Well, as Rob informed you, our luggage is now home and we are very thankful - it had more in it than we remembered.  But the reality was, if it had been lost forever we would still have so much here, it would hardly be missed.  Now that we are back home the reality of our “richness” starts to sink in - I pray it won’t stop.  Our first meal at the table yesterday at noon was a grateful one - from our big, strong table with four chairs, to the placemats, to the can of soup I got out of a cupboard full of food - we were reminded how rich we are.  We tucked our kids into their own beds, in their own rooms, on the third floor of our home!!  When I brushed my teeth in clean water and then drank from the tap - again I was thankful.  None of the homes we visited had water they could drink without boiling.

As we drove home from getting the luggage at the airport today Brett commented that maybe God allowed it to get lost to remind us that this trip wasn’t about us.  I don’t know entirely what his little heart and mind are thinking - but he is so right that it was nothing more than a slight inconvenience - nothing like the people in Honduras are dealing with!!  The wisdom of youth!!  Actually at the hotel each night as I washed undies and socks in the sink, I thought of all the homes we visited - washing by hand is all they’ve ever known - I definitely couldn’t complain in my nice hotel bathroom to be washing clothes!!

I am sending off tons of pics to superstore - trying to do about 50 each night.  I’m realizing that the pictures don’t do justice to the experience.  We can give you a glimpse of the external world of Honduras, but hopefully with words we can share the internal heart.  The love of the people at the projects and the heads of the churches reaching into these communities was incredible!! 

Well, thanks for joining us on the journey.

Julie

The prodigal luggage has finally chosen to return home 11 days after we last saw it. It has experienced places even unknown to American Airlines - if only it could tell stories.  All is intact and my kids can now where different clothes each day. I can now wear shorts - at least I could wear shorts if I so chose in this -10C weather. And I can power up my video camera so we can download the footage for you to see. So Yea - God is good! We look forward to sharing with all of you!

Rob

We made it home, though it was looking like we were going to be stranded in NY city at one point in the journey back. We were an hour late leaving Miami, but fortunately our connecting flight to HFX was also running an hour late so we so made it. Unfortunately, still no word on our luggage that has been touring the continent for the past 10 days.

We’re back and a little exhausted. As Ed mentioned, a few of us have not been feeling the greatest - thank you God for Pepto Bismal. But we’re all recovering fine.

Now the real challenge begins. What do we do with the knowledge we’ve gained? How do we help these project communities in a way that will make a difference? We have some thoughts and we would like to share those on April 12 at 6:30pm. We would also like to see more in our church sponsor children as they have many children needing sponsorship. Especially in light of the US recession, they are losing much of their support with people no longer being able to finance sponsorship. It is putting a huge financial strain on Compassion as they don’t feel they can just stop helping the children they have been working with. One project has about 15 children ready to sponsor, the same with the other, with the need for about another 50 by August.

Thank you to all who have been following this blog and praying for us. It was a very meaningful experience. I too want to thank Sherri for all the hard planning work into all this especially in light of the fact she wasn’t able to come with us. Dave, this blog concept works great. I’m surprised by all the people who have been reading this.

We’ve gained much experience in how to better go about doing a mission tour to Honduras. This was our practise run through, now we’re much wiser (even about luggage). So who wants to go next year? Max 14 people! It’s a life perspective changing experience!

Rob