Because Honduras is a Spanish-speaking country and most of us on the mission team are not fluent in Spanish, all of the work that was done during our week there was done through translators. Most of the translators are paid staff members of World Gospel Outreach and most are Honduran and ALL of them are Christians. During our week, we had the opportunity to meet and to get to know many of the translating staff ~ and they were GREAT! This is their job; they know what they are doing and they do it really well!!
Cristian and Stefany –
Cristian and Stefany –
They worked in the children’s ministry and they are PERFECT for that area! They are so wonderful with the children!
Alberto –
He worked in Pharmacy and although he could act really silly and goof around a lot, he was serious about assessing whether or not what was prescribed was appropriate and explaining the medications to the people. In this photo he is holding an 11-month old baby who, after being examined by the doctor, is believed to be Type 1 Diabetic, which is very serious and could be life-threatening if not treated appropriately.
Ricardo and Lorena –
They are so wonderful!
They currently work in Evangelism during the Brigades but shortly, they are going to Cuba to be full-time missionaries!
Do you ever meet someone and in the first minute or two of speaking with them or listening to them you just know that you are really going to like them? Ricardo and Lorena are THOSE KIND of people. On our first day of Brigade, the bus that we were on made several stops to pick up multiple translators and Lorena sat directly behind me and Brian, with Ben, because he was a “single rider”. It was so easy to get to know her and have a conversation with her. As soon as I found out she was a translator for evangelism, I asked her if she would be MY translator!! Brian felt the same way about Ricardo! On the bus ride home that day, Brian and Ricardo had the chance to sit together and Brian really felt the two of them just clicked together! So, of course, Brian asked Ricardo to be his translator if he was assigned to Evangelism too, which he was ... later in the week!
They currently work in Evangelism during the Brigades but shortly, they are going to Cuba to be full-time missionaries!
Do you ever meet someone and in the first minute or two of speaking with them or listening to them you just know that you are really going to like them? Ricardo and Lorena are THOSE KIND of people. On our first day of Brigade, the bus that we were on made several stops to pick up multiple translators and Lorena sat directly behind me and Brian, with Ben, because he was a “single rider”. It was so easy to get to know her and have a conversation with her. As soon as I found out she was a translator for evangelism, I asked her if she would be MY translator!! Brian felt the same way about Ricardo! On the bus ride home that day, Brian and Ricardo had the chance to sit together and Brian really felt the two of them just clicked together! So, of course, Brian asked Ricardo to be his translator if he was assigned to Evangelism too, which he was ... later in the week!
I had the opportunity to talk to Ricardo later on that first day of Brigade. We shared a bit about the Honduran people we met that day and we talked a bit about the "people who don't accept the LORD". I was so impressed and encouraged even by something that he told me about a time that he was serving in Evangelism.
He said that he and 'the North American' he was paired with had been talking to a man, a gang member, for quite some time and they had kept hitting a 'brick wall' with this man and he just was not interested in coming to Jesus or turning from his wayward life. Not wanting to concede and just throw a soul away, Ricardo took over and really tried to get through to the man who was smug and obstinate and unwilling to budge. Finally, Ricardo said to the man, "Fine! I don't care! You know, one day, I'm going to leave this earth and I will be in heaven with God and He isn't going to let me be sad for you; I won't even remember you or this day! But you, ... when you die, your soul will forever suffer in hell and you will always remember me and this day and you will forever wish that you could go back to this day and do it differently!"
The gang member stared at Ricardo in silence for a long time, eyes wide, mouth gaping ... finally, eyes slightly welling with tears, he asked Ricardo, "Is this true?"
Ricardo said, "YES!," and really, what would he gain by LYING?
That gang member surrendered that day ... it was a difficult battle, but Ricardo persevered and he rejoiced as he welcomed another member into the family of God.
I think it was Cesar that I was MOST impressed with and moved by …
On Thursday, Ben, Brian and I had the opportunity to ride to the Brigade site, not on the bus, but in Jon’s truck. I was really excited about this because I’d be much closer to the road and what we’d be driving by. Riding in a bus is very inhibiting when you are trying to get a view of things and take photographs. During our conversations with Jon, which were many because of the insane, bumper-to-bumper, slower-than-a-snail’s-pace traffic, we actually heard an amazing story about one of the translators that Jon interviewed and eventually hired. He said his name was Carlos and he told how usually when he interviews a potential translator, he asks a lot of questions and the interviewee answers them and each question lasts maybe a couple minutes at most. He likes to get a feel for who they are, what experiences they’ve had, but most of all, where they are with Jesus. Jon told us that after asking the first question, Carlos was still doing ALL the talking thirty minutes later and that Jon didn’t dare stop him because he was amazed and inspired by what he was hearing!
It turned out that the man that Jon was talking about wasn’t named Carlos; Ben had said that he was pretty amazed by another translator who had a rough exterior but would get teared up just by singing the worship songs at Brigade. Ben said, “his name is Cesar.” Then Jon said, “OH! That’s who I’m talking about!! It’s Cesar, not Carlos!!” Cesar was born in Honduras but as a little boy his family went to live in the United States and as he grew, he became a gang member and was involved in a lot of really bad things (yep, folks, right here in the USA) and he was ultimately sent to prison. While he was in prison, he came to know about Jesus and he surrendered his life to Him, professing Jesus as Lord and Savior. And then an amazing thing happened. The officials said that they would release Cesar from prison but that he would have to be deported back to Honduras. He agreed to it!
