Sunday, March 11

First full day in Honduras was wonderful. We rolled out of bed around 8 to Mark yelling, "Let's Go." "GET UP!", so we started going early. I (Drew) had been sick all night, but thankfully I am much, much better know. They call it the "Honduras Tea Party" and it was far from a party. Evan got sick today as well; fortunately, he seems to be better already!

After breakfast, Mark took us to 3 different potential house sites for the week. We are building on Tuesday and Saturday of this week. Mark gave us the difficult decision of basically telling a family they will not be receiving a house right now. But he always tells the families that God is in control and in his timing. After we saw all 5 house sites over the past few days, we sat and talked at the warehouse. We all felt led to choose to build for the same two families. The first family is the father's name is Abraham. He had been shot multiple times after attempting to leave a gang he had joined. He lived with multiple grown kids in a hut, literally a hut. Barrett will post pictures later on, but pictures cannot do this justice. When we were leaving, Abraham began to shake because he had become so emotional with the possibility of having a new home for his family.

The second family, a woman has 13 children and 2 or 3 grandchildren and is 42 years old. They were renting a house together but were kicked out because they could not afford to stay any more. A friend was allowing them to stay in their home for a week, they had to be out by this coming Saturday with no where to go. It was truly an unbelievable scenario. However, there faith is so raw and so dependent on God; we cannot even fathom the faith that they have. We were encouraged and blessed to meet this wonderful family, and they were able to show some Gringos how soccer is truly played.

Evan and I stayed back at Mark and Lori's house to rest and recover for the week. It was much needed. The others went to an Olimpia v. Victoria soccer game in Estadia Nacional. Olimpia is the "wealthier" team from Tegucigalpa. Barrett and Dillon came back sporting Olimpia safari hats for $3 a piece. Soccer here is a religion. They get really into the games. Throw fire crackers on the field when they disagree and chant the entire game. Barrett also has pictures to come.

Evan and I ate at McDonalds to show some mercy on our stomachs and met the others at a local Honduran restaurant. Honduran restaurants have basically the same menu: meat. So, they split lots of different types of meats. We then went to a local Honduran place, Baskin Robbin's and enjoyed some helado.

We all talked for about an hour about our experience so far and cultural shock as well as the reverse cultural shock we will experience when we return. Mark kept going back to Jesus and the light. In John 8:12 Jesus says, "Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'' Once you see/smell/taste the poverty, you understand. The light comes on. We are no longer in darkness but seeing how majority of the world lives. It is a hard pill to swallow; however, it is a new responsibility and beautiful thing to find hope in a hopeless place.

Please continue to be in prayer! Tomorrow, we are tearing down walls in the Mi Esperanza Women's Ministry to make room to expand! More pictures/posts to come!