Honduras June 25 - July 3.
A Reflection On My Mission Trip To Honduras and Nicaragua
by Pastor Mark Taylor
I was reminded by our Lord Jesus that I am blessed to live in the United States of America. I am blessed not only because I have all of my needs mets, but that I get the opportunity to share them with other people all over the world.
I am told that Honduras is the poorest country in Central America. I am returning from my 5th trip since 2004. Each time I go the Lord shows me different things about myself and others.
On this trip I had different opportunities to interact with individual families and one on one experiences with specific people. One of the insights I gained from my interpreter, Gabriela was that when ever you ask a really poor person in Honduras what can you give them or do,for them, they will say "whatever you would like". I thought that was strange that they did not have specific requests. But Gabby said that they really mean that they do not have anything and "whatever" means anything you can do will help them. The greatest need is food because they may not have any or only enough for one meal. When they pray "Give us this day our daily bread.." it is a prayer of necessity, not one of "vain repetition". When I said earlier that I was blessed to be able to give of my abundance, my giving made a difference in whether someone ate or didn't eat. There is no government agency that is going to meet this need and no resources to make money to buy food. God feeds the birds of the air and brings food to these hungry people by those who are willing to help Him. The blessing I receive is not always that God repays me in dollars or material things. But while I am helping those He sends me to, He is helping me with my "whatever" of problems and prayer requests that I do not have the ability to solve. Even this week my Lord solved two relationship problems that I have been praying about for several years. He solved them in one week. I really believe this timing was the result of my willingness to help Him feed and encourage others that have been praying for what they thought were solutions beyond there control. During this week we were able to provide food for over 5,000 people in Honduras and Nicaragua with a group of 27 people who had the same desire to help others.
The money for the food came from a variety of churches and individuals who could not come but wanted to help. They were as much involved in being a blessing to those we reached as we were in delivering the food. Thanks to each of you who gave and as important for those who prayed for a safe and successful mission trip.
Another perspective I gained was of how petty were the things I was allowing to bother me. Before I left for this mission trip I was preoccupied with thinking about political issues like our up coming election. I was also concerned about decisions I was facing relating to my church. I was spending a lot of time watching news which was all discouraging. After the first day of meeting with the children we were sponsoring, I quickly saw that they had real needs that were real and that the things I had been using my mental energy on were out of my control and my thoughts and opinions were not going to change a thing. But what I came to do in Honduras and Nicaragua would make a great difference. I was reminded by one of our group members that we had lived through the terms of several Presidents and had not gone hungry or been without employment and the next one would not affect either of us directly. Our attention needed to be on the hungry children and families we were sent to feed and minister to. It did not take long before all my problems seemed small when I saw the extreme needs of these people. For instance, the child I would be sponsoring to go to a Christian School and have a hot meal each day had other needs. We went to her house and wondered how she had survived to be 6 years old. She lived in a house that was less than 500 square feet with 8 other people living in it. It was built on a side of a mountain on an uneven rock floor which was part of the mountain. In other words they had no floor. Her house was built from a bunch of rough cut lumber from which you could see the outside from the inside. But the most immediate need was that the roof was leaking severely. It was made of scrape pieces of tin with many holes in it. It did not even have any nails holding it down and strong winds would easily blow it off. My wife and I and another couple found someone to take the old roof off and we paid to have a new roof on. I could not go home and watch it rain at my house and not think of this family being wet each time it rained. We also bought them enough food to last for a couple of weeks and provided them with some water that had to be brought in by a truck. They had no electricity or water in their home. There is no government assistance for families like this and there are many families living n these conditions. But they were happy and very grateful that God had met their need. I soon forgot my concerns and was reminded of how blessed I am. My prayer and hope for myself is that I will not revert back to worrying about things that mean so little in the big picture of God's work. And that I will do what I can for those that God puts in my pathway. Hellen Keller wrote : "I am only one, but still am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something I can do."
