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Viva Honduras

Cute school kids we visited

My trip to Honduras was everything I could have hoped for and more!

The people were so friendly, and our host church CEAD went above and beyond to make us feel welcome. That included greeting us with a banner at the airport in the wee hours of the morning, throwing us a welcoming party, serving as translators and guides throughout the week, and sending us off with a night of culture, which included food, music, and fireworks!

The people of Honduras were ready for change. They were open to inviting Jesus into their lives and into their country.

God showed up in a Mighty way in Honduras. I’m honored to have been part of this historic trip.  I’m still amazed that 2,000 missionaries went to flood Honduras with the love of Jesus and that I was one of them! (To read how I decided to go on the trip, click here.)

There’s no way I could fully describe everything I saw, felt and experienced in Honduras, but I will try to give you a just a taste.

Honduras is one of the most violent countries in the world because of all the gang activity that takes place. It is located in Central America, near my Mom’s home country of El Salvador.

The country is divided into 18 different states or provinces. The teams were spread out all throughout Honduras. A group of more than 100 was assigned to Honduras’ capital city Tegucigalpa in the state of Francisco Morazan. There we broke up into seven teams.

The team of 20 that I was with on a daily basis was called Team 4. We were a mix of folks from New York, New Jersey, Florida, Texas and North Carolina. (You guys rocked!) Monday through Thursday we visited various sites including an elementary school, a middle school, a high school, the Harvard of Honduras, a hospital, a detention center for street boys, and a temporary shelter for families who had traveled for hours so their loved ones could be admitted into the hospital.

At each of those sites we performed skits and dramas, shared testimonies, gave salvation calls, and prayed for the people afterwards. At each of those sites, we felt God’s prescence in a powerful way! Amazingly, my team alone saw more than 240 people give their lives to Christ! Yes, the harvest was ripe!

While we were ministering to the youth and some of the poor, there were other missionaries who were conducting medical clinics, distributing food and shoes throughout the country and leaders training the local pastors. There were others who visited the Westpoint of Honduras. The military was so receptive that they ordered hundreds of the discipleship books being distributed so that incoming students could also be trained!

Everywhere we went, people welcomed us and remarked that they could feel that God was with us. People were so open to prayer. That included our guards, our hotel staff, the mayor of the beautiful tourist city we visited on our free day called Valle de Angeles, etc…

Our US team in Francisco Morazan plus the local Honduran team helped bring the Gospel to more than 40,000 people in those few short days. More than 12,000 people received the Lord! Glory to God!

If all that wasn’t amazing enough, then Saturday came. That was the official 1Nation1Day when 18 crusades or festivals were to take place. The President had already declared July 20th a national holiday. So much prayer and preparation went into the events. Would the people come?

The answer?  YES!

Flag

In our stadium alone, 35,000 cheered and worshiped the Lord! Some 3,000 were in an overflow stadium!

Very early on in the evening, we saw a man walk right out of his wheelchair! There were reports that people were being healed as they were simply entering the stadium!

I was rejoicing just being in the stadium, and then they invited us to go onto the field! What an honor! We got to take a lap around the stadium. The people were cheering and thanking us for coming. I felt like I was an Olympian in the Closing Ceremonies. Except I was an Olympian for Jesus!

Things got even better!

So we’re standing there on the track and it’s time for the salvation call so we’re asked to start interceding for the people. I’m praying for people from afar, but I’m still hoping that I can interact with them. But they are behind a fence. And so many raised their hands to receive the Lord. How could we pray for all of them?

Then the guards open the gates and the people start trickling onto the field. And they start coming to us with their prayer requests! Yes! That’s why we came! To pray with the people and to encourage them and to love on them!

We’d pray for one person, and then a family, and then two friends. We’d pray for adults and kids. We’d pray for healing. We’d pray for salvation. We’d pray for other requests.

It was organized chaos, and I loved it!

The crusades made the covers of the local papers. Sweet!

In San Pedro Sula, the “murder capital of the world” there are usually 20 murders a day. Prior to our arrival in Honduras, the two major gangs had called a truce. That had to be God parting the seas! I’m told that during the 9 days that a team was there, there were no murders. Praise God!

