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Well….I took the plunge. Ever since I started making annual mission trips to Honduras four years ago, I have been thinking about purchasing Rosetta Stone to help with learning Spanish. Today I finally pulled the trigger. They were offerring $100 off of the Level 1, 2, 3, 4, & 5 Spanish (Latin America) Set today, and this pushed me over the edge.

Since a single installation will support up to five users I am hoping that Olivia and I, along with our oldest daughter Kate, will find it beneficial. Kate is already having weekly Spanish classes in school. Olivia is a trained sign-language (ASL) interpreter and has expressed interest in also learning Spanish.

It should arrive on Monday and I’m very excited to get started.

Hasta Luego!

To everyone who was born in the U.S. and did not win the Mega Millions Lottery today….it is good to remember that you won the lottery when you were born in this great country. Don’t forget it!

Famed runner Micah True missing in Gila Wilderness (Las Cruces Sun News)

Born to Run’s Caballo Blanco Reported Missing (Runner’s World)

Great track workout tonight with the JSRC. The temperatures were in the low 80s this afternoon, which easily makes this the warmest track day so far in 2012.

I got to Vanderbilt about an hour early and ran an easy 5.5-mile warmup around campus and on the track. My legs are still fairly sore from doing P90X: Legs and Back on Tuesday, so the extra warmup really helped loosen up my muscles.

The actual workout was 4 x 1600m (1-mile) repeats with 400m recovery. Our instructions were to run the intervals at marathon pace. Since my only upcoming spring marathon is as the 4-hour pacer in the Country Music Marathon, I asked John (our coach) if I could run the intervals at goal half marathon pace instead. I am running in the Oak Barrel Half Marathon a week from Saturday, and was actually hoping for mile repeats so I could practice my half marathon pace. He said that would be ok, so I was shooting for something between 6:40 and 6:50. I ended up running all of the repeats with Sue Anne and Nathan, and we completed the four intervals in 6:40, 6:42, 6:38, and 6:37. These were a little faster than my target but (1) I felt really good (2) The pace was consistent. I was actually really pleased with how well I felt considering the higher temps and the fact that I did a 5.5-mile warmup. I never felt winded and could have run more repeats at the end. In total I completed 11.5-miles with warmup and cooldown.

After the workout, John advised me (he is also my personal coach) to take tomorrow off since I already have almost 40 miles completed this week. I had been hoping to get in 60+ miles total for the week, but he told me to be more conservative in ramping up my mileage to hopefully avoid injury. This makes a lot of sense, and I’m glad that I have someone to give me feedback. So, I’m going to enjoy my unexpected rest day tomorrow and then get back to work on Saturday morning.

Beast Mode…ON!

This morning I completed a 7-mile solo run through the streets of Bellevue in my Saucony Hattoris. Through the end of last year I was only doing four or five miles per week in my Hattoris, but I have been slowly increasing that this year to the point where I’m trying to use them for most of my recovery miles on Wednesday and Friday. I know I’ve said this several times, but it is amazing to me how much of a difference it has made adding these types of runs. I have stopped using orthotics, have moved to the Saucony Kinvara as my primary trainer and race shoe (was using the Nike Vomero), and no longer have aches and pains in my arch and metatarsals. 

Today’s run felt pretty smooth, and I didn’t notice the minor aches that I was feeling on Monday and Tuesday. I kept the pace pretty easy at around a 9min average since I put in quite a few miles yesterday (14). So far this week I’ve completed 28-miles after only getting in 25 last week while in Honduras. I’m hoping to land around 60 for the week after Saturday’s run.

Beast Mode…ON!

This morning Nathan and I completed a moderate paced 12-mile run on Old Natchez and Del Rio. I love running out there, but sometimes forget how crazy it can be on a weekday morning during the school year. There were so many cars that I stayed on edge for most of the run. I need to make a mental note to stick to weekends during the school year.

As for the run, we started off fairly conservatively with miles of 9:22, 8:28 and 8:15. The next two miles were right at 8:00 min pace, and all but one of the last seven miles were under 8:00, with the last two in the 7:30s.  Overall the run felt pretty comfortable, though I do still have some aches from all of the hill running in Honduras last week. It was good to be able to push past 6-miles for the first time in over a week. I’m on schedule to have a 60+ mile week if I can get in a 20+ miler on Saturday.

Fortunately my stomach issues that cropped up yesterday afternoon did not affect this run significantly. Hopefully the worst of that is over. I hope to get in another 2-mile run this afternoon with my daughter Kate as we try to log miles for the ING Kids Rock Marathon.

Beast Mode….ON!

I’m glad to be back running closer to sea level after a week at 5,000 feet. My knees and ankles felt a little achey from the rough terrain last week, but it was nice to be able to run without feeling like I had a bag over my head. The temperatures this afternoon were in the mid 70s, just like most of my runs in Honduras, but the humidity was quite a bit higher.

