Here we are. Tegucigalpa, Honduras. It’s definitely surreal right now. Just yesterday we were in Atlanta and around 7:00 yesterday Auburn, Alabama. It’s felt like a week has been crammed into a little over 24 hours. The poverty here is unreal. Mark said that you really could see it all you wanted on tv and you could talk about it, but until you truly “see it and feel it and smeel it and touch it” it’s never the same. You can’t truly describe it all. We flew in and Mark picked us up at the airport in a 15 passenger van. The streets here are c-r-a-z-y. There’s basically no lanes and it’s just a free for all with dirt bikes and mopeds weaving in and out of traffic and cars cutting one another off, honking, passing on the left side of the road, and even more. We visited two main sites today - one a potential home site and one another construction site. The first was the home of a man named Abraham. Abraham lives in a tiny shack selling fruit with his wife and 6 kids, if I am not mistaken. One bed was in this tiny shack. I truly think all day today the reality of it all did not hit me - just as Mark also said, we truly cannot know what these people really live in, because we don’t. But I almost did not believe it. The slums and housing are so thrown up and wired crazily. We also visited the home of Melvin in a place on the outskirts of Teguc. He truly lived in the slums and Mark said they had probably built 120 or so houses around there. Marvin was 14 living with his older brother and 2 younger brothers and sisters. Again, the poverty is amazing. Mark said the people have such a hard time getting clean water - no one here even drinks the water - and they can’t afford to buy clean most of the time. So they boil it, but still have problems getting sick. I was tired and it was a transition today, but I pray that we could feel the spirit working within us. I pray that we would not harden our eyes or hearts away from the harsh reality these people live in. We need to see and feel their hurt, I believe, to understand in some sense. This week we have the amazing opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus. To provide for the most basic of needs for the people - shelter and food. How much do we take for granted! This isn’t a guilt trip to make myself and others feel bad, but to wake us up to the harsh reality that 75% of the world lives this way and something can be done about it. I’m not saying all can drop everything and come to Honduras and places like it to help, but in some way, some capacity, each and every person can take part. Even as “small” as being intentional in prayer for these peoples. We all prayed as a group last night and tonight and I think one huge theme we have prayed for is that we could not do this for Barrett Paulk, Dillon Casey, Terry Bryan, Drew Lowry, Ben Wright, Evan Isbill, orMatt Montgomery to be seen or have our names known. It’s easy to fall into this sin; but we pray that we could bring fame and glory to God’s name alone, with His grace and power working within us to glorify himself. Mark took us to a really cool, good local Honduran lunch place. We had basically grilled pork chops with fried plantains with awesome sauce and also went to a Honduran restaurant for dinner that was really good. Poor Drew has gotten sick and been throwing up. It’s been rough, even though we’ve been joking. It just reminds me that we give up our health, safety, and everything for Jesus. We leave nothing but Him, and His will will be done, as hard as that is to see play out sometimes, it is always good.
Signing out from Teguc,
Barrett
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