Tegucigalpa, Honduras

We traveled to Honduras last week, to the capital of Tegucigalpa. It's a city of 1 million people in a basin surrounded by mountains at about 3000 ft. altitude. The flight into the city was smooth but exciting as all the planes have to fly low and make a u-turn right before landing on a short runway. Well done, Continental pilot. The flight was a short 2 and a half hours from Houston, directly southeast across the Gulf of Mexico.

Central America is so colorful! The wealthy and poor areas of the city are inter-mixed, so there is great opportunity to serve those in need. We visited a church that is in the upper class area. This church supports 3 smaller churches in the surrounding barrios. We visited one church that feeds several hundred children each day. The kids come after school for tutoring, a bible lesson and a meal. For most, it's their only meal of the day. We also visited a clinic that helps people with HIV in the poor areas. We went with university students from the larger church to take care baskets to the patients. The baskets included corn meal, soap, toilet paper, pasta, a colander for washing food and other basic necessities. The patients walk to the clinic once a week for treatment, often coming from their home which has no running water, sewer or electricity. In contrast there are also many beautiful homes in Tegucigalpa. For security purposes they are often hidden behind tall cement-block walls with electric fences and large sliding metal garage doors, so you don't realize that you are in a nice neighborhood until you enter the home. The streets are narrow and hilly for the most part. And the drivers are daringly aggressive, making their own lanes, honking their horns and usually ignoring stop signs. It's commonly said that if you can drive in Tegucigalpa, you can drive anywhere. It's a loud, active city with lots of music.

We were able to stay in a luxury apartment overlooking the city during our visit. The man who owns the apartment was so generous to allow us to use his home. Here is a view of the city lights from the balcony. Reagan did great on the trip, being very patient while we stretched his schedule. He stayed up until 9, 10 or 11 every night and took his nap at random times, in cars, and at several different homes. We practiced having Reagan take naps on a blanket on the floor at our house in Texas. So by the time we arrived at the apartment, Reagan was accustomed to sleeping through the night on the floor. We are so thankful that he was so easy-going and flexible.

Keith and Dawn Moore, shown here with two of their kids, Chad and Kurt, started a church in Tegucigalpa 8 years ago with two other Christian couples. Since then 400 people have come to know Jesus Christ and 3 more churches have started. It was a delight to meet them and spend a week with their family and see what God is doing in their ministry

We went to Honduras to visit a church called Impacto. It has been in Tegucigalpa for 8 years and they have a church planting school called Sembrar (to plant). The first 2 years of courses are available to anyone who would like to study. And then the last 2 years are specifically for those who want to become pastors and start new churches in Latin America or around the world. During the last 2 years, students typically work as interns for the church to gain ministry experience and hands on training as leaders of the church. We are asking God if we should move to Honduras to be trained in the Sembrar program. It is a thorough set of courses including evangelism, old testament, new testament, church history, Greek and more.

On Sunday, we enjoyed worshiping at Impacto. The sermon was translated into an earpiece for those who prefer to listen in English. There are many Embassy workers and other English speaking business people who attend the church while stationed in Honduras. We loved singing in Spanish with the worship team and were welcomed warmly by the people. That Sunday six people were baptized and two professed a new relationship with Christ. Impacto is about 800 people with 1 service on Saturday night and 2 services on Sunday morning. We had the privilege of attending a plethora of meetings throughout the week, including women's study, couples study, Seminary (Sembrar) classes, youth group, young professionals, university gathering, men's study and children's Sunday School.

Reagan enjoyed playing in the nursery at church. The kid's Sunday School curriculum takes the children through the entire Bible every 3 years.

This is David and Jenni. David has finished the Sembrar program and is one of three pastors at Impacto. Jenni's English is flawless. We enjoyed a meal with them at Pizza Hut. In fact, we only ate one traditional Honduran meal while in Tegus, because the city is very Americanized with many familiar restraunts. Our traditional meal was a huge skewer of meat with rice, beans and corn tortillas. Mark ate a traditional breakfast at 6:30 AM at a men's bible study. The menu was rice, beans and pork chops. Here is another family from Impacto, Deybie and Binda. Deybie is in his last year of Sembrar. He and Binda live in a beautiful home overlooking the reservoir that supplies water to Tegucigalpa.

Reagan was in heaven in this helicopter at Wendy's. The restaurant was the cleanest and friendliest fast food joint we have ever seen because the Hondurans are thankful for their jobs and work proudly. Reagan's blonde hair is an instant conversation starter. Lots of people come over to pet his head, and little kids want to play with him. I loved talking to the children, especially since my Spanish is about the level of a 2 yr. old. Mark on the other hand was able to converse rather well in Spanish. It has been 25 years since he studied the language but once immersed in the culture, the words came flooding back to his memory.

By the end of the week we felt that the trip had been very productive. We believe that we saw an accurate view of the city, the culture, the people and the work that God is doing in Tegus. We are still mulling over our experience and praying that God would direct us where He wants us to learn and serve. We said goodbye to Dawn and Keith and flew back to the USA. When we drove into our driveway 4 hrs. later, we said, "Reagan, we're home." His bilingual reply was, "casa."