A Day of Rest & Shopping

Finally, a Day of Rest

July 3, 2004

Today is Sunday and the kitchen staff at the Mission House had the day off.  That meant that we all had to eat breakfast from the food we brought with us.  Luckily, they did leave us some of the wonderful coffee that we have come to love so much.  We loaded up the buses and headed to Los Pinos, one of the local congregations. As always, it was no easy feat to get there.  Part of the ride included steep, rutted dirt roads that at times ran along cliffs.  Luckily it wasn’t raining and we made it just fine.

 We had a beautiful service where they would sing a song in Spanish and then we would sing one in English.  A Columbian student minister from Baxter gave a dynamic sermon from Luke 19.  He talked about how Zacheus overcame obstacles (by climbing up the tree) to find Jesus. He preached that families need to bring Jesus into their homes just like Zacheus did.   After the service, we stood around and visited with the congregation for almost an hour.  The Honduran people always walk around and greet everyone and shake hands with you.

We had a special lunch planned.  Terry had arranged a meal for us at a very nice Honduran restaurant that serves delicious food.  It is called El Patio and the main part of the restaurant is a huge covered patio.  We only had to pay $5.00 and we had the choice of chicken, beef or vegetable shish-kabobs.  I got the chicken and I swear it had ¾ of a chicken on it.  The meal also came with appetizers of chips, salsa, cheese, bean dip, some pickled vegetables, and a plate of different fried things.  It was good, but I wasn’t sure what it all was.

Most of us could only eat about a fourth of our food.  We got our leftovers boxed up and we gave them out to people we saw.

After lunch, we had almost an hour ride out to the Valley of the Angels.  As we drove away from the city, it seemed as if we were going to a more middle class region.  The Valley of the Angels is an old colonial town with cobblestone streets and quaint shops.  Just imagine a Honduran version of Gatlinburg.  We had three hours to look through all of the shops and buy souvenirs if we wanted.  Many people bought pottery, machetes, leather products and other Honduran crafts. 

Those of us wearing Tom's shoes got together to take a picture to submit tothe website.

By them it was 5:30 and we had the choice of taking a bus back to the Mission House or going to the mall for dinner.  Jen Arnold (from the Manna Project) had met us at the Valley of the Angels and she had asked Diane and me to ride to the mall in her truck.  We were still full from our lunches, so we were mainly interested in coffee.

We had our last devo with the main Torch group who will be flying out tomorrow.  It is always sad to say good-bye, but we have made lots of new friends.  We will be taking all but about 20 of us to the airport, and the rest of us will be getting our things ready so that we can leave for Copan on Tuesday.  We have had a great time, but I think it will be nice to work with a small group for a change.  Good-night for now!

Adios, It's late!!!

xoxoPJ