Donations to support my mission are much needed and appreciated. Please contact pauldarr@star-fish-enterprises.org if you can help in any way. Thank you so much

Click here to go back to the main page.

Tyler's Honduras Mission 2008

Update # 2
15 JAN 08

Well we got the first team safely home and picked up our second medical brigade this week. The rest of last week went absolutely swimmingly. Wednesday I led the team out to San Matias to Rancho Ebenezer. The team and I played soccer against the Hondurans and of course my team won… There were some gringos breathing hard up there with the altitude, but they had a really good time sharing in the children's lives.

Thursday we went and got the second brigade site opened up. It took a while to get things started but once they got rolling the team was really excited. I have mostly been working with Mark Harden pouring concrete floors so that was my job for Thursday and Friday. Our construction site for the two days was about ten minutes by car from the brigade site. I spent a lot of my time traveling between one place and another in the back of a pickup. I decided that there is something that makes a man feel good about riding in the back of a pickup in a 3rd world country.

The family had sixteen people living in the same house, most of them being children. We spent both days pouring concrete there and the kids warmed up pretty quickly. By the second day we couldn't work very well because kids were hanging all over us and we were basically just playing games. The team members connected with the kids really well and it was obvious that the children just wanted to be loved and touched with care.

Some of the children attended the Christian church, but we had heard that the parents just weren't ready to accept Christ yet. We talked with them about our faith and hopefully were able to at least make an impression on the family and show them Christ's love through the action of pouring them three new 10x10 floors.

The team worked the other stations very well and we were able to see quite a few patients in all the areas. After working with 4 other teams, I'd have to say that this team was the most excited about evangelism out of all those that I have seen. Team members usually spend half a day in Evangelism because it can be emotionally and physically draining, but this team was putting in full days just because they wanted to share with the Hondurans and hear about their lives.

One thing that the team said really stood out to them was the number of single women who came in with children. If they weren't single they were usually unequally yoked in a marriage where the husband was either unfaithful, an alcoholic, or an unbeliever.

One of our team members spent close to an hour with one woman because she was essentially looking for permission from him to divorce her husband. She was taking care of six children while her husband provided for himself and no one else. He was not a believer, but he was also not being physically abusive or unfaithful. The team member shared with her that her reason for being in the situation may have been to bring her husband to the Lord. He told her to avoid divorce if at all possible, even if she needed to separate from him for a while. The woman looked him in the eye and asked him to pray for her for the rest of his life. He said that you can't say yes to that sort of request and then not follow through on it. We prayed for the woman later that night and I know that many team members still are.

Experiences like this quickly put our own privileged lives into perspective. Today I went to run my Physical Readiness test for the Navy. I ran it at the Air base across from the airport and was literally 10 feet from the plane of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who is visiting Tegucigalpa today. I ran the worst time of my life for my test by over a minute. Apparently altitude and mission house food have taken their toll. I'll have to get creative in my training here real quick.

The new team is hard at work now and just finished their second day at the site. We have a chiropractor with us this week and he has been one of the busiest team members. It's interesting to see how many pains can be fixed with the hands. I need to head to a little devotional time with the team now, but again please pray for me, WGO, and the people of Honduras.

Love,
Tyler

Weekly Update # 1

8JAN08

I have arrived safely in Honduras after something of a delay that involved landing in another city in Honduras and taking a four and half hour bus ride to Tegucigalpa. I am settled into my cabin, which is very spacious and somewhat comfortable. I have my own bathroom with a small heater on the shower, which gives me hot water when it feels so inclined.

Saturday I rode to the airport with the Honduran driver to get a feel for his daily activities. We picked up the team from Alive in Christ Lutheran Church in Columbia, MO. I was surprised to find out that the team leaders were the parents of a Midshipman in my class at the Naval Academy. It’s a very small world! There are quite a few ex-military, reserves, and National Guardsmen on this team, so it’s been interesting to talk with all of them and share experiences.

Sunday we went to the Spanish church CCI and I was able to pick up quite a bit of the service, except for when the pastor would get excited, yell, and talk ridiculously fast. We then went to La Florida Restaurant and had lunch as a team on our way to the Valley of the Angels for souvenir shopping. I have done most of the shopping over my last four trips so Ileana, the Honduran team leader, and I went over to an orphanage down the street.

We were meeting a Naval officer that I actually met in Cartagena, Colombia, who now works in the embassy in Tegucigalpa. I ran into him the day before at the airport and he told me the U.S. military was going to be at this orphanage with the U.S. Ambassador handing out toys and food. We were able to meet the Ambassador and had about a 10 minute conversation with him about our mission and mission work in general. He seemed very interested and his staff was very helpful and offered their assistance in the future should the mission need any help. It was a good contact to be able to make for WGO and hopefully it will be fruitful for them in the future.

Yesterday we hit our first mission site and got to work. I spent the morning making sure the doctors and team members had water. I’ve been preaching the hydration sermon to the team like it is the gospel because I don’t think most of them understand that if they pass out I’m just going to leave them there! I spent the afternoon pouring a concrete floor with Mark, the concrete coordinator, and James, a former Marine who really has a heart for service. James and I were covered in concrete and exhausted by the end of the day but the family was overjoyed to have a new floor in the room that their two teenage daughters share.

I don’t think I was heeding my own advice yesterday because I was feeling the dehydration when I returned to the mission house so I caught a little nap after dinner. Today is Tuesday, which will be my day off during the week so I can do some laundry, write emails, and clean my hooch (a.k.a. cabin). So far I am really enjoying myself and am looking forward to having some familiar faces on the teams in a couple of weeks. Please pray for me, everyone with the mission, and the people of Honduras.

Love,
Tyler

Editors Note - Tyler graduated from Trinity Lutheran School in 2001, Metro East Lutheran High School in 2005, and the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis in 2010.

Click here to see all of Tyler's pictures or larger versions of these pictures.

Click here to see a video from Tyler riding the bus from San Pedro Sula.

Donations to support my mission are much needed and appreciated, and tax deductible. Please contact pauldarr@star-fish-enterprises.org if you can help in any way. Thank you so much!

Tyler's home church, Trinity Lutheran Church in Edwardsville, IL.

World Gospel Outreach