Progress and Adventure

Our project is moving forward finally in Honduras.  We have met with a few people that have helped us change our designs and plans.  Pastor Fredy in La Concepicion has largely been pushing our project and is very excited for us to move forward.  Pastor Fredy is an extremely energetic man that seems to have more energy than is good for him, and an addiction to coffee and baleatas (local food that makes me strong, not Milena and Joe.)  Also Pastor Erik, who is the pastor for La Lamintas where Kaleb and Stacey live, has also been helping us work on a few other projects.    Pastor Erik seems to match Pastor Fredy’s energy but seems more fitted as a television host than a pastor.  He looks like a model, well cut and always with neatly iron pants (that’s apparently possible in Honduras... who would of thought.)  We have been spending a lot time by ourselves in Santa Cruz which is the local town to Canchias where we are staying.  Our first encounter with Pastor Erik was when we were boarding on the bus to go back.  He tried to tell us that he would see us on Tuesday but none of us could understand his Spanish.  It led to a funny encounter when we met with Kaleb and Stacy the following week. 

Speaking of funny encounters, we have been spending a lot of time in San Isidro at the H2H office greatly to Milena’s annoyance.  The difficulty in Honduras is moving from place to place.  It has been easy for us to go to the cramped office and spend nearly half of a day waiting for a ride back to Canchias.  One day when we were stuck at the office, we were invited to a employees house for dinner.  I had to use the bathroom so I excused myself and quickly went to the bathroom. Unfortunately, the toilet had no running water and I was sure what to do.  I left the bathroom and ran into a female student at the Discipleship School named Wendy.  I swallowed my pride quickly and asked for helped using the toilet.  It was one of the most humiliating moments of my life. 

Someone once said that to be a good man is more than just proving that you are one.  It has been convicting being in Honduras working with people who are experienced working with the poor.  Motivations can kill even the best project or idea.  When we originally were scheduled to come down, I went through several phases of attitudes.  At first, I had a mindset to only serve and help those who needed it the most.  The more I thought about this attitude, the more I realized that I was elevating myself above people and that I was pretending to understand other cultures.  After I made this realization, I decided I wanted to learn as much as I can from the culture but then I wasn’t really helping people as much as I needed to.  Did I really pay all this money to learn?  Would I have been more helpful using the money I spent to travel by donating to the ministry instead?  In the middle is the trick of “service-learning.”  I need to be able to expose myself to a different culture to learn but also serve in the ways I am skilled at the same time.  The end result is not always pretty but it will always results in changed hearts and minds.  If there is no struggle, there is no growth.  I pray that we can all grow and struggle together as a community.

Sorry for the lack of posts, hopefully I will be able to post another within the week.