Arrival at the Ranch

Today's post will be by team member Barry Dowdy. Barry is an elder of the church and one of the ones at St Andrews who has completed seminary requirements on his way to being a Commissioned Ruling Elder (CRE). That's the new name for what was previously called Lay Pastor. He has been married to Jayne for 17 years and they have four sons, one of whom, Darren, is on the trip with us. If you've ever spent time with Barry you also know him to be one of the most fun people to be around. He loves the Lord, this church, and serving on these mission teams. Here is his update for today. 

Shot taken today of cathedral in Jutacalpa

How do I start to describe the awesome way God has blessed this trip? After getting a good night's sleep and a hot shower the thing that comes to mind is starting my day in the company of 28 of my new best friends. As the sun came up this morning around 6 am I was already awake and had been for serval hours, this is typically as we are two hours behind our normal time in the USA. We gathered for breakfast at 7 am and opened with prayer lead by a pastor in the group from Georgia that was also staying at the same hotel. We had bananas and watermelon with our eggs, toast and pancakes, topped off with an excellent high-test variety of Honduran coffee. It was so nice to causally talk about the coming events and not having to worry about the phone ringing or getting ready for work!

We gathered all our baggage and snack stuff from our rooms to put on the bus before we walked around the downtown area to do some site seeing. We were told this city - Jutacalpa - has 75,000 people in it, but it was Sunday morning so traffic was light and most people appeared dressed for Church. We stopped by a large Catholic Church (photo above) and took a quick peek inside. Julie and Brett Phillips renewed their vows to each other after picking up some local rings from a nearby vendor. I witnessed this private moment in the company of 300 people. Jayne and I shared this same reaffirmation last year. It was very special moment for them as they came here together to share the love of Christ on another continent.

The whole group gathered into the bus for the four-hour journey across some of God's most beautiful countryside and we were not disappointed. Even though you get jostled like a Ping pong ball at times on the secondary roads one can still enjoy the green farm laden valleys and picturesque mountain views. I have seen these same roads for the last five years but they still hold my attention as I can see the growth of this country's infrastructure. It appears their economy is improving as paved roads continue to extend further out into the more rural areas.

The Honduran people are so friendly and accommodating to us. Marta, our HOI leader and the staff at the ranch had lunch prepared for us upon our arrival and we enjoyed another round of pollo (chicken) and rice. All the supplies that were donated and purchased made it through the airport and to the ranch so we spent time unpacking and organizing all of it. The 100 buckets for the water filters were delivered and I have begun to drill holes in them so we can install the filters by Wednesday so they can be loaded on the truck for delivery to the village. Thanks again of all who donated!

I will close for now as we just got back from a tour of the base camp aka the ranch and we will probably have to go eat more food as it's almost dinner time. The ranch takes good care of us and makes sure we are well fed. It is truly a blessing to be here and I can't wait to see what God has in store for us tomorrow.

Note: The people of St. Mary's church who are on our team are also blogging. If you want to see their posts, CLICK HERE.