Week 1

I arrived in Honduras last Tuesday and hit the ground running. By Thursday, we were hosting a group from the Morgantown Church of Christ. With this group, we built a house for a family of four (in less than three hours!), distributed 150 school uniforms and bags of necessary school supplies, worshipped with the Breaking Chains church, passed out sandwiches on the streets of downtown, met some babies and passed out baleadas at Hospital Escuela (side note: it is not the best idea for the preacher's son and an elder to be the ones selected to pass out food in the maternity ward!), and hung-out with the kids at Didasko. It was a full five days.

Throughout my different trips to Honduras, I have helped build several houses, but the one on Friday was a completely different experience for me. The Morgantown group worked with another mission team from Ohio. With so many people, it at times felt crowded. There were many times when I was not sure what I should be doing because there simply was not room for everyone to be working on the house. It was during one of these times that I noticed David, whom I live and work with here at Mountain Top Ministries, walking around with a small group of people from the other team. These men had decided that it was important to speak with those around the build site about Jesus. Unfortunately, none of these men knew Spanish, so David was called over to translate. These men prayed for healing for the chronically ill, asked young men about their relationships with God, and prayed for renewal and a restoration of hope in the lives of those they met. One young man rededicated his life to Christ right there in the middle of the road.

I joined this group halfway through. We met a man who was just riding his motorcycle by and was interested in what we were doing. David was busy translating for another person, so I was asked to translate. Understand that my Spanish is rudimentary at best, so I felt totally inadequate for his job. However, with God's help, I managed to carry the conversation for several minutes. Finally, David was called over to finish the job. The man became overwhelmed by the love and concern that was shown to him. By the end of the build, this man was asked to say a prayer over the family and their new home.

The day was good. A family of four had a home. A teenager had a renewed faith. And a man who was simply curious about what a group of gringos were doing experienced that love and concern of God and His people.