The next morning, we picked up Humberto and headed out about an hour outside of La Ceiba to see another church under the leadership of Santos Flores. The heavy rain continued but the drive was not so bad in the daylight. We were warmly welcomed and the church service began - many pastors were present as a sign of respect for Humberto and our visit to this rural church. Many shared songs and a brief word and Steve presented a message to the congregation. We stopped briefly on our way at a local family run cantina and enjoyed a fresh cooked meal together. From there we headed back to La Ceiba, taking Santos and Humberto home - a long awaited full night's rest was ahead of us!
On Monday, we headed out in the same direction - this time a little further to the town of Zamora where we met up with Tino Martinez (show left with Steve), another one of the regional directors under Humberto. We spent time with him discussing how we could develop economic projects with his churches to help finance the ministries. Tino was very excited about our interest and also our willingness to listen to his ideas. As a former tailor, his idea of training pastors in the art of clothing manufacturing was very appealing and easy to fund. Interesting how this might relate to the sewing ministry started in Bluefields Nicaragua by Claudia Reyes! One of the neat aspect of my job will be to hear and respond to the many ideas throughout Central America and try to maximize our efforts by opening channels of communication!
From Zamora, we headed to Olanchito and the home of Jorge and Alba Nuñez. Jorge serves under Humberto in this region - many of ou
r former short term folks might remember Jorge as he would have been on site for the church building project in 2000. Jorge brings many years of wisdom to the table - I know he is a valued member of the leadership team. We had fun sharing time and coffee with Jorge and Alma - their son and daughter left while we were there to be on the air with a local radio station - we were mentioned on one of their updates... pretty neat to hear our names in English in the middle of a Spanish broadcast!
Steve, Humberto and I went on to La Ceiba and picked up Aaron Palmetier. Based upon the initial discussions of the day, and the fact Aaron could share with the larger group, a special meeting was called for Tuesday morning to get the regional directors from the North Coast together to discuss economic development opportunities in their region. So after a fruitful day of meetings, we headed back to La Ceiba. The next morning we met at the church once more and it was well worth the extra time - the exchange if ideas was invaluable! After lunch at the restaurant next door, we headed southwest to Siguatepeque.
The 5 hour drive to Siguatepeque was uneventful - the rain still persisted but not as hard as in the previous couple of days. This region was much cooler and higher in elevation, so the geography was something to take in! Our base in the area was the Plaza San Pablo - right in the middle of town, just across the street from a large open plaza. We were surprised at the temperature change - we surely did not need to air conditioning in this town! But good beds and wireless Internet made this triple an awesome deal!
We departed early to head towards La Esperanza - an hour and a half drive from Siguatepeque into the highlands - once again, the magnificent scenery was shrouded in clouds and rain but form the glimpses we had, this area was spectacular! We arrived safely and met up with Erick Sanchez), another regional director. (Shown here with his wife Yoamy and young daughter Ruth) Erick's biography can be found at this location -
http://www.missionsdoor.org/images/stories/pplbook_pdf_bio/124862.pdfWe changed vehicles as our rented Toyota would not make this trek - 25 miles out on a mountainous dirt road... in the rain! There were times on our way out to the village in San Nicholas that even low 4WD was challenged to get up some of the hills - we thank God for Erick's skillful driving and for his sure footed vehicle!
About 1/2 way into our drive, we stopped at the home of one of the area directors, Isaías Cantarero to pick him up to take him with us to a recent church building project. In his village, there was a church still under construction - shown here. Out of the mist, came tons of kids... typically curious as to who would be stopping by their village - which is not exactly at the crossroads of Honduras! Pressing onward, after a brief "hola" to Isaías' wife, Olga, we boarded the 4x4 and headed down the muddy road. Isaías' biography can be found at this location:
http://www.missionsdoor.org/images/stories/pplbook_pdf_bio/127555.pdf
As we ventured further towards San Nicholas, I was saying to myself, "we have to come back this same way - won't that be fun??" It was an interesting ride to say the least! About 2 kilometers from the end of this road, we stopped in another settlement - pretty decent sized for the area... and in the middle was a church! Barrington Baptist (RI) sent the team that travelled this road (dusty at the time) every day - boy, do I have a renewed sense of what their morning and afternoon trek was like - God bless you guys! We stopped to say hello to the
Pastor's family and shared a wonderful cup of Honduran Coffee - a real treat for this cool damp day. I was humbled again by the housing in the area - the pastor's home (Shown here) was larger than some of the others but was still smaller than our combined living room and dining room at home - and he had a family of 6!
