Post-Trip Debriefing

We've been back home almost a week now. I think most of us have been trying to catch up with all that happened back here in KC while we were gone. Plus we've been trying to get back into the rhythm of our routine. Or maybe we're trying to figure out how to keep from getting sucked back into the rhythm of our routine that prevailed before we went to Honduras.

Naturally, our thoughts are turning to how we should follow up on our experiences. Our team will meet tomorrow after worship to talk about our presentation to the LifeSpring church family. It's impossible to share the full impact of the trip on our lives, but we do want to communicate what happened to the degree that is possible. Anyone and everyone is welcome to attend and hear what we have to talk about.

I spent some time just now posting pictures regarding some of the medical work we did on Facebook. We attempted to share some pictures in the blog during the trip, but this format does not really give us a good format to offer you very many visuals. If you have a Facebook account, be sure to become of fan of The Honduras Team of LifeSpring Christian Church (if you haven't done so already). If you don't have a Facebook account...well, at the moment, that is the best format for us to share pictures. I'm going to be looking into a way to put the presentation we share on May 2 online, but right now I don't know when or how that will happen.

So stay tuned...we will continue to process all the information we would like to share. That includes what we sense God might want us to do next in the lives of the people we met in Honduras.

A Strengthened Faith

Well I am back into my routine, going to work, going to the gym, mowing the lawn, etc...but I can't get the trip to Honduras out of my mind. The people of Honduras taught me a lesson about life. They lack some of the basic technologies and entertainment devices we have come to know and love in the United States. But we lack core family values, respect for each other and a willingness to extend ourselves for others' needs. I left Honduras feeling like the United States could benefit from a visit by a mission team of Hondurans.

Honduras has it's problems, wide spread poverty, difficulty getting water safe to drink (even water not safe to drink at times), drug dealers and a crooked government...but all of those problems were not able to overshadow the kind warm hearts of the majority of the people. Families living in a 12x12 house who eat one meal a day opening their home to us and offering us what little food and clean water they had.

We stayed most nights in the home of Jim Martin and his family in the capital city of Honduras. Jim heads up the Honduras Ministries and is the person who extended an invite for us to come visit. The capital city had a large population (I was told at least 2 million). We held a medical clinic in the city for two days. We also traveled to small villages and held a couple of medical clinics at those locations. In all we evaluated over 630 people, mostly children. We also did some bible school activities at the med clinic locations while the children waited. The children were amazing. They love soccer and we were able to take about 50 soccer balls with us to hand out.

The men in our group spent 2 days on a construction project. A family in the capital city had a roof that was in poor shape due to termite damage. The family of five lived in a 13x13 foot home. We removed the old roof from the house and put a new one on with a gutter system that allowed them to channel all of the rainwater into a drum so they would be able to use it. We also tore down the old kitchen, which was attached to the house, and built a new one. The Lord provided for us and allowed us to get the roofing materials at half the cost we had planned. That allowed us to do the kitchen as well as provide the money for a new mud stove. The construction project was nice because we had people from the church Jim Martin is affiliated with helping us. Even though they spoke no English and we spoke no Spanish we were able to get everything done and have a good time.

The woman of the household that got the new roof cleans the church in the capital city part time. Her husband, Jose, goes out each morning and finds whatever labor job he can for the day to provide for the family. Jose's wife attends church regularly but Jose did not go with her. Upon completion of the construction project Jose thanked us and told us he knew that we were there on behalf of the Lord. On Thursday night we all went to the church in the capital city for a night service. It was absolutely amazing, we walked in to 300 people singing along with a church band that was no less sophisticated then ours. They were even singing the same songs we sing each Sunday, just in Spanish. While we were singing and enjoying the service I looked to my right and saw Jose and his wife worshipping. I knew at that point that if we accomplished nothing else on the trip we had opened the door for Jose to find the Lord and that made it all worth it.

