Yesterday was a day of firsts for many of our team… first time to build a home for a family in need, first time to ride a TORCH bus, first time to kneel beside a Honduran child and play, first time to feed people living in a dump (literally a dump) first time to have their heart captured by the people of this place… And even for those of us, who’ve done them a time or 2 before, you cannot help but be touched and changed in deep places by the God who brought us together for such a time as this.

We started our day by dividing into 2 teams to build in Sector Ocho, a community outside of the city of Tegucigalpa. Team 1 climbed down a steep little bank into a crowded space to build a home right beside a creek. They didn’t have much space to work and there was less space to play;) But they did both of those things and at the end of the day, there was a new home for a family who needed oneJ

Team 2 walked a little further to the foot of the mountain that they climbed to their building site. They built for a grandmother and her daughter and 2 children. The grandma, Florentina, showed us what it means to work and to serve. She labored right alongside the team, in flip flops and without gloves, digging in the dirt, sometimes with her hands. We could not help but be amazed at her strength and her spirit. At the end of the day we gathered around the family and prayed and she looked at team 2, thanking them over and over again. As we stood in the house that was not much bigger than my bedroom at home, Florentina thanked us over and over again and told each of the members that they were always welcome in her home. Amazing that those who have so little are so willing to share the little that they have. And so we learn first hand, that it is more blessed than to receive. God was glorified among the Hondurans and the Americans as we stood there together and hugged our good-byes between people who are no longer “us” and “them”… we are now brothers and sisters in Christ. Thank you, Father.


Team 1 finished early and so we had the opportunity to take 50 pizzas to the city dump and feed some of the 1200 men, women, and children who lived there. This was one of the most difficult things we’ve done. Flies and buzzards swarmed around us. Cattle and dogs live among the trash as well. The people there literally dig through every bag of trash from every garbage truck to find scraps of food and hopefully some hidden treasure that they could sell. They formed a line and came through over and over again, we looked at their filthy faces and placed pizza in their dirty, stained hands. One woman sat in the garbage heaps, away from the crowd and attempted to wash off the filth with a little bit of dirty water. And I cannot tell you today how any of that makes any sense, and I don’t know why at the end of the day our team gets to come back to a nice mission house and take off our dirty clothes that wreak of the dump and get all cleaned up to sleep in soft beds with warm blankets after filling our bellies with a hot supper. I don’t know how you look at that woman who was trying to get clean in the middle of the filth and tell her that God is good…. I just don’t know… At least for this one night they were touched by the hands of Christ and didn’t go to bed hungry. And maybe if enough of Christ’s body, the church, keeps coming to this forsaken place, then the kingdom of God will be realized and we will see God’s truth shine because we will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living- Psalm 27:13. Until then, we wait for the Lord. Our hearts take courage and we wait for the Lord- Psalm 27:14.

God has given us strength to do the work, and courage to face fear. He has provided homes for the needy, food for the hungry, and love for the lonely. He has worked through us to do the work He has called us to and has blessed us as much as, if not more than, He has blessed those He’s called us to touch. He is faithful.