Lessons of Life from Honduras

Good morning,

Everyday is packed with good works, but yesterday can be held up with the best of the best of days! One work crew headed out early to the village of Villanueva and built a home yesterday. This home was built for a father who had secured a job here in Tegus but had no home for him to move his handicapped children. He did not know that this home was being built for him when he left for work yesterday. Imagine the joy and disbelief when he returned yesterday to see a home for his family. The team left before he returned from work, so we can only imagine what feelings this father must have experienced. It doesn't take much imagination though, does it?

The remainder of our crew loaded our two buses with approximately 200 bags of food and an additional 175 bags of clothing. This required each person carrying bags up the hill where the buses are parked everyday and then returning for another trip until they were all carried up the hill. A human chain was formed once at the top of the hill to load them onto the buses. This was accomplished without complaint or moaning, but instead with willing hands and feet, knowing what a blessing was being carried with each step. Our first stop was to unload 70 bags of food and clothing with Estaban (the preacher at Union), for him to distribute to church families. We than traveled to a very remote place on the mountain that a work crew had previously built a home earlier in the week. Those on the work crew certainly remembered the requirements to reach this remote location, because they had to carry all their lumbar down this very steep and rocky road to build this house. We all grabbed two bags of either clothing or food and distributed one of each to every household that was occupied. Each home was very appreciative of these gifts to help meet their basic needs. Several homes gave witness to the abject poverty in this place. One very small home had 10 children whose mom hiked up this road everyday to sell tortillas to try and feed her family. Another home (if you could call a 5 x 5 tin structure a home) housed a very old, sick Honduran woman who was existed in the most abject poverty witnessed my most here. Words can not express the sorrow of the team members who stopped to deliver the food and to pray with this woman. It's not surprising to hear that one handed her all his money on him and why they all returned tearful to the bus. It's hard to reconcile how we are so blessed by the mere fact of where in the world we were born, while others live in these abject poverty conditions. We can not try and figure this out; we have to live in the knowledge that God does not forget the weary, the poor and the downtrodden.

We than traveled to the Jesus Statue which I'm sure you will eventually see many pictures from this site. It is located in a beautiful park located at the top of the mountain. This very large statue (someone else will have to tell you how high it is), can actually be viewed from our terrace at the hotel. We then travelled to a very special place - the blind school for children. What a tremendous joy it was to spend 2 hours with these children. You can see from the newly uploaded pictures how much we all enjoyed this experience. We took turns singing to each other and it was beautiful to listen to these sweet voices. We played soccer with them and yes, our blindfolded crew looked pretty pathetic, stumbling around and over each other. I lost count of the score, but I know it was a "bagel" score for you soccer fans and I don't think our group came close to one scoring opportunity. This place touched all of our hearts. How can one not be moved by the open and infectious laugh and smile of these children that come so willingly to your side, crawl up into your lap, touch your face and kiss you with their lollipop sticky lips. You may wander how did most of us non-fluent Spanish speakers communicate with these children without sight, when we have relied mostly on gestures and pantomime up to this point. We learned that the language of hugs, touch and laughter is universal. I know that my heart was touched and ached as this sweet 6 year old girl wrapped her arms around my neck to say good-bye. Just one more reason why to start planning for a return trip next year.

We returned to our hotel to freshen up and enjoy "Banquet Night". We were treated to ribs, mashed potatoes, rice and coleslaw for dinner and then proceeded to the terrace for the prestigious awards for various categories such as Worst Joke Teller, Best Interpreter and the SeeWee Award. Ask your children about the amusing tales behind the recipients. Good laughs were had by everyone as the MC's of David and Richard presented the coveted awards (paper plates)! Much to every one's surprise, we had a mariachi band join us for an hour and provide us with great music! It was off to bed to get ready for this last day in Honduras. We will end the trip today like it was started, with everyone in the group breaking up into either 3 or 4 groups (depending on the amount of lumber), to build our last homes. With the completion of these homes, we will have built more homes this trip with the fewest number of people. God is so good! Have a glorious day, whereever you are.
suzanne