Adventures in Honduras

Five of us, Maria Lopez, Liz Peppiatt, Natalie Mantai, Astrid Emmerich, and myself (Ted Hogan) left Choluteca on sunday to travel to Yamaguila and then up a mountain via donkey to Agua Caliente. An indigenous people group, the Lenca, live up there. We were like the United Nations of the Kingdom of God going there. One person born In Mexico, one person born in the United Kingdom, one person born in Russia, one person born in Germany, and one person born in the United States. It sounded easy enough when we were talking about going the day before but, to say the least, it wasn't easy. It was definitely worth it though. There is a quote from Soul Surfer that I love, "I don't need easy, I just need possible." This was definitely true for this five day adventure.

House in the Lenca village of Agua Caliente

We left Choluteca for a five hour drive that ended up taking over seven hours. Twenty kilometers into our drive our vehicle, "Overflow", was running even worse then normal. We pulled over and prayed for the Holy Spirit's direction. We pulled over two more times, once when the engine stopped as we were driving, and another when there was no steering and we heard a noise. Each time we prayed and pushed through asking the Holy Spirit to lead us. This was going to me a common theme, pushing through and listening to the Holy Spirit, for every facet of our five day journey.

We arrived sunday afternoon at Yamaguila and were blessed by an amazing ministery, Mercy International, led by Henry. We had lunch there and then decided to push on to Agua Caliente. Before leaving, we wanted to pray for the youth who were having a worship service. These are kids who have troubled homes. I thought to myself, we have fifteen minutes to do that, before driving two more hours in "Overflow" and then traveling three more hours up a mountain via donkey before it got to dark. Well.....the Holy Spirit had other plans for us. Three hours later, after prophesying, praying, and a fire tunnel for the fifty or so youth, we left at 7 pm for Agua Caliente. Twenty minutes later we were calling the staff from Mercy International for help because "Overflow" wasn't running right and we were sliding toward the side of the mountain due to muddy roads. I officially got the vehicle stuck in the mud on the way back to the base and had many from the community help us get out of the mud. To say the least, it wasn't an easy day, but worth it seeing those youth touched by God.

Bus taken to San Pedrito

Monday, we dropped off "Overflow" to the mechanic and set off on our now three hour bus ride to San Pedrito. If you've never been on a public bus in a Latin America country going up a mountain on a muddy road over sketchy bridges, I highly recommend it. We arrived in San Pedrito at 4pm and were met by Bengido one of our contacts. Most of us, 3 of the 5, wanted to push on through up the mountain that night to Agua Caliente. Then Bendigo asked us a profound question. What's your objective going up there? For me, our objective, was to push through that night till we got to our destination. Maria told him that we wanted to go house to house praying for the Lenca people, loving them, and telling them about Jesus. That was what I wanted to do but now was unsure if it was worth it to push through at night. We would only have four or five hours to minister up there anyways. The team was split on what to do. We finally made a decision to stay and minister in San Pedrito for the rest of monday and all of tuesday. There was a need there just as much as Agua Caliente. We had to get back to the rest of the team in Choluteca by wednesday night so we had limited time. When we told Bengido we were staying, he said, they are expecting you up in Agua Caliente. We looked at each other and didn't say a word. Would have been nice to know that little bit of info before we had this trying ordeal of coming to a resolution on what to do. That morning before our meeting, I heard the Holy Spirit say "unity and team." I told everyone but had no idea the depth of it.

Our gear getting transported up to Agua Caliente

Our three hour hike up the muddy trail to Agua Caliente

We headed up the mountain just before 5pm. We had three donkeys for the five of us. We used two of them two carry our gear and the other one we rode on. It took us about three hours to get to Agua Caliente. The first hour or so there was light to see. Henry, from Mercy International, told us the hike is uphill both ways. He was true to his word. There was very little flat area. The last hour of the three our hike was in darkness with a flashlights that didn't illuminate very well in muddy unstable thick dirt on a cloudy moonless night. We finally arrived at our destination. A community of thirty-five Lenca families who lived with no running water or electricity. It wasn't easy, but worth it as we pushed through and listened to the Holy Spirit to the best of our abilities.

Going house to house in the muddy village praying for the sick and telling them about Jesus

Tuesday we woke up to the sound of rain hitting the metal siding roof of the worship center we were sleeping in. This provoked most of us to pray for it to stop since we were going to go trampling in the mud spreading the gospel house to house and then hike down the mountain on the already muddy path. Over a course of five hours, we went to seven of the thirty-five homes, including our host for Agua Caliente, Bernardo. Bernardo and his family are one of only three families that went to the church established there by Mercy International. There hasn't been a service there for a few months because they no longer have a pastor there. Nine adults gave there life to Jesus and over ten children as we went house to house. We prayed for many people and one ladies back was healed of long standing pain. It was a life changing time for us. There are at least two more communities, Agua Dulce and Santa Barbara, of Lenca people above where we were that need to hear about Jesus.

