Departure Day

The first and arguably most tiring day of our Honduras mission trip began early Saturday morning when the team gathered at RIC around 4o’clock to catch our 6am flight. The first and most important challenge faced by the team was successfully checking all 30 of the 50 pound duffels in addition to signing all 15 of us in and gathering boarding passes.

Due to the sheer size of our group and the nearly 1,500 pounds of luggage we were transporting, we quickly discovered the lady assisting us at the kiosk was not a happy morning person. Despite this, we quickly made it through security and onto our first flight into Newark, landing just before 8am. At EWR, we found breakfast and awaited our final flight into San Pedro Sula. Arriving nearly an hour late, our ride to San Pedro Sula parked at the gate and we boarded. Shortly thereafter, the completely booked 737 took to the skies. On this flight, I think we learned two things; one, Hondurans enjoy taking vacations to the United States; and two, Jill is very proficient in the art of upgrading.

After 4 hours in the air, we landed in San Pedro Sula and were able to successfully get through customs and collect all 30 of the duffels in one piece! From there, we met Nury and Melvin, loaded up the bus, grabbed a few sodas and used the bathroom, then began the 2 hour trip to the Barnabas House. Once we arrived, we helped unpack the bus and were shown to our rooms. The team was served an outstanding dinner and given an official welcome from Nury. Later, Jill led us in devotion, during which we talked about why each of us felt the desire to come on this mission trip. Following this, we quickly exchanged American dollars for limpiras and then began heading off to bed, thus ending our first day.