man at the house (I'll get their names for sure...have no idea how to spell them) has a leather shop and makes beautiful things.  He made me a beautiful wallet for my birthday!  Wow!

All in all, a great day!  Who else can say that they celebrated their 40th birthday in Honduras, breaking a pinata and getting cake smashed in their face?!  I'll post a few pictures.  Unfortunately, my camera batteries died so I don't have the one with the cake on my face--that will be coming later--it WAS captured on film.

Tomorrow after a meeting in the morning, we'll be joining the STEP team and their language teachers for lunch.  It is the last day of language training for our team.  Not sure what else is in store for tomorrow.  Thanks for your prayers!

I've confirmed the name of the amazing hosts -- Noe and Suyapa G.  And, here are a few more pictures.  Enjoy!