His Mercies Never Come to an End.

Okay, my friends this is the continuation of the first Honduras post!

I'm sure you were just pacing and waiting for it.....
That was a little bit of sarcasm....

Anyway, onto business!

This post is specifically going to be about Choluteca, Honduras. The last time TORCH Missions visited Choluteca was five years ago! And, I think that we are the only missions team that visits them specifically.

Wednesday at 6:45 A.M. we dragged our groggy bottoms out of bed and plopped into the seats of a bus for a 5 hour drive to the insanely hot town of Choluteca.

People on the team that have gone before joked that Choluteca is where the devil goes to get coffee....

Okay, well describir the first photo: TOMS shoes (Wooohoooo REPRESENT!) had a shoe drop near-by Choluteca tons of children and women and some men were rockin the TOMS when we got there. It was an awesome sight to see my money and many other loving people's money at work on Choluteca.

The shoes seemed comfortable and reliable, they are built a little more sturdy than the for show one's we buy.
These were all business and all love.

We spent two days in Choluteca, and stayed at a hotel nearby.

In those two days we painted a church that the team had built five years prior at their last visit, built and painted 27 pews, screamed about one tarantula, had 301 people go through the medical clinic, played one big soccer game, lost one soccer game, washed many people's hair, and treated a lot of little girls like princesses.

My heart really goes out to the people of Choluteca.

They are so joyful and greatful.

Rather than run at you and ask you for things, they stand by you and smile with you and are patient and kind. They don't expect anything but love and attention. They just want to hold your hand and be with you. The children want to sit on your lap and laugh with you. They want to clap your hands and play games you can't win...and they know it.

Ugh, it was so wonderful. See the guy in the red in the photo? The one standing up?

He's wearing my shoes right now. What an awesome thought. We sat down and compared shoe sizes. I told him to wait until we were about to leave, because I can't walk around barefoot...that's a big no-no. We walked together silently the last minute I was there. I leaned against the bus and pulled one shoe off. Put it in his outstretched hand. Pulled the other off. Put it in his hand. I looked down at his feet waiting for him to put them on.

He had no socks.

Pulled off one sock. Put it in his hand. Pulled off the other sock. Put it in his hand.

I pulled off my pink hat and plopped it on his head, it seemed to belong there.

He looked me in the eyes with a huge smile on his face. "Gracias."

How do I even begin to explain the gratitude in his eyes? All over ten dollar Wal-Mart special black shoes with sparkles on the sides? From one strange white girl in a pink hat and oversized tee-shirt with sweatstains and hathead? Did I look like Jesus to him? I hope that's who he saw when he looked in my eyes, because that's who handed him those things.

And when I looked in those eyes that's who I saw. I saw Jesus.

It might not seem like much...a girl gave a person shoes. Big deal. But in that moment I gained a friend, saw my Lord, gave someone a blessing from God, and hoped that he saw the Lord too. It's hard to write about little moments like that. Those special moments when you know it's all about GOD and nothing or no one else.

It's hard to explain what you see and feel in Honduras. It's just God working, my friends.

And it's an awesome thing.