Monday January 29, 2001 Day 15 of Honduras trip

Today was a busy day. Our last day here and our only real  day of “vacation”. The first thing we did was get a flat tire repaired. I’m so surprised it never happened on some of the awful rocky  roads we drove on, it was truly the grace of God. We then drove through the “rich” part of the city. It looks pretty much like any other modern city, only with Spanish signs!

We then drove over several mountains to what is called the Valley of the Angels. It is basically a tourist place where you can buy souvenirs.  We walked around the little town for several hours and bought some gifts for the children.  We ate lunch there also. John and I both ate spaghetti,  it tasted pretty normal. We have noticed that in many restaurants and businesses they play American music, which we think is very strange! It’s music from the 60s and 70s.

We then drove to a park that overlooks the city. It is up very high and you can view the entire city of several million people. We then drove back into the city to the offices of World Vision. We have been sponsoring 2 little boys for the past 2 years through this program and wanted to meet them. The one little boy was Santos, aged 5 and the other is Elder who is 7. They had traveled many hours by bus to come and meet us. They came with their Mom’s.  The mothers had never ridden a bus before and never been to a city. Wow. They are among the poorest of the poor. We took them to a local mini mall and bought them some clothes, school supplies and a toy each. It was a wonderful feeling to see what a huge blessing this small act of kindness was to them. Bro Casco talked to them about the Lord and salvation. Our prayer is that they will come to know His saving grace.

There is much more religious freedom here than in America.  The government welcomes church involvement rather than clamping down on it. You see big signs on bridges and things with scriptures on them. The schools all have bibles. It is much easier to talk with people about God here. In America where we “have need of nothing” as the bible says, we have become so dependent on ourselves instead of God.

We ate at a chicken place similar to KFC. It has been kind of a bittersweet day. I’m very glad to be going home and yet sad to leave. I have seen people give their hearts to Jesus, re-dedicate their lives, healing and many other needs met. John was very anointed by God and it was wonderful to see his growth as a minister.  It was exhausting physically and emotionally but I was very blessed spiritually. I have something greater inside than when I came. I don’t know how to explain it. I just feel a greater belief in the simplicity of faith. The people everywhere we went made us feel so welcome.

Tomorrow we will be visiting an orphanage here in Honduras.  A brother in Bro Casco’s church has been wanting to run an orphanage and he will be meeting us there. So maybe God will be answering my prayers after all. I think one of the saddest things is for a child to grow up and never know the love of a parent or family. Most of these “orphans” are not truly orphans but rather have been abandoned because the parents have gone into drugs or prostitution.

We then have to be at the airport at noon. Our flight leaves at 2:10 and gets to Miami at 5:30. We then have a layover and will get to Detroit about 10:30. I know it will be another long day but the excitement of going home will make a huge difference.