I'm home (earlier than expected) from Honduras, after deciding to leave Friday instead of Monday. The decision was rather spur of the moment, not due to any violence but rather the threat of future upheaval and the wishes of my parents, but I felt like I did what I had gone to Honduras to do, albeit in an abbreviated fashion.
I suppose any trip would have felt abbreviated after my six week stay in February/March, in which I saw everyone, went everywhere, ate everything, and checked off all my usual "must-have/do-while in Honduras" lists. This trip was only a week long, I did see everyone I hoped to, but for a much shorter time than I would have liked, and didn't check everything off the list.
I did, however, check several important things off the list: furthering relationships with my Honduran family, sharing Jesus' love in the mountains around Taulabé, and deepening my own faith. I got to spend the whole first weekend I was there with the Sevillas, and we had good conversation and a great time together. We sang songs about faith and salvation with the children. I had a chance to put into practice a deeper dependence on God as I went into uncertainty, and learned more about His control of everything!!
One of the main reminders I got from this time was to make the most of every opportunity, because we do not know what tomorrow holds. I was reminded of this particularly one day in El Diviso. I know El Diviso a bit better, having worked there every day in 2005, and it's a smaller village, plus one that gets deep into your heart. I was watching the older boys, who still sing the songs with the group of children, but are starting to drift away from the group. Very soon they will be among the young men, who either stand way off at a distance to watch, or aren't there at all because they are off working somewhere else, and I was struck by just how little of an open window we have. I was glad to be there, even for that short time, to broadcast Jesus' message of salvation into those open hearts, while they are still soft and tender, so that when those children are older the message will still be with them.
We don't know what the future holds, as evidenced by the constant flux of Honduran politics. All we know is what we are to do right now. Faith, in part, means doing right now the things God has prepared for us to do.