I often wonder what it would have been like to be able to witness Jesus in the flesh and hear him teach. To witness even one of his many miracles. I have wondered what that would have done to strengthen my faith in him. In the book of ACTS when Jesus was getting ready to leave the disciples he told him he would send them the Holy Spirit. He told them the Holy Spirit would be even better for them then he was able to be because he could only physically be in one spot at a time but the Holy Spirit could be with each of us all the time. I saw the Holy Spirit at work first hand when I watched Jim Martin. Jim served the Lord everyday from sun up to sun down. And watching him do it was awesome because I was able to see a man that was genuinely happy. He was living his life in the way that the Lord asks us to. And he was reaping the reward of happiness that the Lord has promised each of us. Seeing Jim strengthened my faith in God because it just confirmed that God always keeps his promises. I am very thankful to the Lord for introducing Jim into my life.

This is a long post and I still can't describe everything we did on the trip nor can I describe the entire impact the trip had on me. I want to thank everyone that helped make the trip possible. You have made the Lord very happy and he will reward you for it. Also thank you to the members of the team. It was a pleasure sharing everything with all of you.

On a more comical note we need to pray that the people of Honduras learn traffic laws. Everyone does whatever they want on the road. You can be traveling down a major roadway and someone coming off of a side street (with a stop sign mind you) will enter the intersection at 35 mph with no intention of stopping and then have to slam on his brakes to avoid the near death collision.

God Bless You,

Mike

Bumped to morning flight. We assume the Lord wants to do a bit more work in us and/or thru us. So... We are spending tonight in Houston courtesy of Continental.

THANK YOU

I would like to thank GOD and all the people that allowed me and my daughter to be apart of this WONDERFUL experience. It is amazing that a small church of approximately fifty AWESOME people in Kansas City, Missouri impacted thousands of Honduran people this week the way we did. Words can't describe what I am feeling. This is an experiance that I will never forget.

As you all know we repaired the roof for the lady that cleans the church. Her husband does not believe and he refused to go to church with her. They have been trying to get him to go to church for sometime. Once we completed the project he told us it was amazing that people from the US would come to his house and repair his roof. We told him that GOD made it happen. The next day he was at the Thursday night church service wearing his Kansas City Royals shirt, Darren gave him. Here is just one example of what we experianced here. I could type several more, but I would be here all day typing.

Once again THANK YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!

Mark

Real Legitly Awesome

Anna: Yesterday Amber, Lexie, and I did our own laundry... by hand!!!! It was really awesome but hard. It took forever. Having to rub on the soap, flip the shirt over and rub on more soap, then put soap on the inside. Having to rub it up and down on the bumps and rinse it out. Then we had to ring out all the water before hanging it on the clothes line. It was crazy. But real awesome.

LEXIE!!: ok. so i would call this a major culture shock. having to do a washing machines job was hard. i will forever feel bad for the washer. but that's not the point. I apparently wasn't doing it right because andrea had to keep doing it haha(: but i think i did ok. ha! we had to hang them on the line. and with our luck, it rained that night. so we all had to run out and get our shirts. ha(: my dad got really into it. he about rubbed a hole into his shirt. (not really, i'm being dramatic....yeah i said it.) francis and her mom were laughing at him. he legitly scrubbed. his shirt was whiter than it was before he got it dirty. ha! that's only because francis did most of the work. haha guys will never change(;

AMBER!!!!!!! (lexie loves this chick):

Uhh, okay. So I was being nice and let the other girls go first on writing on this. But they covered most of it. Well, what they didn't get was my side, the best side of the story. After watching Mark do his shirt, I thought, "OH. This will be easy enoughh!" Yeah, it wasn't. It really worked your arms! Andrea had to do my shirts because I guess I do it wrong! I thought I did pretty good. The soap was the hardest part because it got all slippery and stuff!! It was insanely difficult to keep the soap in your hand when washing it!! Not very fun. It also hurt your back bending over like that for a long time. I couldn't even imagine doing that for a whole family!! I couldn't even do 2 shirts right! Man, it really showed me how lucky we are to have all the stuff we have. Like dishwasher, washing machine, dryer, CLEAN, RUNNING water! Everything. I'm so lucky. And I have a new appreciation for the things I own. Man, I'll never look at a washing machine again and think "LAME! I have to put stuff in the dryer! Or washer!" Now I'll think, "YES! I have a washer and dryer to put my clothes in!" And I thank God for all this. :)

