Tenting in the Jungle

After a sweet, and busy, month and a half back in the States, it’s crazy to find myself on the Race and in Central America again. My squad was initially supposed to go to Guatemala first, but because of their updated Covid restrictions we ended up in Honduras where we will be for 2 months. Even though this was sad and unexpected, I know God is in control and that he is guiding us to exactly where he wants us. 

When we arrived in Honduras, met our host and began to drive to our ministry location for the next 2 months, I felt a sense of being back home. There was Spanish music playing on the radio, the mountains and Central American landscape rolling past, and the local snacks I’ve missed since Guatemala and Costa Rica. (If you don’t know what Chikys are, you are missing out on some really good cookies!) God has really given me a love for this part of the world: the language, and the people!

At launch we were told that our ministry was up on a mountain, but I didn’t fully understand what that meant until the two trucks we were riding in started an hour and a half drive literally up a mountain. Many people were standing in the back of a truck holding on for dear life as we made our way through deep puddles of mud, ruts and bumps in the road, and steep, slippery patches where we almost didn’t make it up. 

And when we finally got to our ministry site and unloaded all our big packs, they showed us where we would be setting up our tents. That’s right. Two months. Living in my tent. In the middle of the jungle in the mountains of Honduras. With spiders. 

Talk about a drastic shift from where I spent most of my time on my Race last year. We mainly stayed in hostels or AirBnBs which was nice, but not what we thought our living situations would look like. This, tenting in Honduras, is honestly what I expected the Race to be like. Turns out I just needed to go back out with the World Race a third time to experience this. I’ll admit I was a little nervous about sleeping on a sleeping pad and living in a tent. The weather has been pretty nice mostly, but sometimes we have rain for a few days at a time and that brings in the cooler temperatures. Our hosts have helped us stay warm by giving us layers if we need them. God always provides for our needs!

We are partnering with a really sweet ministry called Catracho Missions. Catracho is what the Honduran people call themselves and it comes from the last name of a general in one of the wars fought years ago. The ministry is run completely by locals and their goal is to reach other Hondurans and train them to be missionaries and pastors in their own country. Our hosts have been doing this for the last 10 years, and one of their current projects is to buy land in one of the mountain communities to build a church. We got to pray over the land, and they are hoping to buy it this week!

As we’ve settled into our jungle home, we’ve been able to jump into many different ministries that our hosts are involved in. We have helped with Spanish classes to teach kids and adults to read and write in their language. Many adults in the mountain communities haven’t had access to education so this is an amazing opportunity to bless and empower them! 

We have also helped with the women’s ministry. They teach the women of the communities to sew so they can repair and make their own clothes. They also teach them how to cook so they can bless their families and even sell it to make money and provide an income. In each of the classes, they learn a skill and hear from the word of God. The women’s needs are being met physically as well as spiritually, and it is transforming their homes and the communities they live in.

Outside of these ministries we have been helping around the grounds we live on. We have rebuilt windows for the church, created a cement walkway from the main road to the church which used to be only mud. There have been days focusing on clearing brush, digging up plants and moving them to different spots, and making everything look nice. We work side by side with the Catracho mission team and have built great relationships with them through our manual labor. 

It has been a busy three weeks in the jungle with limited service, cold showers, and lots of encounters with the bugs that we live with. But God is good through it all! He is working in our hearts and is breaking us down in the best way. He is challenging our desire for control, and He’s challenging us with the language barrier. Our hosts speak a little English and most of us speak a little bit of Spanish so many of our conversations are either lost in translation or done in Spanglish. It’s been hard for me since I want to learn more Spanish and be fluent, but I know that takes time and practice.

Team leading is going really well, and I absolutely love my team! God is so intentional in everything he does, and I am seeing it everyday through the people he has placed me with, the ministries we are serving in, and in how he provides for our every need. 

Life here in the jungle of Central America is always an adventure! I love getting to see how the locals do church, how they worship, and how they serve. The Kingdom is so vast and diverse. I absolutely LOVE it! I know I am right where I’m supposed to be for this season, and I’m excited to see what things God has for the next 3 months with the Race and after.

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 Prayer requests:

• Pray that my hosts are able to purchase the land for a new church. Things keep coming up trying to prevent them from buying it, but we know God is greater and can do anything!

• Pray for the squad to let God work in their hearts and lives, especially when God has us go through hard things

• Pray for us as we live in the jungle and chase away the spiders. Pray that we have joyful, willing hearts and hands to serve our ministry. 

• Pray for funds as I continue to fundraise and trust God to provide