My Week In Honduras (and how I joined Honduras' most wanted...) PART 1

Wow.

What an amazing week of seeing God move in the nation of Honduras. There is so much to say and I know I'll forget some things but I'll do my best to recap. By the way, today is a "two-parter" on my blog. This will be the more informational post, while the second post will be more funny stories, random thoughts and happenings etc.
We left bright and early at 4am on Monday morning from Woodstock. After a very lengthy day of traveling, we finally arrived at the Word of Life Honduras Camp around 11pm (1am EST). We took a team of around fifty 9th and 10th graders to Honduras to simply preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. We split our group up into two teams and each team visited schools throughout the day using drama, preaching and conversations to tell others about the good news of Salvation through Christ alone.
Our first full day in Honduras (Tuesday) we performed our drama presentation at a Christian school in the morning. That afternoon, the local Word of Life missionaries took us shopping in the "Valley of Angels." On Wednesday, we visited my two favorite schools of the week. In the morning we visited The Mayan school. This was a bi-lingual school so we were able to talk to the students in English with ease. We saw a good number come to Christ at this school and I had the chance to talk to some of the guys after our presentation. I was simply amazed at how much the students knew about the Bible. Sadly, there is a major Catholic influence in Honduras and nearly every student that I talked to during the week felt like they would never see heaven due to all the sin in their lives. They felt unworthy. They felt like they couldn't earn their way to heaven. These were powerful conversations. I spent a lot of time showing the students that it is not by their works that get them to Heaven, but rather the grace of God. When they realized that a 23 year old guy from America, who has had many more years of sin under his belt, could come to Christ though grace and faith alone, their eyes lit up. It's so hard to explain what I saw in their eyes. They finally understood that the free gift of salvation was available to them, no matter what they've done. To God be ALL the glory. I was reminded of how thankful I am for a God who accepts me, loves me, and made salvation available to me despite my sinful life. What a powerful and humbling thought.
Thursday was just a powerful day all around. We visited 2 schools that day, one in the morning and one in the late afternoon. God moved mightily at those schools and we were so thankful to be a small part of it. That night was probably a defining moment in many of our students lives. Before I explain, I have to give some shout outs to the high school students of First Baptist Woodstock. These guys and girls were so passionate about sharing Christ. They would share with anyone and everyone who would listen. They ignored language barriers and social norms. They exemplified what it means to be "lights in a dark and crooked generation." I was so proud of each and every one of them. In a moment of extreme honesty, I wish I had their passionate attitude about sharing Christ when I was in High School. After visiting the schools we were returning to the camp that night. One of our students needed to use "the facilities." Our driver (shout out to Mauro...the best driver in Honduras) stopped at a gas station so that we could stretch and use the bathroom. What should have been a 10 minute stop...turned into one of the best hours of the week. Gas stations in Honduras are pretty popular places for people to congregate and hang out. Two of our students noticed a lady with a baby sitting outside the door begging for money. These two students pulled their money together, gave it to her and then sat down and shared the gospel with her. This just sparked everything that followed. A few of our students saw this and decided that they would go share the gospel with a small group of guys that were hanging out in the parking lot. The rest of the team got on the bus and started a prayer time for our peers who were sharing Christ. One by one, our students kept getting off the bus to witness to the employees, customers, and even a random traveling Mariachi band! These students understood that just because they left the schools, didn't mean that they could stop being a light for Christ. After an hour of sitting, witnessing and praying at the gas station...God held true to His promise and redeemed a young lady and brought her into His family. How awesome is that?? A revival broke out, not only at the gas station but in the hearts of our students as well, because somebody needed to go number one! God rocks. Simple as that.
Friday was a long day. We stayed at one of the largest (and it might have been the largest) public high school all day long. We performed 5 presentations. We got to speak to 3,000 kids alone on that one day. This was an awesome day for me personally. I saw a group of boys early in the day that I knew I wanted to talk to. After one of the presentations, I grabbed a translator and for the next 45 minutes I had the honor of talking to six young Honduran boys about Jesus Christ. It was a long talk because of the Catholic situation that I mentioned earlier, but I wouldn't trade a minute of it for anything in the world. All glory goes to God for this next sentence. After 45 minutes of talking with them, I was able to lead all six of my new brothers to faith in Christ. Now, I'm not a big crier...but I'm man enough to say that after that long and challenging conversation, I couldn't help but shed some joyful tears. I know I'll never see them again here on earth, but you better believe that I am going to hunt them down and hug each and every one of those guys once I get to heaven!
All in all, God rocked my world this week. He blew me away with something new each day. Throughout the week, our team was able to speak to more than 5,000+ students and we were able to celebrate with around 1,000 new brothers and sisters in Christ. I'm so thankful that God allowed me to play a small part in furthering His kingdom in Honduras.
To God be all the glory, forever and ever...