5 ways to pray for Honduras

1.) Violence - there are many news reports that depict Honduras as one of the most dangerous countries in the world due to the violence. This comes from the amount of poverty, lack of police force, and corruption within the government. Unfortunately, a lot of times the police force are criminals too.  Even many of our friends don't trust the police.

Pray specifically for this violence to end, for the protection of the innocent people who are involved in this.
Pray that the Gospel transforms the lives of the criminals and the people within the Honduran government and they start to lead as Biblical leaders.
Pray for the safety of people in Honduras especially in areas where it is unsafe to even be outside.

2.) Good Works - Do to the large Catholic background here in Latin America, many people believe it takes "good works" in order for them to spend eternity in heaven.  We've come across many people here who have told us they don't think they will go to heaven that day because they haven't done "enough good things" to be forgiven.  It's very hard because there are many people who don't know why they believe this, only because it has been bred into them by parents, grandparents, even great-grandparents.

Pray that God will open up their hearts to the message of the Gospel, that they will understand that it is by grace that you are saved and that Jesus is the only way to heaven.
Pray not only that they will understand this so that they can spend eternity in heaven, but also so they can have a personal relationship with Jesus while they are still on this earth and feel purpose in their lives.

3.) Food Shortage - Due to the large drought in Central America during this rainy season, we are expected to experience the worst food shortage in 2015 since Hurricane Mitch that devastated the country in 1998.  We've already seen prices rises in supermarkets of staple items like beans and rice due to failed harvests especially in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua.

Pray for all of the families that will be affected by this and that God will provide for them.  $0.30 a pound increase in beans may not seem like a lot, but to the people here, it is a huge amount of increase as 60% of the population live on less than $2 a day.
Pray specifically for the children at our Children's Development Center and their families as they will be greatly affected by this.
Pray for God to provide our center the resources to help these families and be the hands and feet of Jesus if needed.  

4.) Lack of Sanitation - A lot of work has been accomplished in the last decade for clean water and sanitation in Central America, but it is still greatly lacking.  In Honduras alone, 954,000 people still lack access to safe drinking water and 1.6 million people lacked access to improved sanitation.  When we say "improved sanitation" that doesn't necessarily mean they have a toilet, it could only mean they have a latrine that has treatment.  Only 74% of rural Honduras have access to these "improved" sanitation sources.

Pray against the diseases that are caused by lack of sanitation and for the people who are sick because of it.  A child dies every 20 seconds because of a diarrheal illness that could be prevented with adequate sanitation.
Pray for ministries around the world who are trying to combat this humanitarian injustice and are sharing the Living Water through this.
Pray for us, Great Commission Latin America, as an organization who are in the process developing a water and sanitation project here in Danli. Though it takes a lot of effort, funds, communication, and education to start efforts like these, we know that this is not how God desires His children to be living and we want to help solve this problem. Pray for us as we raise awareness, raise funds, meet with government agencies, and as we share the love of Jesus. Pray that God will use us for His will.

5.) Education - 60% of the population in Honduras live under the international poverty line and a large part of this is due to lack of education. The public school systems here are stretched very thin with very little funding. Most kids only go to school at most 4 hours a day, if they choose to go every day.  There is no requirement for children to go to school in Honduras.  If they can afford it, most parents send their children to private schools, but because the income gap is so large here the families in poverty will never be able to do that. A lot of children have to drop out of school at age 14 or 15 to help their families with the bills and never complete high school, thus furthering the cycle of poverty.  Most families in poverty live for today, and can't think about the future.  The goal of the Children's Development Center is to help and encourage our kids to complete high school and provide them with the resources to do that.

Pray for children to stay in school, finish high school and to have the desire to do this.  Pray they understand the importance of education and how they can use it to change their family.
Pray for the Children's Development Center's efforts in helping bring up Christian men and women and encourging/helping them complete high school.  Pray that God gives us wisdom in this ministry.

mission team // the rock church 2014

Honduras 2014 from Anthony Lagoon on Vimeo.

Just a few days after we arrived back in Honduras from a trip, we welcomed a mission team to our church, Iglesia Gran Comision Danli, from The Rock Church in Salt Lake City. We were anticipating this trip quite a bit, simply because we had heard so much about them from our friends here in Danli. This church started bringing teams one year after our sending church, NLCF, so you can imagine the bond they've been forming with the church in Danli.

