It's 74 degrees!!

I have had a day of firsts. I have never left for an airport at 2am in the morning. I have never run out of gas on the way to the airport (but was then able to find a switch to utilize another tank on the van in which we were traveling). I have never been on a plane in which the whole cabin applauded for the captain subsequent to a safe landing. I have never been on a plane where as people left not only did they thank the pilot upon exiting, but congratulated him on a landing well done. If you're wondering why this is the case, Toncontín International (Tegucigalpa airport) is one of the shortest international runways in the world and is located between two sierras. Most everyone who has flown into the airport on a large aircraft will smile in agreement if you mention the dramatic landing. And finally, I have never (to my knowledge) experienced 74 degree weather o November 28. Altogether, this was a great day that has left me very tired.

I am currently at the STEP directors house relaxing this afternoon, using English for one final day. Traveling was quick as we arrived about seven and half hours after leaving Baltimore, MD (which includes a one and half hour layover in Houston, TX); however, traveling was also exhausting and the changes we have experienced as a team seem to be wearing slightly on our energy levels. It is great that Rachel Bowman (our director) knew it would be this way and planned a "day of rest" for us.

Thank you for your diligent prayers and for the interest and support you have all shown. More updates will follow, but I am about to walk to the grocery store and then take a short nap before eating my first real Honduran meal. For those of you who are wondering, I will be staying at Rachel's house with my team and then moving in to my host families house on Saturday. There is so much to take in and I am ready to get going, after my nap.

Home... sweet home.

I'm at home in Dalton with family for Thanksgiving. Training finished strong and well and I think I can say with total assurance that everyone was ready for the break. The staff had a "Love Feast" on Monday night to send us out with a bang. This was a Thanksgiving meal in the dining room that was much nicer than a typical cafeteria meal. The staff were very willing to serve us and it was truly a blessing.

My uncle Dave and Aunt Bonnie Hershberger picked me up from HDC and allowed me to spend the night at their nice home. Thank you.

I will be home with my family until the beginning of next week (either Monday or Tuesday) when I will travel back to Harrisburg and fly to Honduras on Wednesday morning. My flight leaves from Baltimore at 6:00am and I should be in Tegucigalpa, Honduras by 2:00pm EST - it will be 1:00pm local time in Tegucigalpa.

It seems somewhat surreal but I am ready to go - but only after a refreshing Thanksgiving break with my family and some turkey.

5 more days left.

Boy has this time gone fast! I had the opportunity to have breakfast with my Uncle Dave on Tuesday and made the same comment that, "We have had experiences and know that things always fly by, but when they do and your in the midst of it it never ceases to amaze me how true it is."

The last two days have been great as we had Gustavo Ramirez speak again. If you remember from an earlier post he is one that has had a great impact on my life - it was great to see him again and be able to continue that relationship. Late last week we have Steve Shenk speak on "Mission Vision". Steve is an individual with a lot of experience and a ton of stories, he gave that "grandfather" persona of to the rest of training and we really enjoyed having him. It was nice to have someone with experience that was just willing to share with us and provide what I felt was excellent teaching.

As far as I go, things are going smoothly and I am ready to be done and headed to Honduras. This training has been a good and stretching experience for me and I will definitely miss the people and great friendships I have made here; but nonetheless, I stand by my comment of being ready to leave.

I gave my testimony (or SP for "Spiritual Pilgrimage" as they call it here) to the group on Tuesday morning. That was stretching as I shared some that I haven't told other people, but it was good and I am still growing in being vulnerable and open with others, it was tough in a large audience setting.

Well, I just wanted to give a quick update, I need to be going now because we are having a final time that we call "community outreach". Each group develops an outreach for the community and completes the goals and tasks we assign ourselves. My group, STEP Honduras team, chose to reach out to the state reps and senators with personal notes of prayer, affirmation, and encouragement. It was a big job to take on and we are finishing and hand delivering the last of the 250 or so cards.

