The Last Day in Honduras

Today was one of the most heart breaking days on the trip. It's hard to imagine human beings surviving by picking plastic and cardboard out of the city dump to make $3 / day. As we approached the dump we had to close the windows of the bus to keep the flies from pouring in on us. As we drove up to the dump we saw cardboard and wire mesh houses constructed to protect people and cardboard from the daily rain that falls 6 months every year. Levi explained that the church and mayor have worked together to construct housing with cement floors and tin roofs to provide a minimum level of protection for these families. Finding a permanent solution to the scavenging of the dump for money has proven to be elusive. We called these men together for some prayer and gave them fresh water and the remainder of the food we had on the bus. The return trip to the hotel was silent, as we tried to process the human conditions and daily existence we had just witnessed.

We then stopped by the church to pickup some of the long term college student missionaries that were spending the summer in Choluteca. We traveled 45 minutes to the beach and enjoyed a fish lunch and a few hours of sun and sand on the coast of Honduras. It was a world away from our morning trip, but was a great end to the trip. From the shore we looked South to Nicaragua and north to El Salvador. Spending a few hours in the warm ocean swells and swinging in hammocks was a welcome break.

Saturday evening we returned to the Great Commission Church for the weekly church service. We met Carlos and Edita and gave them a photo album showing the construction of their new home and the team working side by side with them during the week.

Our week in Honduras has come to an end. It has been a wonderful opportunity to help a family that we pray will become a spark to change a community. We have seen how the Great Commission Church is making a difference in the lives of individuals and fighting to change the cycle of poverty, disease, hopelessness, and the spiritual voids that impact the people of Honduras. Elevate church will be back again next year to continue our partnership with the Great Commission church in Honduras, and learn from each other what it means to be the hands and feet of Christ in a broken world

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Celebration and Tears

Wow, we finished the home and had a wonderful morning full of ceremony, celebration, and commission. After making a few final touch-ups to the home including a front door handle, padlock and general construction cleanup, we sent the Auguilar family out into their neighborhood to bring back friends, neighbors, and loads of children for a celebration. While they were gone, our team decorated the home with 2 new foldaway beds for Franklin and Jeffrey. We moved Carlos and Edita's bed from their home and put fresh sheets on all of the beds. We brought in their table and added new plastic chairs, a table cloth, plastic dishes and glasses. Their house, now looked like a home. The finishing touch was to place the shoes of the son they had lost along side a bible on the bed. As the crowd gathered behind our GCLA Bus we could not resist adding a bit of ABC drama by having everyone yell Mueve El Bus (Move that Bus) to show the home to everyone. It's hard to describe the impact of seeing a bed of your own for the first time as 17 year old Jeffrey did. Or to know that when the rains come, as they do almost every afternoon during the 6 month rainy season that you will have a dry place to stay. This week has been life changing for the Anguilar family and for all of us as well.

It was now time to celebrate with a pinata with all of the kids. It was amazing to see how fast a pinata gathers kids for a party. They were everywhere. It was a great celebration. Luis Fernando finished the morning with a commission, for the Auguliar family to become a beacon within their community to open their home to share what the love of God has done and is doing in their lives.

In the afternoon we went to a community between Limon and Casa Hogar Vida that is made up of farmers that do not own the land they are living on, but have created homesteads. They have no electricity or city services, but have planted crops to sell in the marketplace. Many of these people can not read and write and have been visited by many different missionaries and have developed their faith by word of mouth. There has been a traveling preacher that is starting to pull the community together, but they are essentially isolated from a regular community of faith. We tromped through the fields in the rain and mud back to the bus.
Our evening ended with a special Honduran meal at the home of Pastor Geovanny. The food and fellowship was wonderful and we watched a video of pictures taken throughout the week. Some of the team stayed for a Cell Group meeting(like our eleven32 groups). There was good discussion and it was amazing how similar our churches are.

The House Nears Completion

Today’s devotion was about Scott’s childhood memories of learning how to fish; the importance of knowing the fish and how the right bait, the right location, the right depth, and patience are all required to catch fish. Jesus invited fisherman as his disciples and we also are called to be fishers of men.

We returned to the work site to find the framing and interior walls had been constructed by Carlos and Daniel yesterday afternoon. So the team began the construction of hinged window covers (there will be no glass in these openings), and the front and rear door of the home. The rest of the team started working on attaching the concrete board and painting the home. We returned to the work site after lunch and completed the concrete board and much of the exterior painting. The afternoon rains started and so work was stopped. When it rains, it really rains down here. All that is left to finish the home is some final trim, latches, and touchups.

Some of the team went shopping this afternoon to purchase plastic chairs (everyone has them in the neighborhood), a 2 roll away twin beds, Tupperware to store kitchen staples, backpacks for the kids etc. to complete the house. Tomorrow is going to be especially exciting as we finish the house and celebrate with the Aguilar family by hosting a “block party” Honduras / Elevate Church style.

During the afternoon a team of 4 of us accompanied by Marisu and Luis Fernando went to 2 homes in Limon. We spent 20-30 minutes at 2 separate homes sharing our faith before the bus picked us up in the pouring rain.

Concrete, Prison, and Evangelism

Our morning devotion focused on taking this week beyond the emotional high of a mission trip. We should structure our lives such that being a Missional Christian is the focus of our daily routine, not just 1 week during the summer. Although spending a week in Honduras serving others in need is an awesome emotional, physical, and spiritual experience.