One great thing about this church is they are able to bring such a wide variety of people and ages on their teams -- from teenagers and their parents, to nurses, to previous longer term missionaries, to photographers and engineers. That dynamic makes for a very unique experience between the members of the team each year, and it's very cool to get to witness the amount they have to teach other, and the people that they encounter here in Honduras. We were lucky enough to be the "host parents" of one of the translators from Tegucigalpa and the team leader, who was thankful to be in a house with good internet since he and his wife had welcomed their first baby 3 week prior!

We had several people on the team that had been on this same trip before, so we were able to immediately bond with them, even on the ride from the airport back to Danli, by sharing our stories together. Between these stories and us comparing the similarities and differences between Virginia and Utah, we never ran out of things to talk about!

The week began with a classic Honduran Sunday, a day of rest and fellowship. We went to what we call "the mountain" (the actual name of the mountain is "La Roca", which means "The Rock" ... appropriate for this team!). We ate carne asada for lunch, went for walks around the beautiful property, rigged some homemade fishing polls, and then rigged a rope for a Honduran version of volleyball. It was a beautiful day!

The rest of their time here was very busy; filled with evangelizing in different communities, working at under-funded government run daycare centers, and visiting the very poor hospital and giving out supplies. The team also raised the funds to build the third wall at the church (!!).  We're only lacking one wall to completely close in the church!

The face on this little boy was pure joy when he got his new shoes!
Also proud of these young boys from our church going out to help share the gospel.

On Friday, the team spent the morning with our CDI kids, which of course the kids loved. The highlight about this was one of the team members is a sponsor to one of our CDI students, and the two got to meet for the first time. It was an awesome thing to witness! Tim, the sponsor, also gave Brayan, the student, a few gifts; Brayan, however, realized that the other kids didn't get to meet their sponsor that day, and he chose to share his bag of candy with all of the other students and the teachers. It was precious!

Brayan meeting his sponsor, Tim, for the first time. 

The CDI kids making crafts with the mission team.

On Saturday, while part of the team was at band practice, the other part of the team made two beds to be given to two CDI students that needed them most. Now our students Anner and Angel both no longer have to share their beds with their two other siblings.

One of the beds being delivered to Anner's house. He now has a bed to himself!

As we said, there was a variety of people on the team and two of them specifically are the very talented folks who made the recap video above, as well as kept up with a great photo/video blog for the people following them back home, which you read more specific stories from the week here.

We're already looking forward to seeing you next year, you guys! Thank you for everything.  You're such a blessing to the GCLA church here in Danli!

friday photo dump // may 2

It's been a few months since our last Friday Photo Dump, so for this one we'd like to show you around little bits of our last couple of weeks through Instagram-style snap shots. Sometimes pictures do a better job of telling a story!

When we first moved here, Lesley thought it was hard to learn how to adjust to cooking
in Honduras. Now she's taking on an even bigger cooking challenge: cooking for over
10 people at a time in a little kitchen with barely the "bare essential" tools at the CDI (nutrition clinic).

This week we got a big surprise when we pulled onto the church's lot
and found a whole bunch of cows! Apparently there were some random cows
walking down the street, so they were let in to "mow" the grass. 

After almost two months of having no storage for the kitchen or for our clothes, we were 
able to unpack the final boxes and suitcases with the addition of these great shelves! Hallelujah!

Jamey has recently been spending his Saturdays learning the sound board and mixer
in order to be another spare hand of someone who can help out with AV when needed. 

We are beaming with pride for our sweet student, Alison, from the CDI! Last
week, Alison won the "Most Intelligent Student" award for her entire school. We
already knew that (duh) but we're so proud of this accomplishment for her!

We finally got a picture in action of some of our sneaky iguanas that have been
roaming all in the church's roof where we can hear them everyday! Lesley is 
obviously not a fan of these super fast guys. The kids want to make a soup out of 'em!

Sunday was Jamey's birthday, and what a happy day it was! Jamey was surprised
by the church leaders and their families at our house with cake and singing at our gate!

Jamey got the best of both worlds this year as far as cake goes! Lesley made him 
a spice cake with buttercream icing just like from home, and our church 
friends brought him a Honduran cake as well! Two cultures, two birthday cakes!

And what we did today: we woke up early this morning to head to the church and
 help our dear Luis, another of our students from the CDI, with his piles of English homework.
He says that this year his English homework is getting a lot tougher! You go, Luis!

