mission team // step program trip

We are so glad to be able to write about the first team we've planned a trip for and hosted ourselves in Honduras! Funny enough, it actually happened to be a team that currently lives in Honduras already. Yes, you read that right!

We met our friends Jim and Sonia Bridge at our training in Colorado before we moved to Honduras, and we were thrilled to find out that they were also moving to Honduras! They live in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, and their ministry is serving as the leaders of the STEP program here in Honduras that is part of the BIC churches. It is a program that designs team internships to give young adults realistic, intensive and developmental cross-cultural ministry experience for six months. As the new leaders of this program for the first time this year, Jim and Sonia have been searching earnestly for opportunities for their participants to learn and serve throughout all different parts of Honduras, and it just so happens that we live in a very different part of Honduras than them. We were so glad that we were able to help host one of their many trips they will take to the edges of Honduras and show them around the ministries that we have going on here in Choluteca.

This first team that Jim & Sonia are hosting consists of all girls, ages 18-21. They all traveled down from Tegucigalpa last Sunday, and we enjoyed having them serve at the children's nutrition clinic and the family home orphanage during the five days that they were here. This was their first time serving in a more rural Honduran setting as a team, which gave them new experiences and challenges to work through. They were certainly a blessing to the under-staffed CDI, and prepared several fun activities for the the children to do! The kids, in combination with the much hotter 100F degree days, definitely wore out the Steppers by the end of each day.

Along with serving at both children's ministries, we were able to give the group a tour of other projects that Iglesia Gran Comision Choluteca has, including the Casa Hogar Vida community, the block factory, the CHV coffee brand roasting site, the "Manualidades" crafts store, and one of the rural communities that the church is doing a lot of outreach in, Las Bresas.

Here are some wonderful pictures from the week, documented by the very talented Nikki, who is one of the participants in the program. Enjoy!

Everyone needing hugs at once. :) 

The girls showed the kids how to make paper frogs that jump!

We all helped serve lunch for the kids each day!

Bryan is pretty awesome at soccer!

All of the Family Home kids got involved in the soccer game -- 
even the little twins who kept running into each other!

Vilma, the oldest at the Family Home, with her balloon flower. 

Lesley loving, but being a little afraid of, Bryan making his own balloon design!

Elias, the youngest at the Family Home, with his awesome dino face paint!

Water balloons at the family home for a hot, hot day!

Children in the rural community we visited using old bed springs as a trampoline. 

Visiting one of the families that the church here has built a strong structure home for. 

Visiting the Casa Hogar Vida coffee brand roasting site.