Missions Trip Part 1 - Arriving in Honduras

Here is part 1 of the story of our missions trip. WARNING: I like telling detailed stories so if you don't like detailed stories just look at the pictures. :-) ha ha ha

Dad, Caleb and I woke up at 3am on June 4, and mom drove us to the airport. We flew to Minneapolis, then to Memphis, then finally to Atlanta. We stayed the night there, and woke up early the next morning to get to our next flight, where we met up with the other team members. Only after we landed in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, did we find out that it is the shortest runway in the world (for large planes)!!! We all cheered when the pilot made an extremely smooth landing. :-)

After taking forever to get through customs, we finally finished, gathered our luggage together and loaded it all into Mr. M's van (we stayed at the M.'s house for 3 nights during our trip). That van was stuffed to the gills!! Dad, Caleb and I all sat in the front, and it was so full that dad had to sit on my lap! :-) Thankfully the M.'s house was only 4 blocks away.

We arrived and unloaded everything, and then had lunch. The M. family is a very nice Christian family, and we really appreciated their kind and generous hospitality! They all speak both English and Spanish (Mr., Mrs., 8 year old Josue (pronounced Hosway), and 6 year old Esther).

That afternoon Sharon C. (the lady who was doing the fiestas with me) and I went through all our supplies and organized everything for the fiestas. We had SO much stuff to give to the kids and their teachers, so that took quite a while to get together. Fri. and Sat. the others also worked on getting our solar equipment out of customs (it had been stuck there for several weeks), and then preparing it for the schools. That night we went out to Pizza Hut for supper. Yes, there are a lot of American restaurants in Honduras!! The Pizza Huts we went to were 2 or 3 times as big as the ones here, and they had a play land!! :-)

The next day (Sat.) we spent the morning doing various things, and that afternoon we went on a tour of the city. We drove up this big mountain, and at the top we were able to see the whole city. It was beautiful!! That night we watched a soccer game between the US and Honduras. Soccer (or football, as they call it) is a HUGE thing in Honduras! The US won, but I'd have to say that Honduras played very very well. :-)

Since we flew in on a weekend, were weren't able to start the schools until Monday. It was nice to have those couple days to settle in and rest before we went to the tougher work. :-)

Part two to be coming soon (hopefully)!! :-)

Our first view of Honduras

This is our team from the US (along with some of the M family).
L-R: Marcus, Allen, Phil, Sharon, Me, Mr. M., Caleb, Luke, Jay, Dad, and Josue and Esther in the front

Customs

Loading the van

Eating at Pizza Hut

Phil playing with Josue

Sharon playing with Esther

No, this store wasn't named after my nickname! :-)

Tegucigalpa

Honduras Update

We made it!! Dad, Caleb and I are in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. So far everything has been going pretty well. The only problem is that the supplies for the solar power haven't all come yet. So please be in prayer about that.

I probably won't be updating on here until we get back, but we do plan to put several posts, when we can, on the SonLight Power blog.

Thank you for your prayers!!

Honduras

We just heard today that there was a big earthquake near Honduras. Please be in prayer that we will be safe when we go, and for the continued safety of our hosts and other people we will be working with over there. Thanks!

More Trip Pictures

Here are some more pictures from our trip - including several from Fort Sumter (thanks for requesting those, Cora!).

This first one is me at the Creation Museum.


This was a really neat model of Noah's Ark.


We got to have a ride on this round table at the train station - that was fun!


Here we are panning for gold. Daniel and I each found a very, very small fleck of gold!


Here I am taking a picture of what someone said was a baby copperhead snake. Of course I didn't know that when I was taking the picture!!


Another fun thing we did at the Transportation Museum is tour the inside of this caboose.


We didn't actually go to this Confederate Museum, but we thought it would be a good place to have our picture taken with Uncle Tim and Aunt Lauri.


Here's our tour boat (the ferry to Ft. S.) and some pictures of the canons and other things we saw there.









If anyone hasn't yet read the two posts about how our trip went, you can go here for Part 1, and here for Part 2.

Also, here's a quick update on our missions trip. So far everything has gone pretty smoothly, except the fact that one of the fiesta team members is unable to make it due to sickness (we'll miss you, Juliet!). We leave June 4th (dad, Caleb and I) for Atlanta, where we'll meet up with the team and fly to Honduras. For those of you who don't know, we'll be installing solar power for poor schools (who have most likely never even seen a light bulb!) and, while dad and Caleb are doing that, I'll be helping to run the fiestas. We'll do parachute games, crafts and more. But the most important thing we'll all be doing in Honduras is sharing the message of salvation with the people there. Please be in prayer for us, that we will have servant's hearts, and that many people would come to know the Lord through this!! Thank you!!

Shady River

Our Trip, Part 2

Here are a couple more pictures of the beautiful waterfall we hiked up to. This first one is my family with Kathleen (Daniel's birthgrandma) and her husband Nick.




We spent the night at their house in the NC mountains, with a small stream flowing outside my window. The next day we drove on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and went to another waterfall, where Caleb had fun climbing on the rocks.




The mountains were just BEAUTIFUL!! We don't see anything like that in our area!! At one stop, a bagpiper was playing a song, looking out to the mountains. Dad requested he play Amazing Grace, so he did, and it was wonderful!



On the way back we stopped at Sliding Rock. We wished we could have done it, but we didn't have towels and swimmwear (plus it was cold!) so we just had to be satisfied with taking pictures. It reminded me of the movie The Swiss Family Robinson!



We met a lovely Christian couple at our next stop. They are singing evangelists, and they sang How Great Thou Art for us, right by this majestic waterfall.



Back at the house, the next day, Daniel had Kathleen close her eyes, and he led her to the log cabin he had made for her for Mother's Day.




Later that day we had a target contest. Caleb was the winner, and the prize was a pocket knife.



Here I am with Nick, wearing one of his hats to keep the gnats off. :-)



We also had fun swimming in this small waterfall by their house, and we also panned for gold in the river.



The next morning we said goodbye to Kathleen and Nick, then headed off to the ocean. We stayed in an ocean-front hotel for two nights. It was so much fun swimming in the Atlantic!! It was a lot warmer than the Pacific.





While in Charleston, we also visited Fort Sumter by ferry,





and we went in some gift shops and walked around, looking at the old homes and such. Uncle Tim and Aunt Lauri met up with us, and we went to the market, where lots of vendors were selling their baskets, artwork, and more.





We enjoyed walking along the beach both evenings we were there. We left around noon the third day, and started for home. We drove 27 or so hours in two days (17 in one). It's so nice to be home!!! We are so thankful to God for keeping us safe, and for blessing us with wonderful memories!



Life is very busy for us right now (we leave for our missions trip on June 4, plus we have to plant our big garden), so I may not write anything on here for awhile, but I may post some more trip pictures sometime. I took almost 900 pictures!! :-) Is there anything anyone would specifically like to see more pictures of?

Wild Ride

Here's a picture and movie of the men that went kayaking over the waterfall (read post below). Watch the second waterfall in the movie, and pretty soon you'll see a blue kayak come down.