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H  I  S  P  A  N  I  C      C  H  R  I  S  T  I  A  N      M  I  N  I  S  T  R  Y   
A Ministry of Covenant Reformed Church of Toronto in Partnership with
Faith United Reformed Church of West Olive, Michigan

Dear HCM Supporters:

I’m nearing the end of my ministry trip to Honduras and just got back from a week of ministry in the Moskitia, the indigenous region of Honduras along the Atlantic coast, bordering Nicaragua which also has the Moskitia population on their eastern Atlantic region. As I travel I occasionally do a bit of journaling about some of my experiences along the way. As I re-read this brief journal, I thought it might be interesting to pass it along to the HCM support network. It’s probably not designed for a bulletin newsletter report, but it is interesting. I’ll pass it along for your interest and for your continued prayers.

Journal of Saturday, November 12, 2011

I just got back from the Moskitia, the indigenous region of Honduras. What a whirlwind tour that was! I visited three places there, two of which were outlying villages and then the main city (not very large) of the region. When I flew into Puerto Lempira (the main village) I went to the dock by the lagoon, and got on a boat that took me to a small village called Kaukira. I stayed there two nights. The pastor I stayed with lives on a property that backs up to the river where the boat/canoe traffic is. He has a simple building on his property that he uses for guests that come by. Only five feet from the building was an outdoor “shower stall” and an outhouse for the “necessities” of life. That's where I stayed for two nights. Not exactly a five-star hotel, but I slept great, thanks to the mosquito net that was provided to keep the lively mosquitoes at bay.

The last I stayed in a village I got eaten alive by these tiny bugs that are on the ground, especially in the grassy areas. The pastor told me the bugs were not bad during this season, but I didn't want to take any chances this time. I used socks and shoes even though everyone there uses sandals and bare feet. However, it didn’t help. I still got bitten up pretty bad on my feet and my lower legs. I guess the bugs enjoyed the warm, soft home of my socks and just decided to hang around there for some extra leisure time and a good feeding on my skin. Some of the wee bugs even crawled up, leaving bite marks on my upper legs and buttocks. I am using Benadryl but I ran out of my supply and they didn't have any in Puerto Lempira). The pharmacist recommended Allergil (similar to Benadryl they told me) in a capsule form (two in the morning and two at night) and a form of hydrocortizone cream product applied to the bites because they are really itchy and I did scratch them while sleeping and they were bleeding. It's doing much better now, but the spots are still there. I started up a new MINTS Centre with eight enthusiastic students in that village during my visit and taught two courses. I also met with the new board they formed to make plans for introducing MINTS to other potential students.

From there I went back to the main village, Puerto Lempira. When I left Kaukira I walked to the back of the property and just waved down one of the "transportation boats" and got on right from his property instead of walking a kilometer into town to the place where most people get on. I don’t know if that was because I was lazy, or if I just wanted to be resourceful. It was pouring rain when we got out into the lagoon. The boat has a vinyl cover to provide shade from the sun but with open sides. They had a huge piece of plastic tarp that the 6 of us passengers just pulled over us and we cuddled under there for most of the trip to Puerto Lempira. Weird, eh? It was only a short trip of about 45 minutes.

I stayed one night in Puerto Lempira to meet with the students there. They are a bit behind on some course work, and five of the students were travelling in other villages in the area in work or ministry-related activities. That’s one of the dynamics of this unique group. I didn't teach anything new there, but I did meet with the few students and the director to set up the course plans for the next year or so. I was going to take the boat to the next village, Brus Laguna, but I did some quick calculating and ended up flying there instead. It was going to take 7-8 hours by boat, and it is two boat rides with some land travel between the two boat rides. The cost was going to be about $45. I  checked on flights and the small commuter plane (4 or 6-seater) would cost $60 and it takesonly 1/2 hour to fly there to the small landing strip on a field outside the village. That was a no brainer for me. The extra $15 is peanuts for the time savings. I was able to be there in the morning instead of late afternoon.

That day I did a lot of visits to arrange two meetings for the following day.  On Friday I had a meeting with the students in the morning and with the board of the study centre in the afternoon. There were a few problems going on in the Centre which discouraged the students and about half of them quit. Some of it was a "powerplay" problem between some of the leaders and even among the students. Good grief. That's all over the place. That is a common element I have seen in my ministry trip. Well .. after providing an opportunity to let the students voice their concerns in the morning meeting and a meeting with the board in the afternoon to work on resolving the problems (a bit conflictive, but that's all part of the more practical side of leadership training), things are back on track there... I hope. We'll see what happens next time. I'm writing up a report on the meetings so they are reminded of the events of the two meetings and have no excuse to say they didn't remember what we had talked about. I learn that from past experience with other groups. I didn't teach a new course there because they need to do some catch-up due to the struggles they were going through.

I was supposed to leave first thing Saturday morning to return to ‘civilization’ in La Ceiba. But when I got to the "office" of the airline in the village, they said there were weather problems en route to La Ceiba so the flight was cancelled. There are no flights on Sunday, so I was not expected to leave till Monday. Tuesday I'm scheduled to fly home, and I still have to get from La Ceiba to San Pedro Sula where the main airport is for the flight home. But what to do? So ... I checked around the village talking to some of the folks at the pier down by the lagoon at the end of the village to see what it would take to go by river/land to La Ceiba. I could leave Sunday morning at 2 am, take two boats and two land trips for a 10 hour trip into La Ceiba along the beach of the Atlantic Ocean. I was considering doing that. But then a kid came to the house where I was staying (very simple little wooden hut of a pastor's family living there with four children) and they said that the weather had cleared up and later in the afternoon the flight would be going out. So thankfully I did get out of there finally, but it was later in the day. Meanwhile I had already called to cancel my appointments and activities for Saturday and Sunday. Oh well.

While in Brus Laguna, I was worried about the bugs there. Last time I got bit up really badly there. Since wearing the shoes and socks didn't work in Kaukira I decided to try a different method of prevention that actually worked!!! Someone told me that if you put a ring of Vicks around your ankles, the bugs don't like the smell of it and won't pass that point and go up the leg. So I bathed my feet and lower legs in mosquito repellant and put that Vicks on and wore bare feet and sandals those two days. Know what? It actually worked! I still have the bites of the earlier village but no new ones and the old bites are healing nicely. What a life, eh?

Rev. Eric Pennings

Missionary of Covenant Reformed Church of Toronto