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My Trip to Honduras

My Honduras trip has nothing to do with golf, but it was such an amazing experience that I wanted to share it with my friends, peers and people who read our blog.

My Honduras Trip

I am a little overwhelmed coming back from my first (but not my last) trip to Comayagua, Honduras.

Band of Brothers

Will, a great kid

The trip always has the same objectives. The main one is to interact and show love and compassion to the children of the Hogar. The children of the Hogar, for the most part, are all orphans of Honduras. The Hogar was started by Mama Carmen, a truly amazing woman. As I understand it, when Mama Carmen was 19 she was in her first year at a convent studying to be a nun. A woman dropped a couple of children off and said she couldn’t care for them. Not too long after that, Mama Carmen started a home for orphans and was already caring for five children. Today the Hogar takes care of nearly 200 children. The website is www.agcltd.org. The children there were nothing short of amazing. I didn’t know what to really expect, but if they had been there for a while they were open, uninhibited and joyful. You could pick out the ones who were probably not there as long because they were much more guarded. Most of the men had been on multiple trips and had ongoing relationships with the children. Many of the men seemed to know a lot of the children and had put some real time and effort in developing relationships with them.

At first I felt a little left out until a girl named Martha (pronounced Marta) took my hand and showed me around the place. Soon after that I was sitting on a step watching a lot of the children playing when the little girl named Pamela (pronounced Pamila) came over and sat on my lap and started laughing and giggling. (video - 30 sec)

By the end of the trip she had won my heart over and I was trying to figure out how to adopt her. I found out adoption was not possible because of strict Honduran government policies put into effect due to child trafficking.


Pamela	Martha

Also, part of the trip was workforce and help in whatever project was being done. There were two main projects on our visit: painting some rooms at the Hogar and the building of a house as part of a development the Band of Brothers started last year. They have already built three houses. The homes put people to work and all the proceeds go back to the orphanage. I went with the group of men to work on the house all day Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. The first day we helped with the foundation. The second day we completed the foundation and started moving in the mud bricks so that the crew could build the walls. The third day we finished bringing in all the bricks. One time I laid down to take a break, then heard a truck drive up with another load of bricks that needed to be unloaded. We worked fairly hard for about three hours a day, which was pretty tiring, but nothing compared to the guys who are out there 8-10 hours a day. It honestly felt very good to do some labor with other men knowing we were building a home that would benefit a lot of people in the end. (video - 50 sec)

Video of building homes

Something that was also very cool is that there were three dentists on the trip who brought supplies and set up a makeshift clinic. I believe they saw over 200 Honduran people in three days. You can imagine how much help these people need with their teeth.

Another aspect of the trip was doing some sightseeing to learn about Comayagua as well as visit some other organizations committed to helping people in need.

Every day started with a devotional. As far as I could tell, all the men on the trip were either committed Christians or at least very interested in understanding Christianity on a deeper level. (I can’t think of a better way to learn about what Jesus Christ did for mankind than serving on a trip like this).


Morning Devotional	Church at Comayagua

The first day we did our devotional in town square. After which, we had time to go into the church and up into the bell tower. The clock is actually one of the oldest working clocks in the world. It also has a mistake(see if you can find it).


Can you see the mistake?

The bells were really cool; they were created by the Moors 900 years ago.It was amazing to me that the bells were created 900 years ago and still rang perfectly on the hour every day.

Another stop on the trip was to visit CasAyuda, which stands for “Home of the Children”. CasAyuda was started by a woman named Nelly. When Nelly was 15 she fell out of a tree and with no medical care available was paralyzed from the waist down.

Nelly

A woman of great strength and faith

In Honduras, there really isn’t much hope of living any kind of meaningful life if you’re handicapped. Nelly, being a very determined and faithful woman, educated herself and went on to build CasAyuda which takes care of and educates 150 handicapped children through the 6th grade. Another amazing woman, amazing place, and amazing story of what can be built by just one person through faith in Christ.

We also made a visit to another Christian school called Hogar de Amor (House of Love) started by Arvil Smith. What a character this guy was which you will see if you click on the video. (3:30)

Arvil

Since Arvil tells the story of how his school came to be better that I can, I will leave it to him. Suffice to say: another inspirational story.

Probably one of the most impactful visits we made was to the brickyard where bricks were made to build the homes and buildings, including the one we were building. The brickyard was in an extremely poor area of town. Most of the men had brought clothes, shoes, and candy from home to hand out to the people in need. What was interesting is that when our bus pulled up, there were just a few people milling about. Within 10 or 15 minutes, there were at least 150 people swelling around the bus screaming and reaching for anything that was passed out through the bus windows.