We also got to visit this cutie today and play a lot of peek-a-boo while visiting
prospective neighborhoods for a new church outreach project.  

Also, for a fun surprise, a video! Here's a quick video clip for y'all to see a worship service at our church, Iglesia Gran Comision Danli, with our friend Larissa singing with her beautiful God-given voice! 

Larissa singing at church from Jamey Smith on Vimeo.

mission team // nlcf at virginia tech 2014

New Life Christian Fellowship Mission Team 2014

To write about this particular church's first mission trip to Danli since we have lived here is completely surreal and wonderful, because this was the trip. The trip that started it all for us. It's what brought us here. And now New Life Christian Fellowship serves as our sending church. There was a lot of excitement for us going into this trip, even though we had only been living in Danli for a week and a half before they arrived and even though we only personally knew a few of the people on the 18 person team!

We were so happy to be in the position to host two of the team members in our new home, one of which was our dear friend Steve (you know, the one who was both a groomsman and the pastor who performed the ceremony in our wedding; we kind of know him well), who has been leading this trip with NLCF for several years now. Both of our "host sons" (just kidding, that's just what the Hondurans like to say!) were very patient with us during some running water outage problems that we'd been having, and we were very grateful for that!

On Saturday (3/8) when the team arrived, we went on the church bus to receive them at the airport, headed back to Danli, and went to the regular Saturday night church service. Sunday was a church event day at the park, filled with some swimming, basketball, soccer (of course), card games, and more. Lots of hanging out, lots of getting to know people from the church, and lots of sunburn! The rays seemed to be extra strong that day, and Lesley got her first (of sure to be many) good face burn with a sunglasses outline. It's documented in many pictures from the beginning of the week. Also, the church had baptisms in the pool of the park as well, with so many congregation members and the whole mission team there to see. It was wonderful and such a blessing that we got to see one of our friends be baptized by her dad just 2 weeks after us arriving in Danli.

Church park day and baptisms.

Throughout the week, the team had the opportunity to go to several different communities on the outskirts of Danli to share the gospel, as well as give out food provisions and Spanish Bibles to those who didn't have their own. Some of the team members also got to build beds to give out to those in most need of them as well. We particularly loved getting to join the team in evangelizing because this year the church taught the team about GCLA's new vision of sharing using "Multiplica Multiplicadores". Through it, each team member was encouraged to tell a short version of their personal testimony first, before sharing the gospel using the bridge diagram in the home they visited. We both felt so blessed to get to hear so many of the stories of the team members that we normally would not have gotten the chance to hear. It added such a new dimension to sharing with others so openly as well as connecting to people on a personal level.

Also, some of the team (mainly guys) got to help with a construction project at the church, which was extending the concrete floor of the church out to meet where the roof ends. It was long and hard work, but it was so worth it! It is going to be such a blessing for the church as this was the final step before the next goal of closing in the church with 2 additional walls.  The church still needs to raise funds in order for the walls to happen.

Final product of the completed floor, far left. 

Making the beds (left), and getting having a little helper to deliver them (right). 

We also took the team to visit a local public hospital, which was a first for us too. There is a huge difference between private and public hospitals here in Honduras. You hear about the bad conditions in public hospitals, but you don't realize really how terrible they are until you are inside. Patients have to provide their own bedding, medicine, clothing/gowns, and in some cases, food, and most cannot provide these things for themselves. It is practically required that a friend or family member stay with the patient to be able to attend to them. The hospital is not clean by any means, and smells even worse. It is very hot inside the building, and everyone must share a room with 2 to 3 other people with no room dividers or privacy at all. Many of who went to visit the hospital left completely wrecked and devastated of what they had just seen.

One 16-year-old boy at the hospital that particularly made his way into our hearts. 

On Saturday, we went to visit a nursing home to deliver food and spend time with the elderly people there. It was amazing to be in Honduras and see birth dates of patients born in 1919. We talked with, prayed with, and played music for the patients. They especially loved that the musical group would come around to their bed and play a song "just for them". The NLCF team was also able to attend a second regular church service on Saturday night, and blessed the church by creating a worship band for the night made up of the musically talented members of the team, since the church here in Danli does not yet have their own live band (but they do have the instruments and are working towards having a band soon!). It was fun for us personally that we got to worship in BOTH English and Spanish! What a joy!!

Visiting the nursing home; one lady was particularly happy to see a baby around!

NLCF-ers playing worship at Iglesia Gran Comision Danli. 