I had hoped to get in an easy 10-miles, but it got shortened to six once my stomach started doing cartwheels. I’m sure this is related to my Honduras trip. This happens every time I travel there no matter how careful I attempt to be with food, water, hygiene, etc. I hope that I can get control of it without it affecting my running schedule this week.

I’m looking to get in a solid 12-mile run tomorrow and 60+ miles total for this week. Really trying to keep my mileage up as I prepare for leading the 4-hour pace group at the Country Music Marathon in five weeks. That’s going to be a long time on my feet!!

Beast Mode…ON!

Our group landed safely in Nashville, and now I’m home with my girls! It was a great week, but always good to be back. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support.

The Maple Hill Church of Christ missions group has landed safely in Atlanta. Hope that getting through customs will be smooth. We have about a 2-hour layover before our flight to Nashville. Can’t wait to see my girls!!!

Today we started our journey back home…

The day began with a sunrise devotional on “Prayer Rock” on the Mission Lazarus ranch, which is one of my favorite places on earth. We sang songs, and I delivered a message about God’s power from Isaiah 40.

After breakfast we headed north on a 4-hour drive to the capital city of Tegucigalpa. We stopped briefly at the hotel, and then most of us headed a little bit further north to Valle de Ángeles. This is a tourist area that ended up being a big disappointment for me. I was thinking it would be a place to find all kinds of things which were handcrafted in Honduras. Instead, it was not much more than a bunch of worthless souvenirs mass produced in other countries, and every shop seemed to have exactly the same things.

We came back to the hotel and then went our separate ways for dinner before returning back for our nightly devotional. Wayne presented a message about the things that show us the greatness of God. After the devotional, my dad and I got to spend some time talking with some of the missionaries in Honduras that Maple Hill Church of Christ supports. They visited our group at the hotel, and it is always great to meet with those who have dedicated their lives to the Gospel of Christ.

From left to right…My Dad, Juan Santamaria, Samuel Diaz, Ricardo Guerra (his son, Andres), and me

Tomorrow after breakfast we will have a worship service by the pool, and then head out to the airport for our flight to Atlanta and then Nashville. Please pray for our continued safe travel.

Today we were in the village of Las Tremintinas way up in the mountains of southern Honduras near the Nicaragua boarder. The goal was to setup a full, one-day clinic, and for the evangelism team to visit some of the families with the preacher from Jayacayan, a neighboring community. The village does not have an established congregation, but some of the initial converts are meeting in a home. This was the first time that Mission Lazarus has taken a group up to this location.

It was interesting to see the differences from Namasigue. Even though this community was in a much more remote location and even though it was still filled with poverty, overall it was a lot cleaner, the houses were quite a bit nicer, and the people were dressed a lot better. I’m not sure what the reasons are for this, but it was fascinating to observe. It was also obvious that many of the people in the village had never seen anyone from the U.S. before.

On a side note, this was probably the most beautiful area of Honduras I have seen in my four visits. It was very difficult to get up there, but the beauty of God’s creation was overwhelming.

Evangelism – Today we were working with Jose who is the preacher in Jayacayan. Jose was introduced to Mission Lazarus through his daughter who has cancer. She was going through chemotherapy treatments, but Jose ran out of money before those treatments were completed. Mission Lazarus stepped in and helped out this family to ensure his daughter could complete her chemotherapy (she is now in remission). Jose was desperate to repay Mission Lazarus for their generous gift, but they continued to tell him that there was nothing to repay. They explained that what he had received was a blessing from God, and not something provided by man. He persisted in asking how he could repay them, so they finally told him to go out and tell people what God had done for him.

Upon hearing this, he decided to become a preacher and ultimately planted the church in Jayacayan near the Mission Lazarus ranch. From there he also began preaching and teaching in other surrounding communities. This included his first contact with Las Tremintinas which occurred last October.

We spent the day today visiting homes and distributing food bags with Jose. Some of these families had already committed themselves to Christ, some had just begun visiting the house church in Las Tremintinas, and some had no association with the church at all. Since this a new work in this community, the studies were fairly basic compared to some of the ones in Namasigue. Our goal was to plant the seed of God’s word and share his love.

From left to right…Joe, Wayne, Jose, Joseth, me

Jose had not worked much (or any) with Americans, so there was a bit of a feeling out process. However, it turned out to be a great day with several good studies. Please pray for this community and these people.

Overall, we had a great week on the evangelism team. Eight new sisters were baptized into Jesus Christ. We visited with over 50 families, distributed over 50 bags of food, and had lots of great Bible studies in Namasigue and Las Tremintinas. Praise God!

Clinic – The medical brigade was setup in a schoolhouse in Las Tremintinas. They were able to operate a full clinic in cramped conditions and saw a LOT of patients today. This was the first time that anything like this has ever been done in this village.

One gentleman who was so happy to receive his first pair of eyeglasses asked the question “Why are you here?” Someone from our group answered “Because God loves you!” He thought about this for a second and said “Yes, and God’s love is manifested in you.” Please pray that these seeds that were planted today will bear fruit in this great community.

