Starting out Friday morning, we left from the Sumner’s property early in the morning and headed to the police station in Danli. There was a nice crowd of police and soldiers accumulated and we all enjoyed being able to minister to them. Jacob preached on coming out of darkness and several responded by lifting their hands saying that they desired prayer. After breakfast and some souvenir shopping, we headed to the Sumner’s church there in Danli to start preparing for the children’s crusade that started that night. Once finished, we headed to back the Sumner’s property for some rest and to get ready for that night. The children and some adults arrived mostly by bus at the church at around 7:30. We started with some songs and then dove right into the skits. The skit was, for the most part, hilarious in my perspective. It seemed to go quite smoothly even though there was the massive language barrier between us. After the skits and games, Brother Scott Sumner gave the altar call and approximately 30 kids that came forward for prayer. It truly was an awesome experience to see so many young children hungry for a relationship with God. After the crusade, everyone headed home for a wonderful night of sleep.
On Thursday, we headed out around 6:30 A.M. and, after picking up breakfast, we headed to have our first service with the communications squadron. Brother Pahlman gave a message on salvation and many seemed to want to know more about the Lord. Our next destination was the 6th battalion of Infantry. This was where the mission work with the military all started. Jacob preached on coming out of darkness and we had a wonderful time of worship together. Afterwards, the commanding colonel invited us to have lemonade with him which actually super tasty. We then traveled to Danli where we had service with the 110th brigade. Though many of the men in this service seemed preoccupied with their duties and tasks, we still were able to have a great service. I truly hope that we left something with them that God will use to change their lives. We then traveled to the 9th battalion. This was an awesome service! The Lord really moved and touched and at one point, the commanding colonel even came and sat on the front row. Needless to say, we were all very tired at this point. The traveling was starting to wear on all of us. It is amazing how the Sumner family is able to do all of this all by themselves. We headed back to the Sumner’s property where we ate and socialized for the evening. I do believe that most of us went to bed pretty early that night.
The third day of our trip started right after sunrise with just the men of the group heading to have service with the paramilitary group named the Cobras. The ladies stayed behind to catch up on their rest. We had picked up Brother Pahlman from the airport the previous afternoon and so he was the first to preach that morning. He gave a wonderful message on salvation and it seemed to sink in with the whole group. We then headed back to inner Tegucigalpa where we had breakfast and waited on the ladies. Once reunited with them we headed to have service with the 1st battalion. Jacob preached on leaving the darkness and did a great job of giving his testimony. It seemed as if his testimony really affected several of the men. After a quick lunch, we headed to the police academy. We were met by a wonderful group of excited young men and women as well as officers. They really got into the service with us and really seemed to have a desire to know God greater. Our next destination was the military academy. This service was such an encouragement to all of us. A group of no less than 250 cadets met with us to be in service. It was AMAZING! They all got in with us and really loved singing all of the songs at the top of their lungs. They especially loved “Father Abraham!” It was such a blast to be in service with this group. Brother Pahlman headed the service up with a moving message on accepting the Lord as your personal savior. We then headed back to Tegucigalpa where we stopped for another wonderful meat plate and then headed to bed.
We started Tuesday off by leaving out from the property at 3 A.M. We made our way to Choluteca where we had our fist service with the local police squadron. After songs and testimonies, Jacob preached a wonderful message about coming out of darkness and into the saving light of Christ. We then headed to have a service with the 4th Artillery Brigade. The commanding officer at this post was super friendly to us and did everything possible to make us feel welcome. We had a wonder service there and were happy to see the men and women praying and worshiping with us. By this time, I was really starting to realize the amount of influence the Sumner family had in Honduras as well as the depth of their relationship with military and police. We left Choluteca and headed to have service with the 11th Infantry Battalion in Salamar. We had arrived slightly late but were still able to have a wonderful service with them. Midway through one of the songs, a troop of soldiers joined the service. We had a great response to the message that Jacob preached about salvation. There were several to raise their hands saying that they sought to be saved. Our next destination was a naval base on the island of Tiger. We enjoyed a boat ride over to the island and even got to ride on the three-wheeled Tuk-Tuks while on the island. We were met at the base by a very generous and receptive captain who warmly welcomed us. We had an awesome service at this base and I truly feel like all of the sailors were truly encouraged in the Lord. After a very interesting tour of the island on which we got to see the beach, visit a bat cave, and observe a pirate rock, we made our way back to Tegucigalpa. We enjoyed an amazing “meat plate” and then made our way to the hotel for a good night’s rest.
So you want to know about the SENT trip? Well, the whole thing started on Monday morning at 2:30 A.M. We all loaded up and headed to the airport and enjoyed two safe flights all the way down to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The flight into Honduras was highlighted by the exceptional landing onto the very dangerous landing strip. Nearly every person aboard applauded the pilots for their very skilled handling. The team made its way through customs without complication. After completing several errands within the city, we made our way to the Sumner’s property in Tablone where we spent the rest of the evening eating some amazing food and enjoying each other’s company.
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AuthorJohn Butler is a Freshman at Free Gospel Bible Institute. ArchivesCategories |