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