‘Knowing that a piece of Jefferson was going to be there got to me’

By MATTHEW REZAB
m.rezab@beeherald.com

It was the scariest part of the trip.

Celli Whipple and 19 other missionaries representing Jefferson’s Abundant Life Ministries were in vans on their way to El Volcan, a village in the mountains just outside San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and the road didn’t actually seem like a road.

“I seriously didn’t know how we were going to make it up there,” Whipple said, able to laugh about it now. “It’s not even a road. It’s almost like an animal path. I finally figured out what those low gears are for.”

The group eventually completed the two-hour trip, and it was worth every frightening minute, Whipple said.

Why Honduras

How does a group from western Iowa end up helping children in the sweltering August heat of Central America?

Family connections, of course.

Donna Sutton, a long-time Abundant Life Ministries congregant, has had a special connection with San Pedro Sula since her daughter Sarah became a missionary there 14 years ago.

Sarah worked and preached in a large church in San Pedro Sula for 12 years, but after getting married and starting a family, she and her husband Edward decided to start a ministry of their own. They started La Iglesia Esperanza Viva (The Church of Living Hope) in April 2015, and now host missionary groups. Abundant Life had the honor of being the first in August.

“It’s always been Sarah’s dream to host mission teams,” Sutton said, “because the need in Honduras is so immense. They had hosted groups before with their old church, but this was the first time at the new church, so it was kind of a dream come true to be able to host a group from her home church in Iowa.”

Sutton said Abundant Life has been involved in missions for more than 20 years, but hadn’t travelled anywhere in several years. She said it was time for the church to get involved again, so they signed up 20 people and got moving.

“It was a great connection between the two churches, especially with people here knowing Sarah and Edward,” she said. “It’s a lot easier, I think, when you know the people where you’re going.”

The diverse group of men, women and children led by Pastor Dave Schroeder left Aug. 10 and returned Aug. 17, but that wasn’t the original plan.

God’s hand

The group originally planned to fly to Honduras via Delta Airlines on Monday, Aug. 8, but just weeks before the trip they found a better rate to leave on Wednesday instead.

“Come Monday, Delta had their huge shutdown,” Whipple said. “If we would have left on Monday we would have been stranded.”

A fire and equipment failure in Delta’s Atlanta headquarters caused a massive outage of the company’s computer system that day, causing hundreds of flight cancellations and delays.

“We just thought, ‘God’s hand was on all of that’ because we really were going to go on Monday,” Sutton said.

Not only did the flight go well, but every piece of luggage arrived with the missionaries.

More amazingly, the sometimes shady airport security in San Pedro Sula didn’t give the group any grief.

“Because Edward is very familiar with the airport down there, he had us split everything up between all of our luggage,” Sutton said. “When you bring things in to Honduras they get very testy if you bring in a whole bag of supplies. They think you’re going to sell them instead of donate them, so they like to tax you.”

Sutton said Edward had never seen 25 bags go through without as much as a search before.

After getting through customs, it was time to get down to business.

A better life is out there

The group turned to its itinerary after a night’s rest in their basic but comfortable rooms provided by a couple who turned their home into a missionary-hosting business.

First up was the harrowing drive up to El Volcan to rebuild bathrooms and construct a play-set for the school children there.

“After we finished building, we did a lot of games with the kids and some teaching with them,” Sutton said. “We shared the Gospel with them. Plus Power Lift donated T-shirts for them. They have uniforms, but for everyone to get a brand new shirt with the name of their school on the back was neat.”

Power Lift donated more than 150 T-shirts to the mission.

Whipple said that this was the first time she learned language wouldn’t be a problem.

“You would think that would be a barrier, but it never was,” Whipple said. “That’s one thing that made the trip so much easier.”

Sutton said the missionaries took the time to testify to the children to explain how God plays a role in their lives.

“Cindy Wise did a teaching with the kids and talked about being power lifted out of the Kingdom of Darkness into the Kingdom of Light when they choose the Gospel and choose Jesus as their savior,” she said.

Sutton said the children are not concerned about their circumstances, but you want to demonstrate that there’s more available to them if they choose that.

The group visited two orphanages, one for infants and toddlers and another for older children. Sutton said there was nothing fancy about the homes, but the children were happy and well taken care of.

“Those kids view those women as their parents,” Whipple said. “They even call them their moms.”

While the group played with and helped the children, Sutton said they put a focus on the women that give up their lives to take care of these orphans.

“Most times when people go to orphanages it’s all about the kids and nothing for the workers that spend their lives there,” Sutton said. “So we made sure to try to build them up and encourage them because they’ve committed their lives to taking care of the kids.”

Whipple said she was saddened by the stories of how violence or disease orphaned the children, but she was impressed with how the children are cared for.

Everyone was always happy to see the group, Whipple said.

“Except for one little boy who thought we were doctors there to give him his shots, he cried,” she laughed.

The final official stop for the congregation was a public high school.

Sutton said it was nice for the middle-and-high school age kids to be able to relate and preach to their peers.

“It was wonderful to see,” she said. “We had three high school girls and a couple of middle school girls who got to share some of their testimony with kids their own age.”

Despite living in poverty, the people of San Pedro Sula still showed pride in what they have, Whipple said.

“The thing I noticed the most was that the kids always looked nice, and clean. Even with limited resources they always had pride in how they looked.”

End of a journey

As the trip was winding down, the group took one more trip to El Volcan to say goodbye to their new friends.

Whipple said some kids walked for more than an hour to have dinner and see them off.

“As we got half way up the mountain, we started seeing this sea of powder-blue shirts,” she said. “I just teared up knowing that you can make a difference.

“Knowing that a piece of Jefferson, Iowa, was always going to be there got to me.”

As they reflect on their journey, Whipple and Sutton remember the highlights of the trip.

“Just knowing that what we did and talked about, they’re not going to forget it,” Whipple said. “I know that we planted the seed there. I know in my heart we’ll be back, and I’ll be taking the rest of my family when we do.”

For Sutton, it was exposing the congregation — especially the young people — to another culture.

“The biggest highlight for me is that I’m always happy when people get to experience a different culture,” she said. “It just makes such a difference in your life when you see other people and how they live. It just opens up your whole world.”

Sutton’s evidence can be found in the cliche, “I got more out of helping them than they got from my help.”

“We saw the great needs, but they also saw the joy and happiness of these children,” Sutton said. “One of the girls testified that you think you’re going to bring so much to them and meet so many needs until you realize they don’t think they have any needs. We almost never saw a child without a smile on his face.”

Continuing to give

Sutton said she hopes the trip will inspire others to help.

Sarah and Edward have set up Living Hope Ministry, a nonprofit designed to help the children of Honduras have better futures.

“They really felt the desire to that because they wanted to be able to do more outreach in Honduras and allow people to more easily give to a nonprofit,” Sutton said. “Some people are more open to doing that than giving to a church.”

The organization is registered in the United States.

Sutton said her daughter focuses on two or three projects because the problem of poverty is too great to solve alone.

“Sarah says that she’s found from all her years that the needs are so immense that you can get overwhelmed with it all,” Sutton said. “So you really need to focus, even as a ministry, and get connected with two or three projects and then continue with those.”

“The name of their church is ‘Esperanza Viva’ or Living Hope because that’s what they want to give the people of Honduras is a living hope,” Sutton said. “As you look around Honduras, people don’t have much hope.

“They’re stuck in their circumstance, but you want them to know that there can be.”

Anyone wishing for more information or to donate can contact Donna Sutton at wdsutton@netins.net or visit www.almjefferson.com/missions/sarah-nazar-ministries.

The group hopes to return to San Pedro Sula next year.