luv1another
September 12th 2006, 08:15 PM
hey Rayado, nice to see you today. just a few questions and then you can go :teeth: ok here we go....
what organization was your trip organized through?
Through my denomination, the General Baptists.
where did you go?
San Pedro Sula, Honduras, in 2001, 2003, and 2005.
what was your role?
Partly to chaperone, and partly to fill in wherever needed.
why did you decide to go on a missions trip?
I had done several ‘workcamp’ type mission trips in the States, and when our youth group was planning on going to Honduras I knew firstly that they’d need the help, but I wanted to expand my horizons as well.
what were some of the things you did while there?
We did Vacation Bible Schools in several of the public schools and churches depending on the year (and literally depending on whether or not the President of Honduras was going to give the kids the week off).
how was the culture and enviroment diffrent to your own? how was it the same?
Culture was considerably more communal and agrarian than ours, but the environment was strikingly similar except for the amount of sunlight that was cooking everything in sight. Their humidity and temperature were not terribly different from our own.
how do you feel the people responded to your group?
We were humbled by the response that we got on all three trips. Many of the students at the schools recognized us on our return trips, and even remembered some of our names.
what were some highlights?
The response of all the children, on all three trips, was simply the opposite of the response to a typical VBS given at some random church in a Western country.
did being on a mission trip meet your expectations? how was it diffrent to your expectations? both good and bad
To be honest, our expectations flew out the window once we stepped out into Honduras and saw what we were going into. We didn’t know quite what to expect, but that also gave us a more open mind about dealing with anything that came up.
what was the high point of the trip for you?
Singing praise songs, in Spanish and English, with the kids at the denomination headquarters/orphanage there near San Pedro Sula. Those kids can *belt it.*
what was the low point?
We had some factions spring up on one or two of the trips that threatened to really weaken the group overall. Unneeded strife a thousand miles from home is not a good thing.
tell us a bit about your trip in your own words....
We’d mostly do VBS stuff in the mornings and afternoons, and then do work around the missions headquarters in the late afternoons, then hang out & have a devotion/Bible study before bed each night. We would either visit churches or schools during the daytime to present our ‘spiel’ and then head back to spruce the place up or work on construction stuff or rest in the afternoons, and nights were neat because storms would billow up across the valley we were on the side of, and it would rain nearly every day and cool stuff down in the evening.
What was the thing that you most enjoyed? Liked least?
I enjoyed getting to see my friends work around the language barrier. I could understand the people (for the most part), but it was great to see fellowship between these two groups of people. I least liked the needless tension within the group.
What touched you the most?
What touched me the most wasn’t on the Honduras trip but something that happened a year later, on a completely different type of mission trip to Puerto Rico. I was able to sing along with the Puerto Rican woman whose house we were working on, when she would sing a praise song or two in Spanish. Some of them I had learned on the Honduras trips.
What would you most like to tell us about your experience?
The church services down there were quite a wake-up call. But life itself is a wake-up call in a country like Honduras where pretty much everyone stays one step ahead of severe injury or death.
How effective was your trip (formal groups will often have some kind of evaluation criteria)?
Well, the kids remembered us by name in the years that we returned. I’d say that we were effective.
Are you looking forward to/planning to go again or on another trip?
We’re probably planning a 2007 trip, and if there is one then I’ll probably go again.
and that concludes todays interview, please ask any questions in the thread below and rayado can answer them for you :teeth:
what organization was your trip organized through?
Through my denomination, the General Baptists.
where did you go?
San Pedro Sula, Honduras, in 2001, 2003, and 2005.
what was your role?
Partly to chaperone, and partly to fill in wherever needed.
why did you decide to go on a missions trip?
I had done several ‘workcamp’ type mission trips in the States, and when our youth group was planning on going to Honduras I knew firstly that they’d need the help, but I wanted to expand my horizons as well.
what were some of the things you did while there?
We did Vacation Bible Schools in several of the public schools and churches depending on the year (and literally depending on whether or not the President of Honduras was going to give the kids the week off).
how was the culture and enviroment diffrent to your own? how was it the same?
Culture was considerably more communal and agrarian than ours, but the environment was strikingly similar except for the amount of sunlight that was cooking everything in sight. Their humidity and temperature were not terribly different from our own.
how do you feel the people responded to your group?
We were humbled by the response that we got on all three trips. Many of the students at the schools recognized us on our return trips, and even remembered some of our names.
what were some highlights?
The response of all the children, on all three trips, was simply the opposite of the response to a typical VBS given at some random church in a Western country.
did being on a mission trip meet your expectations? how was it diffrent to your expectations? both good and bad
To be honest, our expectations flew out the window once we stepped out into Honduras and saw what we were going into. We didn’t know quite what to expect, but that also gave us a more open mind about dealing with anything that came up.
what was the high point of the trip for you?
Singing praise songs, in Spanish and English, with the kids at the denomination headquarters/orphanage there near San Pedro Sula. Those kids can *belt it.*
what was the low point?
We had some factions spring up on one or two of the trips that threatened to really weaken the group overall. Unneeded strife a thousand miles from home is not a good thing.
tell us a bit about your trip in your own words....
We’d mostly do VBS stuff in the mornings and afternoons, and then do work around the missions headquarters in the late afternoons, then hang out & have a devotion/Bible study before bed each night. We would either visit churches or schools during the daytime to present our ‘spiel’ and then head back to spruce the place up or work on construction stuff or rest in the afternoons, and nights were neat because storms would billow up across the valley we were on the side of, and it would rain nearly every day and cool stuff down in the evening.
What was the thing that you most enjoyed? Liked least?
I enjoyed getting to see my friends work around the language barrier. I could understand the people (for the most part), but it was great to see fellowship between these two groups of people. I least liked the needless tension within the group.
What touched you the most?
What touched me the most wasn’t on the Honduras trip but something that happened a year later, on a completely different type of mission trip to Puerto Rico. I was able to sing along with the Puerto Rican woman whose house we were working on, when she would sing a praise song or two in Spanish. Some of them I had learned on the Honduras trips.
What would you most like to tell us about your experience?
The church services down there were quite a wake-up call. But life itself is a wake-up call in a country like Honduras where pretty much everyone stays one step ahead of severe injury or death.
How effective was your trip (formal groups will often have some kind of evaluation criteria)?
Well, the kids remembered us by name in the years that we returned. I’d say that we were effective.
Are you looking forward to/planning to go again or on another trip?
We’re probably planning a 2007 trip, and if there is one then I’ll probably go again.
and that concludes todays interview, please ask any questions in the thread below and rayado can answer them for you :teeth: