We got back last night to Tegucigalpa after a 6 hour bus trip and a flat tire. The students were sprawled out on all the seats to try to reclaim some of the sleep that escaped them this week. I was sitting up at the front with my sunglasses on, crying my eyes out because I was remembering the ways God revealed Himself to us. I was looking out at the beautiful, Honduran landscape and loving this land… the watermelon stands and the mountains and the construction zones and the fresh honey. I was looking out at all this land and realizing how it’s carved now into my heart. Maybe that is another reason why this week was so powerful – we spent the whole week loving people in this land I’ve grown to love so much. We walked the streets of pueblos and a beach village, sharing the news of the Gospel. We performed dramas and hosted carnivals and bumped along dusty roads to reach public schools in the middle of nowhere, tucked in the mountains.

One of the biggest blessings for me was to watch God strike a match in the souls of my students. I wish you could see their eyes when they tell about the conversation in the pulperia or the man they met on the street. I wish you could hear the excitement when they ask, “Miss, what if we did this EVERY day??”

I was weeping on that bus because I knew God spoke to their hearts when they made themselves available to do His will. Yesterday, before we left I was crazy, crazy with excitement. The official “mission trip” had ended, but I know the work through these students’ lives has only begun! Tired may very well describe us today, as we walk around school like zombies, but SATISFIED is more appropriate. One of the students told me yesterday, “Miss, I’ve never felt so productive in my entire life.” Yes, we’re tired… but we are so confident that our weariness is for a beautiful purpose that it doesn’t matter. In fact, it feels good to give so much energy to something we believe in so strongly!

Here is a story from one of the beautiful students, Marianna,

A cliché quote that sums up what we lived on the mission trip is; expect the unexpected.

Going into this trip, I was very skeptical. I did not believe that doors and hearts woud be opened starting with the PCA kids, even less when referring to the people from Honduras. But I was so wrong! We met and saw and interacted with some of the most beautiful people in the world, from the most fortunate kids (the team from Dallas) to the village people who essentially have nothing. One of the most amazing things was the  breaking of what seemed like the “Berlin Wall” that stood between cultural and social groups.

My first evangelizing experience was to a drunk man called Reinaldo who, at first glance, was the kind of person you would avoid by crossing to the other side of the street. But in that moment we thought: Wait, THIS is who we are here for. We were helping the broken and empty but it wasn’t really us – it was God through us and for us. We came in with open minds and left with open, love-filled hearts. All to the glory of the Lord!

I know that there will never be a replica of this trip but I encourage the world to drop everything and go live it up for God. The joy you will experience will be more than you can ever imagine!!