During our work in Limon today, we worked on the concrete floor, putting the finishing touches on the roof, and completing the framing. By lunch we had completed 1/2 of the concrete floor. We returned to the work site at the end of the day and found the rest of the floor had been completed. Justin carved the Elevate Church symbol just inside the main entrance.

Dave, Ryan and I had the opportunity to spend time with Pastor Giovanny at lunch today. It is amazing to hear the similarities in the vision and mission of the Great Commission Church in Honduras and the vision of Elevate Church. After lunch we were invited to witness the prison baptism of 3 women inmates as a part of the church's prison ministry. One of the church's Deacons started a prison ministry 5-6 years ago. Today was a special day for 3 of the inmates who were taking their faith public with a baptism. Seeing how the love of Christ has impacted these inmates is a powerful and emotional experience. It is hard to describe the conditions these women live in and the faith, courage, and strength it takes for the women of the church to be serving the prisoners.

After lunch the rest of our team went shopping for food staples to be handed out during our sharing of the good new of Jesus Christ with the local poor. These food staples should last a small family 1 week for the cost of $7 US. The teams visited 10 homes this afternoon. We will be going out again on Thursday and Friday afternoon.

Rasing the Roof and visiting Casa Hogar Vida

Our team had another long, hot, wonderful day of service in Honduras. We began the day with devotions from Ryan, who reminded us that God is not just out there somewhere, but is active and alive working in this world every day. As we begin to prepare to share the good news of Jesus Christ with some of the poor in Honduras, we should remember that God is at work already in our lives, and in the lives of those we are going to meet

The work day started back at the Aguliar family’s home. It was the hottest day this week, and we worked thru the noon hour before taking a lunch break. To extend our day on the work site, the team from the church brought lunch for us to share. They setup at a house down the street and we had pizza and watermelon. We completed positioning all of the rocks for the concrete floor, and had enough rocks left over to add a porch and sidewalk to the property. We also completed all of the support structure for the roof and added the tin roofing material to 1 side of the home.

In the afternoon we visited Casa Hogar Vida to see the amazing things the team there is doing. Since we last left in July 2010, they have nearly completed the construction of 19 new homes. The homes should be ready for occupancy in about 1 month. The applications totaled over 400 families for these 19 new homes. We visited the orphanage that currently has 6 orphans in 1 of 2 buildings on site. We were also able to see the brick factory, the recently relocated coffee roasting operation, and the girls did some shopping at the craft house.

After dinner we made a stop at the local ice cream shop and enjoyed desert with Ronnie, Alturo, and Levi’s family.

Monday, June 20th Meeting the Children of Nutrition Center

Waking up refreshed and renewed we began our day with a devotional by Betty about "Being Thirsty". In the Honduras sun, we have all experienced first-hand the satisfaction of drinking a cold bag of water, but we all need to find the satisfaction of thirsting for God.

We began our day visiting the Nutrition Center and Day Care in Limon. The children were so filled with joy when they saw us. Lots of "horsey rides" and "teeter tottering" occurred with our group. We also toured the Computer and English as a Second Language building. Our team that came in July last year had dug the footers for the building and the October team worked on the landscaping. It is a beautiful building that will allow the children of Limon to gain skills that will help them get jobs in the future.

After our visit we headed to our work site to continue constructing the home for the Anguilar Family. Today we filled the foundation with dirt and are now in the process of filling with stones that will support the concrete. The men also added the beams that will support the roof. Our team noticed that there was no food in the home so with a undesignated gift sent with one of the missionaries, we went to the store and bought staples for the family; beans, rice, eggs, lard, soap, etc. We discretely placed it in her kitchen and when she saw it she broke down with tears of gratitude. We explained that these gifts were not from us, but from God who placed us here at this time and place to support her family in their time of need.

Rocks, Concrete and an Amazing Family

Our first full day in Honduras was a great start for the team. We began the day with an orientation and understanding of what the Great Commission Church in Choluteca is trying to accomplish. Pastor Gaovanny shared the 5 Giants that need David's to defeat. These include Poverty, Inadequate Education, Disease, Selfish Leaders, and Spiritual Voids. He shared how GCLA Choluteca is working in the local community to develop outreach programs to attack all of these giants.

Before lunch, we took a short bus ride into the heart of Choluteca to see the first home constructed by a mission team for under $2,000. Concrete block homes can cost up to $6,500 or more. The church has developed an $1,8000 concrete sheet and metal roof structure with a concrete floor. This allows the church to make 3 -4 significant, life changing homes for the very poorest families for the costs of a single block house. The team here also believes we can complete the home in 1 week.

After lunch we headed to the construction site and were introduced to the Aguilar family. Carlos and Edita and their 2 son's Jeffrey and Franklin. They shared their story along with pictures of their son that died 2 years ago after fighting a brain tumor that he had since birth. The costs of the treatments and hospitalizations left the family with nothing. The family worked along side all of us throughout the afternoon. We moved stones for the 18 ft x 15 ft foundation, dug post holes and set the corner and center wall posts in concrete. It was a great start to what we are sure will be a wonderful, life changing home not only for the Aguilar family, but also those of us working so hard this week as the hands and feet of Christ.