highlight // exponencial - easter conference 2014

With this being our first Easter, or here "Semana Santa", in Honduras, we got the distinct pleasure of attending our first of the annual GCLA Easter conferences called "Exponencial." For those of you who don't know, we are employed by Great Commission Ministries, but on the ground we work for and partner with Great Commission Latin America. GCLA is an awesome movement of 33 local churches in Latin America in 9 different countries, including Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama, Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezula, and the United States.

We love working with GCLA for many reasons, but especially because it believes in a holistic approach to ministry. GCLA believes that Scripture wholeheartedly desires to compliment our faith in Christ and manifest our faith through our compassion projects and evangelism throughout Latin America.

We were so excited to go to Exponencial to hear more about all of the churches involved in GCLA and hear from the leaders of these other churches while we explored through the book of Ephesians during the duration of the conference. It was such a wonderful experience to bring as many of us as possible all together, and of course we loved having practically everyone we know in Latin America under one roof. We wanted to share a few pictures, though it seems that we were always talking too much to actually take pictures with other people! Imagine that. :) 

Daytime session 

And nighttime session. 

Also, below is the promotional video for Exponencial 2014. If you can read Spanish, great! If not, still give it a look. It's so pretty!

Exponencial 2014 from GCLA on Vimeo.

Since this was our first trip to both the conference, San Pedro Sula (a very large city in the northern part of Honduras) and to the Iglesia Gran Comision church there, we decided to travel with a group from our IGC Danli church in the church's bus. It was an interesting trip for sure to travel across Honduras in a school bus, because the road quality significantly improves as you get closer to San Pedro Sula, but on the way home, it just gets rougher and rougher. 

One thing we do love about travelling with Hondurans, is though it may add more time to the trip, they definitely love to stop for snacks. And anyone who knows Jamey knows that he is one of the thirstiest men alive. He always needs something to drink... and snacks don't hurt either! We even picked up some knowledge on where to find the best kinds of Honduran snack foods. 

For most families in the church, Semana Santa is their one week off of work during the entire year, and the fact that they chose to use it to attend this conference is incredible. So, since we were near water (which rarely happens to a person from Danli), our group made a trip to the beach during a conference break AND a stop at the one and only lake in Honduras on the way home for a Latin American "fish & chips" (tilapia & plantain fries). This was Lesley's first time having fish that still had a head on it! Our friends thought that fact was hilarious. :)

To the right is our friend Kike (who works for GCLA at the church in Danli) & his daughter Dayana, and we are to the left.
Note that both Kike and Lesley were already wearing their "Exponencial 2014" t-shirts! 

We can't wait until next year!