Monday, July 13, 2015

The Journey Begins!

Monday, July 13th

Bible Verse: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."  This is a verse we talked about in our morning bible study led by Bethany.  We are witnesses for Jesus on this trip, and we pray that the Holy Spirit uses us as Jesus' hands on feet to work God's will.


We woke up very early this morning and met at the airport at 4:30am.  Surprisingly, the airport was very busy for this early in the morning!  We flew from Pittsburgh to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, connecting through Atlanta.  We left Pittsburgh at 6:30am and are arrived in Honduras at 11:08 am!

 On the tram with our dearest home-dogs.

 On the bus to the day-shelter.  We have a fantastic bus driver - Fredy!

"Welcome Brother Americans."

Just keep chipping Dave. You're doing great.

The little kids jumping in to help paint the front door of the shelter.

We taught the kids stella-ella-olla and the little girls caught on quick!  This game was perfect because we don't have to know Spanish to play and it engages a big group of kids!

Some of the older girls saw me with my camera and immediately wanted to pose for a picture with Miriam and Gabby!

       It was an early morning for the Honduras mission team. Everyone was anxious and excited, especially Miriam and Bethany, who were flying for the first time!  Bethany also led a devotion about the sending of the Holy Spirit during our layover at the Atlanta airport.  Each morning this week, a student will lead a devotion about the Holy Spirit to get us ready to serve the Hondurans.  What better way to start the day?
       We met our translator, Fredy, at the airport, who drove us to our hotel and then to the day-shelter, where we will be painting this week.  We were immediately welcomed by kids, cheers, and a big sign that translated, "Welcome Brother Americans." Miss Grachen even got a little teary-eyed seeing the Hondurans at the day-shelter again.  After a tour around the shelter, we were immediately put to work, chipping old paint and putting new paint on the door entrance.
       A bunch of us went around to the rooms that we would be painting the next day and lined the windows with masking tape.  We were excited to finally see the kids we were serving, and they knew one or two words in English that they used to talk to us.  While Miriam was painting, they called her a chicken in English and thought that it was the funniest thing in the world!  We just kind of went with it and laughed with them!
       The kids warned up to us very quickly for just a few short hours.  They loved learning how to play stella-ella-olla and helping us with our work.  We constantly made them laugh, whether by singing and dancing to American music or by speaking very rough Spanish.  As Jenny commented, "Laughter is the same in every language," By the end of the day, we had learned a few of their names, and we hope to learn a lot more.  This was the first mission trip I've been on where we went to the site on the first day and connected with the people there so quickly.  We waved goodbye to everyone as we pulled out in our van but nobody in our group wanted to leave!  God touched all of our hearts today, and we can't wait to return tomorrow!

4 comments:

  1. God bless all of you on this amazing journey! Sorry I'm a space cadet and didn't wish you well yesterday. ;) Alex and Aiden - all of us! - will miss you and pray for your team every night. In His strength and grace, Jen L.

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    1. Thank-you very much space cadet for your prayers!

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  2. I love the updates and the pictures - you guys are doing great with the blog! It's great to see how all of you jumped right in on your first day (after waking up at 3:30am)! May God grant you lots of energy as you serve in His name. So many of us are praying for all of you! Enjoy your time together!

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  3. Nina and Poppop Wert think you are an amazing team and we're proud of each and everyone of you!

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