Friday, July 1st
Friday morning an adventure began for 96 Christians. The Nashville group (which included Mississippi and Freed people) was at the airport at 4:45 am to check-in. Around the same time, the Sarasota group (Pennsylvania included), was leaving their church building to drive to Miami. Both groups flew out of Miami at 12:15 pm and into Tegucigalpa.
After gathering luggage, the groups headed out to their first job. IRC, an organization connected to TORCH, has purchased land in Santa Ana to build an orphanage, medical clinic, police station, and church. One group worked on mixing concrete while another group transferred 150 concrete blocks through a muddy, rocky, hilly area that measured 250 paces. It was incredible; we had a line of people that covered half the distance, so we moved the original pile to the middle point. Then we moved our line to transfer the exact same blocks the remaining distance. We had a lot of fun and entertained ourselves by counting the blocks the first round and then naming the blocks the second round. Trust me, coming up with 150 names isn’t easy—we had to rely on our childhood cartoons and shows to assist us. Juan, Rachel, Ricardo, Lucy, Papa Smurf, Mike Brady…you get the picture.
Loading the bus back up, we headed to the mission house (Villa Gracia) where we settled in and then ate dinner (chicken in a mushroom sauce with pasta, salad, and rolls). Even during our time to relax, we found time to work—people rotated in the kitchen helping the staff wash dishes. After everything was cleaned up, we (and another TORCH group here) loaded the buses to go to the Jesus statue. This is an incredible monument built with outstretched hands watching over the city. Even though we have permission from the First Lady of Honduras to go into this park after hours, the doors were locked. Prepared individuals were ready for this with ladders. Do you know how long it takes for 170 to scale a rock wall?...pretty good while. But, hey, it was worth every minute once we crossed over into the area with the statue and praised our Lord.
The singing, led by Tim Hines (a local missionary), was A-MAZ-ING! Among the beautiful melodies you could see heat lightning in the distance kissing the mountain tops. Andy Polk graciously poured out his soul in the devotional talk. His first words were “I love this place.” [And who doesn’t once you have been here?] He stated that here we work for the Kingdom of God the way it is supposed to be. Your financial, cultural, or denominational background doesn’t mean a thing here. We are all the same in Christ, and what type of church we attend doesn’t matter. We are on a mission and have unity. The lesson came to a close as we sang “We Are One in the Spirit”.
Adios mis hermanos en Cristo (Goodbye my brothers and sisters in Christ),
JMA
