Missing the Sunrise

April 5, 2009

I have been noticing that I rise just a little bit too late each morning in that I miss seeing the sunrise over the city in it’s pink ball of glory. I catch a glimpse through my bedroom window, but I have yet to be running by 5:45AM in order to really see it. When I leave the apartment, it has settled down into a ball of yellow flame, without such dazzle or glory. Some morning I will make myself get it in time to really enjoy the view. Yesterday as I was running I was composing all sorts of blog entries but now, 36 hours later, I cannot remember anything I had wanted to write. Oh well, I know that I do want to mention last evening’s activity.

I went with my friend Lourdes to an outlying neighborhood of San Pedro Sula where her church was having an evangelism service. At 5:30PM as we drove to the place, I learned two things. One was that the temperature was 95F and the sun was to set in just half an hour. The second was that Villa Nueva, where we were headed, is a marginal community and just this week there had been 3 deaths. I knew it was good for me to go and I wanted to go, but I began to fear a little more for safety. In the end the evening went well with no threat of personal security in the least. There were puppets and dramas for the children and then another drama for the youth and adults while the children went to another portion of the soccer field for songs and a message. I hung out with a 16 year old girl named Gabriela who I had noticed along with her sisters. I was one of the few North Americans in the group so I stood out and as usual got lots of stares and attention. Gabriela was a part of a church but has not been attending and so it was neat to see her interest in taking advantage of the transportation offered to go to Lourdes’s church. From what I understood though her parents are not supportive of church involvement so I pray that she and her siblings will be permitted to go. Another girl, Cindy, was excited to hear of youth group that is happening in their neighborhood.

For me it was good to get out in a community such as that and interact with various young people. I was encouraged too because there was a missionary couple from the church who did much of the speaking and they are from the mid-west. They have been in Honduras for 30 years and when I heard them speaking in Spanish without stumbling over words, I realized that there is still hope for me. Not that I am really planning to be here for 30 years.

Well, I suppose that it is time to return home to a very hot apartment, but I have enjoyed this brief time in a quiet place with A/C. I am sure that Lisbet will be running around back at the apartment too, wanting some attention. Tomorrow we all head out to camp for the week so I do have packing to do yet. I cannot forget my tent.