What country do I live in again?

So far in Honduras, I have:

• tried to speak this language called Spanish
• learned to always check for toilet paper and always carry my own (even at home)
• tried to maintain some sense of health on this all fried food diet we live on
• learned that in Honduras, it’s okay to pass on double yellows going uphill and around a corner
• attempted to keep some dignity after playing only Soccer day in and day out
• gotten used to people yelling random English phrases at me, such as “Good morning.” at 4pm or whatever else they may have picked up from TV
• become accustomed to negotiating prices with a taxi driver before entering the car
• come to the understanding that when church is over you leave as quickly as possible and don’t stand around talking for more than two minutes
• and repeatedly heard from my thirty something (I think) host sister how easy it should be to learn another language, though she never has tried; therefore, I have no reluctance to put this here because if she learns English well enough to read this, she’ll know enough to realize it is tough.

Obviously, I’ve learned a lot more, but those are just a few things to get this post started on a light note. Since I last told you about my life, I’ve added on two countries to those visited in my life and those two combined with my current home country of Honduras have helped make these last two weeks or so very interesting. I will do my best not to give you a forty page documentary to read in your already busy lives.

We headed out to Julticalpa, Honduras at 6am on February 12^th. We made the four hour trip in about six hours due to two flat tires on the way. These weren’t just little holes slightly flat tires, these were big holes and tires flat TOTALLY. I was driving when they both happened and know based on the way the van handled to a stop that the Lord was helping as I was shocked the van was easy to maneuver on curves in the mountains with tires as flat as these too. This was the same tire that went flat before and we discovered a problem with the actual tire on the inside that kept puncturing the tube inside the tire. Once this was fixed we had no more problems until we reached our destination, at which point we got a nail in the same tire to make it three for the day. I changed that tire as well but when we got the tire back from repair and wanted put it on instead of the spare, Karen Wilson was my eager student who did it solo. As I stood there giving instructions and watching, I felt like such a chauvinistic male and probably looked like one to the locals watching, but that’s of no importance as Karen got through it fine and we haven’t had problems since!

We started work as soon as we arrived and through it had some very frustrating parts; we worked through the three day evangelism effort and were able to have a lot of people come to the BIC church which had services we participated in each of our three days there. My personal accomplishment was reciting from memorization Psalm 100 to the members. After three days of hard work and being able to encourage the family at the church, we went home and we were all ready for vacation that was basically upon us.

We got home on the 15^th of February, washed clothes, and left the next morning to catch the bus at 4:45am – but we didn’t care, we were headed to Costa Rica (FYI – “Costa Rica” translated to English is “Rick or lovely coast”). After about 12 hours on a bus with times to get off only at borders, we got to our hotel and swam for a little before crashing. The next day was a day of relaxing and then we headed to the beach the day after. We got up nice and early to go to “Playa Coco” or “Coco Beach”. My stomach decided to get sick that day and after an hour on a bus and a situation that left me glad I brought a plastic bag on the bus, we arrived! We headed to the sand and found three things: Trash, very poisonous snakes, and more trash. Apparently some of the other beaches were much prettier and we just happened, yea, I chose the beach, to choose one that wasn’t so attractive and based on the looks of it, the locals had done a number on it with the garbage I find everywhere in Latin America and have expressed issues about before. As for the snakes, we heard the cold water drives them to the beaches and based on the ones we saw some locals killings very timidly and based on the reports (we heard you have somewhere between three steps and forty-five minutes to get the antidote), we avoided the waters. This was okay with me as I was more than content to head home in the early afternoon and recover. The final day was spent relaxing and checking out the city we were in, Liberia. We had a nice meal and a good last night before getting ready to leave the next morning.

The bus company we were with was not good at communicating, so Rachel was up at 5am to try to get hold of this office that had not helped us at all up until that point. We ended up checking out of the hotel at 8am and then ended up having to wait until 4pm for a bus that wasn’t full – even though we had tickets. We finally got a bus after a long (but not too bad) day of waiting and headed to Managua, Nicaragua.

Just a quick note and more FYI; we had to leave Honduras for seventy-hours to renew our visa’s, but since Nicaragua and Honduras have an open border, we had to go all the way to Costa Rica to reenter. Hence force, our visa’s to Honduras this time are through Nicaragua.

