Work Hard: Mission

I’ve been living in the jungle of Honduras for almost a month now, and life feels like it’s finally settled into a rhythm. A typical day looks like: 

• Waking up in my tent–it’s usually cold in the morning, so “waking up” consists of a mental pep talk before getting out of my sleeping bag. 
• Spending time with the Lord. I’m reading Paul’s letters right now and wow!! Good stuff! 
• Eating breakfast with everyone–pancakes are my favorite around here. 
• Morning ministry. Usually manual labor, helping with projects on the property or in the community. 
• A break to eat lunch–the menu rotates but we always have tortillas… so some of my teammates put everything on a tortilla. Spaghetti tacos, anyone?? 
• Afternoon ministry. Sometimes manual labor, sometimes relational ministry with women or children, and on sunny Sunday afternoons we play soccer with the community! 
• Dinner with the whole group, the sun sets around this time and quickly we find ourselves using flashlights and headlamps to get around. 
• Evenings consist of team time by flashlight, worship, church, teachings, or calling it an early night and getting some extra sleep. 
• Back to bed, in my tent, double checking for spiders or other odd looking jungle bugs before starting all over the next day. 

Ministry here is all focused on building relationships with the community. Everything is done with the intention of being able to build a bridge with the families that live on the mountain, so that they eventually feel welcome to come to church! Even though it’s all relationally focused, we find ourselves physically exhausted at the end of every day. 

There’s a coffee farm that some of our team has worked on to help prepare and plant different vegetables; it’s not a short walk to get there and the vegetable garden is on a mountain side, so it’s definitely an adventure. 

We’ve been working on clearing out a plot in the jungle near the property we live on to create another community garden (and by “clearing out” I mean using machetes to chop down and cut up trees to be used as firewood or building material, ripping up the ground cover, and preparing the soil for planting). The hope is to show the community that foods aside from coffee trees can grow and thrive in the area, to help diversify their crops and businesses. 

There are practical things that need to be done around the property we live on–so we’ve helped with repairs of the church building, we’ve fixed chairs and benches, and are mid-way through reinforcing and preparing the other building on the property for an additional room or two. 

Several afternoons a week, we help put on classes for kids and adults to practice their reading and writing. There used to be a teacher that came up the mountain to teach the kids a couple days a week, but that stopped happening when the pandemic started over 2 years ago. 

Some of my teammates have been carrying lumber (literally board by board) from the other side of the mountain to our property to use for an upcoming construction project. 

This past weekend we walked up and down the mountain in teams of Americans and Hondurans to meet the people who live in the community, invite them to church and our classes, and then offer to pray for them! One team prayed for a girl who has a persistent fever, and when they saw her the next day she was completely healed and she ran up to them in excitement! My team got to invite over a dozen families to church and our classes, and prayed over just as many. 

When I reflect on the things I just listed out, some of them can seem small, but at the end of every day, I feel like we find ourselves saying “wow, that was hard work.” 

But the funny thing is, when we find it hard to clear out the jungle and carry boards over the mountains and dig trenches, we look beside us and our Honduran friends are paving the way, showing us how, and patiently explaining again and again. To “work hard” is just a way of life here. 

The “work” is fueled by the mission of why we’re here. We’re doing the hard stuff so that relationships are built on this mountain and hope and truth are restored. We’re doing the hard stuff so our younger Honduran brothers and sisters can see that following Jesus is worth ditching your comfort zone. We’re doing the hard stuff so that we can share the love of Christ with people who have not heard His name before. 

Our mission keeps our eyes focused on what matters when our minds want to wander to more comfortable things. 

But speaking of more comfortable things… my team is in the city for a night staying at a hotel! We’re hyped about sleeping in a real bed, taking a warm shower, and also that we can stay up past dark and not have to use a flashlight to get around. We’re halfway through our time in Honduras, which is crazy! We’ve also officially entered month 2 of the Race, yay! 

Prayer requests right now: 

• we’re hosting a VBS at the end of this coming week for the children on the mountain, so prayers that it goes well and that relationships continue to grow! 
• for God to continue to speak to and refine myself and my teammates! 
• for my fundraising! I’m still around 75% funded and have to be fully funded to stay on the mission field the entire year. Please pray with me for God’s provision! 

Thanks for reading, friend! Let me know how I can be praying for you. 🙂