Thunder and rain during our "camp out" at Amy and Brian's, signaled the beginning of our trip. In the rain, we met at the church, reviewed our flight information, and loaded the buses. Pastor Ritchie prayed with us and we hit the road at 3:45 am. We traveled to Greensboro, North Carolina with 23 passengers, 61 pieces of luggage, and hopeful hearts and minds! Our flight left at 7:15.
We flew into Atlanta, Georgia in 53 minutes and from there traveled to San Pedro Sula, Honduras in less than four hours. We moved at a snail's pace as we arrived and waited in line to go through customs. Finally we made it to the other side more than an hour after reaching our destination! We found comfort in the Wendy's in the food court inside the airport.
A bumpy but beautiful 2-hour bus ride ended when we arrived into Peņa Blanca and la Casa de Alfredo, or Alfredo's house, our home for the next week and the home of past and future mission workers who come to help with Friends of Barnabas. Nury, the director of the facility, explained the vast and God-filled history of Friends of Barnabas (FOB) and Alfredo's house. We learned that in the Bible, Barnabas encouraged Paul to go and help others who were in need. We also discovered that Linwood Cook, a resident of Smith Mountain Lake and founder of FOB, was inspired by Barnabas' story. Our team was in awe of the work it takes to keep the facilities running and the overwhelming need for organizations such as FOB in Honduras.
Finally, we enjoyed a wonderfully cooked meal where we tried many new foods and flavors and ended our night reflecting and participating in devotions and prayers for this experience and others like it.
Thank you so much for all of your continued support and prayers! We are looking forward to updating you on where God takes us tomorrow!
With love, FUMC Youth
Day 2 - Friday, July 26
Hola! Hope all is well back home! This morning we began our day with a beautiful hike up a mountain on Camp Armadillo. We saw many different types of flowers, coffee plants, fruits, and Lake Yojoa. After coming down the mountain, we returned to Alfredo's House to enjoy a homemade lunch prepared by the wonderful cooks, Sandra and Margarita. Every meal here is made from scratch!
In the afternoon, the Rock of Salvation church's youth group came to meet and worship with us. We were able to worship together even though our languages are different. While the signing team from our youth sang "Here I am to Worship," the Rock of Salvation youth group sang it in Spanish and attempted to learn the signing as well. We heard how God has a purpose for each of us and about how each of us serves as one part of the body of Christ. Then we played futbol, Honduras vs. USA, and unfortunately the USA lost 10-8. Although disappointed about the loss, we made many friends and life-time memories. Soccer was our universal language. We took a group picture and parted ways.
The team enjoyed a delicious dinner that included tilapia from the local tilapia farm, fresh squeezed lemonade, potatoes, pataste, and green beans! It was delicioso!
After dinner, we had our devotions and prepared for our day in the community tomorrow. We prayed that God would help us recognize our individual gifts and to help us work together as the body of Christ to serve the people whom we will meet.
Again, thanks for all your support and we are thinking about and missing you.
With lots of love, FUMC Youth
Day 3 - Saturday, July 27
Today was our first day to go into a community. We took a very bumpy, dirt road to the village, La Masica. As we neared the school, children started following our bus because they were so excited. Once we arrived, we had a small devotion with approximately 130 kids and teenagers. Brian spoke about working together as the body of Christ. Members of the team performed our Body Skit to go along with his message. Our sign language piece, which brought smiles to everyone's faces, followed our skit. After our worship service we broke into three groups. Each group completed a bible study, a craft, and watched a skit. We studied the story of Noah's Ark and the covenant God made with Noah.
We split for snacks and a small break and concluded our day with soccer, songs, and games. The soccer game was mainly Honduras vs. USA; however, some of the Hondurans wanted to be on our team. A lot of people walked a half of a mile to see the game played. Even though the USA lost AGAIN, we had a great time and connected with each other. While some people played soccer, others of us played with the younger children. We played with a piņata, a parachute, and lots of relay games. We also sang "Tootie Ta" more times than we can count. Before we left, we presented the president of the school a gift of school supplies and craft materials.
We arrived back at the house around 4 pm and prepared all of our supplies for tomorrow so we could go to bed early. We enjoyed another wonderful meal including a new favorite food, yuca, a fried vegetable. After devotions, we shared many great thoughts and memories of our day. God was truly present during our day and activities.
We thank you all for continuing to pray for us. We miss you all and can't wait to tell you all of our stories when we return.
Much love, FUMC youth group