Thanks for all your prayers and dedication to supporting this ministry

John heads home and I'm in the Bronx

Well, a few things have happened so I'll toss out an update. I have gone from living in S Allison Hill in Harrisburg (where we heard gunshots yet again last night from our home) to living in the Bronx, NYC - where we have barred windows and are 2 blocks from the most active drug exchange blocks in the Bronx - thrilling eh? Actually, it hasn't been a big deal, I just walk in peace and carry myself confidentially and respect others. I've been able to engage in some lengthy conversations on the street and really enjoy the time - but I never underestimate the need for a cloaking of safety from the Lord.

Tonight the group (about 20 of us) served at a shelter. This was different than past experiences because we had to cook at the house and transport food for 150. While several people served, the rest of us made conversation with the men in the shelter. They were almost all in drug rehab and wanted to talk after taking a few minutes to warm up. I was able to use my baseball knowledge and New Yorks passion for baseball to break the ice and have several good, lengthy conversations and prayer with some men at the shelter. I would love to do this again and am starting to be able to understand this urban culture and the problems and lifestyles.

John Mutisya was an HDC guest for a little over a month and left for Kenya today. It was truly a blessing to get to know John - he is a leader of a discipleship training center in Kenya and was here to observe. It was his first time in the states and I pray he was refreshed through it. John and I were able to connect well and discuss much about leadership and discipleship. John offered to host me for a while after STEP if I feel led to Kenya and could assist in the their training program - who knows!!?

Here are a few pictures of John and I (we are pointing to the future in one in case you are wondering).

A Week of Refreshment and Spiritual Replenishment

I prayed last week for a week of refreshment and replenishment - and I was not expecting it to come to fruition like I wanted; however, I had one of the most spiritually rejuvenating weeks of my life!! While I am still physically tired (I really need to just go bed earlier mosts nights), I have entered this week confidently and with a sense of spiritual courage new to me.
The week started off pretty typically, but we had speaker from Kenya named Clair Good. Clair shared a lot of this message from personal experience and stories. I really enjoyed this and it changed many of my opinions on foreign tribal missions and the culture encountered there. Though the traditions (both savage and very spiritual and more "Christian" than you might imagine) had profound impact on me, the speaker that really impacted my faith on a deeper level was yet to come.
Gustavo Ramirez came on Wednesday to share on the topic of "The Father Heart of God". He stay from Wednesday morning through Thursday evening and was a true blessing to the entire group here at HDC. Gustavo has had one of those experiences that makes me really appreciate my family in a new light, I ended up writing them a thank you note I was so touched. He had a major falling out with an abusive and alcoholic father that left him as a child. To make a long story short, Gustavo was able to forgive his father after many years of pain and saw his father on the street one day. He invited him home and told him he forgave him - his father and the rest of his family became Christians (Gustavo's mother was the only other Christian at this time) due to this love and forgiveness (including a drug addict brother). During one of his personal stories about his daughter and some medical issues he had to walk with her through recently, something very strange happened; I had a tear form. Now this may sound goofy to you, but the ability to cry for anything like that has eluded me for so long and my team has been praying for me to be able and open to being broken and humble before the Lord (and I wanted to release the emotion in that way). I shared this with HDC that night and it actually opened the door for me to minister to several others guys that felt the same way.
That evening I talked to Gustavo personally for about two hours. I have also had the prayer of being confirmed by the Lord in my calling to pray boldly and with passion for others and be able to minister in a prophetic way. I feel called and blessed by God this way and I will wholly submit myself to Him to develop these gifts as He sees fit.
That was my last week in a nutshell. I would like to share more with you if you ask sometime, but I need to be finishing now.
Also, in response to previous blogs about the kids that come to play at HDC, we had a yard party here at the center for the community. We had games, bike repair for the children (professional), music (I was one of two DJ's!!), and BBQ chicken for the rest of the community to come and enjoy. This was really a blessing to us and the community. My only issue was talking to one of the kids (about 5 years old I would guess) and asking him to come off the stairway he was not permitted on and it ended by me getting spit on directly in my right eye. This is the respect the kids have grown up with and show - and they know we can't do anything to punish them (which is good since none of us really have authority and discernment in that area).
Sorry to end a great news blog with a negative note, but I wanted to get in some news of the weekend.