The trek back to La Esperanza ended with a meal with Erick and his family - back at their home, we spent some time listening to Erick' ideas about economic projects that could support the ministries of the church plants in his region - one especially promising is a maize grinder - it can be installed with little cost or technology and would benefit just about all the pastor's families. Erick's concise and organized presentations were so good that we will incorporate his template for all future requests - awesome job!
The winding and pothole filled drive back to Siguatepeque as dark settled in was enough to make me want to hang up the keys for another day! That triple room was such a safe harbor for us - just what we needed!
The next morning... Thursday, we met up with Victor and Virgilia Almendarez (Shown here) and Ambrosio and Norma Cordova for breakfast just outside of town. Victor's biography can be foudn at this location -
http://www.missionsdoor.org/images/stories/pplbook_pdf_bio/115000.pdf Ambrosio's biography can be found at this location -
http://www.missionsdoor.org/images/stories/pplbook_pdf_bio/121413.pdf. We spent much time discussing how we could serve their ministries better and also enlisted their thoughts about economic development programs or projects that could benefit the ministries in their regions. As the lunch crowd started to come into the restaurant, we said our goodbyes to Victor and Virgilia and continued with Ambrosio and Norma to see one of new building sites and meet the pas
tor's wife. We also were able to stop by their home and meet their family (The entire family is shown here) - it was a treat to hear them share stories about when Steve first came into the area - over 14 years ago.
Regretfully, we had to leave and venture now towards San Pedro Sula... only about 2 hours drive away. Steve was amazed at how much the city had grown and been infiltrated by the typical American chains - Applebee's, Pizza Hut, Pizzeria Uno, TGI Friday's and many more. We managed to find a hotel - pretty good as we didn't have reservations - we stayed at the Hotel Ejecutivo... great rates and in the midst of everything in town - free parking too! We had a wonderful meal at Tre Fratelli - a fantastic finish to a fruitful week! The next morning after breakfast in our hotel, we ventured into the central market where I was able to purchase some Copan region coffee - gotta love it! We were off to the airport so I could get checked in and through security - but not before my last Honduras cafe con leche... and a boot shine - Steve insists it is more of a social activity than an economic transaction... so for less than $ 4.00 US, the Honduran mud was removed from both our shoes - my old reliable hiking boots never looked so good!
My flights back into the US were AOK - I traveled with a Honduran/US Citizen who was bringing and adopted child to New Jersey - I broke out of my shell and started conversation with "yo hablo espanol un poco" and she came back with broken English - we talked almost all the way to Houston - got some practice in Spanish, but better than that, I just started to talk and share! This while trip was capped off by a visit to our former church (Christ Covenant Church in Kulpsville, PA)... what a blast it was - one day I am in Honduras and then next morning I am dining at Tiger's restaurant just outside of Lansdale, PA... a slice of Americana where the regulars mix with world travelers... I had a wonderful time meeting up with brothers and sisters in Christ that I hadn't seen in a long while - some it had been 11 years! My tales from Honduras and beyond amazed some and made others think.... wow, that's where I was a few years back... you never know how God will work!
So, this ends my first blog installment... please pray that God continues to give me the eyes of a child and a dose of His wisdom as we seek to serve Him with Partnership Ministries!
Last April, I was able to travel to this region as we checked out a potential work site that was outside of Masaya. Little did I know at that time that we would return to this area! Two men worked with our team in Bluefields in April - Francisco (show here in blue shirt with construction leader, Julio) and his son Junior - we will be blessed to help his village rebuild their church in the area.
The area around Masaya is beautiful - we will be in a higher elevation, so the weather will be cooler than in Bluefields or Chinandega. There are many deep blue lakes in the region as well as many other geological features... we may travel over to Vulcan Mombacho (shown partially below), which the April team was able to experience - a totally different volcano than Masaya - plush green and heavily wooded - a perfect place for canopy tours! Yehaw! Coffee grows throughout this region, so bring your USD$ for a real treat! 
