Walking Through a Photograph (Honduras 2013, Part 2)

When friends of mine have come home from mission trips in the past, one thing I have heard multiple times is that it is nothing like the pictures- that it is something you cannot fully grasp until you are actually there.  In many ways, while in Honduras, I found this to be true.  All of the letters and pictures in the world cannot compare to actually experiencing your sponsor child's sweet hugs and warm smiles.  It is pure joy; something I highly recommend for everyone who sponsors a child. 

Yet, at the same time, it was exactly like the pictures.  We left our beautifully comfortable hotel in the city that first morning after a good night's sleep and full breakfast buffet, hopped onto our rented air conditioned busses, and drove a mere 30 minutes to what seemed like a whole new world.  Suddenly, the wide pavement turned to narrow, bumpy dirt roads.  The 5-star hotels and popular fast food chains turned to bamboo huts selling filtered water and bananas.  The lines of Pepsi billboards on the sides of the highways turned to barbed wire fences and stray animals roaming freely.  The traffic grew less and less.  Everyone emerged from their homes to marvel at the unusual sight of two large charter busses coming down the street. 

(Click photos to enlarge)

How could it be that just 20 miles away, people were living comfortable lives?  How could it be that just an hour ago, I awoke in a queen-sized bed, unaware of any nearby poverty?  How could it be that just outside the big city, people were living in bamboo houses with dirt floors?  I was numb.  Seriously, I felt nothing.

It all happened so fast that it felt like we had simply driven into one of the pictures I had seen many times before.  Maybe, I thought, I was just vividly experiencing a photograph brought back by a missionary who had really been there.  As I saw the needs of so many people flash before my eyes, especially when everything had been so normal earlier that day, it didn't seem real.  Even now, honestly, I haven't exactly grasped it.  I was simply walking through a photograph, I told myself. 

Over the course of the week, we visited three sponsorship centers.  These centers are where the sponsored children go to receive meals, tutoring, medical care, bible classes, letters from their sponsors, and extra curricular activities.  I got to see first hand what it means to those children to be sponsored.  I saw unsponsored children literally begging members of our group to sponsor them.  I saw tour members who sponsored children at those projects and the deep bonds between them.  Not only that, but I saw that this was indeed reality.  As we visited their homes and churches, I knew they couldn't simply escape like I soon would.  

Beautiful children waiting to greet us as we arrived

Little Keren with her new sponsor, Julie

God-ordained family

An outdoor kitchen run by firewood

It is hard to say much more when in so many ways, it was exactly what it looks like.  I knew how real it was.  Being there didn't surprise me like I thought it would.  I believe it was partly because I already knew.  Needs like these are what brought me to Honduras.  They are what God used to start my sponsorship journey in the first place.  Now I was actually living it, but not really.  In a few hours, I would return to my hotel, wash the dirt and sweat off of me, and have a filling dinner. Many of these people wouldn't.  My Melania attends a sponsorship center far into the mountains, which was not one of the 3 we visited; so they would be bringing her to me for a visit later in the week.  This meant I had the first part of the week free to observe and take it all in.

Christians are often criticized with the claims that we go on mission trips to make ourselves feel holy.  What I can tell you for sure, is that I have never felt more unholy in my entire life (I think I have heard someone else describe it similarly, so I'm sorry if I'm stealing your words, whoever you are.)  Don't get me wrong, God has made us holy through Jesus Christ.  No feeling can change that.  However, seeing poverty up close made me realize how much more I can be giving away.  It is not enough to spend a week in a country like this and go back to normal life the rest of the year.  It is time we live with reckless abandon- living our whole lives for the gospel and love of Christ.  Laying our own privileges aside the way Christ did, and doing more.  Doing something.  That something doesn't have to be traveling to be becoming a full time missionary or even sponsoring a child.  There are needs right where you are right now.  Through my numbness, I see that we must be aware.  Not just aware, but we must act.  We must love.  We must tell of the grace of God.  I've seen how much there is to be done, and it's time we do it!