We arrived in Managua late Thursday night and had to wait a night to go to Chinandega, Nicaragua, our city of destination in Nicaragua. We went the next morning by van that worked like a small bus and were able to spend the day with the pastor just as an encouragement. We saw the church, talked with him and his family, and slept with host families for the night. The next morning we were up at 6am to get ready to leave and catch a van to the border. After that, we crossed with some adventures - cab drivers and luggage carriers in Nicaragua are very, how can I say it nicely, insistent and in your face to demand your business. We had our adventure pushing through crowds of people fighting over the privilege to take your bag for your in hopes you will use there help. Choosing them was just a matter of picking someone once the plans were figured out and offending all the others that had tried to forcefully help so much. We then found a bus to Choluteca in Honduras and from there got a bus to Tegucigalpa.

Coming into the city and getting that cab home was amazing, but we weren’t done yet. The next morning we were ready at 5am for a three and a half to four hour van ride to Trojes to attend a pastors retreat. We made it their through the crazy roads with cliffs three feet off the edge and then turned around to head home later in the afternoon.

When we finally got home that Saturday night, it was a beautiful thing and we all slept great.

Well, those were our last two weeks, it’s nice to be done but the days of vacation were relaxing and energized. While in Costa Rica we were able to have two extended times of prayer and sharing as a group and feel some direction as we embark on the last half of this journey.

Thanks again for reading this saga and for your prayers, we couldn’t have lived through the last two weeks (and some of the adventure I don’t have to time to rehash) without them!

I was working I promise, see the dirt on my left arm... ps - Nate Burt is the guy you don't recognize, he is a full time BIC missionary in Tegucigalpa.


Getting in and winning the splash war with the kids, I had the contacts handicap.


Wilson was clearly thrilled to have me beside her, I was obviously active in conversation.


They think I look smart here so I figured I would share it with the world - maybe I'll send this with my resumes.


Watch your boots buddy boy...


This is me keeping everyone safe from the treacherous cliffs that we find along the roads.

I lost my heart to the cutest seven year old you will ever meet, hopped a ride in a random pickup truck, and had my dirty mouth cleaned up.

This past week was full of adventure, learning, and being able to help a small colony in a very tangible way. We worked with a dental brigade from the states (mostly from the Houston, TX area). There were five sets of hygienists working along with five stations for the dentists and oral surgeons to operate. Everything from simple teeth cleaning to cavity filling to root canals and wisdom tooth removal was done. It was truly a blessing to work with them from Monday to Thursday and I want to share a little something from each day.

Monday: I can put up with kids and I can actually enjoy some time with them, but apart from my little sister you would be hard pressed to find a kid that has stolen my heart unless you know Melani – she robbed mine. Melani is a cute little seven year old girl that I hope I get to see sometime again, that’s the prayer in my heart. She was one of the first in line at the clinic on Monday and while she did need some serious work done, I think she was just there at first because of the commotion and her love to be around people. She was so pleasant and tranquil that she was not even noticed until later in the morning and was stuck far behind most of the people. I was working at the front desk that morning and when I finally started talking and playing with her after the initial rush of people and getting some order about the place, I realized how sweet and innocent she was. What touched my heart was that her was a little girl that was dirty and didn’t appear to have the parental care that many of the other children had. She had come to the clinic without any other family to my knowledge and just hung out most of the day playing contently with the other kids in line, and continually running up to me and trying to mess with my hair and scratch my beard.

Finally Melani was up in line and ready to see the hygienist. Midway through the day I had switched work duties and was translating for the hygienists, so I was more than happy to have our group working with her. Here we had this seven year old girl that we knew nothing about other than her name was Melani and this was probably the first time she had dental care or instruction. She was without her parents and there by herself, but since we don’t have the regulations to deal with here, we were ready to work. She had a mess in her mouth and since most of the problems were with baby teeth, they were able to simply seal the problems and try to give instruction. It was amazing to see the level of professional care she was given from the hearts of these hygienists, dentists, and oral surgeons. I helped with translation but the most touching part was when Melani reached out her hand during what would have been a particularly intimidating part and just grabbed mine. I then realized the power of just being able to hold someone’s hand or touch them in a moment of fear. She needed to come back the next day and see a doctor. The next day I did my best to get her close to the front of the line (that’s the inside door she found without knowing it) and I don’t really know what became of it. I hope that we will be able to go back to that place and work and that I will get to spend more time with her.

