Today, we left Zambrano bright & early to travel to a city called Comayagua, which is about 40 minutes further inland. This is the city where Jim Faber lives, who is an American missionary who came to Honduras about 12 years ago as a professional soccer player. He decided to stay, married a native, and now runs soccer leagues for boys under 10. Not only does he mentor the boys, but he also reaches out to the parents. In order for the kids to join his league, both parents are required to attend all their games and support them. I can’t tell you how rare that is in Central America, but it has taught many mothers & fathers to be better parents to their children.

The ride there was pretty uneventful except for something hilarious that we saw on the side of the road. At first, I heard the kids say, “Hey look, a donkey!” And then, it went from “Awwwwwwww …” to “Awwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Turns out, there was another donkey there … and … well, they were having some fun. Poor kids were kinda traumatized.

Anyway, we arrived in Comayagua to one of the 3 most dangerous gang neighborhoods. Well, at least it used to be dangerous, but not anymore, thanks to Jim’s ministry! The kids were given paint brushes and buckets, and they had 3 hours to paint 10 houses. Most of the houses in the neighborhood were just shacks with chipped paint, but nonetheless, these were people’s homes and only possessions. You never know what a bucket of paint can do.

A typical house in Comayagua

And after the kids were done painting a house

While they were busy doing that, Aaron shot a couple of interviews with Jimmy (not to be confused with Jim), who had driven out to be with us for the morning.

For lunch, we were treated to an authentic Honduran meal at a local restaurant. After eating spaghetti and pork chops all week, this is what we were waiting for! They served some sort of taco with chicken and beef with the most amazing sauces and guacamole. If we ever decided to move to Comayagua, we would eat at that restaurant EVERY WEEK. The weather was perfect, and we all ate outside. Not too bad!

The rest of the day was spent doing a little R&R. They took us to the local golf club/resort, where they had a pool, a very nice golf course, and a spa where we could get our nails done or get massages for very cheap. Whoever planned that part of the trip was a GENIUS – it was so needed for us, and by the time we left, we all felt very refreshed.

Today, we left bright and early for a women’s prison. Our plan was to perform a drama, preach the Gospel, feed them lunch and hand out some backpacks that had a pair of shoes and some toiletries. This prison was a lot more laid back than we expected. No one was in uniforms except for the guards. The women just basically hung out in the courtyard. It was almost like a poor version of a boarding school for adult women. There were also lots of babies there who were born to those women, and they stay with them until either they are freed or grow too old to stay there.

According to our sources, about 20-30% of the women in this prison are innocent, either framed for a crime or committed crimes out of desperation or self-defense.

Here are the boys preparing lunch

The ladies had no problem getting into the music!

Pastor Mark, getting ready to preach

One of J’lainne’s favorite memories from the trip: holding this sweet baby in prison

Let the trading begin!

After the prison, we headed over to Jimmy’s home for abandoned & orphaned children. Again, a beautiful property with a couple of dogs running around. The children came out and played with us, and we just hung out under the beautiful sky and had some fun.

Hehe

A few of us got to walk a few blocks down to Jimmy’s home for pregnant teenagers. Teenage pregnancy is rampant in Honduras, but not because of pre-marital sex but because of rape. Currently, the youngest pregnant girl in the country is only 8 years old.

At this home, I met Luz. She was raped by her uncle and now has an 8-month-old son named Jonathan. She is only 11.

There are about 4-5 girls living in this home, which is clean and very well-built. I recognized a couple of the girls from the school we went to yesterday, so I looked at them astonishingly: You are mothers???????? They said, Yes, but our babies passed away. They still live in the home because it is better than life with their parents who are poor and uneducated. My heart broke.

This morning we woke up bright & early. When I look back on the week, this 1st day was the most exhausting. We crammed so much stuff into one day that I can’t believe I survived.

Jimmy Hughes has a thing for dogs, especially Japanese Akitas. Every building/compound that he owns has at least 1 dog. It’s probably for security purposes, but the compound that we stayed at had a mama dog who had 5 puppies. So you can imagine all the fun we had with them!

We took a quick group picture, and then we left to go to a local school where 600 kids were waiting for our arrival. In Central America where missionaries are prevalent, there is usually no problem getting into schools for a few hours to share the Gospel with the kids. So we went with lots of stickers, balloons and candy, did some skits and shared the Gospel. I don’t care what anyone says – when you’ve got crowds of school kids hoarding around you, it’s exhausting! And a little bit hazardous. Some of the kids actually knocked one of our girls down on the ground for a balloon!

Caleb doing the worm

Ah, the chicken song.

While the kids were getting mobbed, I just stayed in the background and chuckled. And yet somehow, I caught the attention of 2 sweet little schoolgirls, who came up to me, grabbed my hand, and started showing me around their school. They didn’t speak any English – in fact, they hardly said anything at all, so I just walked along with them.

We finally sat down on a bench when one of the girls turned to me and gave me a small gold ring that she had on her finger! I was so shocked at the very gesture that I immediately started scrambling for some candy to give her … but I had nothing. And then before I knew it, she was gone.

For lunch, we fed all of them a meal of rice, chicken & vegetables. I call it the poor man’s paella. Jimmy’s ministry had purchased these enormous pans to cook food for large crowds, so that is what we did.

After the school, Ben decided that it would be “fun” to climb a mountain. Okay, seriously?????? What the heck is so fun about that? Well, he was told that you could see the entire town of Zambrano from the top, and it was a great place to do devotionals and quiet times and stuff. Yeah, so is my nice comfy bed, but WHATEVER! So we started hiking up the mountain. Mind you, I have all my camera equipment with me, which weighed about 20 lbs. We stayed in the back of the group because there was no way I was gonna hold anyone back.

About halfway up, I thought I was going to die. By this time, we had passed my camera bag along to someone else who was stronger, and someone told us that there was a shortcut to the top. By shortcut, he meant that we would be done in about 15 minutes. But that also meant that we would be climbing uphill almost vertically. WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! So Aaron made the executive decision that we would take the shortcut for fear that I would pass out if we had to climb for another hour. So in my $25 Converse shoes from Target and with Aaron literally pushing my butt up the mountain, we climbed up to the top with me grabbing hold of anything I could that would help me. Holy crap, never again!

Once at the top, we got a quick lesson on door-to-door evangelism because our next step was a local slum. The kids were divided into teams and paired with a translator. Oh, and of course, there was the fun ride down the mountain. I have absolutely no idea how some of the girls did it without holding onto a guy for dear life. I clung onto Aaron so tightly because he grew up climbing up and down mountains. So he knew what patches of sand would not give way and cause you to slip and fall on your butt while dragging other people down with you.

By the time we were done, it was time for dinner. And let me tell you, we were absolutely exhausted. Time went by so slowly while we were there, probably because we were always up at the crack of dawn. So by the time 7:00 pm came around, it felt more like 11:00 pm.