Friday, July 18 — Comayaguela
It's about 6:00 am and this time I am not the only early bird. I think the roosters started crowing around midnight and are still at it. It sounds like they're right outside the window. We're also hearing the sound of rain on the tin roof. It's been raining a lot since our arrival at San Max on Thursday.
Our MHT group of 24 left Rancho Santa Fe in two vans. Chandler and the youth were in one and the adults in the other. Our first stop was going to be Colonia Duarte, the large statue of Jesus on the hill overlooking Tegucigalpa. Our driver, Luis, is the pastor at an Evangelical church. When Phil and I were in Honduras last January, we were looking for ground transportation and someone gave us Luis's business card.
Long the way to Pichacho we were pulled over by the Police. We're not sure why and even Luis doesn't know. The policeman questioned him about who he was and who were were. It sounded like we were going to be given a fine for some bogus charge until the police officer recognized who Luis was — he is a former soccer star. Imagine that — our Evangelical Pastor Driver had played professional soccer for the national Honduran team for eleven years. The police waived us on and once again we were on our way.
The drive up the hill to San Max was an eye opener. We took the "scenic" route which was scarier than any ride at Valley Fair. The road was steep, muddy, and lined with humble dwellings. There were a lot of eyes starring at us. We were greeted at the gate of San Max Kolbe by Padre Delio, the pastor. The cooks, Paula and Armada, had prepared a wonderful lunch — lemon seasoned fish, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables and plantains with mantiquilla which is kind of a cream cheese sauce. It was a nice change of pace from the beans, rice and cheese we had been eating at El Rancho Santa Fe.
After lunch we took a tour of the San Max compound. The church that Most Holy Trinity helped build through funding now had a completely finished tile floor. It began to rain and the 14 group members returning to El Rancho Santa Fe needed to leave. We said our goodbyes. The remaining group of 10 piled into a truck and proceeded to our work site — Colonia Duarte at the Church of the Divine Worker. One of the tasks of this church is to pray for the safety of those who immigrate to the United States. To get to the church we had to drive down a treacherous road and walk though a steep muddy revene.
As we walked through the doors of the church, we were greeted by applause and a couple dozen people who were there to meet us. they had waited two hours for us to arrive. Fr. Delio did introductions and everyone said their name. We formed a circle and prayed together as a group. These people were so enthusiastic in their prayer that you could just about feel it.
Chandler Bursey, our youth minister, immediately gravitated toward the kids and had them laughing as he tried to recall their names. We met Santo Maria, the woman who was the recipient of the new roof and floor provided by donations from Most Holy Trinity. She wanted us to see her house. We walked down the steep sidewalk until we came to the house with a new red tin roof. She insisted that we come inside. As Joe Oeth said, it was an honor to be invited into her house. Her husband was inside with a shovel digging up dirt trying to level the floor so they could lay tile. There was enough money from the donation so that they could buy new wood for the walls so it was like they had a whole new house. Ellen Reicho, our Spanish Spokesperson, told them how happy we were for them and what an honor it was to be invited into their house.
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