LMR Carol Johnson: Missions Trip to Honduras
A 2010 missions trip was scheduled with our church, Griffin Center Point, to return to Rio Colorado, Honduras, to finish work on the children’s wing of a medical clinic addition to a church we built in 2009. The missionaries, Sue and Don Boyer, had arranged for us to do a Vacation Bible School at one of the local schools. There was only one problem for me: money! I have been on six missions trips before, but this time I didn’t have the $1100 that was required for the trip. My heart was pounding with a feeling of “go”. One of my sons, a veteran of 27 missions trips, always said that money should never stand in your way when it comes to missions, and that God would provide. I decided to send an e-mail to the church directory, offering to bake cakes to raise money for the trip. The next week I received a card from a young man in Minnesota. He had attended Griffin Center Point for a short time before work took him away, but was still on the e-mail list. In the card was a check for $1,000. He said he had been praying for God to show him where to sow the seed that was in his hand. Orders for about 40 cakes also came in, which supplied every need for the trip. My son was right. Once in Honduras, we would take a one-hour bus ride up the mountain to Rio Colorado and the beautiful Lenca Indian people every morning. Each trip up the mountain would start with the men quickly putting the roof on the new building.
We found out that a school higher up the mountain was one that had never been visited by a missions team. What a wonderful opportunity God provided for us. We loaded the bus and started out for our first day of VBS. After a few miles, the bus driver stopped, got out and came back shaking his head. The rains from the day left the road impassable. He said we’d never make it. All the ladies agreed that God wanted us to go to these children and that we all had two feet! We started walking toward the school dragging our suitcases of VBS materials with us. When we reached the children, it was worth the walk.
We were able to spend three days with them doing crafts, singing songs, telling stories and ending with games, prizes, clowns, candy, and passing out school supplies.
It’s been ten months since that trip, but very few days go by without me thinking of the babies on the mountain. When it’s cold and I’m lying in my warm comfortable bed, I am suddenly aware that they are hundreds of miles away lying on a dirt floor and my heart breaks all over again. I pray for them. I pray that the seed sown during those days will grow and bring them to a saving knowledge of Jesus. I can then rest again, because I remember that Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. That includes the babies on the mountain in Rio Colorado.
