So it’s been a couple of weeks
since my first blog post, reason being that we’ve been having a little trouble
with getting our internet set up on this end, but I am alive and well! I do
have a lot of catching up to do though as far as letting y’all know what’s been
going on…good thing I’ve been keeping a daily journal. That being said…I’ll
start from day 1.
It’s Monday morning, June 23rd
and I’m up bright and early, 3:30 am to be specific, to make my 6:30 flight to
Houston out of DFW. I stayed the night at my aunt’s house which is about 45
minutes from the airport. When we got to the terminal the lines were pretty
crazy and it took me a good hour to get through check-in and security. To top
things off, my flight was delayed for another 30 minutes, but I didn’t mind. As
much traveling as I have done in my life, a 30 minute delay is the least of
things that could go wrong. At least I had a 3 hour layover in Houston, so I
was still good on time…besides, I like airports! Time went by pretty fast once
I got to the Houston airport. I got a little hungry and it’s funny how the
first thing I saw once I approached the food court was Einstein Bros’ Bagels (I
work at the one on campus)…so I said to myself, “no thanks! I’ll have a
breakfast taco instead.” Haha! Wasn’t long after and I was boarding the plane
to Teguc. If I’m not mistaken, there were actually more Americans on that
flight than local Hondurans. There were at least three other mission teams on
the same flight, including the two that sat next to me. Once the plane took
off, I quickly dosed off and slept for a pretty good while. Next thing I knew,
I was looking down at the plush green mountains of Honduras! Once I started
seeing the sporadic clusters of tin roofs I immediately thought to myself,
“Hey, this looks a lot like home!” As we got closer to the city, for a split
second I felt like I was hovering over Cebu (my hometown). When we finally
landed I felt this overwhelming surge of…I don’t even know what to call
it…amazement I guess you could say. “I’m here…I can’t believe I’m actually
here!” I still couldn’t believe it.
Once I made it past immigration and
security I saw some familiar faces waiting for me at the exit. Evelin and her
family were there, and so were Raul and Gracie. Not long after we were in the
car driving through Tegucigalpa. We stopped at Little Caesar’s for lunch, then
Gracie had to pick up a few things from Price Mart (kind of like Sam’s Club)
and the pharmacy. Once that was all done and taken care of, we were off to La
Ermita. Traffic was pretty crazy within the city (just like Cebu), but once we
made it out things cleared up. The view on the drive to the mission site is
amazing! Beautiful mountains and trees everywhere…not something you see every
day in Abilene. Once again, it felt a lot like home, but at the same time I
felt like it was all a dream. As we were driving, Gracie gave us a brief
overview of what life at the mission is like…she shared some stories with us of
some of the cases they’ve had to deal with over the years including those of
some of the girls that are currently living with them. Let me just say, it’s
pretty heavy stuff…life threatening at times even, but she has a lot of amazing
testimonies of how God has faithfully brought them through even the toughest
and scariest situations.
We made it to the mission site and
my heart stopped for a split second when I saw the kids and the girls. Before
making the trip, I had read their stories, seen their pictures, prayed for
them, followed Gracie’s updates on how they were doing…and now, I was actually
meeting them face to face. I was kind of unsure though how to act around them,
but a smile always seems to reach them. At the back of my mind I was still
wondering how in the world I would be able to communicate with them considering
I know very little Spanish, but I just had to remind myself that I’m going to
have to depend on God for a lot of things while I am here. Thankfully, when it
came to playing with the babies, I didn’t have to worry about that at all.
There’s so much going on with the
girls…a lot of spiritual warfare, but it’s my hope and prayer that God uses us
to bring hope, light, and love to these girls and children in whatever way.
God’s love is bigger than their pain. It can move mountains and heal even the
deepest wounds.
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