Honduras: travel & arrival

 It's very overwhelming sitting down to blog about our trip. There are hundreds of pictures, memories & stories to sort through. But most of all, it's just hard to find a way to put into words the things we did, saw & experienced. There are still some things that I cannot talk about without the tears coming. We came home feeling so incredibly blessed & with a different perspective on so many things. Our God is an awesome God, and truly is doing some powerful things in Honduras. 

Before I get into the trip-I want to back up to tell you how this trip transpired. A year ago, we were at a birthday party for one of Emma's sweet friends at church, and David & Jarod {a friend of ours from church} were talking and somehow the idea was thrown out for our church to have an adult/family mission trip. We go to a fairly new church, and we have never sent a mission team out, much less to another country. The youth group does mission work, and our church is very involved with Fortress, an inner city ministry in Fort Worth, but there seemed to be a growing desire to broaden our horizons. Both us & the Dyers left & started talking, praying & brainstorming about different options. Our families met together one night for dinner to talk about this more, and to talk about if we really thought we could pull this off. One of David's roommates from his time at ACU, Cameron Hartsell, has lived in Honduras for the past three and a half years and worked as one of the missionaries at Mission Lazarus, so we got in touch with him to get some info about a trip there. Without going into all the details, it was decided that we would go, a date was set, and the year of prep work was begun. Between us, the Dyers, and the rest of our team, there were many, many hours put into planning, organizing, shopping, and packing to be ready to head out on July 21st. We really could not have done it with the prayers and support from our Lakeside family, as well as so many other family members and friends from all over. So a HUGE thank you to all of you who helped make this dream come to reality. 

Our team met at the church on Saturday morning at 3:00 AM {yes, it was very early & we were all very tired, but so excited.} There was a surprising number of church members there to pray for us & send us off. We arrived at the airport, thinking that early getting checked in and through security would be a breeze. Ha! Think again, it really still amazes me that we did not miss our flight. God was definitely watching out for us from the beginning. From there, the rest of the day of traveling went perfectly. 

 Once we arrived in Tegucigalpa, got through customs & got all {thankfully!!} of our luggage, we grabbed a bite to eat in the airport before starting the four hour drive to Mission Lazarus' ranch.

 We had rental trucks to drive, and oh my-the feeling of being in a very, very different world began!

The driving & streets there are cra-zy! Really, there are no "rules" on the road, it's every man for himself. Yikes! Thankfully, out of the many miles & hours spent driving over the course of the week there were no problems {other than hitting one dog}.

 From Tegu it was about a 3 to 4 hour drive up to the mountains where Mission Lazarus is based out of.

There is some of the most beautiful countryside there. The rolling hills & mountains were amazing and breathtaking. But it's so sad to see all of the extreme poverty in the midst of the beauty. 

Mission Lazarus has a great set up. We stayed in cabins, and although rustic, all very nice. We ate really good food there all week, and it was definitely a beautiful & nice place to relax every evening after a hard day of working.

More to come soon...