Day Six

I will never forget this day.

This is Scott. I don't even know how to begin to explain the day we had today in Honduras. I'll just start at the beginning.

Every morning here I wake up and leave before the rest of our group with one of our guides, Leslie. This morning was no different but as we were pulling out of the parking lot of our hotel we heard a loud pop and then the truck would not turn. All four bolts had broken off the steering box and the truck was stuck.

God is so very gracious. The last bolt could have easily popped off going around a corner on a dirt road sending the truck into a tree. Buck used the image of a guardian angel holding the last bolt in place until we finally made it back to the hotel. It was disappointing that the bolt broke, but it couldn't have happened at a better place.

So before 7:00 we were already down one vehicle. Our other guide, Mike, stayed back with the truck to wait for the mechanic and I took the van and head to our work site in Balfate with the rest of the team. The hour long trip to Balfate was uneventful other than having to squeeze three more people into the van than it was designed to hold.

Once we got to the work site things were going well. Our Honduran brothers were working on some more of the advanced needs while we began to fill the church in with dirt. Lots and lots of dirt.

Things were going really well in the morning but then it started to rain. And not just a light rain, but a fairly torrential downpour. The rain turned all of the dirt we had shoveled into red, wet clay that caked to our shoes like mud made from paprika.

Even though the rain mostly halted work on the building, we were still able to run VBS for the children. There were a lot of kids today and we had a great day singing songs, watching puppets and making a craft.

I have more pictures and videos of the work site and VBS but the good WiFi has stopped working and all I have to work with is the bad WiFi and it takes too long to upload stuff. And I haven't even told you about the most insane part of the day.

During the day Mike had returned with the repaired truck so we switched vehicles back. I left before the rest of the team with Leslie, two of our Honduran sisters, Paige and Kim. We left early to do some shopping for some items that we needed. Things ride back was going well until we saw this.

With so much rain during the day, it had washed out this portion of the road. We were pretty much stuck with a lot of people. Leslie called Mike and we waited an hour for the rest of the group to join us. Once we were all together we decided to wait for the river to go down before trying to cross.

While we were waiting to cross, we saw some pretty amazing things. The people gathered around the river, on both sides, really banded together in order to help each other out. People were directing cars who were trying to pass. There was one truck with four-wheel drive that was just going back and forth, towing cars across the river.

We even got in on the communal spirit when some cars got stuck in the river. Jon, Buck, Tim, Brian and I hopped in the river at different points to help push cars through the river.

After waiting two hours, we decided that it was time to cross. Mike was driving the van and it made it through without any problems. I was driving a 4x4 truck so I needed to two Buck's car, a Toyota Yaris. We made it through the river (I have great video but can't wait an hour for it to upload) and safely to the other side.

Almost safely, though.

The Yaris' radiator was a casualty of the river crossing. The Yaris leaked all of its coolant but we were able to get it to a gas station where it will hopefully stay until we can get it fixed tomorrow.

Tommy, who has come down 7 or 8 times, couldn't remember having a day like we did today in Honduras. It was rather eventful and could have been frustrating. Everyone had a good attitude, though, and we all have some great stories to take home with us.

Today really helped us see God's hand on this trip. 

I am terrified to think what could have happened had the truck broken down somewhere else.

Even though the weather has set us back, it's important to remember that with or without rain, we couldn't lay a single brick for the church building without God.

It was awesome to see people from different backgrounds and nations and communities banding together to help each other out. The river was our common enemy and we worked together to slay it.

Simply making it across the river without any harm was amazing. God is so good. A broken radiator is much better than a broken bone.

God has been with us this trip and we know it's in part because of your prayers. So, as always, please continue to pray for us and know that your prayers over the past week were definitely cashed in today.