I’m so thankful that God kept us all safe. I’m so thankful that the team got along so well. I’m so thankful that people recovered from the stomach bug that was going around. I’m so thankful that our family and loved ones were kept safe while we were away.

I’m so thankful that God showed up in unexpected and extraordinary ways!

All I can say is that we serve an AWESOME GOD! Jesus is real. He is alive. He still heals. He is still in the miracle working business.

The same Jesus that showed up in Honduras wants to flood your life with His Love and His Power. Will you let Him?

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” (Ephesians 3:20 – 21)

If this encouraged you, please feel free to leave a note below!

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Hola Honduras

National Flag of Honduras
J. Stephen Conn / Foter / CC BY-NC

Blame it on Facebook! I refused to join Facebook for years! I liked being one of the five people on earth not hooked on social media. Then late last year, I caved and within weeks I saw an ad for an historic missions trip to Honduras. The ad said they were assembling the largest missions team in history to flood the country of Honduras.

They were looking for 2,000 missionaries to go and share the love of God with school children through dramas, skits, sharing testimonies, and prayer. And there would be crusades held in the 18 provinces in Honduras. There would be free medical clinics for the people, food and shoes distributed to locals, and training for local pastors. How could I resist?

I did my research. Watched the videos. Prayed. Waited. Researched other trips. Prayed. Waited. Watched the videos again. Researched more trips, etc… In the end, I kept feeling drawn to this trip.

Below are some of my objections and how God answered each and every one:

I don’t know the organizers or anyone else going! No problem. God arranged for me to “randomly” meet one of my team leaders the day before I found out I was assigned to her group!  He also used me to encourage one of my sister’s friends to join the team. And one of my team members “happens” to live in my neighborhood! I’ve been meeting with my team these last few weeks and they are all lovely people. Thank God!

Honduras is one of the most violent countries in the world! That is why they need Jesus!  Amazingly, a few months ago the leaders of two of the biggest gangs in Honduras held a press conference from jail and they declared a TRUCE! They asked God and society for forgiveness! Glory! God has parted the seas for us! The harvest is ripe!

The temperature can get to 100 or above! Thankfully, not where I’ll be! Praise God!

My Spanish is still broken! After much practice, my two minute testimony is coming along great. My family and friends have been happily surprised by my pronounciation. That has got to be the Lord!

So I already see God’s hand in this and I haven’t even set foot in the beautiful country of Honduras!

I’m looking forward to all the wonderful people I will meet! I’m looking forward to praying and encouraging them! I’m looking forward to making new memories with them! I’m looking forward to seeing signs, miracles and wonders and seeing God work in unexpected ways! God is doing something in Honduras, and I am humbled and honored to be a part of it!  God is also doing something in me. I’m looking forward to what God will say and do while I’m abroad!

Who knew me joining Facebook would lead to this? Oh right, God knew! To learn more about 1Nation1Day, click here.

“Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matthew 9: 35-38)

Did this encourage you? Feel free to write a comment below.

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Why GO?

I’m just days away from my short-term missions trip to Honduras. I will be one of almost 2,000 missionaries that will flood the nation of Honduras with God’s love. Although I’m so excited to be going and ministering to the high school students there through testimonies, skits, and prayer times, I still marvel that I am going. As I pack my suitcase this time around, I’m reflecting on how I even started going on these trips and why I go. Blessings!

I must say I am an accidental short-term missionary. At least in my eyes. I never grew up wanting to go on missions trips. I certainly didn’t know any missionaries. Over the years, I did discover that I enjoyed traveling. My goal years ago was to travel to the cities that hosted Olympic Games. And God allowed me to go to the modern Olympic Games stadium in Athens, Greece and the stadiums in Sydney, Australia, Salt Lake City, Utah and Los Angeles, California. Not bad! I am so grateful for all the wonderful places I’ve gotten to travel to over the years.

But God had different plans for me. After years of traveling for vacation and for work and after my amazing time in Israel in 2007, I knew it was time to “give back.” Before I could even ponder where I might go, God introduced me to Tyler Burkett from Extreme International.

