Honduras 2008

On February 15, 2008, 17 North Dakotans set out on a journey. This journey began on the cold, flat, snow covered plains of the Upper Midwest of the United States and ended 24 hours later in the hot, arid mountains of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Those travel weary missionaries then made their way onto a bus and drove 4 hours down the mountains to the even hotter plains of Honduras.

I had the opportunity to be part of this band of travelers. This was Calvary's 7th mission trip to the town of El Triunfo, Honduras. I went five years ago and was overjoyed to have the opportunity to be a part of the team again and to see how much things have changed over the years. This year our primary project was an optometry clinic. In the course of five days we gave away almost 400 pairs of prescription eyeglasses and about as many reading glasses. We also hosted a daily medical clinic and members of our teams continued to have meetings related to ongoing economic development (we are trying to help start a cashew cooperative) and potable water projects. Each day we were able to help serve lunch to 150 children -- a lunch that was paid for by members of our congregation and served in a building that a past team from Calvary built. It was an amazing week.

And yet the realities of experiences such as these are not told so much by "what we did," or by the numbers you see above. Short term mission trips are full of their complexities and their challenges. The only way to get at these complexities and the lives of the people we had the opportunity to walk alongside for a week is to tell stories. I hope to tell you some of these stories over the next couple of weeks. Check the blog in the coming days and weeks to hear about my lost luggage, about Gilbert and his family's house of living stones, the story of the two children who were blind but now can see, the tale of my watermelon of gratitude, and more. Dios les bendiga (God bless you).