Celebrations

Boy did I have a great weekend!  The annual conference of the Diocese of Honduras was to be held in Tela at Espiritu Sancto Church on Saturday. May has been a pretty brutal month with a lot of planning for upcoming groups, the installation of a new computer lab at San Juan School in Siguatepeque, plans for the new school building at San Juan, retrieval of a large medical shipment that has been held up at customs for 3 months, and a ridiculous amount of travel all coupled with a nasty respiratory infection I’ve had for over three weeks.  I needed a break.  So I took off to Tela on Friday. 

I arrived at Ceasar Marisco’s Hotel on Friday afternoon and it was like showing up unexpectedly at a family reunion.  “ Ah! Meester Bob!”  Lots of hugs and kisses all around.  Tela is where my love affair with Honduras began and all the people at the hotel where St. John’s mission group has stayed for the last four or five years just love me.  After a little car trouble where the entire staff joined in to help, I was able to settle into my room and later spent some time with a Salva Vida at the pool.  Dinner at the hotel with fried shrimp with coconut was as wonderful as usual.  Went to bed early and went right to sleep.

Saturday morning I had breakfast on the beach and was having my second cup of coffee on the balcony overlooking the weekend activity when there was a knock on my door.  “Meester Bob, someone is looking for you.”   Ana Reid had arrived.  Ana is an area coordinator for short-term mission teams in the Omoa, Puerto Cortez area and a very dear friend of mine.  She had arrived along with her mother, a friend from San Pedro Sula and a friend named Maria from Omoa, who I love.  It was too early for them to check in, so we put their bags in my room and Ana and I took off to the conference.

The conference was very well attended and I was able to catch up with many of the priests I have worked with over the past year and many of the delegates whom I’ve worked with as well.  Lots of love there on Saturday.  Everyone was in pretty good spirits and the conference went well.  It ended at four and Ana and I returned to the hotel, caught up with her crew and got everyone checked in.  I was resting in the pool when Ana’s mother came up rubbing her belly, “we’re hungry.”  So I took them to one of favorite spots for dinner.  It is called Maya Vista and is a French Canadian Restaurant /Hotel built way up on a hill over looking Tela Bay.  Ana had never been there before.  We had a beautiful dinner and a great bottle of Argentinian wine while enjoying each other’s company and a fantastic breeze.  They enjoyed it very much, which did my heart good.  We returned to the hotel where a huge wedding was taking place on the beach.  Very entertaining and then off to bed.

Sunday morning Ana and I had breakfast with Steve Robinson who is to become the new administrator for the Episcopal schools in Honduras.  He and his wife will be moving here in July.  I had never had much of a chance to talk to him before and I was very impressed.  We talked about the new building at San Juan School, which is supposed to finished mid August.  I don’t have the final plans yet and I’m not clear as to whether or not we have the money to build it, so I’ve been a little anxious about that.  Steve gave me some assurances, which helped.

We dressed up and went to church and it was just great. The Church was all decorated for Pentecost Sunday with red balloons and white doves on the ends of the pews and big star shaped metallic red balloons at the front of the church.  The place was packed.  The Bishop gave a great sermon about how none of us are perfect.  The church is not perfect.  But God loves us in our imperfection and he loves the church.  The people were very engaged.  We celebrated Eucharist together and then the party started.  Pentecost Sunday is the birthday for Espiritu Sancto.  101 years old this year.  Big birthday cakes were carried to the front of the church by two young women, followed by Omar, a young friend from the school, and a buddy of his who had, what I thought, were rolls of wrapping paper.  We sang happy birthday to the church and at the end of the singing, Omar and his buddy pushed a button in the bottom of the tubes and they shot confetti over half the congregation.  Lots of laughter and applause!   We ate cake after church and I caught up with my wonderful Doña Maria, who must be 100 years old by now, and a lot of the church members who I have known for years.

After church, we changed clothes and I took Ana and her crew out to Triumpho de la Cruz, a Garifina village 20 minutes out of town.  We tracked down a place on the beach for lunch, picked out the fish we wanted and then settled into a wonderful thatch roofed hut and relaxed in the breeze.  It was great.  Lunch arrived awhile later.  I had a whale hanging off both ends of the platter with fried plantains and enselada.  We ate until we couldn’t eat anymore and the ladies handed their plates off to some little boys who were playing near by.  I was last to finish and my plate went to an elderly woman who we learned didn’t have any children and sometimes went days without anything to eat.   That plate came back to the table completely cleaned.  Even the fish bones were gone.  She was happy.

