Honduras

I've been waiting to write this, trying to assimilate my thoughts and come to some sense of what happened when we were in Honduras. It's been two weeks, hard as that is to believe, and my thoughts have drifted around enough and perhaps settled into some sort of peace, joined with a motivation to return.

On July 30 Shane, Dorothy and I boarded a plane bound for San Pedro Sula, Honduras, with 294 pounds worth of a Living Waters Filtration system stuffed into six very full suitcases. They closed the door to the plane, on all of the fears and anxieties that had been running wind sprints through my mind for the past month. My mind and body were stressed beyond capacity, trying to come to terms with the political unrest in Honduras and the risk that something might happen to us. I was counting the cost of going, as well as the cost of not going. We could place the trip on indefinite delay, but that might simply place more stress on me. As though this was not difficult enough, we then had to sit on the tarmac for almost another two hours before we finally left Atlanta behind. The waiting had been almost too much, but the journey had begun.

Landing in Honduras and walking off the plane, it is immediately clear that you are a foreigner, a sojourner in a strange land. The heat is oppressive, the language unfamiliar, and I found myself staring around in wonder, trying to come to terms with exactly where I was and how this would change me. I was in the midst of some new creation that I was a part of, and uncertain of what life would look like on the other side.

We were met by our gracious hosts, who loaded us into vans to begin the third leg of our journey, one that had started at five in the morning with a drive to Atlanta. This drive, however, was completely different. There were no superhighways, no wide, easy roads. It had a different feel as we ventured through tiny towns, dots on the map where people lived in huts, selling fruit by the side of the road. We waited for construction as children pressed their faces against our window, hoping against hope that we might find enough pity to buy their pastries. We bumped over rough roads, past lumbering trucks, and finally spent forty-five minutes rocking over a potted road to reach our destination.

Once there, we unloaded our bags, unloaded our souls from the weariness of traveling, and began to build relationships as well as the water filtration system. More on that tomorrow...

LINKS

Pressing On, the ministry of Keith and Joanna Daniels, who serve Christ in the Yamaranguila area

New Vision Ministry, operated by Porter Briggs, the complex which graciously welcomed us and where we installed the system

Living Waters for the World