Tyler was in town with his wife and a group of teens who were on a missions trip to New York City. I was guiding his team on an outreach through the New York School of Urban Ministry (NYSUM). During our lunch break, the kids mentioned that they had been on a missions trip to Ecuador. I was intrigued. My Dad is from Ecuador so I asked them which part they had gone to, and they proceeded to say the name of my Dad’s hometown! What? Of all the places in the world, these kids had gone on a missions trip to the place where my Dad was born and raised? When Tyler said he went there often and invited me to join them, I didn’t need to see a burning bush in front of me. I KNEW that I would travel with him one day. The next time I saw Tyler, it was two years later. I was in the airport in Ecuador with my teammates from Texas for the missions trip in 2010.

In between meeting Tyler and traveling with his group, Steve and Dianna Butcher from Amazon River Churches came to speak at my church, and they made an open invitation to go build a church in the Amazon jungle in Brazil!  I wrote here how tough it was for me to decide to go, but again God had already softened my heart towards missions.  I had no previous desire to travel to Brazil, but in 2009 I packed my bags and went on an adventure of a lifetime!

After going to Brazil with Steve and the team in 2009 and Ecuador with Tyler and the team in 2010, I was open to Steve’s invitation to AFRICA, which I wrote about here.

All this talk about traveling can sound kinda glamorous to some, but it’s not always easy to get on a plane, leave all your loved ones behind and go to some foreign country. There are shots to take beforehand (and sometimes gigantic malaria pills to swallow during the trip!), money to raise, vacation time to be used. There’s also lots of prayer and fasting to get ready for the spiritual battles that will take place.

Surprisingly enough, sometimes the toughest battles are fought long before even setting foot on the plane!

So why do I go?  Seriously. Why worry about mosquitoes and critters and what the sleeping conditions will be like? Why go to places where I have to brush my teeth with bottled water and avoid certain foods? And WHY go to places where I have to carry toilet paper with me and drown my hands in hand sanitizer??? (Just trying to be real folks! Don’t worry, many times I’m also shocked by how modern some of the cities are!)

Clearly, missions trips should not be confused with your typical vacations!

I go for so many reasons including:

I see God move in miraculous ways! I have seen Him heal team members and keep us out of harm’s way! Yes, that means that team members have gotten sick and been healed while being out on the field. Some have come on trips defying their doctor’s orders, and God has kept them healthy!  Other times He has held back the rain for us during the monsoon season, and He has kept us safe in the jungle in Brazil, on the mountaintops in Ecuador and in the slums of Ethiopia. Of course, I see God move in miraculous ways here at home, but there is something so special about how I see Him work when I’m abroad.

I meet amazing people! From the sweet kids we get to play with and minister to, to the humble pastors we meet who receive meager salaries and little recognition, to the full-time missionaries we get to come alongside and encourage, there is no shortage of wonderful people to befriend like I wrote about here. Some of the heroes are the missionary kids who adapt to life “out there” and embrace the local kids as if they were their family. Speaking of local kids, in Ecuador there was a little 4-year-old who was the daughter of a local pastor. She came with us during all our home visits and she was such a delight. What a trooper! She climbed up and down the mountainside without any complaints.

My teammates also inspire me. They leave behind family and the comforts of home and sacrifice the little money and vacation time they have. They set aside fears of insects or of long flights, lay down worries about health issues, and just go and love on the people!

My faith g-r-o-w-s!  God speaks to me extra clearly when I’m “out there” and I love it!  I know that I am in the palm of God’s hand and in the center of His will for my life when I’m out there. And I know that we are covered in prayer. That’s why I can be at peace in the middle of the jungle while we’re painting the church in Brazil or while we’re swerving along the mountainside on winding roads without guardrails in Ecuador. That’s why I can feel God’s presence during an impromptu service in a junkyard in Ethiopia! That’s why I can talk to complete strangers about Jesus and pray for them on the spot!

I am so encouraged to see how the locals love the same God that I do. It reminds me that as Christians we really are one family with the same Heavenly Father! I am so blessed to be able to travel around this beautiful world that God has created! And I am humbled and honored that I can be the hands and feet of Jesus in any small way while I’m there.

Because God says GO! It’s all over the Bible. It’s some of the last words Jesus said to His disciples after He resurrected and before He ascended into heaven. That should be reason enough for all of us to Go! When God opens a door, it’s best to go through it! The peace comes from knowing He goes before us and is with us! That’s His Promise to us!

