Sunday, March 24, 2019
There was activity in our kitchen before 0600 hours as we scurried to get our breakfast cereal in preparation for our 6:30 departure for church!  We had two groups from our team going to church in two directions.  One group to our usual worship service at the cathedral at St Marry's in Tegucigalpa and the other group to a mission church in the country.  The van dropped the first group off at the start of our trek in from the highway halfway to Tegucigalpa and then carried on into town to take the rest of the group to the cathedral, and since it was so early, got to spend a few hours at El Hogar before church started.  They were accompanied by some of the kids who went to church with them and were part of the large Sunday School. 





There is a large Sunday School and it is wonderful to watch them all come in from their classes to the Eucharist at the end.

 Padre Gerardo who is the dean of the Cathedral walks once a month into a mission church in the mountains and invited us to go with him.  We were so delighted and enthused at this prospect.
We had a prayer before we started on our trek.








 We never quite understood how long, how far or how grueling the trek might be, but hiked in through trails, pasture land and farm properties, past some banana groves, valleys, dried up streams (it is well into dry season here) and stunning scenery with the mountains as backdrop.  

We met up with friendly people along the way, interesting birds and trees as well as even a caravan of horses and rancheros passing by.














 After several hours and 6.1 km, we arrived at the little school house which becomes a church on Sunday.







The Lay minister who actually does this every Sunday when the dean doesn't come also walked in with us.  The congregation was about 15 people and seemed a little shy at first but very welcoming.  We are the first visitors they have ever had outside their community in their 25 year history.  They are looking to actually build a church on the land adjacent to the school and it will start soon with all of the congregation being part of the build.  We gathered as a group for prayer together on the new land after the Eucharist and it was a touching moment as we thought of that parish going through a building program to build their church in their community.   





All the people kind of hung out until they saw us heading out of their sight down the trail as we left with an invitation to come back again when the church is finished. 




It was getting late and so all went out for lunch taking with us, Padre Gerardo and the lay minister as our guests.  The campus is still kind of quiet until all the kids get back for the weekend.  After dunner, we could see that the kids were returning in larger numbers and they were not far from our front door looking for us to "come out and play!"  SO the soccer ball and the Foosball came out as well as some puzzles and art work.

We had a lot of highlights to share about the day with each other in our devotional time.  Both of our worship experiences were unique and meaningful to us worshiping with our Christian brothers and sisters in another language and another culture.