Preaching in Honduras

In October God gave me the great opportunity to take a  missions trip to Honduras with several people from Ellendale Baptist Church. Our missions team leader was Stuart Grey and his wife Dottie. His daughter and son-in-law met us there. In the picture on the left Stuart’s daughter Joy Hernandez served as a translator. She is excellent in Spanish and did a tremendous job. Others in our mission team included: Youth Pastor at Ellendale Nathan Pellegra, Robin Snyder, Josh Mathis, Luis Hernandez, and a host of others from Honduras that met us there. 

This is a picture of our mission team sitting on one of the ancient Mayan temple ruins. We ministered in the city of Copan Ruinas which is a major archaeological site of  the ancient Mayan people. The citizens of that city are, for the most part, descendants of the Mayans. In between services we had the opportunity to explore the ruins of Copan. This of course is why the city is named Copan Ruinas.  We saw the very altars which were used for human sacrafice 3,000 years ago.

The Mayans built two types of pyramids, those that were meant to be climbed and those that were not. This pyramid with steps from the ground up was obviously one meant to be climbed. Those that were not were considered too sacred and were not to be touched. The pyramids served several purposes. Music was sometimes played on top with the hope that its sound was pleasing to the rain gods. They also served as a place of sacrifice and burial chambers for the elite.

This is the entrance to the tomb of the notorious Mayan King Yax K’uk Mo. Enemies of this king would square off in a game much like modern soccer. They used a 9 lb. rubber ball. Often times the winning captain would be offered in human sacrifice. It seems strange that the winner would lose their life but to the Mayan King they were giving the best person from among them to appease the gods who in return would send the rain.

This picture of the courtyard was taken from the top of another temple site I managed to climb. Just to the right of the stone structure is the area where the deadly ball game was played. Over 6,000 ball courts like this one have been discovered all over Mexico and Central America. There seemed to be no end to the stone temples, courtyards, altars and beautiful stone carvings we encountered while visiting this site.

 

The greatest thrill I had while in Honduras was the privilege to preach the Word of God to the people. Every service was broadcast live on TV all over western Honduras. I was told that due to the viewer response they rebroadcast every service in the evenings. The people of Honduras have such a deep hunger for God’s Word and it was a blessing to minister to so many believers as well as Pastors and Christian workers.

Another great blessing was the opportunity to share the gospel in a village not far from Copan Ruinas. Our mission team conducted VBS and several of us traveled on foot through out the village sharing the gospel. I was  privileged to lead six people to Christ. Two of those who professed faith in Christ were a young couple expecting their first child. They came to the service the very next day and are now part of a new church that is being planted in that little village. I later learned that we were the first Americans in the history of that village to ever come and share the gospel. Please remember these people in your prayers.

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