Some of you may be thinking about and praying about going on a short-term missions trip. I pray that God will confirm things to you and swing the doors wide open for you.

Below are a few verses that are near and dear to my heart especially as I prepare for mission trips. I pray they will bless you as well!

  • “I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses.” (Joshua 1:3)
  • “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9)
  • “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!'” (Isaiah 6:8)
  • “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.'” (Matthew 28: 18-20)
  • “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.” (Acts 1:8)
  • “…Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?  And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'” (Romans 10:13-15)

If this encouraged you, please feel free to leave a comment below. If you’ve already been on missions trips, I’d love to hear a bit about your experiences!

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Foreign Friends

View of painted church

 

One of the best things about going on short-term missions trips is the people you get to meet along the way. It’s during these trips that you get to exchange ideas and interact with people that live in a completely different world than you. And you get to make memories with people that you may never see again. Below is the story of a young lady I met in Brazil that I will never forget. Blessings!

During the short-term missions trip I went on to Arumanduba, Brazil in March 2009, the team befriended the family that lived to the right side of the church that God allowed us to help build (the church is pictured above). So many generations lived in this one particular house right on the river. Among them was the older man who donated the land for the church to be built, a cute little 4-year-old boy who used to ride in a canoe by himself, and the boy’s grandmother. There was also a young couple.

We had all noticed there was something different about the young wife. She didn’t look like any of the people in the area. The Portuguese she spoke sounded like it was a slightly different dialect. She also seemed kind of melancholy. We soon learned that the young wife was actually only 14!

Josie, as I will affectionately call her, was caught between two worlds. She didn’t fit in with all the carefree kids splashing around in the murky water and climbing palm trees in their bare feet. She also didn’t fit in with all the adults that stayed indoors doing housework, went off to work or gathered around to see us crazy Americans assembling a church.

She looked like she was a foreigner who had come from another region of Brazil. Her blonde hair made her stand out among all the brunettes. She was extremely quiet and reserved. She seemed like a young girl trapped in an adult’s life.

All seven of the women on our team were hoping to get to know this mysterious young lady and thankfully God gave us the opportunity one afternoon. During a break from all the construction we were doing, we stopped and played games such as paddy cake with the kids. As we were relaxing on some chairs, Josie quietly came over and took a seat next to us. With our indigenous Brazilian missionary there to serve as our translator, we struck up a conversation with our new friend. We got to encourage her and pray with her, and God allowed us to lead her to the Lord right on the spot.

That in itself was precious! So was what happened a little while afterwards.

It was the end of the week and the construction was just about done and I was finally ready to hit the water. I had seen my teammates and the locals swimming all week long and none of them had gotten bitten by any piranhas that may have been lurking around, thank God! Now it was my turn to jump in.

The kids were so excited that I would finally be joining them for their daily swim! And though the water was well… FILTHY… I had been looking forward to taking a dip. Don’t worry, I didn’t put my head under the water!

While I was playing with the kids, Josie decided to join us. I was so happy she did! Her demeanor had changed so much after we prayed for her and she received Christ. It just seemed like a weight had been lifted off of her.

So she hung around for a bit, but then left. She motioned that she would be back. I figured she went off to do some chores in the house.

After awhile, she came back and had this little plastic jar with her that you would find in any salon here in the states. She then took out some cream from the container and put it on her hair. Then in a very sweet gesture, she reached out and showed me that it was avocado conditioner. She then motioned for me to put some in my hair, so I did.

At that moment, I felt a special bond with Josie. I felt like she was inviting me to enter her world. There I was, standing in the murky water that was like a second home to her and she was sharing probably one of the only simple luxuries she must have owned with me. It was a girlie moment in the Amazon jungle of all the places in the world! We were just two girls trading beauty secrets except we didn’t say many words. It was priceless!

The once shy girl was coming out of her shell. My how she had been transformed in such a short time!

The night of the church’s inauguration Josie and her husband went up to receive prayer for healing. What a blessing to see! I don’t think she or her family will ever forget our team and by writing this memory down,  it will help me to always remember Josie.

Of course, you don’t have to wait until you’re on the mission field to enter someone else’s world.  Who can you start befriending today?

If this encouraged you, please feel free to leave a comment.

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