Lenca family

Wearily, we headed down the mountain. We had been pushing it since early sunday. We arrived back in San Pedrito at 4pm and had just enough time to eat and rest till we were to do the 6pm service. One woman gave her life to the Lord in the small budding church and as we prayed for the people two men received healing: knee pain healed and another man had neck/back pain healed.

We had more problems with the vehicle on wednesday which the mechanic told us could not be driven but made it back on thursday, Thanksgiving day. For me, it was totally appropriate to come back on a day of thanksgiving. To say the least, this five day adventure in Honduras wasn't easy , but ...........

Expedition Impossible: Guatemala Version

     This summer I watched a reality series called Expedition Impossible. It was located in Morrocco. The teams would do these impossible missions competing against each other. They were from all different backgrounds, ages, and one guy was even blind (Erik Weihenmayer). I thought to myself, while eating cookies and potato chips on the couch, that these people are crazy. For me to do what they are doing, would require a really good prize. It looked emotionally and physically draining. I told myself I would never to something like that, forgetting that I was going to be gone for a year long missionary journey that was physically, emotionally, and spiritually draining with a prize too great to even dream about. 

     In Guatemala, the team decided that we wanted to climb a volcano and roast marshmallows at the top. Let me explain something about a few of the people on Iris's Latin America trip. They love adventure! One guy wants to wrestle a crocodile and was actively looking for one in a crocodile infested river in Belize. In Quatemala, some of the guys were driving to a crocodile infested pond in Tikal to wrestle them. I went just to be one of the guys but had no plans to get even close to one. Most of us have a heart for the unreached and will go anywhere to find them. So climbing up a volcano and roasting marshmallows seemed fun and adventurous. It never seems as hard to do something when you are on a couch eating cookies and potato chips. You never really no how out of shape you are until you challenge yourself. Two months of sleeping in a tent or the suburban and traveling in uncomfortable vehicles for 6-12 hours with little to no exercise doesn't help.

    There were a few Volcanos to choose from in the area we were travelling to. One was called Agua, another Fuego. We chose Pacaya after talking to a local. Pacaya is an active volcano, which first erupted approximately 23,000 year ago and has erupted at least 23 times since the Spanish conquest of Guatemala. Pacaya rises to an elevation of 8,373 ft. We started the climb at about 6,000 ft. The last eruption, according to wikipedia, was on May 27, 2010 causing ash to rain down on Guatemala City and Antigua. When we got back to the orphanage we were staying at, we could see smoke billowing out of Pacaya.

Inside Pacaya

The halfway point up Pacaya. The top of Pacaya in the background.

It looks like I'm smiling but it's really a wince in pain.

Same wince with something unusual happening to my chest. I might need a bra.

     So, that was our adventure in Guatemala. I would say half the team made it up Pacaya. A couple of my teammates rode a horse halfway up, they were the wise ones. It was a good test for us and especially me. I told myself that I deserved to feel they way I do for letting myself go. Halfway up the volcano, we decided we needed to workout more if we were ever going to reach the unreached in the jungles of who knows where. Climbing up it was interesting. There was a portion that was very treacherous that you could not get a foothold in. You would just slide down every time you took a step up. There were these kids selling hiking poles for 5 quetzales or about .75 cents at the base of the volcano. I didn't want one. For what I thought?!  Did they think I was some stupid tourist needing a stick, I mumbled to myself. Let me tell you something. The hiking stick would have come in handy. Guess I am a dumb tourist. :)



Making good times out of bad situations.

This letter was written by Jesse Gellatly in his news letter blog to his supporters. Jesse is one of the leaders, along with his wife Tanya, baby Zoe, and Christian Jung.

        The only transmission mechanic specialist in the whole northern area of Guatemala was able to go find the parts needed to rebuild our transmission. After waiting a week for the repairs we were finally ready to move on to our next destination in Guatemala, an orphanage in a city a day’s drive south of us. After fifty miles our rebuilt transmission went out and only first gear continued working. We called the mechanic who refused to come down and help sort out why his work didn’t work. So with no other options we continued for hundreds of miles in first gear with our caravan of five vehicles and campers. We camped the first night on the way and continued our journey all the following day as well. That evening as we entered a small remote town on the way people gave us directions and we figured that by the map we would make it soon and not have to drive too much at night which we have been frequently warned against here in Guatemala. We soon found ourselves on a small bumpy dirt road climbing mountains. We hoped the roads would turn better but it only got continuously worse for hours into the night. Roads worse than any Africa jungle track we’ve experienced being visited by our two RV’s, SUVs’ pulling tent trailers, and a low riding Buick station wagon.

