Trust and obey…a Honduras adventure

Toncontin Airport - Tegucigalpa, Honduras  - taken 6/28/2019

Honduras is a beautiful country filled with amazing people. Our church started going to Honduras in the early 2000’s. I’ve been blessed to go on almost a dozen mission trips to New Life Children’s Home in Jalaca. God is in that place. I love when I get the chance to go down there and serve. Recently, I was going through an old journal looking for a drawing based on Mark 4 and the parable of the four soils. As I was looking I came across an entry about one of our adventures in Honduras. I don’t journal regularly. However, I do like to write things down that I want to remember. And I am thankful that I wrote down this story while it was fresh on my mind. It is a great story of God’s love and provision. And a reminder that in challenging times we are to trust God in all things, even if it doesn’t seem like it’s going to work out. So here is my journal entry from June 2019. (Side note: this is the year I forgot the Texas Ranger blanket that was gifted to me by one of the best people in the world, Trinity. But that’s a story for another day.)

HONDURAS 2019
”There has been a lot of political unrest in Honduras over the last year. People have been protesting against the president. A few weeks before the 1st team left [for Honduras] there was an incident and a bunch of tires got burned at the front door of the American Embassy. Team 1 had no problems [when the got in country].”

'“Team 2 (my team), was set to leave on Friday, June 28th. On the 27th, we were in Houston and we got a text that the airport in Tegucigalpa was going to be closed the next day. My heart dropped. Shortly after that we got an update on our flight that it would be delayed 2 hours. Turns out that June 28, 2009 was the day of a military coup that removed the president. So we were flying out on the 10 year anniversary. There were talks of protests. I really didn’t know if we were going to make it to Honduras. My mind was flooded with ideas and options. Do we wait in Houston until the next day? How many days do we wait? Would they really close the airport? What if we couldn’t go and what if team 1 couldn’t leave?”

“So we slept. My stomach was upset the next morning because I really didn’t think we would make it. We got ready and we were waiting on the shuttle and we had prayed that morning. God brought Proverbs 3:5-6 to my mind.

‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.’”

“I was so worried about what we were going to do when things didn’t work out that I wasn’t consulting the Lord. I was praying but it was about what to do. God reminded me (very loudly and clearly) that my role is to trust Him. I need to leave the details and outcome to Him. If we don’t go then He has a plan for us. Trust. Lean. Acknowledge. I wasn’t doing any of these. So my mindset and attitude shifted.”

“We went to the airport. Cleared ticketing and security in like 30 minutes. Still delayed. Got to the terminal and ate. Still delayed. Departure time got moved back several more times. Then, we loaded the plane around noon. We took off and headed for Tegucigalpa. Great flight. Half empty plane. We were able to land in Tegucigalpa! The airport had closed for the morning because of the 10 year anniversary. There was a LARGE police force there. Other flights had been cancelled.”

“Now, would we make it through customs with all the pet meds?! Last year we got stopped and lost most of our medicine. This year we tried to get paperwork handled but the lawyer on the Honduras side dropped the ball. We cleared customs and got all our bags easily. We went through security and didn’t stop us at all. We looked at each other and were like, ‘Let’s go!’ We got outside to Ron. Then we walked through probably over 100 police officers, some in riot gear.”

“Not sure all God did to make it all happen but He did it! He made it happen. Did He cause the police presence and tension to help us get through? Did He blind the agents and they didn’t see our medications? Idk..but God did it! Praise the Lord! We don’t know what God has for us each and every day. My job is to trust that He is in control and leave the outcome to Him.”