The Finished Product (roof)

By Dale Ohmart

The roof is done! Here are some pictures of the finished product, and also some pictures with the family we were helping, Jose & Merian Reyes, and their three sons (Ezekiel, Homer and Esteve). Jose is an incredibly hard worker!!! The older boys would run and get water for us whenever we needed - doesn't sound like much, but the climb up and down was 100 steps, ascending at an angle of approximately 60%. The youngest boy would grab a hammer or a shovel to try to help out whenever he had an opportunity. We will be able to share more information about the family and the project at our presentation on May 2nd, at our regularly scheduled worship service (10am).

The young man on the roof is named Santos. He met us at the airport with Jim when we arrived, and has been a very, VERY valuable help during our work. On the first night, Santos taught me a new song - Victory Is Mine - and I have really fallen in love with it. Santos is very talented musically (voice, guitar, keyboard, drums, etc) and as a worship leader. On Thursday night, he has invited me to play in their worship band and Jim has arranged with the pastor of the church for me to preach. He speaks some English, and he is helping us learn some Spanish. We celebrated the 13th birthday of his son, Zabdiel, tonight at dinner. His son plays drums for the worship band, so I will get to play with him, too. (Also, here is a look at some of the "experts" :D on our team. Apologies to Darren...didn't have anything from the front, but I wanted to make sure everyone knew he was with us.)

Sunday and Monday

Well, here it is Tuesday morning. The past two days were INCREDIBLE!!!! On Sunday, we got up early and headed out to Circa de Pedro for a morning church service. Circa de Pedro is about a 3 1/2 hour drive from Tegucigapa. Now let me tell you, when I say 3 1/2 hours, it is not just a lesiurly drive on flat highway. It is a very beautiful mountinous two lane road where tractor trailers routinely are passing each other and cars are often running three wide. When we arrived at Circa de Pedro, we attended the church service of the church that Jim and Francis planted. Church was an incredible experience. Even though we all didn't speak the same language, it did not matter because we all were worshiping the same God and that was Glorious! Dale gave a great sermon, which was translated to the locals, and Cindy, Jenniferand the girls all conducted a Sunday School class. I think that it is safe to say the we all had a wonderful time and learned a lot.



After church we head to La Fortunita to participate in another service. La Fortunita is a small community without any running water or electricity. This service was a little different as we conducted it outside in a small group setting. Once again, language was not a problem as we all enjoyed worshiping our God together. After service, we stayed and visited with the people and passed out soccer balls.....which usually starts a small riot :) The kids love soccer and we passed out over 25 balls the past two days which made many people happy.



We stayed at a local inn in Circa de Pedro on Sunday night and on Monday morning we headed back out to La Fortunita to run a medical clincic. The medical clinic was a very rewarding experience for all. We treated over 150 people from several small communities in the area. We had paitients as young as 2 months to as old and 79. It was wonderful being able to help so many. During the time that we were conducting the medical clinic, the girls did an wonderful job of teaching the local children and playing with them.



I think that these past two days will be an experience that we will all remember forever. We made so many new friends, worshiped our God together, and were reminded that we are all just people who want many of the same things in this world....we just happen to live about 2100 miles apart.

We will post pictures later tonight.

Darren

Eye Opener

The title of this post is both literal and ironic. The night before our flight to Honduras I lost a fight with Mark's 8 month old son and he managed to scratch my cornea with his finger nail. As a result I spent the night before the trip in Liberty's ER. I still can't open my right eye, it is extremely painful and swollen. I feel somewhat useless here other than giving the other team members something to make fun of. The teenage girls on the team have given me many nicknames to include The Pirate, Patches and some Veggie Tale character. My eye is better today then it was yesterday and I am hoping to be able to open it in the next day or two.

Last night was a lot of fun. We all sat around with our host family and some local church members singing christian music in both Spanish and English. We then shared our thoughts and prayed together. It reminded me of scenes I've read about in the book of Acts. It also showed how powerful a group of people all serving the same God can be even though our lives are so different.