Blessings and thanks to all of you!!

Camp Hebron

Well, this is a blog that didn’t come out nearly as soon as I had hoped, but here it is!

At the beginning of last week my team along with several others teams (half of training) went to a beautiful campground for some “teambuilding” exercises. We went to Camp Hebron from Monday morning until Tuesday mid-morning. What we did were the standard obstacle and thinking exercises to develop as a team, create conflict, and find leadership and “follower-ship” abilities when the times are appropriate. Although the night was busy, the biggest impact on me was the hike the next morning – I think (we were not permitted to have watches of any kind of time keeping device with us; even clocks in the eating areas and public areas were removed, but it’s pretty easy to identify morning). We were woken up early (well before daylight) and hiked close to an hour to a beautiful place in the mountains called “Table Rock”. I got to do devotions, eat breakfast, and watch the sunrise in its entirety (usually I only catch the tale end). I found a nice, personal spot on the face of the rock. It was just big enough for me to lie back comfortably, but completely secluded. I had to climb up part of the rock to get there and it was a significant drop on all sides, but the risk was worth the reward. I read my Bible and dozed in and out of sleep for about 2 hours (a very refreshing thing). After that and being very cold part of the time, I returned to the fire I had built with a friend earlier and then the group of about 20 of us hiked down the mountain and back to camp.

After processing the overall weekend for a while (we didn’t have to do process the details of every event then because we had been processing and discussing after EVERY event throughout the day and night), we packed up and headed home to HDC. I got back and slept for a lot of the afternoon (we had “recovery time” because we had hardly rested at all the night before – maybe 2 or 3 hours tops).

It’s funny to realize that was a week ago already because time has flown by. I continue to be challenged daily by the speakers and enjoy the fellowship and deep discussions with my colleagues here.

Please pray that I continue to find refreshment as the training is beginning to wear – I’d like to finish strong! And yes, check back soon for another quick update - and some pictures... hopefully!!

Family Weekend!

Things here at HDC are continuing to go smoothly, but they also remain busy and intense. A great break was this weekend when my father, mother, and sister came for family weekend. They arrived Friday evening and stayed at my Uncle Dave and Aunt Bonnie's home in Mechanicsburg (just outside of Harrisburg). Saturday morning they arrived in S. Allison Hill Harrisburg for the day.

The day started with me giving them a brief personal tour of the training facilities and then proceeded with presentation from each team to the parents - the presentations varied from personal and get-to-know you information to information about the country to which each team was going. To save time, we split into two sets of teams and my set consisted of my Honduras team, the Venezuela and Hong-Kong teams, along with the Missions Interns that train with us.

Our STEP team used a Jeopardy game to present information about us and Honduras - I thought it was pretty clever and worked out well, but that's just one man's opinion. After lunch (which was much better than usual- obviously), I took my family on a tour of the Beef house (where I live a few blocks away) and for a walk around the city that their legs won't soon forget. We parked by the state museum and toured it for part of the early afternoon. We then walked around the capital building which is absolutely beautiful - and as far as I know, one of the most decorated and ornate capital complexes in the states. After that I took them to city island and then we headed back - all in all we walked most of the afternoon and were very relieved to make it back to the van.

For dinner we went to my Uncle Dave's and Aunt Bonnie's home - and it was AMAZING! We had my family, my Mailloux cousins (Matt was up from Virginia and Kelsey was home from Niagara while Phil was home from college!), and nine others from HDC - it's a good thing my uncle had just purchased a new grill earlier in the week (see the pic and be amazed!). Apparently, the 22 total people at there house was a new record for them.

After that truly refreshing evening and getting to watch Ohio State football, I returned to HDC and got to talk on the phone to Joel, my brother, which was also another great part of the day. The next morning I went to church with my family at McBIC (Mechanicsburg Brethren in Christ) where my Uncle Dave is the worship pastor. After church we had a great Irish meal in downtown Harrisburg and then my family left to return to Ohio.

Thanks for reading this, but a special thanks to Dave and Bonnie for their hospitality and thanks to my family for coming out and making this an amazing weekend as well.