Reunions, Rest, and Rain

It had been two years since our last visit to Honduras, so we were super excited to be reunited with our friends! Our first stop was a small town called Roma located east of La Ceiba. There we met Jason and Sarah Furrow and their three beautiful children (and Jason’s parents too). Jason and Sarah run a Christian orphanage ministry called Give Hope 2 Kids (givehope2kids.org) which has been serving in Honduras for more than 13 years. We were living in Honduras when they started the orphanage and have loved watching it grow and grow (just like the kids) every year! It was a great visit and we were able to hear the exciting plans and see the construction for expanding the ministry.

Next stop was back to La Ceiba to visit Earl and Sharon Washburn. During the six years I worked at Instituto El Rey (ierschool.org) they served as the school administrators, teachers, and so much more. The name of the school translates as ‘Institute of The King’ (as in Jesus, not Elvis:). Earl and Sharon now work with high school students who also board with them. It was so great to reconnect with them and see how involved they continue to be in the lives of Honduran youth. We also had the opportunity to go to church services with them and introduce them to our new friends Jim and Carol (a motorcycling couple we met in Baja, Mexico). They are also on a trip to South America. After meeting up with them providentially several times, we invited them to visit our friends’ ministries and they were excited to do so.

From there we hit the dirt and headed up the mountain towards our old home in Las Mangas accompanied by Jim and Carol on their motorcycles. When we reached Las Mangas we visited with Larry and Allison’s adopted son Joel and the family temporarily caring for him (Larry and Allison were sadly, for us, on sabbatical in the U.S. during our visit). We also had a chance to spend time with Melvin and Ana, two former IER students who are both now doctors and also husband and wife! We couldn’t stay too long since we needed to arrive at the village of Rio Viejo (where IER and the Jungle Hospital are located) before dark. About 30 minutes later the road conditions worsened quite a bit, but we all made it safely to the school where we were generously hosted by Dave and Cindy Sharpless for a whole week!

Dave and Cindy are the current administrators of IER and like Earl and Sharon also teach, do construction, maintenance and whatever else is needed to keep the school running. For the next week we visited the school and the hospital (where Sharon worked) and just enjoyed sharing life together with friends. Because the IER and the Jungle Hospital (junglehospital.com) are across the street from each other we were able to spend many hours just hanging out and hearing about current affairs and future dreams. We were extra blessed that our visit was not during a medical brigade so we were able to spend quality time with Dr. Martin and his wife Wendy. Sharon was so pleased and excited to see the how the hospital continues to grow and thrive. It touched her heart so much. Our visit also coincided with Mother’s Day, which is a big event (even at the high school level) in Latin America, and enjoyed a school program that featured dances, songs, plays, and even puppets!

From Rio Viejo we drove farther up the dirt road to the last village, Urraco, where Give Hope 2 Kids main orphanage is located. This is also the place where Sharon and I are planning to live when we return to Honduras next year. Sharon would like to open an extension clinic here to provide another point of access for health care in coordination with the Jungle Hospital. My plans are more open ended, but I have little doubt that there will be plenty of needs that God has prepared for me by the time I arrive. We were able to spend two more nights with Jason and Sarah here – talking, planning and dreaming together (including possible future home building sites for us)! We also enjoyed watching another Mother’s Day celebration with the orphans, the house parents, and their many children. It was so great to be home in Honduras again!

From here we headed back down the mountain, about a two hour drive, to La Ceiba where we spent one more night with Earl before leaving for Valle de Angeles to see our friend Gustavo and meet his ‘new’ family. They aren’t really new, but since we have not seen Gustavo in 13 years they are new to us! We were so excited to finally meet Gustavo’s wonderful wife Julia and his three children (and good to see Gustavo again after so many years). But like all deep friendships; it felt like hardly any time had passed at all since we had last been together. We shared stories and caught up with each others lives as best we could in the few days we had. Gustavo works with Agua Viva Ministries (aguavivaonline.org) which helps villages install water systems and introduce the Gospel of Jesus.

Our next stop was Casa La Joya in Nicaragua. This is a vacation rental home that our friends Dr. Dan and his wife Jeannie have worked on for years. They are also fellow Melbourne Community Church members from our church in Florida. They were very generous to offer us a stay there when they found out we would be passing through Nicaragua and we were VERY happy to accept. The timing was perfect for us in so many ways and we took full advantage of a time to rest up before our final push to Panama City. By rest up I mean that Sharon worked on planning and I worked on photos and the blog for large chunks of the day. But we could not have chosen a more beautiful place to do it from – it is an absolutely gorgeous location (see photos). We were also thankful to have a roof over our heads since it rained almost nonstop our entire stay! But we didn’t mind a bit, and neither did the troop of monkeys we saw on our daily walks.

I would like to say the sun started shining the day we left Casa La Joya for a four day push to Panama City…but it would be an enormous lie. It rained and rained and rained some more. Add in two more border crossings and an encounter with some traffic police that the Lord decided to save us from completely. And so we are abundantly grateful to be in Panama City awaiting our June 4^th sailing date to Columbia! More about that in the next update…

Sincerely blessed in our friendships,

Chris and Sharon

p.s. – The reason we have traveled so quickly through most of Central America is because we plan to move back to Honduras next year.  So, all of Central America will be ‘nearby’ for us soon :)!