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July 3,2018
Dear Saints John & Paul Parish,
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to visit Honduras and serve the people of the community, with Soles4Souls. Surprisingly,this experience with our team of missionaries proved to be enlightening, inspirational,entertaining,emotional, and quite rewarding for me. Because of the love and support of all of you,I was able to not only experience this for myself, but also share this with 24 of our precious youth,two of which are my daughters.
As we prepared both emotionally and physically for this trip in the past few months,I found myself becoming more excited,anticipating what we were going to witness, and anxious as the departure day drew near. I worried about everything conceivable,and just prayed for God’s grace to not let this fear control me. All this fear and anxiety ended when we met our guides in San Pedro Sula. From this moment, I knew that they were placed there to care for us.
The five days we spent in Honduras were five days that I will never ever forget. As a chaperone,I saw our youth living out their Christian faith in the most powerful ways; a simple hug, a holding of a hand, a smile, washing of feet, gentle care,placing shoes on calloused, worn feet. I heard them treating each other as they would want to be treated. I saw our children allow walls to come down that are usually protecting them from all that scares or hurts them.
As a mom I saw my daughters the happiest I have ever seen them,to the point that they wanted to stay longer. The pure love and kindness that they experienced is all too infrequent, in our society. Their friendships with the other missionaries grew and others formed in unexpected ways.
As a missionary,I realized that, while we distributed shoes to three different communities,and we visited a malnutrition center, we were helping in our small ways with acts of kindness. However, we received in return something so much greater. We had the first hand opportunity to see that all we really need is love. These people have nothing of monetary value,but are the happiest, most joyful people I have ever met. What they gave me was a perspective that I pray I never lose.
What I learned from this mission trip is that despite the crime and poverty that prevails in this country, the people live their lives with such joy and love for each other, and they shared that so openly with us. The families at the schools we visited in the communities were each slightly different in location and condition, but much the same in that they were all extremely poor in the traditional sense, yet very loving and caring of each other’s needs. I am inspired through this experience to look within our own community for opportunities to help those in need. They surround us, but often we don’t take the time or make the effort to see all those that are in need of our love and care. This could just be a visit to a shelter, or caring for a loved one who is sick. I believe that this was my reason for participating in this trip and the message that God spoke to me; look around and share His love.
Lastly,one other observation that I made was in our youth. The majority of the youth did not want to leave. This really puzzled me. Then it occurred to me that they had minimal cell phone usage or distractions. They were truly present to each other and so they shared this experience deeply,together. They experienced true love and relationship with each other, not with a screen between them and miles apart.
Again, I thank you for trusting me in the care of our youth, and for giving me the opportunity to share this experience with our church community. I pray that I can hear God’s call and follow the call of the His Holy Spirit as He leads me.
With Sincere thanks, Stacey Cuba