After lunch, our cook, Moni, came to the table.  I thought she was just going to deliver the check, but she pulled up a chair sat down.  We talked to her about the community and her family.  We talked about their water supply and the health of the community.  It was all good.  She said they had had an increase in teenage pregnancy and I asked what she thought had led to that.  She said it was lack of teaching and discipline.  She said she ruled in her house.  She said she gave a whipping to one of her sons when he was thirty years old.  She was hilarious and we laughed until my face hurt.  We visited with Moni for about an hour and then a friend of hers showed up with a big basket of bread on her head.  The garifuna women are known for their pan de coco.  This woman was big.  She was tall and had the most prominent cheek bones I’ve ever seen and a smile that was absolutely contagious!  She said that she had put both her sons through engineering school in Tegucigalpa with her bread making.  That’s a lot of bread!

We spent most of the afternoon there.  It was beautiful.  Moni insisted on walking us to our car and we made it back to the hotel where Ana and friends prepared for their return trip to Omoa, and I was showered and in the bed at 8:00.

This morning, the one year anniversary of my moving to Honduras, I awoke early to sunshine and the sound of the surf.  By 6:00,  I was on the beach.  I walked and swam for about an hour with a heart full of thanksgiving.  The water was perfect and I swam for a long time.  I haven’t been able to swim since the last time I was in Tela a year ago and it felt great.  I ate breakfast and checked out.

On my way out of town, I stopped at the church in hopes of visiting Olga, the priest, who I have known for a long time.  I hardly had a chance to speak to her Saturday or Sunday.  We visited for over an hour.  We talked about our challenges and how with each day we have a choice to make.  Each day is a day that the Lord has made, and we have a choice to “rejoice and be glad in it” or to stress over the challenges we face.  We agreed that challenges are blessings because they provide us with an opportunity to learn to trust in God, who never fails to show up and answer when we turn to Him.  There was no formal prayer, but the time we spent together was a prayer in itself and I loved every minute of it.  Olga is woman of God and she is doing great work with the church and the school.  I love Olga, and I love Tela.

I headed back to Siguatepeque with a truck full of mosquitoes, who were equally glad to see me.  But even they and that crooked road sign that sent me off in the wrong direction for an hour a half, and the subsequent hour and a half back, did nothing to quench the joy and thanksgiving I had from the weekend in Tela.  It was a beautiful afternoon for a drive and I like my friend Rick Harlow always said, “You’re not lost until you run out of gas” which I didn’t, thank God.  I made it home before dark, which is always important.

So I have been here for a year.  If you were to ask me how it’s been, the first word that comes to mind is “difficult.”  There have been a lot of challenges.  Spanish is still a challenge, though I’m getting better at it.  North Americans’ sense of time is totally opposite from that of the Hondurans who seldom see any great need to hurry up and plan for anything.  As far as my job goes, I’ve been winging it.  It’s like learning how to swim by being thrown off the bridge.  I sometimes work very long hours and the technology challenge is ever present.  But I have also been blessed.  Thanks to St. John’s, for the first time in my life, I don’t worry about money anymore.  I have a great little place that is safe.  I have a huge amount of friends and I get to work with some outstanding Christians, both North American and Honduran.  I pray every day to be channel for God’s love in the world, and in return, it seems everyone here loves me!  I have been protected through all of my traveling.  I think my guardian angel is probably a work-a-holic.  I’ve been given everything I need when I need it.  And I have learned that having to wait for it is a blessing, for the waiting provides us with time to rest in God’s presence and grow our faith.  I’ve learned that when I’m struggling, I need to recognize that the struggle is of my own making.  I recognize that my faith is floundering when I’m trying to do everything on my own and that leads to struggle.  I’ve learned that I need to think more about pleasing God, rather than people and that it is not my job to make other people happy.  I’m very blessed.

Thanks to Bishop Allen for giving me this opportunity and to all of my Honduran friends who look out for me and love me.  And many thanks to the people of St. John’s Montgomery who continue to support me financially and with their prayers.  I can’t thank you enough.  I’m living my dream and I’m a happy boy!

Now may God bless you and keep you and make His light to shine upon you. 

Love you all,  Bob