Today we toured the sight where we will be building the new roof. Seeing the conditions people are living in is an eye opener. The children were playing with rocks and old balls. They still figured out how to have fun though. The people in Honduras are no less important in God's eyes then the people of the United States. It feels good to be a part of this trip and bring something from God to such needy people. In return these people are giving me a lesson on life and and they help me realize what really matters in life versus the material things we are so accustomed to.

I'm excited to see what the week holds for us. Thank you to all who gave medicine, it took all day to sort it out since we had so much!

Mike

Mark Spiegel here.

I never thought in a million years I, Mark Spiegel would be here in Honduras on a Mission Trip. I always thought my sister was crazy for going on Mission Trips to a Third World Country and I never knew why she loved them so much.

At first, I was all about the Mission Trip. When the trip was originialy scheduled for Feburary, I picked up the phone to call the team to back out. Something told me to hang up the phone and I did. After hanging up the phone, I prayed. A short time later, I reciecved a phone call from our team leader who advised me the Mission Trip was postponed to April. At that time I knew that GOD wanted me to come and assist the team with spreading his word. Now after being here for two days, I am exited about being here spreading HIS word. I could not have done this without the power of prayer and my wounderful family.

I don't know if I will ever have the great opptournity for a second Mission Trip, but I do believe everyone who belives needs to go on at least one. For those of you who think I am crazy, don't critize my last sentence because words can't explain what our team is experiencing right now.

Roof Project

Here's some pictures of the roof that we are going to construct Tuesday through Thursday.

Our first days

Good morning or is it afternoon? The Honduran people are not as concerned with the clock as we are. This has already been a blessing to many of us, even myself! Our first 24 hours have already been amazing. We have already made new friends that have taught us so much.
We are busy today preparing medical and food supplies for the days ahead. Cindy will be working with a couple of doctors at a medical clinic. We are hopeful that at least 150 people will be seen each day. We will also be distributing food to 38 families in the next two days.
We continue to think of all our friends and families back home. We miss and love you but are truely enjoying our time in Honduras. We are excited to be able to share so much with you while we are here. Written by Jennifer Genova



First picture- Andrea(Jim & Francis Martin's daughter, Lexi, Amber & Anna

Second Picture- Darren & Mark with Jim Martin & Santos at the store(like our Walmart Supercenter)scooping beans and rice for the food distrubition.

My 2 cents worth

I am so excited, I,m jumping out of my skin. Everyone we've met is so friendly and welcoming. I hope to bring them as much joy as I feel just being here. The area is beautiful. All the homes have flowering vines flowing over their courtyard fences. There are fruit trees everywhere. I can't name all the fruits, but I have seen them in the grocery store. We have grocery shopping and menu planning to do today and prep work tomorrow. it looks like a full and exciting week after that. Keep praying that God's Spirit goes before us to prepare the hearts for our feeble efforts.Partner in ministry, Cindy Ohmart

We have arrived...

As Dale wrote, we arrived safely and are settling in at Jim & Francis Martin's. What a beautiful home and how welcome they have made us feel. Something I am amazed more and more by is the relationship we share as Christian brothers and sisters. How wonderful it is to be so far away from home and feel so loved. The joy the Martin family had when they saw us.
I find it hard to describe the feelings I had when landing in Honduras. Mountains surronded us like in TN without the green, homes appreared to be a few feet from the runway and the streets were busy with activity. Quickly I was reminded we were not in the states anymore. The thing that did come to mind that this country, this land and these people share the same Creator as we do. This is His land and we are here to share His love! A phrase we say together during service that is one of my favorites, God is good all the time and all the time God is good. Now I hear the guitar playing, enchiladas cooking and singing. I must join the fun.

First Words from Honduras...

HOLA...we are on the ground. And guess what the first thing was that we did. WE STOPPED AT BURGER KING!!! I'm not kidding. We flew hundreds of miles to go to Burger King.

Well, no, that's not why we flew the miles, of course. But we needed to grab some quick food, and Burger King was convenient.

So we just finished our orientation meeting with Jim, and we are going to have a lot to do. And we are already learning lessons about how we can do our next trip better.

We'll probably write more later today. But we wanted to let you know that we have arrive! A limited amount of pictures will be added along the way.

