Sunday, July 18, 2010

Steve's Honduras mission trip

This morning at church, Steve and the team he led to building a house in Honduras the week in July, spoke during the entire sermon time at both services, recounting their experiences. I cried during both services as I listened to the ways in which each person had been touched his or her time there. One of the young women, Katie Hands, put together an awesome video of pictures put to music. I will try to figure out a way to put it up so everyone can watch it. It was AMAZING! One of Steve's stories which he had forgotten to tell me, gave me goose bumps and made me cry as well. Back in 2005 when he was spending the entire year living in Honduras, he saw some really tough things. One was a horrific accident during a rainstorm, that he came upon immediately after it had happened. A semi and a pick up had collided head-on, and there were bodies in the roadway. At first he thought they were crash dummies, but as he drove past he could see that they were real people, people who had died in the wreck. I won't go into the gory details, but suffice to say, it was a scene that he has never been able to erase from his memory. While on this trip and building the house, he was working beside a young Honduran man who had a big scar on his arm. Scott, one of the missionaries who lives in Honduras and who, along with his wife, are good friends of ours, told Steve this guy had trouble with his arm due to a terrible accident he had in 2005. Steve knew this young man was a cousin of Caloi, the man for whom the house was being built, and that Caloi had some relatives who had died in 2005 in an accident. Long story short, the man named Will, turned out to be the only survivor of this accident. He had been driving the truck and had been thrown from the vehicle, and was very likely one of the people Steve saw in the road that day. Steve was dumbfounded by this connection, and then realized that God had a plan for him to be one of the first witnesses on the scene that day, because five years later, He would have him working side by side this man. Steve talked with him about that day, and the young man explained what had happened and that he was the only survivor of the accident, that he had lost control of the truck in the rain. He appreciated the compassion Steve showed him, and it seemed to do him some good to talk about it that day. God is an amazing God, and has the ability to make connections we have no idea are possible!!!! The team was so affected by their experiences in Honduras, that they are already planning to return next year, some of whom plan to have a vacation Bible school of sorts for the tons of kids that will be around. I hope to make that trip myself, as they are thinking of going in May. Today, I am grateful for my husband, who ten years ago, started praying the Prayer of Jabez, in which Jabez asks the Lord to widen his territory or give him more responsibility, and was promptly given an opportunity to do a short term mission trip in Honduras. That trip changed his life and he felt called to serve the people in Honduras, so much so that we will very likely retire there someday to be full time missionaries. I challenge everyone to listen for God's call in your life, because He surely has great things planned for each one of us if we will only stop planning our own lives, and listen for His plan for us.

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