Building Endurance

We made it to Honduras September 17th and if I had to put the past two weeks in one word I would say perseverance. The  past two weeks have been about endurance and perseverance. When we first made it to Honduras, the first week was super hard for me. I knew that we would be doing a lot of manual labor like building houses and a lot of walking but my goodness I was not ready for it. The squad that came before us was H squad and they built the foundation for the church. When they left; the church people and locals kept building. We have been helping build doors, railings, and a porch. The first week we had to walk somewhere to get lumber. That day was hard for me.We had to walk about 30 mins to get the lumber. It was a lot of uphill but the big hill was downhill.  Which meant we would have walk back up the hill with the lumber. We made it to the place , which seems like it was in the middle of nowhere; which it kinda is because we are in the mountains. We get our piece of wood and we start walking back. The wood was probably 30 or 40 Ibs. As we were walking back with the lumber my thoughts started to get really bad but then I started walking with some teammates and one of them said imagine when Jesus had to carry the cross on his back. This is us carrying our cross which I thought was a great analogy that helped me put things in a different perspective. As we were walking I felt like God reminded me what it meant to endure. This is what endurance and perseverance is, almost three or four times a week we walk up and down some part of the mountain and  it gets just a little easier. I can walk a little longer before I need a break again. When we take new routes that are harder and have to carry other things down or up the mountain I know that it might be hard but that I can do it. That’s the same thing with life as we go through hard things. We continue to go despite the difficulties and hardships. A week later we had to carry another piece of lumber, this time the walk was a little further but the piece was a little lighter. The second time we carried it was still a little difficult but it wasn’t as difficult because we had been building up endurance for this walk and we didn’t even know it. 

The past two weeks has been super fun and encouraging getting to know the locals. We have been doing a lot of construction, going into villages; making friends and sharing the gospel. The men in our squad have been meeting with some of the men in the villages talking about life and sharing life lessons. In the upcoming weeks before we leave we will have vacation bible school for the children and have a women’s event and continue the things that we have already been doing. I hope you all enjoy some pictures from the past two weeks. 

James1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.