What a full Sabbath … it was the first service ever to be held in their church sanctuary. The Sabbath School began at 9 am. Several of the young people sang for special music. The church service did not get over until 1:30 pm. A couple of the young people commented, “This is the longest church service I have ever attended!” But their spirits were good. We had a foot washing service as well as communion. We also had the entire group from Paradise come forward, with all of the church leaders, and had a special dedication prayer for the church.

Following the service, we all walked to the ocean front near the hotel and witnessed a baptism. One of the true miracles was that at the end of the baptism, Pastor Milton gave an open invitation for others to be baptized. A young man, in his late 20’s or early 30’s, stepped forward. There was much excitement when he walked into the water for baptism. But, here is “the rest of the story.” This man’s wife and family have been praying for him for years, but he has had a terrible drug problem. During the church service, when the offering plate went around, he placed a large offering, rolled around a marijuana joint! It was his way of saying, “Lord, I give this drug problem to you!” There was great rejoicing!

We had our final worship and celebration just before sundown. 8 seniors from PAA were baptized. Nathan Lindstrom is a wonderful young man. The other night he gave an amazing testimony. The worship leader asked each person to express their one of their important goals in life. Nathan responded, “To have a Christian wife and family, and to be a godly husband and father that will spend eternity with my family!” He had never been baptized. What a wonderful time and place to make this eternal decision.

In addition, Miguel (see Friday, April 6 entry), a young 20 yr old, was also baptized. What a fantastic way to end our project. Counting the Canadian group from OKAA, 20 of our young people had a real “life changing adventure” and were baptized. In all, we witnessed 42 baptisms. Praise the Lord!

The local ladies from the Spanish and English Churches prepared lunch for us. Brother Roger Wood’s wife and the sisters from the Spanish church prepared supper. Muy, muy delicioso!

After supper, the group enjoyed visiting with many of their new friends. Tired and weary, many did not get to bed until after midnight.

Their flight leaves at 6:45 am, so they have to rise at 5 am in order to be ready. They will be a weary but blessed group when they return home tomorrow.

Sunday, April 8, 2007

The charter plane was filled to the max as the group from PAA headed home. We just hope that we can get the 16 pieces of luggage that were left behind (due to the size of the plane, they were not able to load all the luggage) back home. Their spirits were high! It has been a blessed 4+ weeks, but Judy and I are “muy cansado!” (That’s “very tired” in Spanish!)

We spent the whole day cleaning and sorting all of the food stuff that was left over, to be given to the local churches.

I had a real scare! When we were packing, I asked Judy if she had my wallet. She said that she did not and had not seen it for a day or so! We were frantic, as it has my“green card” in it (I’m still a Canadian citizen). I tried to retrace my every step. I went to the church and asked Oscar, the watchman, if he still had any of the nail pouches that we gave him, as I thought that perhaps I inadvertently put my wallet in one of the pouches. All of the nail pouches had been given to the local workers who helped us. “Oh no!” Then, I remembered putting my wallet in my work pants pocket. At least, that is where I remembered having it last. However, all of our clothes were given to the local workers and church members as well. I asked Roger Wood, our local coordinator, if he knew the whereabouts of the box of work clothes that Judy and I gave, or had that box of clothes been distributed as well? He said, “No it is at my house.” So, we hastened over to his home and started going thru the boxes. I found one pair of work pants, but no wallet. In another box, we found the other pair of work pants! I felt around the pockets, and sure enough, there it was! I shouted out a prayer of thanksgiving right then and there! Talk about a sense of relief! Providentially, at that very moment, Bruce and Liz Jones (our cooks) and the pastor’s wife were praying that the wallet would be found!

Well, after finding the wallet, we went off to “Michael’s Rock” with Roger Wood and his family for a couple hours of snorkeling and relaxation. What a beautiful way to finish! Many Gujanaians spend Easter Sunday at the beach. It is a real tradition. When we got to “Michael’s Rock, there were at least 200 boats anchored off shore. Last week when we went there, we were the only boat there.

It was about 10 pm when we got to bed. We have 4 flights to catch tomorrow.

Monday, April 9, 2007

Talk about a crazy trip home. First of all, the flight out of Guanaja was late. We were supposed to leave at 7:30 and arrive in La Ceiba at 8:00 with plenty of time for us to catch a 9:00 flight to San Pedro. Wrong! The flight left an hour late, so when we got to La Ceiba, the doors to our next flight were closed. There are very few flights each day from La Ceiba to San Pedro Sula. But, since it was the end of Easter weekend, they had scheduled a fairly large plane (50 seater) on another airline. We had to scramble to get 4 seats. We got to San Pedro about one hour before our flight to Houston, then to Sacramento. Usually international flights require at least 2 – 2 ½ hours of lead time. By the time we got through security, the plane was boarding. Whew! When we finally took our seats, we were breathing a heavy sigh of relief.

When we got to Houston, we almost missed our next leg, because we forgot that Daylight Savings Time had kicked in. For most of the year, Houston and Honduras are on the same time zone. Not now. Houston is an hour ahead, so we wandered around the shops, thinking we had plenty of time. Fortunately, I had some journaling to do, so I sat down in the waiting area, thinking I had an hour and a half or more. I hadn’t been sitting more than ten minutes when they announced for us to board our plane. Where were the others? Fortunately, Judy turned her cell phone back on. She answered and had to abort her brief shopping spree and come running over to the gate. Whew again!

We arrived safely at our home in Chico at midnight, almost exactly 18 hours after we boarded the first flight in Guanaja.

Well, what can I say, except these adventures always have a way of testing one's faith, as well as one's patience. Judy and I feel very blessed to have finished another “Youth Mission Adventure” with so many wonderful people! We have so much to be thankful for. There were no injuries (yes, the minor scrape and scratch), no serious illnesses (a few “tourista” victims), fantastic food, wonderful young people, and superb staff!

But, there is nothing more thrilling than to see our Quiet Hour motto, “Changing Lives,” impact so many. To see so many of our young people meet God in a new and refreshing way is worth it all! Just think of it, nearly a third of our kids had a life-changing encounter with Jesus and were baptized or re-baptized! If one of these young people was your son or daughter, or grandson or granddaughter, what would it be worth? As the Master Card commercial says, “Priceless!”

Blessings!!

Joedy & Judy

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