“Leaving on a Jet Plain, Racing Through Tegucigalpa”

Honduras Good Works: Day 2, July 19, 2012

“Leaving on a Jet Plain, Racing Through Tegucigalpa”

After a wonderful day at the Houston Passport Office and environs, Becky, Reign and I journeyed back to the Houston International Airport to secure our boarding passes and make sure our other two stragglers were accounted for and would be with us at 6:30 the following morning.  Boarding passes accomplished, and 50% of our companions accounted for, the final member of the team made it down on the 20^th of July.

The next morning we passed through security again with our newly minted passports.  The TSA officer noted that the shirt in my passport photo was the same shirt I was (still) wearing.  I guess he figured that one out.  Getting on the plane with a passport good for ten years (until July of 2022) was a piece of cake.  Anyone who has ever flown to Tegucigalpa, Honduras knows that the approach and landing is a life changing experience.  As the 737 comes across the last hill approaching the airport, one can see the smiles on the faces looking out of the windows of the homes (which appear to be at wing level), and then the plane almost skims the surface as it heads for the airport.  If one was not religious when the mission began, I promise you will find yourself praying to God or to anyone else who might listen.  According to the flight attendant, this airport is the second most dangerous in the world.  Wherever the most dangerous one is, I do not want to go there.

The four of us met Randall, the coordinator of our mission at the airport as well as three young Honduran women who were to be translators for some of the medical practitioners.  The women had heard of our mission the day before, via cell calls from a friend of a friend of a friend.  They turned out to be wonderful, caring young people and an asset to our group.

We then loaded into three Nissan four wheel drive trucks and began “The Amazing Race, Tegucigalpa Style.”  Randall knew where he was going and Becky and I stayed right on his tail lights, not letting little things like traffic lights, stop signs and other vehicles get in our way.  After driving round and round and round, we finally ended up on the road to Zamorano and the Kellogg Agriculture Institute.  Not only does the institute provide an excellent agricultural education for students from this region, but they also boast of a very good hotel and cafeteria.  This would become our home for the next week.

As our colleagues began to arrive from the villages we shared stories of our own particular adventures during the twenty-four hours we were apart.  It seemed much longer because of all we accomplished during that time.  After Dinner our worship time included a commissioning as missionaries lead by Dr. Don Hopkins, founder of the Mission, The Rev. Paul Moore, board member, Mr. Randall Hollihan, coordinator of the mission,  and The Rev. Deacon Pat Ritchie, coordinator our teams church building and Bible School efforts.  What a powerful reminder of the reason we were there and the presence of God and others in this mission.  It was an excellent message that we are never alone, that a mission such as this must have a group of people with a diversity of gifts and talents and personalities.  I guess what I am trying to say is that if any one of us had been missing, that the image of God would have been incomplete.  We were presented a multicolored cross as a symbol of this mission, which I will treasure forever.

Tomorrow we take a look at life in the village of Zarzal.

“The Houston Passport Office”

Honduras Good Works: Day One

“The Houston Passport Office”

I was invited to go with wonderful friends from Beaumont, Texas on a mission trip to Honduras.  Having served as Rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Beaumont, I was excited to join Pat Ritchie, Kathy Doane and Elizabeth Miller and new friend, Tracy Donaie as we became part of a fifteen year old mission, Honduras Good Works.  HGW Mission is primarily a medical mission based out of the Kellogg Agricultural Center in Zamorano, Honduras and St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Texas.  Our team of five a different perspective to the larger group, as we were to help build a building for “La Iglesia Episcopal de la Epifania,” in Zarzal, a small community located about 40 Kilometers from Zamorano.

All went well as we met the team at the Houston International Airport at 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning.  We received our boarding passes, had our passports checked three times and all was well. . . .UNTIL WE TRIED TO BOARD THE PLANE.  Passports were checked one more time and two of us found that two months remaining on our passports was not sufficient for us to leave and re-enter the USA, even for a one week trip.

Thus began our adventure: “Spending the day at the Houston Passport Center in order to obtain an expedited passport.”  As inconvenient and time consuming and humbling as it was, I found the experience to be a “learning opportunity,” and a time to build friendships and “share our pain and our gain.”

The mother of my “partner in crime,” a 19 year old by the name of Reign,” was a Captain with Southwest Airlines, who, wearing her full dress uniform drove us to Houston and stayed with us through the entire ordeal (except when she had to leave to feed the parking meter).

Just about the time we began to feel “put upon and mistreated,” a mother from San Antonio arrived, having driven three hours with her four children who ranged in age from 7 years old to four months.  At the end of the day she would drive the three hours back to San Antonio.  Needless to say, we decided our lives were pretty good. 

After standing in two lines we finally received confirmation that our passports would be ready that day and were told to report back at 2:30 p.m. (As it turns out, 100 other people were told to report back at 2:30 p.m. as well.  The three of us in our party walked over to a small Thai Restaurant where I had, arguably, the best Thai food I have ever eaten.  We also got to know each other better as we shared our stories and our lives.

Returning at 2:30 p.m. we spent the next two, yes, two hours making more friends, sharing more stories and waiting patiently  for our names to be called out of the 100 of us who reported for our 2:30 appointment.

I learned and reflected on many things.  First that “what is, is” as my former associate, Susan Kennard used to say.  Secondly, don’t panic, take a deep breath, slow down, talk to the airline representatives, and develop a plan and stick with it.  I learned that if you are going to need a one day turn around passport, Houston is a really, really good place to need one.  I was also reminded that no time is wasted and that everything that happens to us helps to make us who we are, reminds us that none of us is perfect and that we all can and will make mistakes and that maybe, just maybe this will help us to be less judgmental and more understanding of others.

It reminds me of the maxim, “If you want to  hear God laugh, just tell God your plans.”

Unplanned, well spent time can truly be a gift from God.