July 3 Honduras Update

 Most of the BGU students have made their way back to their cities. Lennox from Cayman Islands is hanging out with our short term mission team for a couple days, and Funmi and Kolade are spending a couple days with Olu to see more of his ministry in Honduras up close. The mission team is currently relaxing in Valle de Angeles after a wonderful camping experience with young people from Hope For Honduras. 

The kids learned about God's Grand Narrative. Their Bible study times focused on that, and they had many activities related to that topic. 

We celebrated the ending of the camp with a lunch. And, we watched a fun video of all of the antics from three days of camp. 

There were lots of hugs as we all said goodbye. There were also lots of commitments to stay in touch, and many members of the mission team have expressed that they want to come back next year. 

For many years, Lisa and I dreamed about putting together a short term mission trip that would inspire people and serve to expand Lisa's ministry in Honduras. We also dreamed about combining a mission team with a BGU city immersion. It's so amazing to see those dreams come together! I'm thankful for God's goodness. 

July 1/2 Honduras Update

 The Honduras city immersion with Bakke Graduate University students has officially come to a close. The North Way short term mission team is still going strong with the camp that they're helping to lead for students from Hope For Honduras. It's a beautiful camp and I enjoyed having both the BGU group and the mission team together there again yesterday. It was awesome to see the groups bond so well together around our common purpose to learn from the people of Honduras. 

The campground is an incredible place. We were thankful that the director showed us around and shared about the vision of the camp.

After the camp tour and a session with a CCI counselor who shared about the vision of camp, the BGU group participated in an experiential learning activity together. 

The mission team starting working on getting crafts and games ready for later in the day. The slime that they prepared turned out great!

The approach to camping is for the kids to connect with God. Local Honduran leaders serve as camp counselors, and our team works alongside them to connect with the kids and to jump in at various points to join in on all of the fun. The campers seem to be having a wonderful time!

After lunch I traveled back to the retreat center with the BGU students to do one final debrief of our time together in Tegucigalpa. We discussed how the powerful examples of transformational leadership that we saw throughout the week could lead to our students serving as more powerful examples of transformational leaders in their own cities. And I had them design their own cities from some craft supplies that I had on hand. They had a lot of fun!

I'm thankful for another excellent urban immersion from BGU. These never get old! Each one is unique, and God shows up in special ways. Praise God for his goodness to all of us!