Family project: day three - Honduras

If you were hoping that I'd write everyday, please know that was never my intention. As much as I'd love to remember every moment by documenting, I want to actually be in each moment, so last night? A dance party and Disney movie in Spanish happened instead of my post. ;) 

After another amazingly fun day at VBS yesterday, today was exciting because we were switching it up. We headed up into the mountains to a special little church retreat area. It had two pools, two soccer fields, covered cooking areas, and tons of lush tropical vegetation to relax under. 

We went with the intentions of baptizing people from the local Every Nation church.

And Hannah. 

Last March, Michael was baptized and just before that, Hannah had asked if she could be baptized as well. Both Mike and I talked with her at different times about how that was our heart, but there was steps she needed to take. We began to explain salvation through Jesus to her and she stop us. 

"Mom. I've already prayed and asked for forgiveness. I asked Jesus to be in charge of my life a long time ago." 

Hannah has a very vivid recollection of sitting in a chapel service at the Christian school she had been attending. She remembered how the speaker talked about giving all of your heart to Jesus was the best decision and she said that she knew that she wanted to give all to Jesus too. There was a Friday, sometime in third grade, that my little girl made that decision and I couldn't be happier. After talking with her for a short amount of time, both Mike and I knew that she was ready for baptism. 

Last week, when we were going through our schedule for Honduras, Hannah saw that there was a special time for baptisms. She came to me and asked if she would be allowed to be baptized in Honduras. Neither Mike or I knew for sure, but I promised we would ask. 

Today, my daughter and second-born child was baptized on the side of a mountain in Honduras. God has something very special planned for this girl. She has a heart of compassion and understanding. She never sees things only at the surface, she looks beyond that and looks straight into the heart. She will make friends anywhere, never letting language, race, or social standing become a wall. I truly believe that she will touch many people in her life and will see the world as she shares where her source of love comes from.

Missions work isn't just for the nationals that you are going to minister to. Missions work takes you out of your routine and places you in moments when it is just you and God. Nothing else matters and there is no one else you can depend on. When you come and you experience that, you will walk closer to God. You will be changed. You will decide to baptized miles and miles from home in a country that you have never been too, all because you want God more than anything. 

Today lesson: the most beautiful things happen on the side of a mountain.

Family project: day one - Honduras

You can almost divide missions trips into three stages: 1. Preparation, 2. Trip, 3. Impression. I think that any missionary, short or long-term, can testify to the struggles, challenges, and adventures that you can find in each of these stages. 

Our first stage of this, preparation, is a blog post that is stirring in my heart. So much so, that I am still wordless on it and until I can wrap my brain around it to convey it, I'll wait. 

But for today, let me share about our first full ministry day in the trip stage. 

Our Ten Days team consists of 33 people from all over the US. We brought nine people from our home area and seven from our church. We are the only group to have brought kids. Our team's ministry areas have fallen into three categories. First, there is the campus ministry. La universidad nacional autónoma de Honduras has approximately 85,000 students, making it larger than any university in the United States. Evangelism on that campus and the development and discipleship of student leaders is a huge goal. Second, Pastor Rigo Hernandez, the pastor of the Honduran City Life Church, has a special relationship with key members of the police force here in Tegucigalpa. This has led to the opportunity to disciple a group of people who are seen to hold power, but are also seen as people who abuse it. We want to encourage and guide them to Jesus, all while being given the opportunity to serve them through some projects, like painting, that need to be done. Then lastly, we are showing tangible love to children through VBS. This was a ministry that was added just a week ago, but was presented as a ministry project with our team's kids in mind. We will be doing two three-day VBS'. We want to build relationships with kids that will open the door to minister to their whole families.

VBS began today.

We woke up to a beautiful sun and excited atmosphere. Hannah and Jae were so blown away that they had just woken up in a different country. After a great hotel breakfast and my favorite Honduran coffee, we met for some VBS prep. We sorted through the hundreds of toys, crafts, and candy that was brought and prepared for a "normal" VBS at the church location for about 75 kids that we were leaving for at 9:00a. 

Actually, we left for our VBS at 11:00a and it was in a dirt-filled soccer field in the middle of a neighborhood of aluminum, concrete, and plywood houses with about 300 children. 

Day one lesson: Use pencils, not pens.

Yeah, we were a little overwhelmed. Yes, we might have been slightly under prepared. Yep, we made lots of mistakes. But God showed up. 

Michael fit right in with boys his age and began communicating in the universal language of fútbol (soccer) and actually impressed me with how well he kept up with these boys. After their game, I wasn't surprised to see him surrounded and an immediate leader with them. He was actually so involved in trying to communicate something to a boy named David, that he missed the three foot drainage hole. He sliced open his knee pretty rough, but I told him it'll make a great 'missions war injury' one day. The only thing that bummed him out is that his soccer days are limited now. 

Hannah helped me with teaching about Elijah and the widow of Zarephath and Jae helped in crafts. Hannah's heart broke for the living conditions and for the families. She told me tonight that she is pretty sure a little girl told her that she didn't have a dad because he just left, a familiar story here.

I am so happy to be back in Central America, this is a place that is so dear to me and I'm so blessed to finally be sharing that with the kids. But it never fails... No matter how often I am here, my heart breaks every time. 

A man once asked Hudson Taylor, missionary to China in the late 1800s, "why didn't you come sooner?" and that question stirs in me. If I had come sooner, could I have shared Christ's love and saved a women from looking for love in all the wrong places? If I had come sooner, could I have shared God's restoration power and seen a family restored before it was too late? If I had come sooner, would a man who died yesterday be made whole in Heaven today? 

I might not have been here sooner. 

But I am here today. 

Use me, Lord. Show me, Lord. Mold me, Lord.

,