Tuesday: Our STEP van broke down so we got to head out of this city in public transportation. Once we got part way and tried to switch buses, we realized we didn’t have time to wait so we hopped in a national pickup truck and went part way and just walked the rest. That was definitely an adventure and I think we all had fun getting in this old pickup truck with some other locals with the standard pickax and machetes at our feet! Don’t worry, it's pretty normal to be in close proximity with machetes as that seems to be the default tool here. One of the nationals in the truck had a Cleveland Indians hat on so I made sure to tell him I liked it. And on the topic of sports teams, I made sure to wear my OSU t-shirt of Tuesday since there were a lot of people from Texas there; unfortunately, I ended up working with a lady that graduated from LSU.

I began working as an assistant suctioning blood, spit and water (a lot of time more blood than spit or water) from people’s mouth. It was amazing to see the pain that some people had to go through for the pain they already had to be relieved, but it just reminded me of how true that can be in real life, too.

Wednesday: After another full day of translating and suctioning blood and cleaning workstations, the real adventure came on the way home. Andrea and I caught a bus to Villa Nueve which is where I live. The only problem is that the first bus stopped shortly after and everyone got off like it was a plan, so we followed not having a clue what was going on. The same thing happened with the second bus we boarded. Finally we got a bus the seemed to be planning to go the full route. Now, here’s where I say that I thought I knew what a full bus was. I thought I knew what a bus without any room to move was, but I was about to find out. We started out sitting then I gave my seat to a lady standing on the bus. As the bus filled I kept thinking this bus can’t take more people, and I was wrong. It filled and filled and just kept getting tighter. When I couldn’t move and thought no one could get on, we would stop and eight more people would shove there way in and create the needed space. We finally got off via the emergency exit at the back and then realized that Villa Nueve is huge, and we had no idea where we were except that it was an uncomfortable part of town. We met some very nice people and were able to get a taxi to the church and although we had to pay a little more, we decided given our situation and the dangerousness of the streets, we didn’t think any of our supporters would mind us doing what we needed to do to be safe. The funny part was when I figured what we spent, though it was a ton in public transportation here (which tends to be cheap), it was only right around six dollars.

Thursday: Thursday went about the same with what I did although I got my teeth cleaned with Karen H and Andrea getting to suck some of the blood, spit, and water from my mouth, and we began early cleanup and had two piñatas with candy and toothbrushes for the kids. I would like to add that this last week I was given more candy and chocolate from the dentists and hygienists than what I had eaten in my total time here in Honduras (I guess they need to do something to stay in business so they're used to giving out candy). After all that we went to their hotel (I showered in the pool showers) and then they took us all out to eat at a nice restaurant as a thank you. It was a blessing and as I got to know the person in charge of most of this, he invited me to Houston sometime. He has access to the locker rooms and fields of the Houston Texans and Houston Rockets (professional football and basketball teams) and said I could stay at his place and meet some players – isn’t it awesome who you can meet serving the Lord!!

Friday we debriefed and practiced songs, dramas, and stories for a VBS we hope to run in Juticalpa this coming week. We are headed there to do some evangelism work for the BIC church and hopefully run this VBS program.

Thanks for your prayers and the best way you can pray for us this month is in travel as we will be visiting and working in another city in Honduras called Juticalpa as well as Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Also, if my calculations are correct, Monday (the 11th) morning at 12:36AM we hit the halfway point of our journey in Honduras - thanks for your support as we continue!

This is a shot of me and Karen as we enjoyed the adventure of the pickup ride up through the hills


Melani waiting in line then getting some dental work done.



Hard at work!


What's funny about this is that as the girls make fun of my teeth, you can clearly hear the hygienist mention how good my teeth look.

Sharing Jesus and learning yet, another language.

Well hello again everyone and welcome back to this public internet page where I share my life. I want to take a minute to share with everyone how great, tiring, and refreshing last week was and how this week is getting off to a quick start.

It’s really amazing how mysterious everything is in my house. Just like almost all of the other STEPpers, I never know when the others shower or when they eat. I know they shower daily as this tends to be a very clean culture in that aspect and obviously I know they eat, but I just never know when this is happening and like the other STEPpers, I eat alone or with one other person, never with a female or with the family. I guess I can begin to guess that with that kind of consistency, this is a cultural thing. What made me think of this is that last week when our water was shut off, I was given a key and told to go to the house up the hill behind our house to use the restroom. I never even knew this house existed and then came to find out that it was a one room house with a bathroom where Kenia, my older host sister sleeps. I didn’t know whether to find it mysterious or unobservant of me that I thought she slept in our house at night when she actually never did. This explains why I see her in the back way sometimes early in the morning. I guess I don’t feel too unobservant as this is not an uncommon type discovery among my group in respect to our various families. This does explain why I sometimes hear her coming in the back door early in the morning.