Really Cool News...

Just a quick report on a blessing. Part of our plan to is print some of the pictures we take to leave for the people of Honduras as gifts. Early on, we asked Jim Martin to tell us what type of print cartridges we would need (after all, we don't want to use up his ink for our idea). Today, I took that information to the shop where I get my print cartridges...Cartridge World, near the I-29 / Barry Road intersection. I've been doing business there for awhile, and the owner knows that I'm a pastor. So I was telling him about the trip, and when he brought out the cartridges - three color and one black - the only charge was for the black cartridge! HE PERSONALLY DONATED THE THREE COLOR CARTRIDGES FOR OUR MISSION!

Needless to say, I recommend his shop very highly!!!

Sendoff Praise and Prayer is tonight at the church building. Dessert afterwards. Then on the plane tomorrow. We will share as much information as we can over the next week.

Lord, may the humble efforts of our team be transformed into miracles by Your presence and power working in us.

from Don

I just finished packing for our Honduras trip. I believe everything is in order. This will be the first time I ventured this far away from the continental USA. It seems to be harder to pack for as you don't want to forget things that you might need as it seems like it may be harder to purchase in a country that you will be dependent on interpetors and transport from others.

Besides getting everything packed trying to get the things done around the house that is required such as the grass cut, IF ONLY IT WOULD STOP RAINING LONG ENOUGH FOR IT TO DRY. Also making sure that I have the bills that will become due, sent in befor I leave so that they do not become delinquent. Well I believe I have everything in order stay tune for further updates from myself or one of our team members.

Last Minute Details...

I've spent the last several minutes making a list of all the things that have to be done before we get on the airplane. Where will I find time to get it all done???

We often think that in the regular routine of our lives, don't we. On many occasions - even when I am NOT heading out of town on a trip - I catch myself saying, "If only I had a couple more hours in the day..." Of course, it's a mirage. Staggering through the wilderness at the end of our most precious resource (time), our minds trick us into thinking that everything would be just right if someone only gave us a little more than we have. Time, that is.

A few years ago, I read through a study designed by John Ortberg...something about spending an ordinary day with Jesus. When I'm being seduced by that "If only I had more time..." thinking, I am reminded of a lesson from that study. John points out that in the ancient Hebrew culture, the day began in the evening. As in the phrase repeated throughout Genesis 1: And the evening and the morning was the first day. To summarize the insight Ortberg is offering, we begin the day sleep...as if we are shutting off all the switches in our mechanism and trusting God to take care of the situation. So what if you've got a lot to do. It's almost as if nature itself is built around the idea that we should lay down our burdens before we even pick them up. Jesus says, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)

We will always have times when we feel there is more to do than we have time to do it. I think that will probably be how we feel about the trip to Honduras. But we'll do what we can do, and trust that God will take care of the rest.

Don Hansen

Hola from Don.

I can't believe that I finally was able to get on this spot and start typing. GOD must be at work so others can see what's going on with our trip to Honduras.

Well It seems like it's been close to a year when Jim came to speak with us about the Mission in Honduras that he works with. I never really thought about doing a mission trip befor but he had my attention right away all though I really did'nt think it would happen. The next week at Church I found out that others in our Church Family were also intested in going as well. We began organizing and with Jim's help and guidance and alot of meetings and prayer as well we are making it happen. Ten (10) memeber will be leaving on the 9th of April for a week. On the 8th of April which is this Thursday we are meeting at our church located at 6101 N. Topping if any one is interested in attending a send off to help encourage and pray for us. Yes there will also be Coffee and deserts.

GOD knows I need the prayers especially since I do not really enjoy flying, although I have several times but the last time has been at least 10 years.

When we started the letter writing campaign for donations I was surprise at the response that I peronaaly had in people sending in donations. I'm not sure but maybe they just wanted me out of the country, (HA, HA).

Actualy the example that we recieved for the letter writing campaign work just as the person givng the advice suggested it would, although I did write a lot of letters. For all of you who have supported this cause so that we may be able reach out to others and maybe help them to learns aboute JESUS thank you very much.

Stay tune for updates and GOD BLESS.