Readers, this man is still a very young man. He has been through so much, he’s seen the worst and he’s BEEN the worst! And he has been transformed by the Grace of God and the Salvation of Jesus, a modern-day Saul turned Paul. It is so cool to see this guy do what he does, especially after now knowing what we know about him. All that he was and who he is now is used in service to impact and change the lives of his fellow Hondurans!
The best part is what happened the next day. As we were driving to our final day of Brigade and as we picked up our translators along the way, when Cesar boarded the bus he sat next to Ben, directly across from me and Brian. From day one, Cesar and Ben had gotten along really well (though I think it was quite a shock for Ben to find out Cesar’s background) so it wasn’t unusual for them to sit together. But now, picture in your mind, this guy … he gets on the bus and sits next to Ben and immediately (and for the rest of the 20-minute or so bus ride) he was telling Ben about his Bible reading from that morning, quoting Scripture, asking Ben Spiritual questions, making phenomenal statements – I sat there completely amazed and soaking it all in! I was listening to every word that Cesar was spewing and hoping and praying that Ben was realizing the mini-sermon that God was giving him through Cesar that morning!
And I gotta tell you ... you know, I was having a great week! I was seeing amazing things done! People were getting medicine for their ailments and antibiotics for their infections; they were having problematic and rotting teeth removed and receiving simple hygenic care. Tangible and visual needs were being met! And I can honestly tell you that after having done this, even if this mission trip had nothing to do with trying to win souls for Jesus, I would still participate because of the physical needs of the Honduran people that our human abilities were able to meet!
But Cesar hit the nail right on the head and burst that bubble I was in when he brought me back to the real reason that we were there when he said, “Jesus didn’t come to heal people! What good is it to be healed if you aren’t saved?” Think about that for a minute ... yeah ... that was pretty sobering!
But Cesar hit the nail right on the head and burst that bubble I was in when he brought me back to the real reason that we were there when he said, “Jesus didn’t come to heal people! What good is it to be healed if you aren’t saved?” Think about that for a minute ... yeah ... that was pretty sobering!
Thankfully, in addition to providing the physical care that we did [we touched 3,601 people in just four days!], there were so many people who turned to Jesus for the first time and it was so uplifting to be a part of the experience. We told them about the love of God and the Salvation that could be theirs through Jesus and they responded, they accepted, they shared with us their brokenness and they left us peacefully WHOLE! Why doesn’t that happen here? I know SO MANY people, loved ones, relatives, acquaintances, friends and co-workers who cringe at the name of Jesus, use His name in vain, repel the mention of church, retaliate against the invitation, debate the validity of Christianity while promoting Allah, Buddah and the Dalai Lama and just plain ignore the Gospel Truth! (**hint-hint - the beauty of absolute truth is that there can only be one right answer; I'm sorry to say that all the other answers then are not true - but that's another post). But why? ... Why is it that I can share my beliefs here in the USA over and over and over without making a saving bit of difference but I can go to another country completely different from the one I'm from and tell what I know to total strangers and they will BELIEVE and BE GRATEFUL!!
Ricardo and Lorena said it … When these two prayed, it was all about the level of faith! "What do you believe God can do?" I mentioned this in a previous post but this was challenging to me to go into prayer ... completely trusting that God had already taken care of the thing which we were asking for. They referenced verses from the Bible such as Matthew 8:26, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” and Matthew 17:19-21, Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, “Why couldn’t we cast out that demon?” “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible."
Cesar asked it … quoted it to Ben as he was talking about his reading on that morning bus ride … “Why do you have such little faith?”
When he said that, I wrote the following in my notebook: “Because we don’t live like they do. We don’t feel we need the help; we feel secure and self-sufficient and we’re not looking for the miracles the way that they do!”
We sure experienced a week of miracles … SO MANY … but we are just people, weak and limited. The miracles were not at all because of us who were there serving. We were just fortunate enough to have been looking and to witness the hand of God upon the lives of so many Hondurans, as well as our own. Maybe it’s tucked inside God’s great plan to allow us the opportunity to find within ourselves the part of us that belongs to Him. We do this when we respond to the needy instead of turn away, when we comfort the hurting and the helpless instead of dwell on our own difficulties, when we share all that we have instead of keep it all to ourselves.
In the USA we have GIANT houses and all the latest technology ...
... yet we complain when our cell phones lose reception; we complain when our internet connection lags; when the lines are too long, when our space is infringed upon, when fast food isn't fast enough; we want our BIG MAC, fries and Coke super-sized, the NEWEST version of iPhone, the LATEST flat screen television the size of our living room wall …
... the people in Honduras, the people in 67% of the world for that matter, don’t live with the ability to have those demands.
And they don’t look like this!
They look like this!
And this!
And they live here ...
Since returning from Honduras, I'm basically still the same person; I still have the same interests, likes and dislikes but maybe, I've changed in the way I think about things. I might be a little more resolute in why I don't need what I don't have. I am confirmed a little more in that I already have more than enough. Even my simplest living exceeds theirs in its highest extravagance.
… why should I be allowed to continue living my life with all of the BIG, the NEWEST, the LATEST and GREATEST, … what if lessening my expectations and reducing my comforts in this life could enhance their enjoyment and ease their burdens. It’s not their fault they were born into poverty. Likewise, it’s not our fault we were born into prosperity but in the great picture of life, wouldn’t it be better for everyone if there was more balance? hmm, ... something to consider ...
In the meantime, I'm working on planting mustard seeds and enhancing my faith!
It’s not what you are that hurts; it’s what you fail to become ~Jon Hovestol
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