Necesitamos Crecer! - Sunday, September 30, 2012 (1)

On Sunday, September 30, we went to church at a large, Spanish-speaking church, Central Christian International (CCI); the church currently has about 4000 members and is obviously one of the more prosperous congregations.  The building was enormous and beautiful there was a band with a lot of singing and they were really up on the technology. 

 

 

The sermon was really a great message … one that was so beneficial for the work of the LORD that we were about to engage in.   Because the service was in Spanish, it was a little hard to follow at first but the sermon was outlined on Power Point, which was extremely helpful, even though it was in Spanish.  We were able to follow along with the Scripture and I wrote down the headers for the points being made.  One of the WGO Staff translated for me, which was also helpful.

The main points of the message were as follows:

Necesitamos Crecer = We Need To Grow!

To start off with this was perfect, especially for Brian, who mentioned several times that he believed this mission trip was to compare him to the Fig Tree in Luke 13 – see below -  

Luke 13:6-9 (NIV)

Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any.  So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’

“‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and    fertilize it. ⁹ If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”
 

He went into this with the expectation that he would either grow and bear fruit or he would be cut down!  Yikes!

(I’m happy to report that, as you will read in future posts, it will not be necessary to yank Brian out of his shoes)

The Scripture that was discussed came from 2 Corinthians 13:5 – Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.  Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you – unless, of course, you fail the test.

There were three ways to test ourselves mentioned and backed up with Scripture.

Signos de Estancamiento = Signs of Stagnation

·         Falta de Discernimiento Espiritual = Lack of Spiritual Discernment

Hebrews 5:12-14 (NLT)- You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food.  For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right.  Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.

I especially like this in The Message version so I thought I’d include it here as well:

I have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you’ve picked up this bad habit of not listening. By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—baby’s milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God’s ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong.

           

·         Inmadurez Respecto a los Asuntos de la Fe = Immaturity Regarding Matters of Faith

Hebrews 6:1-3 (NLT)– So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds^[a] and placing our faith in God. ² You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. ³ And so, God willing, we will move forward to further understanding.

·         No Estamos Produciendo el Fruto del Espiritu = We Are Not Producing

the Fruit of the Spirit

Galatians 5:16 – 25 (NLT) - So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.  The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.

 
But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses. When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.  Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.

After the church service, we were taken to a park with an overlook view of the city.  Here are a few photos from that stop.

 

Here's us Prender-bergers! 

 

Here's our CCofE Team!

 

There was a "vendor" that drove up and the back of the truck they were in was filled with these handmade baskets!  Aren't they pretty???

 

The baskets are made from pine needles and they are tightly wrapped and woven into the different baskets!  AMAZING!  In the photo below, you can see the start of one of her baskets. 

 

Then, if baskets aren't really your thing and really big knives ARE, they have an assortment of those as well!  I'll just add that the "YOUNGEST" member of our team purchased one of those knives!!! 

 

Then we were taken to a fantastic restaurant (very clean AND safe) for a wonderful authentic lunch!!  Mmm Mmm Mmm … it was so yummy!! 

 

They were obviously expecting us!

 

We had THIS ... 

 

... and THIS ... 

 

We even had THIS ... ahhh, ... a bottle of pure happiness!!

 

... and I completely forgot to take a photo of the steak and chicken they brought out too (sorry about that!)  It was all Oh-SO-Delicious!!  I know the church sermon was about our need for growth ... with all this food there was definitely going to be some "GROWTH". 

 

Everyone was in a joyful and festive mood!!

 

 

 

And this is Gabriela, one of our Brigade Coordinators.  We really liked her and since we all seemed to "match", we decided to have a "family photo"!   

 

And then in the late afternoon, we helped with the pharmaceutical needs and ONCE AGAIN counted out pills and sorted them by expiration.

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, now how many were supposed to be in each bag again?? 

 

Dios te bendiga! (God Bless You!)

 

Next Post: Brigade Day #1

Arriving at La Casa de Esperanza - September 29, 2012 (2)

Upon our arrival to the Mission House, La Casa de Esperanza (House of Hope), we were given our room assignments and a bit of time to put our things away and freshen up.

 The house is located within a walled compound and it is quite large.  We definitely weren't suffering a hardship staying at this House - It has several team rooms with bunk beds and each room can house up to 16 people.  In addition, each room has showers, sinks and toilets.  There are also a few apartments built into the Mission House; these are for the missionaries who live there full-time and also several of the missionaries who stay there part-time.  There are also several offices, storage rooms, meeting rooms and sitting areas.

 

There is a great outdoor sitting area at the front of the House ...

 

 

... as well as at the back of the House!

Many teammates chose these spots for quiet time with God.

 

 

As soon as I unpacked it, I posted the list of those individuals from our church who wrote their commitment to pray for us while we were in Honduras.

 

After we acclimated to the House, help was needed to unload the trunks that we brought with us. Of course, I wanted to get photos of this so I went downstairs where this was occurring. Initially, trunks and bags are unpacked and sorted by item type. There are bins with labels above them all around the unloading room and as we unpacked, we just threw our items into these bins.

 

All of those boxes contain eyeglasses.

 

 

Everything in these bins were donated or paid for by monetary contributions.

 

Have you ever seen so many toothbrushes?

