Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Mission: Honduras, A Blessing Unlike Any Other

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”(Matthew 28:18-20)
The Great Commission, given to His disciples by our Lord Jesus Christ, was the command He gave before he ascended to Heaven.  Tiger Pause Youth Ministry has been all over the world, preaching and proclaiming the gospel, from the frozen tundra of Russia, to the hot lands of Africa. On January 19-30 we took a group of guys down to Honduras to be part of a team of missionaries (lead by Church of the Living Christ) to build a church. While this is not the first time Tiger Pause has sent people to Honduras, this was the first mission trip out of the country for many of us on this trip.

The Mission was simple: Build a church and proclaim the Gospel. Sounds easy right? Not quite. It took a lot of hard work from everyone involved. We had to build the roof, doors, and windows as well as their frames, paint the church, plus build, sand, and varnish 32 pews!  With a team of only 20+ people, they needed a lot of muscle to get the job done. That’s where Tiger Pause came in with Big Matt Gandy, Seth “the goose” Gosseck, Misters Tom and Walter Karczewski, (The Super Karczewski Brothers), and my brother Micah and me. We all had different skills and came from different backgrounds, but we were there for the same reason: We were called by God to do His work.

Everyone in the village of El Jute, where we built the church, was nice, loving, and respectful. While we Americans, might say these people were poor, I would strongly disagree. They are wealthy in love and faith in Christ. When I spoke to the daughter of the pastor of the church we were building, I asked her if the people were only showing love toward us because we were building a church for them. She replied “No, we are always like this here, we are all a family and look out for each other and love one another.” Her words rang true in the way other Hondurans treated each other and us.

It is true when they say actions speak louder than words. To show love toward another person exemplifies God’s character more than speaking and shouting the Gospel without action. John 13:34-35 reads that people will know they are His disciples by the way they love one another, as it is the greatest command Jesus gives his disciples – “To love others, just as I have loved you.”  The Hondurans who came to work alongside us when they didn’t have to, who brought us Coca-Colas paid with their own money, and who spoke to us and sang alongside us blessed me just as we blessed them with a church they have been praying for 16 years!

Chez Anderson
Boys’ Center Supervisor

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