Honduras

I've gone on five missions trips to Honduras, and really love the country and the relationships I've built down there. Several years ago my church started a sister church relationship with a church in the capital, Tegucigalpa. That church then started a church camp up in the mountains for kids, and my church has sent down teams almost every summer since the mid-90's to help with this. My dad was on one of these first trips, and has been down something like 16 times since. So Honduras has always been part of my life, but since these were all work trips and I was just in elementary school when my dad started going down, I could only hear about these trips, even though I was counting down the years until I was "big" enough to go down and work. From my freshman year of high school on I've gone down every time there's been a trip. The church camp has pretty much been finished, but there has been a church plant started a couple kilometer's down the road by a couple of really good friends of mine, Osman and Suyapa Gradiz.The church used to meet on their back porch, but a couple years ago they bought land and have started building a church. Last summer we were able to put trusses up and almost finish the roof (which is an entirely different post, but let's just say it's not easy hoisting solid metal beams weighing a couple tons unto the roof without any machines to help us). This past summer we went down again and were able to pour sidewalks around the church (mixing the concrete by hand of course). The church is looking really good- it's so nice for them to have walls and a roof for their services.

In all of my trip's to Honduras I'm always reminded at how lucky and fortunate I am in America. I take so many things for granted-comfortable beds, hot showers, clean water, and I never have to wonder if what I'm buying at the grocery might make me sick (etc.) But for the vast majority of the people I've met, they're surprisingly happier than most people I know here in the States. They have so little but have so much. It's really a humbling experience for me. And I hope to continue being able to go down every summer and doing whatever God wants me to.