Tyler's Honduras Mission 2008

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Tyler's Honduras Mission 2008

Update # 6

8 March 2008

Hola everyone!

Yet again I am massively late on an update. Some of you may even have lost faith that I was actually going to write an update. Please excuse my tardiness and interpret it as an example of how busy I truly have been.

We finally finished our eight teams in a row, so I now have a little time to write my update. Let me tell you, I have been extremely busy with the teams around here. We finally had some time off last week and a couple of us headed out to the Mayan Ruins in Copan, Honduras by the border of Guatemala. The pictures of that are on webshots.com now, along with pictures from Teams 7 & 8.

In Copan we were able to do a zip-line tour in the tree tops. Two of the zip lines were each over a half mile long and about 350 feet in the air. I didn’t realize the stupidity of what I was doing until I was about half way out on the longest one and realized I was in a third world country hanging 350 feet in the air on third world equipment. Thank God everything was safe and we had a great time.

It was fantastic to get away from the city, even for just 3 days, to get some down time. The teams can be very stressful, especially after eight in a row. It was a huge blessing to see other parts of the country and to learn a little about the heritage of this beautiful country.

We’ve had some really good teams lately and I have been spending quite a bit of my time keeping things going around here. We’ve had great days at brigades, rough days at brigades, and everything in between. One day we had to close the brigade mid-day, a first for me personally. We had a very rowdy crowd that all wanted, and very much needed, medical attention, but very little control from the coordinating church. We were able to help out a lot of people in the morning, but it was much safer for the team to leave the site. Always better to be safe than sorry in Honduras.

About three weeks ago we encountered a mother and a baby that was massively malnourished. The mother couldn’t provide for the baby because she too was malnourished. She is essentially a slave and she is living with a man that is basically her master. He provides a meager existence for her and sometimes for the baby. She has to stay with him though because she simply cannot provide for herself. The day she came in we took her and the baby to the hospital immediately for care. She came back the next day for nebulizer treatments (for breathing problems) for the baby.

Denny, one of our brigade coordinators, took a special interest in this girl. We took up a fund from the team members that week, and with it, Denny has been able to provide a stroller so she can take her baby up the massive hill to her house. Denny has also bought necessary formula for the baby because the mother simply cannot provide it.

In the last couple of weeks we have delivered groceries each week because when we return there is simply nothing to eat each time. She told Denny that the man in the house has actually softened a bit in the last couple of weeks, so apparently God is working in his heart by showing him what some are willing to do for her. Please pray for this situation, it is like so many here in this country.

This week my girlfriend, Nora, and my two friends Michael and Eric are part of the team. They may be posting on this website throughout the week, so look for that.

I thank you all for your prayers and support during my time here. For those of you who are interested, I was re-accepted to the Naval Academy last week and will be returning on May 22nd to resume my training. Thank God and all of you for your prayers regarding this. (Editor's note - Tyler's parents thank you too!)

Hopefully I’ll be in touch a little sooner next time, but don’t hold me to that. Life in Honduras is full of the unexpected.

Please continue to pray for this mission, my work, 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 2010.

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

Click here to go to the World Gospel Outreach web site

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