As they do every year, the tearful goodbyes came on Sunday when it was time to head back to the airport. Because we have only been in Danli for a few weeks, it felt a little weird to be herding the NLCF team on to the plane (though they didn't want to leave) but then being one of those people who stays, smiles, and waves until they get to the security point where we can't see them any more. Oh yeah, we live here. We don't go back to classes and midterms, Virginia Tech, and NLCF. We stay!

Quick snapshot from the "touring" day the team had, here seeing one of the church member's fields. 

We were with the team for about fourteen hours every day, so we were as tired as they were, but we loved the busyness and joy that they brought. We also loved getting to see things through brand new eyes again, through those who have either never been here to Danli before, or who have never even left the country. Thank you, Hokies. You left you mark on this great city once again (and filled it with even more orange and maroon shirts for us to spot). We love you! Can't wait til next time.

personal // hogar dulce hogar (we moved!)

On our moving day, this past Wednesday, we moved Honduran style! We had four layers of furniture, appliances, boxes, and suitcases on the back of a single pickup truck with lots of rope. We even had a local friend say to us, “I’ve never even done this. I think you’re more Honduran than I am right now!” 

Everyone thought that Jamey's rope from the hardware store was super funny, but it's what they had! Someone even said "Are you ready to go boating now, Jamey?"

Our sweet friends that came to get us got an early start in the morning, by leaving Danli at 4AM to get to Choluteca by 8:30AM, so that by the time we arrive back with our things in Danli later that day, we would still have some daylight left to unload everything into our house.

Outside of our apartment in Choluteca, all packed up!

With such an early start, and not wanting to stop too many times along the way with so many open things on the back of the truck, we actually ended up getting a super early lunch (though none of us had had breakfast, so it was actually brunch) at 10AM at KFC. Random, yes, but it was the closest thing (literally, we lived next door to it in Choluteca) and open at the time. Little did we know, our friend Miguel didn’t know a lot about fried chicken and biscuits. He had a lot of questions about biscuits, and asked why people from the U.S. like it so much because it’s just bread. Haha! We immediately responded by telling him that where we are from, biscuits are VERY important. They are like tortillas for him! He also had to watch us bite into our fried chicken first before he knew what to do with it, because obviously we weren’t using utensils. He first proceeded exactly like we did, and then decided that he liked it much better when he just ripped the skin off of it, rubbed a layer of ketchup on the whole thing, and then chowed down. It was a fun “lunch” to say the least.

Our totally non-discrete moving, during a stop in Teguc.

The trip from Choluteca, through Tegucigalpa, to Danli ended up taking us a little over five hours with a few stops. We were definitely driving at lower speeds with our big load of cargo! Once we arrived in Danli, we pulled up straight to our new home. Lesley yelled “Hogar!!!” and Miguel completed her sentence with “dulce hogar”. (Which means “Home sweet home” in Spanish.)

Our great friends Belkis and Luis, who live very close to us, came over the second we arrived and immediately went to work. Luis helped everyone unload, and Belkis asked us if we wanted to go ahead and spend the night there or with them. And since we picked staying the first night in our new place, Belkis was determined that we were going to get some things cleaned before we stayed the night. While we were setting up everything, she was so generously busy cleaning off our walls, cleaning the floors, and cleaning our bathroom for us to use. We were so incredibly thankful for all of the help we received that day!

The outside and gate of our new house in Danli! We even have a little garden area.

Since then, we’ve been busy with errands, getting settled, church and church events. We’ve actually hosted people over a couple of times already, and been invited to dinner with three different families. We are feeling very loved and waited for.

Also, just a day after being here, we were able to finally meet some friends of ours in person that have only just been pen-pals of ours so far! Their names are Sean & Whitney, and they are missionaries from the U.S. in Danli as well, serving with a different church here, who moved to Honduras around the very same time that we did. They had actually found this blog online and reached out to us from there. What a blessing it has already been to know them and share together, and we are so excited to now continue our friendship in person, in the same city, and living just a few blocks from one another!

Thank you to everyone who prayed so much for us about this move and about us finding a new home to live in for the next several years. We are so grateful for how well our move went, and absolutely thrilled with our home that our church staff here picked out for us since we could not be in Danli to house hunt ourselves. We can’t wait to show y’all our house in one of our next blog posts, which will be a new video tour!! Those who enjoyed the first one so much have been begging for another one!

Blessings!

J&L