On the way up this first narrow steep rocky mountain passage one of the trailer tires popped and was wrecked twisted underneath and off the rim. There was no other spare, this was the spare, and the other one had already popped earlier that day. There was no way to turn around, there were not many options other than to pull it on its rim or leave it behind. Ben and I ran up to the vehicles waiting about ¾ miles ahead to get help and tools. Many crazed dogs jumped out from the bushes and chased us the whole way. We threw rocks, even a tire iron but it seemed there were not enough rocks. As we ran up this mountain with dogs barking and growling at our heals every time I turned my head back all we saw was dozens of glowing eyes right behind us from the glare of my head lamp. When we unhitched the other camper to have the Durango taxi us back because the dogs, Taylor and Victor had miraculously fixed the tire. They had found a rock to beat the rim back into shape and some string to tighten the broken tire to the rim and with a can of fix a flat and our small compressor had the trailer ready to go again. I wanted to turn back seeing how it was constantly getting worse and then one young man passing by said it was only forty minutes further to the next small town. . Many hours later we realized he was wrong.

We winded back and forth up and down steep mountain slopes. The road was often muddy and slippery on the edge of high steep cliffs. The drivers had to stay very alert especially because of many areas where the road had fallen off as a landslide over the cliff. Sometimes the danger was so high because of drop offs on both sides of the road that I even had all the passengers exit the motor home and walk and I drove solo because of high chance of vehicle plummeting over the edge. We noticed that the rear vehicles had stopped again and I got out walking back to them. Just then Gillian comes running up the mountain towards us shouting, “Come quick! The vehicle is falling off a cliff.” We ran down to find that the Suburban pulling a tent trailer was on the edge of a cliff stuck with the soft edge breaking away underneath. With all the manpower we could muster we tried to push the vehicle forward and back onto the road but the tires just spun sending the vehicle nearer to no return. We unhooked the trailer and were able to get the vehicle along back on the road and then with everyone working together we lifted the trailer and pushed it up a steep hill to where we could find traction and reconnect it. We were successful; How? I honestly don’t know.

It was in the middle of the night and we didn’t think we could endure anymore but locals warned us not to stay the night in those mountains because it was not safe. Everything was flying everywhere in the motor homes and people got injured just by falling objects and falling down. The bottoms of the vehicles were hitting the bumps so often with no way to avoid it, not being able to stop in the muddy holes. We completely wrecked our sewage tank unrepairably meaning no working toilet in our RV unless we find new sewage tanks for sale somewhere. We finally arrived in the middle of the night surprised that we had made it and found a rundown hotel full of roaches and mildew. As soon as we had made it down the last steep mountain and entered into this old town the brakes in our motor home and the station wagon over heated and stopped working. If that had happened a few minutes earlier we wouldn’t be here writing the story. But God allowed it to happen once we arrived in this town to show us that He had been with us the whole time protecting us. We slept okay regardless of the gunfire and horns blowing, and other strange noises. In the midst of all the dangerous and stressful circumstances, most all of our team had great attitudes and joy.

We are overjoyed to be missionaries and these last couple days reminded us of many similar experiences around the world that we have had while carrying this Gospel to the darkest places. It is all worth it from eternity’s perspective! We are now at the orphanage making it by mid-afternoon on our third day of travel. We have a transmission mechanic coming tomorrow to look at the Durango. Pray he is better than the last one. We hope to be heading over the border to El Salvador within the next couple days. Please keep all of our team in your prayers.

Mayan Ruins in Tikal

The largest preserved Mayan city in all of Latin America is in Tikal not too far from the Belize border. These ruins are also the tallest of the Mayan temples. For hundreds of years the Mayans would perform human sacrifes at these temples in order to appease their so-called "gods." Our Iris Latin America team felt led to hike to the top of the tallest temple to take communion and worship Jesus. We did just that. We only had corn tortillas to use for Christ's body and Gatorade to use for Christ's blood, but nonetheless, we took communion together. As we did this, our whole team could sense a shift taking place in the heavenly realms. It was as if God was waiting for His children to come and remember the body and blood of Christ in that very place, which not only covers sin and things detestable in the sight of God, but literally takes them away. We believe that an exchange took place today; the blood of Christ which was poured out for the sins of many for the blood of humans which was spilt in vain to please demons. (written by Christian Jung)