Tyler's Honduras Mission 2008

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Tyler's Honduras Mission 2008

Update # 4
2 February 2008

Well if you are a regular on the website you will have noticed that this update is beyond late… I apologize for that. Things are very busy down here, so let me give you a quick update on life in Tegucigalpa.

This afternoon I said goodbye to my father, step-mom, and their team after a great week. It was great to spend the week with familiar faces and family. It was definitely a change from being part of the team to being the "intern", but it was great to spend time with the team in something of leadership position.

We visited two great church sites, the first being a church that our team had previously visited twice before. The pastor and his wife had recently lost their seven year old son and we found out beforehand and were able to tell the team to bring any pictures of the family that they had from previous years. The team brought a couple and is going to search for more to send back with another team so we can take them to the pastor. I think the family really appreciated our desire to mourn with them and share our love with them.

The second church was about 1 ½ hours outside of the city. It was a little different experience in regards to people we saw. They are commonly referred to as 'campesinos' or country-folk in the states. They were incredibly gracious and welcoming. The change of scenery was interesting and uplifting for both the team and the staff here at WGO.

Friday I celebrated my 21st birthday…Honduran WGO style. One of our optometrists, Jeff Herberts, and I shared the same birthday. This entailed the standard happy birthday singing by the church members, translators and team. Of course, after that came the raw eggs smashed on the head, maseca(corn flour), confetti, and then a freezing cold water bath to clean off. If you check out the pictures you'll see the true extent of the madness.

After I got cleaned up and changed into my clean clothes (albeit with wet socks and underwear…), I went to work at a house where we poured concrete floors for two kitchens. After we finished the floors, prayed and were about to say our goodbyes I received another round of raw eggs on the head from the family who we just poured the floors for, along with Mark and Franklin the translator. I was able to then change into a beautiful pink bunny scrub shirt provided by some endearing members of the team. These pictures are also available on my website for those interested in seeing me in an outfit of camo pants, boony hat, pink bunny rabbit scrubs, and ridiculous sunglasses.

Later in the evening the cooks here at the mission house prepared a four layer cake for the birthday festivities. I really enjoyed all the birthday celebrations and couldn't have imagined a better way to spend my 21st birthday. It was as good as a birthday gets despite missing the rest of my family, my girlfriend, and all those that are close to my heart.

We picked up our next team after we dropped off my dad's team this afternoon. They are settled in and we will be heading out for church and shopping tomorrow before we get started on Monday. I'm starting to feel the effects of my fifth team in a row, but I've been praying for strength and really appreciate the emails, Facebook posts, instant messages, and birthday cards from home!

Thank you all again for your support and prayers. Please continue to pray for me, the mission, and the people of Honduras. I'll also be posting a story soon about an experience at a mission site, so check back for that!

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 go to the web site of Tyler's home church, Trinity Lutheran Church in Edwardsville, IL.

Click here to go to the World Gospel Outreach web site