“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.