Mission trips have always been a passion in my life. I have been on multiple trips to various places in the United States. Because of this passion, I jumped on the chance Chosen to Shine was given to join the Honduras mission team, with another group in January of 2016. During this trip, I fell in love with Honduras.
Chosen to Shine’s 2017 mission trip was my second time serving in Honduras through World Gospel Outreach. On this trip I fell in love with Honduras even more! The experience was quite different than the first time. Our mission team was comprised of a small group of only six women, and instead of spending the entire week working at medical brigades, only half of the time was dedicated to this, while the other half of time, we were busy with a vacation bible school for the Honduran children.
I loved serving with a small group because we really grew as a community. We left early on New Year’s Day morning. Throughout the week I grew closer to everyone on my team.
I also loved how on this trip we had more interaction with children through the vacation bible school. My passion is to work with children, so this was perfect for me! During this time, I met a family of four whom I completely fell in love with. The oldest of these children was an eleven-year-old named Jennifer. This young girl was basically taking care of her three younger siblings all by herself. It broke my heart to see how much responsibility was being put on these children, and I really just wanted to bring them back home with me!
On the Wednesday of our week, we visited Rancho Ebenezer, which is a children’s ministry of World Gospel Outreach that serves “abandoned, orphaned and displaced children from birth to [eighteen] years of age.” While we were there, we were given a commentated tour of the property. The part that caught my attention the most was Ebenezer Academy, which is the school at Rancho Ebenezer that provides a bilingual Christian education for the kindergarteners through sixth graders. This Academy accepts North American teachers, and I would possibly like to do this someday!
While in Honduras, we sang the song, “God of This City,” by Chris Tomlin, during worship one night. Part of the lyrics read, “For greater things have yet to come. And greater things are still to be done in this city.” Great things have happened in Honduras and greater things ARE still to be done. Every time I hear this song, I think of Honduras and all of the blessings God has poured into the lives of those who live there and all the blessings He continues to and will continue to provide. I would recommend to anyone thinking about going on a mission trip to Honduras to just go; you will not regret it!