I said that last week was busy and refreshing at the same time and now I will hope to explain that. It was busy because Mike Holland came and had plenty for us to do and lots of work to be done, but it was relaxing because Mike came to share with us and revitalize us for the months ahead. Mike brought Andy’s pastor, Isaac Flag, and Isaac’s son, Liam, along for the trip. They came in Monday and we were able to enjoy the afternoon with them and catch them up on our experiences thus far. Tuesday morning we started classes on evangelism with Mike followed by a time of sharing from Isaac (this would be the morning schedule through Friday). Tuesday afternoon, just a day after our classes had started, we hit the streets in a section of town close to the church and tried to do door to door evangelism in this language we have yet to understand. Don’t worry like I did at first, Mike is incredibly experienced in this area and we didn’t go throwing Bible’s in peoples faces. We have a survey of ten questions over spiritual matters we asked to the people that responded to our knocks. The questions were over subjects like the effectiveness of prayer or the relativity of the Bible today and topics of that nature. We also asked if people had experienced or believe a miracle had occurred in there lives. I love this approach because it was a very subtle and non-abrasive way to get to questions nine and ten which we leaned on for the evangelistic aspect. Question nine was about whether they would like information on a small group for worship and prayer close to their house. We had a very positive (I would guess close to 70% yes) response on this questions. Question ten was if they had anything we could pray over for the person or their family. We had an excellent response to this as well and were invited into many people’s homes to pray with and over them. Over the next four days our team, which was split into four teams with some locals helping as well, went back to the good contacts with information and booklets trying to develop relationships and looking for opportunities to share the Gospel. The results are still coming in as we are still pursuing the contacts we have made, but the results from the first week were very encouraging. We had three people come to service at church on Wednesday, two guys come to a Thursday night church sports even we organized, one young boy came to a small group meeting on Saturday, three people come to church on Sunday, and two people accept Christ last week. That is just last weeks fruit and doesn’t include all the people that are thinking about this new plan for there lives and the six phone numbers that my group alone got. I am excited to continue developing relationships and I think we understand the importance of follow up. Mike compared people that preach Jesus, help others accept Him, then leave and not develop a relationship with that person to working through a pregnancy, going to the hospital, having a baby, and leaving it. It was great week, I learned a lot, and I am confident my group will be responsible for the most important part of these people walk in the Lord, those first few months.

I also learned another language this week; I learn the language of the streets. I have told Rachel I could help her with driving but wanted to practice in a little more tranquil traffic and without people since the van is very different (diesel stick shift) and the traffic here is crazy. Well, that's not exactly how it worked as I had Mike as my teacher – he just had me hop in and learn in the traffic with people along. I ended up driving almost exclusively this week. This included driving in rush hour, way up into the outskirts of town to a small village and a trip Sunday night down South to a city called Nacaome to visit a church plant with Mike and Isaac. This last trip was about three and half hour round trip which included the adventure of driving back through the mountains in the dark on roads where it’s non uncommon to find cars without lights – this wasn’t a problem as I grew up dodging Amish buggies. Nonetheless, after driving a full van for almost the entire week and making a trip through the mountains, my confidence has been boosted and I am glad to be in the role of driver if needed.

Driving back from Nacaome, I learned an important lesson. I generally only carry a copy of my passport around the city but take the actual thing when I leave the city. I wasn’t able to get it as we left on Sunday and we got stopped at a check stop on the way back into town. I had a copy which helped, but the border police held us up for about ten minutes. I am so glad we had Mike along to talk, though I really thought I was going to have to wait until Mike could get my passport and return (which only would have been about thirty minutes), but they ended up letting us pass. They tried to play the political lines that our country (USA) wouldn’t stand for a person not having there real documents, but then were reminded that our country also gives time to retrieve the passport and turn it in to the appropriate authorities. Needless to say, not only will this be a lesson for the whole group as we may have been a little bit too lax on the situation, but it is also a good story to tag onto the adventures we have found here.

One last note, this is the first Superbowl I can remember missing (which is a shocker since I could have easily watched it here), but after much thought and stress, I just couldn’t pass up an opportunity to spend almost four hours in a van with two men of God that I trust very much. Especially at this point in my life, I can use all the advice I can get from God’s people as I seek out His plan for the next steps in my life.

As for this week, we are working with a dental brigade and after only one day of work, I can promise my next post will have some very interesting content. Thanks for reading this and for your continuous prayers.