Unexpected Blessings in Honduras ‘09

I first will start off by saying our trip to Honduras was quite interesting but came out to be an unexpected blessing at the same time.

We left Dallas on Saturday, and hours later arrived at the new and modern Tegucigalpa airport. After we checked our passports all of us thought how we could not wait to spend time with children on the streets, working with the hungry, building houses, touring the city of Angels, and many other exciting opportunities you can do in this high poverty but beautiful country. After our luggage was picked up, Oscar, a professor at the Baxter Institute, chauffeured us to the Baxter Institute. As we drove through the city (with Gary and the boys riding on top of all the luggage) the people of Honduras seemed calm and collected going about their everyday lives. I could not wait to start working with all these people. Though, without knowing, God would have different plans for us instead.

The next day we woke up, got ready for church, and headed out to eat some delicious Honduran breakfast along with some tasty, Honduran, “Folgers” coffee. Gary announced that all of us were going to head to a church down the road where some of the Baxter students attended. Right when we were about to finish breakfast, Rachael, who is in charge of facilitating mission groups, told us some interesting news about the Honduran President. She basically told us that Manuel Zeyala was arrested in his home and the military has taken over the country until further notice. We were all advised to stay inside the campus instead of going out to work in the city. At first we were shocked and not sure what to think of the whole situation. Here I was, an American who never actually sees this kind of stuff, still wanting to go out and see what was going on outside the campus gates. All of us were wondering, ‘How bad could it really be?’ So we thought ‘Well, we will stay in today and hopefully go out tomorrow.’ That same day the Knoxville, Tennessee church group came and they were in for a surprise as well.

On Monday we thought the city was calm so maybe we could go out and start to work on some buildings. Outside we waited and more news was brought to us, telling us that it is still not okay to go out into the city. At that point we were all like ‘Okay God what kind of plans do you want us to take on?’ Later that day, Gary mentioned that some work was needed around the campus and there were some classrooms that needed a fresh coat of paint. All of us decided that was a good idea since we definitely did not want to just stand around all day doing nothing. We ended up painting several classrooms with high ceilings. At the end the rooms looked ten times better! From the smiles on the student’s faces, I could tell that they were excited to see their classrooms look brighter.

We still were not sure whether we should leave early or stay until Saturday. One night after a devotional with the Knoxville group, we sat around and discussed our situation. At the end we agreed to ahead and change our flight due to the fact that later in the week Tegucigalpa could have the airport closed if the President decided to fly back in. We were frustrated and sad at the same time, but we knew that we could not control what was going on.

The last night we gave the students a small party to celebrate not only the end of their exams but our last night with them. All of us pitched in what we brought from home such as clothes, toothbrushes, shoes, toys, and other items. The students line up to get what they wanted from the tables. They were so thankful and so blessed that we stayed to help them. Later on, Gary and Allen gave a short devotional and led some songs. All I can say is that I loved to hear the students sing in Spanish. The singing definitely made the whole week quite peaceful.

On the way home on Thursday, I reminded myself how sometimes we have no control over things and sometimes you just have to let God take over. Even though we did not get to fulfill our agenda we still filled God’s.