This is one of the storage rooms.  There are bins everywhere!!

There were 47 trunks/bags to unpack but it went pretty quickly with all the helping hands!  "Many hands make light work!"

 

WOW!  Look at this room!  It is actually pretty well organized!

In the late afternoon of the day we arrived, we had a brief "Welcome" in the team meeting room.  Abraham, pictured below, gave us some introductions and general information to get us started. 

 

Abraham thanked us for our sacrifice – huh? "Sacrifice?"  He acknowledged that we committed a week away from the comforts of our homes, our families, our routines … he acknowledged this and stated that he tells this to the pastors of the churches the organization works within and he relates our sacrifice and love for the Honduran people to the love of God and His sacrifice for us because of that love.

 

"We love because He first loved us." ~1 John 4:19

I was really touched by Abraham’s words. I hadn’t necessarily thought that going on this mission trip was a sacrifice. It was just a week … but His words were the first that made me realize the true significance of this mission trip (more on that later).

 

Here's what our first meal in Honduras looked like ...

 

... wave "hello" to the team!!

 

*Note - Just so you know, I'm starting off light and easy to digest.  I hope that you are enjoying this information so far.  I'll try to disclose a *tissue warning* for the posts that will warrant them.

Beauty Amidst Chaos - September 29, 2012 (1)

Saturday, September 29, 2012

The team met at the church so that we could depart at 1:00am for Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. It was, of course, dark outside and it was very chilly too. But we were ready to go and away we went!

 

 

We were driven to O'Hare on a large school bus!

 

 

The driver, Peggy, is the mother of two of our team members and she works for the bus company! SWEET!!

 

 

Yes, Ben, we're really on our way!!

Hmm, ... I guess there ARE advantages to travelling so early in the morning. 

 

Once we arrived at the airport in Honduras, we could already tell we weren’t in the USA anymore. As we waited at the baggage claim for our trunks, we watched as airport employees jumped over, walked on and went through the various conveyors fetching bags, suitcases and boxes that were unloading from the airplanes. In my experiences, we have always waited calmly and ‘mostly patiently’ as bags went by on the conveyor … when I’d spot my bag, I’d grab it before it passed me by. In Honduras, it was more of a frenzy of workers proactively hunting down the items. Several of WGO’s (World Gospel Outreach) staff met us at the airport and assisted us as we gathered all that we brought along with us.

As we walked out of the airport, there was immediate “culture shock” as there were uniformed men with machine guns and weapons I am not familiar with walking around or standing by. (We are told that we should not take photographs of this so I was mostly really good about that but at one point I just couldn't help myself and I took this photo as the man's back was to me - it's not the best photo but it was through the window of the bus)

 

There is barbed wire everywhere, something else I am not accustomed to seeing. Most homes and buildings, especially within the city, are surrounded by high walls and the tops of the walls are lined with circulating barbed wire. Some walls are even lined with electrical wires and many have nails and shards of broken bottles and glass cemented  along the top facing upwards. Obviously, there is a need to deter people from attempting to go over the walls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wish I would have videoed the traffic in Honduras but I believe the video would have been difficult to view as I’m sure I would not have been able to hold the camera still enough … although, then you might have been able to REALLY get the idea. There is A LOT of traffic and it is coming from all directions … sometimes LITERALLY! People, even little children, ride in the backs of pick-up trucks, … some sit and some stand, some within the bed of the truck and others sitting along the edge. This freaked me out a bit! Seat belts are optional and there are no car seats for children. There are lots of people on motorcycles and while it does seem quite advantageous to maneuver the traffic in this way (especially when it is at a stand-still), it was also alarming to watch as they careened in and out of the traffic, around buses and trucks, and alongside other vehicles. Sometimes they traveled with traffic and sometimes they went against traffic. There were some motorcyclists who had multiple riders, even children, most with helmets but some without. Helmets are required in Honduras, however, the looseness of the law was evident as some wore mere bicycle helmets, some only partially on and would clearly fall off in the event of an accident. Vehicles pass each other and cut in front of one another and maneuver cross-traffic in ways that I would never have imagined! Learning to drive there would be a whole new kind of education!!

 

 

 

Tegucigalpa is actually at the bottom of a giant bowl! No kidding! The city is surrounded by mountains; homes cascade the mountainside and the roads are winding like a spiral staircase! The population is 1,126,534 and unemployment is at 41%; those who work barely live on $2/day. The typical Honduran education is up to 6^th grade; only those who would be considered wealthy get further education and will probably be bi-lingual.

 

 

 

When I looked around and as we travelled through the city, I took in my surroundings and simply put, Tegucigalpa, Honduras, is Beauty amidst Chaos. ... deep sigh ... 

 

We're Back from Honduras!

Hi Everyone!

We are back from our mission trip to Honduras!  We are safe and well and we have amazing stories to share with you!

There is so much to share and as the experiences were overwhelming to us, sharing them with you all at once would be equally overwhelming so I will post our experiences in segments.  We hope you will take the time to read our posts as we really feel it is important for you to know the impact your contribution(s) made for our serving and to the people of Honduras.

In addition, we will attempt to create a DVD to send to you so that you will have something to remind you the amazing work you were a part of.   God is so good and we are so blessed to be on His team with you!!!