Day 3, Monday, June 7: Awoke at 5:45 a.m., showered, watched Marty terminate a 4 inch scorpion crawling toward his luggage, ate a delicious pancake breakfast, then phoned Delores at home, cell, and work…all to no avail. After breakfast I finally reached her at work. It was good to hear her voice. We loaded the 50 pound food sacks (to feed a family of 4 for a month) into the vehicles and headed down the mountain to work at Namasique. We took a brief detour to see the office area of the ranch and drop off Chuck for his cyber-mission. Cameron and his dog "Squirrel" were wonderful guides and one of them liked to be petted a lot.
For the work at Namasique, we were divided into three teams. Some stayed at the church property to help with construction of the well, community center, public bath house, and leveling the area.
Others went out for food delivery and evangelism. When the visit was with Christians, it was for encouragement: greeting, photos, candy and stuffed animals to the children, scripture, song, prayer, etc. The children weren’t the only ones who loved having their pictures taken and then seeing them in the digital camera view finders. When the family wasn’t already Christians, a Bible study was attempted on the spot. Each evangelism team had a local member who knew the situation of those we were to visit and a translator. I had taken nearly 30 caps to give away in addition to several shirts. My wife had sent about 20 tops. These all made their way into the appreciative hands of children or adults.
We returned to the work site for lunch and some of the men took a turn with the shovels.
The highlight of today was the baptism of a young mother in the river that afternoon. This wasn’t a result of our efforts – it was already set up when we met the lady at one of the houses – we just had the joy of witnessing it.
After all day in the hot, humid conditions, even though I was not doing an real manual labor, I admit to feeling exhausted. We were back at Mission Lazarus by 5:30 p.m. The air conditioned ride had me revived and feeling better. The constant amazement with the traffic and driving habits had us all realizing that speed limit and other warning signs were merely SUGGESTIONS! Supper included chicken, fries, green beans (with bacon), and some incredible homemade chips and dip. I topped that off with an ice cream cone (one per night). The gift shop was opened for us. I found a “golf” shirt and cap that I liked both with the ML logo. Those would prove to be my only non-edible purchases on the entire trip. Following our sharing time, I was in bed by 9:15 p.m.
Back at the well work site, I gave out all the caps to the eager, smiling (always smiling) children and joined the evangelism team. Today Allen was our leader and he did an amazing job at the homes. We delivered the food, took photos, sang, read scripture, and prayed. We delivered 12 food sacks before lunch.
We ate lunch back at the work site with kids all around. It was easy to share the Doritos and cookies with them. A spontaneous soccer game broke out with Tommy giving a great imitation of a hot goaly. The clouds were appearing stormy. Perhaps we would actually get a taste of this “rainy” season that was supposedly upon us. Afternoon rain would certainly have a cooling effect on this stifling heat.
At about 1:30 p.m. we journeyed back to Choluteca to worship at the men’s prison. Our passports got us in and an arm stamp would get us out. The entire group was only allowed to take one camera. David took his video camera. The rest of us got to take some photos before entering and then when we left and went to the site of the church they were building. A short walk through the general population of the prison brought us to the worship site already in progress. The singing and enthusiasm were incredible as we were greeted warmly and given the first two rows of seats. After a few songs we were welcomed and applauded publicly. Then came the surprise – we were asked if someone from our group would like to deliver a message. After some brief misunderstanding about not just reading a scripture, Allen stepped up to the podium and, with Espartaco translating, did an amazing job of extemporaneous preaching. It made us proud and inspired the listeners. After worship we toured the general population of the prison. It was not someplace I would have wanted to be any longer. It was very strange to see where they lived and cooked. There was clothing hanging everywhere; prisoners constantly offered to sell us their “crafts” – we had been warned about this and to keep our hands off our wallets. After exiting the prison and retrieving our passports and cameras, we were allowed to enter a different gate to the church building site. It actually rained while we toured the prison. Perhaps this really is the rainy season after all.
Our next stop that afternoon was at Espartaco’s home above the church building (from Sunday’s worship) in Choluteca. We had and amazing time of fellowship and cake with his family.
We returned to the ranch at 8 p.m. for a steak supper, sharing time, and then in bed by 9:30 p.m. A bull frog even came to visit our cabin porch that evening. It had been a full and rewarding day in Honduras.
