The Many and Varied Experiences of a Missionary

Sorry for not writing in a while. I am doing well. Right now we are in a more calm time right before the summer excitement begins. That means we have time to dedicate to our usual ministries here in Comayagua. For me, that means a lot of tutoring and other things with our scholarship program as well as catechesis in a couple of villages the Missionaries of Charity work in. Those kids are so fun.

Even though we are following the normal routine right now, it amazes me the variety of things that a missionary experiences here. There are times where you want to cry in gratitude for all that God has done, times where you don’t know what you got yourself into, times when laughter comes easily, times when you give to God the situation because it’s too big to carry. You never quite know what each day will bring and have to be ready for whatever comes. For example, coming back from one of the mountain missions we were waiting at a bus stop. Two teams had just been reunited and we were talking about how our week went and about how tired we were. Lo and behold, all of a sudden, we ended up in a deep conversation about the Church teaching on confession and the Eucharist with another person waiting. A couple weeks ago I was visiting the families of the kids in the scholarship program to hand out letters we had gotten from their sponsors. It was supposed to be a quick and easy visit, but we found out that one of the fathers had been severely burned in a cooking accident the night before. We ended up staying to talk and pray with him for quite a while. Last night I had planned to relax a little bit after dinner and work on a couple little projects I have going. God had other ideas. At dinner I learned I was going to be spending the night at a nearby retreat center with a mentally handicapped women staying there who had come to the local clinic after suffering severe abuse. I never know when my plans will be completely changed and these are only three examples, but conversations, talks, and pretty much everything else have the potential to happen without any warning. I am learning to always be ready and flexible. I am learning that one is never not a missionary. And most of all, I am learning Who’s in charge here (hint: it’s not me or any of us in the Missioners of Christ).

Adventures of Holy Week

Happy Easter! Feliz Pascua.

We got back safe and sound from our Holy Week mission in La Ceiba. It was a blessed and beautiful week. God was so good to us and guided us in each moment. We ended up doing kid’s programs, skits, videos and other such things on the beach. Families could come if they wanted for a moment or for the whole thing. They chatted with us, shared their stories or practiced English (there are a lot of bilingual schools in La Ceiba). The thing was, since we have never done this before, were not in charge of the mission and really didn’t know what to expect, the whole thing was unknown and practically improvised. (That is like the #1 skill of a missionary.) It worked out though, thanks be to God, because we certainly didn’t know what we were going to do moment-to-moment. Then there was a freak storm Tuesday that was supposed to stick around the rest of the week. We couldn’t go to the beach so we were trying to figure out what to do and how we could serve. God led us to a home for street children and we did a program there instead, also improvised. I don’t know why He wanted us there that day in particular, but the next day it miraculously cleared up and we returned to the beach. The whole week was a lesson in trust that even though we are imperfect instruments, God can still use us.

Holy Week in Honduras is unlike anything I have ever seen before. The people get really into it. There are huge processions with floats, living Stations of the Cross, tons of events and prayer experiences in the churches, and so much more. It was incredible. Especially after my experiences here, it was beautiful to celebrate the Passion, death and resurrection of Christ alongside these people who often times are daily living the experiences of Calvary. It reminds me that only in light of Jesus’ death and resurrection does any suffering or difficulty take on any meaning whatsoever and that in all of it, Christ is present because He already carried it that fateful day. It sounds so overly simplistic, but that is our hope.