Libbysblog: Typical Trip? Hardly.

I’ve been travelling with Luke 9:2 Ministries to Central America for 11 years. Most of those years were in communities in central Honduras near the capital city of Tegucigalpa. Each team was always made up of faithful, dedicated individuals who were passionate about serving the people of Honduras.

This year, our trip began in a far less than “typical” manner. For starters, we spent months struggling to find doctors and nurses who could go this time. In fact, we asked many of you to pray with us about that. Just when it looked like we might not have enough - the LORD provided, and we finally had a full slate.

Then in the last week, due to unforeseen circumstances, almost 20% of our group had to cancel – two within 24 hours of take-off! Deaths in the family. Health emergencies. Job changes. For as long as I’ve been a part, I can only remember one or two times when even one preregistered team member had to drop out at the last minute. There was a whole lot of last-minute scrambling, calling and praying. I can only believe that Satan is already unhappy with our plans to share God’s love with His children. Thankfully, two people signed up to go just days before our departure. Definitely not typical!

Check-in for our flight in Nashville followed a new process of bag checking. The process was faster than in years past (not typical!)– until we arrived in Tegucigalpa and two bags were missing (becoming typical!). Then, we had to go through a tedious process to figure out which bag tag identified the missing bags. (BTW- one bag stayed in Nashville, one went to JFK.) It will be great if the airline can get the wayward suitcases back to their owners… tomorrow! That will NOT be typical if we get them that quickly!

We left the airport in a school bus and stopped by the food court at a local mall. Burger King, Wendy’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, and other local flavor restaurants were available.

All were delicious! Many also visited the Walmart to pick up a few last-minute items.

From there, we loaded the crew back onto the bus for the 1-hour trip to Cofradía, our base camp for the week. It was during this ride that I began to realize I was seeing people all around, but not really seeing them, because I had seen them all before. Everything looked “typical Honduran”. And that’s a shame. My prayer is that I will see exactly what God has preordained for us to see and those who need us most.

Typical trip? Hardly. And I’m grateful.

More photos from today: