This is an excerpt from my trip journal when I was in Honduras, Central America in April of 2007.
Monday, April 23
I was awake very early and finally at 4:40 am I went poolside for devotional reading and to listen to my iPod. The Internet connection did not work today. Shortly after 6:00, I showered, and then Mike Jessup and I went to the café for our daily breakfast meeting. We took our bags to the lobby, stowed the big ones and checked out of the hotel. Tito sent Miguel to take us to the bus station, we bought our tickets and boarded. The bus had some problems with the hills in town, so we went back to the station for another. Mike became quite ill with motion sickness during the trip, but survived.
We took a taxi to the hotel, and got him near normal. We had a snack in the hotel café and took a walk around downtown. We hung around the hotel awaiting a phone call from a TKD school instructor here. I called Carmen Calix who was in Tela with Common Ground Ministries for a 3-day crusade.
We received a call from Coronel Guillermo Erazo at 5:30 and he wanted us at the training center by 6:30. We took a taxi and we arrived early. He is a ball of fire, energy and opinions about most everything. He is retired military and 6th Dan in Tae Kwon Do. Mike worked with this group of about 24 students and was very impressed with them. One of their competitors is a tall young lady who spoke to me after the workout saying "Estoy una Cristiana". She attends Ministerio La Cosecha and we hit it off quickly. I gave the Coronel a copy of "Heart of a Champion" and he was very appreciative and affirming of its value. He asked us to return on Tuesday and we agreed. He also invited us to join him and his wife at a local "Tipicos" restaurant for dinner. We talked long over dinner about many things. We returned to the hotel and reviewed the day's activities and our perceptions. I turned in around 10:20 pm.
Tuesday April 24-
I awoke near 4:15 and got up just before 5:00 to read and check email. I sent a note to SIU Women's Tennis re: the MVC Championship this weekend. I took some time to prepare for today's meeting and wrote in my trip journal. After my shower, Mike and I went to the hotel café for our morning meeting. Betty Braswell joined us after a while and we went back to the room to prepare for our 10:00 am meeting. I double-checked the church's address so our taxi could get us to the right place.
We arrived a little early and introduced ourselves at the door. There were about 150 people there. The meeting was preceded by some very passionate intercessory prayer and then 30+ minutes of music. I then got my 3 minutes to share (I was expecting 20) and did it all in Spanish. After my talk there were three other announcements and a pastor who shared some principles from John Maxwell and Dale Carnegie for at least 45 minutes. Misael Argenal was there, but did not come by to speak with me. After the meeting we talked to several pastors who had interest in sports ministry and I gave them the materials I had prepared in Spanish.
We took a taxi back to the hotel, ate lunch and rested. We took a taxi to the Athletic High Performance Center at 3:30 for the 4:00 session. We arrived early for the training session and it began a little late. This class was all young children, 6 to 12 yrs old. Mike did a tremendous job with them. Coronel Erazo began the session by reading from "Heart of a Champion" and translating it into Spanish with the whole class. He read from Jan. 1 - "Competition." That one really rang his bell. We had a break between sessions and we watched some of the kids run about 100 meters for time. Two kids in particular were quite fast. Coronel Erazo gave both Mike and me a shirt and a medal from his training center. He read Jan. 1 to his class of older students in the 7:00 pm session as well. At the end of the training, he invited me to stand with Mike and him at the front of the class, to pray for them, while we were all on our knees, as part of the class session's finale. I gave away several more copies of "Heart of a Champion" as they had interest. Most all of these kids speak English.
We went back to the Tipicos restaurant for dinner. Mike and I had "gringas," a combination of beans, cheese, chicken, and beef inside a folded tortilla and grilled both sides. It tasted like a quesadilla. We talked about the possibilities of his daughter going to the USA on an athletic scholarship. I told him the odds are against him, but gave him websites to research for possibilities. He and his wife drove us back to the hotel and we went to the café for ice cream (Celebration!). I was in bed by 10:30 and dozed off quickly.
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