People in need at the brick yard

I walked around the brickyard to see how mud bricks were formed then baked in the kilns. I thought it was all pretty cool until I walked out back and saw a man and three boys making bricks. One boy who was about my oldest son CJ’s age (11) was up to his knees mixing the mud for the two other boys that were about my youngest son Owen’s age (5). They were carrying the mud over in handfuls so the older man, probably their father, could make the bricks to be kilned.


Boy who looked about 10 making mud for bricks	Boy who looked about 5 carrying the mud to make the bricks

I couldn’t help but think that could be me and my boys if we were just not blessed enough to be born in America, where I have had the opportunities to do the things I have done to provide for my family.

I also thought that family probably had it better than the people surrounding the bus for any handout they could get.

On the second day, we got to visit the Granja(The Farm),which is the
boy’s half of Hogar. On this particular trip we didn’t spend as much time with the boys. I did really enjoy the time we spent with them which was probably because I am a father to two boys. I got to see the walled soccer court that was built a few years ago. I could only imagine how those boys felt when they saw the court on which they were going to get to play in a safe environment. The boys are taught a lot of trade skills. I spent some time in the wood-shop where a boy was chiseling out the top of a box. I was with a few guys and we challenged the boy to show up with finished boxes the next evening at a festival we were attending and we would buy the boxes. He showed up with 10 finished boxes (30 hours later).I bought two to give to my boys. It was cool to give them the boxes and show them the picture of the boy who made them. To finish 10 boxes in 30 hours that boy had learned a good work ethic at the farm. I'm guessing he spent much time sleeping that night.

Boy making boxes

The last evening we spent back at the Hogar, where the children sang to us and we sang Christmas carols to them. Afterward we served pizza to all the kids. Finally, we all headed back to the Hotel Quan for a final devotional with Ray Carter. It was pretty funny because all day we were kidding Ray that if his devotional was more than about 15 minutes he would be talking to men that wouldn’t hear him because we would all be sleeping. Ray meant to keep it short, but something took over (the Holy Spirit) and Ray preached one of the most inspirational messages I have ever heard. I wanted to capture it on my iphone, but I just didn’t think it was appropriate. The bottom line is that I felt both privileged and blessed to be in his audience. In summary, he talked about Mama Carmen, Nelly and Arville and how they were born in the world in different situations and ultimately went “all in” for the glory of God versus glory for themselves, which is so easily pursued, especially in our culture. Then he challenged all of us to get into the game. If we were already in, get all the way in; to look at our lives from an eternal perspective and not just an earthly perspective.

From all that I’ve experienced in the last few days, I want to live my life more than I have for Christ’s sake. I have known for a long time that I have been blessed in more ways than I can count. From where I was born, to my family, friends, prosperity in a job I love, and most importantly, having a personal relationship with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I wanted to write all this, not only because I wanted to share the experience, but because I know if I write it and put it out for the
public to see it will help me to stay committed to being in the game and be “all in”. I want to live my life looking for where Christ would use me, then be fully available for him to use for his glory and his
purposes.

Ray Carter, my friend, mentor and pastor

What an unexpected joy to your mission service on your golf blog. We are "earthly" blessed by being born into this country. We will be "eternally blesed" by committing our life to the service of Jesus Christ. Thanks for sharing. Stay strong in our Lord. In His Grip is a ministry to reach men for Christ throug golf started by Scott Lehmann. Check it out! Be Well!

Posted by Rich Breitenbeck on January 24, 2012 @ 1:48 pm

This was very very touching, motivating, and flat out lovely. An inspiration to all who see this and read about these wonderful people. Thank you for sharing it. jt

Posted by joe on January 15, 2012 @ 9:16 am

Todd,Finding joy in the most unexpected places. I love hearing stories like what you shared here. Keep them coming!

Posted by Trey VanDyke on December 28, 2011 @ 9:13 pm

Todd,Thanks for sharing this information. Your message was very heart-warming and I respect the work you are doing....keep it up !!Mark

Posted by Mark Darnell on December 23, 2011 @ 4:10 pm

Todd, This is what life is all about. I am so glad you went. By the way, Ray Carter must be a great guy. I graduated from Tennessee. Merry Christmas. Let's do something at the show.Mike

Posted by Mike Shannon on December 14, 2011 @ 5:47 pm