Local residents lining up for the Medical Brigade 

Our clinical group has done amazing work this week, and the following are the patient totals for each area:

• Monday – 130 medical, 30 eyes, 9 dental with 22 tooth extractions
• Tuesday – 170 medical, 46 eyes, 12 dental with 39 tooth extractions
• Wednesday – 125 medical, 56 eyes, 9 dental with 39 tooth extractions
• Thursday – 104 medical, 33 eyes, 7 dental with 21 tooth extractions
• Friday – 153 medical, 37 eyes, 11 dental with 28 tooth extractions

That’s a total of 932 patients seen in the brigade this week. WOW!

Construction – This part of the post is especially for Judy Vance. The picture below should explain why I have not posted much about the construction crew this week:

On a serious note, the construction crew has continued to work on the new warehouse and offices for Mission Lazarus. They have endured a number of frustrating circumstances, but were able to make good progress today. This new building is going to be a great blessing to Mission Lazarus once it is completed

From left to right…Justin, Blake, and Jody

Closing Out the Day

Once we got back from Las Tremintinas I did my last 4.75-mile run around the ranch, and my legs will be happy to not do this route again for a while.

After dinner, we listened to a great devotional by Joe Widick from the 23rd Psalm, and then shared with each other the reasons why we came on this trip and what we are taking away. Great night.

Tomorrow we head back to Tegucigalpa in preparation for our flight out on Sunday. Please pray for safe travel.

After another good breakfast at the ranch we headed out toward Namasigue around 6:45am this morning. The highlight of the drive down was finally getting a chance for Dan Johnson and my Dad to get a picture of one of the more humerous road signs on the Pan Am highway up in the mountains.

Driving in Honduras is always an adventure, but it has been even more interesting this year with all of the potholes and chasms in the roads from the massive flooding during the past rainy season. I have actually really enjoyed getting to drive here over the past three years. However, I’m not sure if any of the new “skills” I’ve learned translate to driving in the states. Don’t often get to drive 6-wide on a two-lane road in the US 🙂

Evangelism – Today was a pretty powerful and emotional day working with the evangelism team, and I just want to share some of the highlights:

• My dad joined us today after working construction for the first two days. It was awesome to be able to spend the day with him in Namasigue. It has also been great to work with Joe Widick and Wayne Smith on the evangelism team this week. Both of these men are great servants for God and excellent teachers of His Word. Joe was one of my Bible teachers in High School, and continues to be one of my spiritual heroes.

  
  From left to right – Wayne Smith, Marlon Sanchez, Joe Widick, Javier Perez, me, Patrick Agee (My Dad)
   

• Last year our group studied with and baptized Meylin Cordova. We found out today that she has not attended the church in Namasigue in almost five months. We went to her house today to study with her and encourage her to be together with her brothers and sisters in Christ. Please pray for this new sister.
• We visited with several members of the local church who are dealing with various issues, including one lady who was diagnosed with diabetes yesterday. It was great to be able to meet with these brothers and sisters in Christ to encourage and pray with them. For the sister with diabetes, Marlon (one of the local preachers) was able to talk about his mother who also has diabetes. Joe from our group was able to tell her about his mother who has diabetes and is 86 years old. Finally, Wayne from our group also has diabetes and was able to talk to her.
• This afternoon we visited with several of the families of the young men who work on the local evangelism team in Namasigue. For a typical family in Namasigue to survive they need every able bodied man in the household to go out and work whenever possible. These particular families are so committed to making sure the young men can spend all of their days working to evangelize Namasigue that they are willing to sacrifice this income. Because of this, the church tries to provide food bags for these families to try and offset the lost wages. Today we delivered food bags, talked, and prayed with them. It was awesome to see powerful way in which these families are working for the Kingdom of God.

  
  Visiting with Janier’s sister (Janier is one of the local evangelists)

• This morning we were able to have a Bible study with Eva Luz Prealta and her family. Marlon had been studying with Eva and we were able to continue that study together. Eva decided that she wanted to be baptized into Christ, so we traveled down to the river to help her as she began her new life. Praise God!

  
  With Javier getting ready to baptize Eva into Christ

• Throughout the day we were able to deliver 13 more bags food to families in Namasigue which brings our total to 32 for the week. 

Clinic – I don’t know how many patients we saw total, but it was another very productive day in Namasigue. I did hear that our dentist Dr. John pulled 37 total teeth from nine patients…WOW! We also distributed an additional 55 pair of eyeglasses. Our doctors continue to be impressed at how many fewer cases of parasites there are compared to previous years. The water purification system has really been a blessing to this community.

Closing Out the Day

After returning to the ranch, I was able to get in a very enjoyable 4.25-mile run with Dan Johnson. This was the first time running on the ranch with someone else and it really made the hills and elevation easier to endure. I’ve enjoyed spending time with Dan this week and getting to know him better. Dan is a pharmacist at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, and actually works with many of the same Cardiologists that I used to work with at Saint Thomas Hospital (small world). He is hoping to run his first half marathon this fall or winter.

Once we finished dinner, Jeff Hallums (our group leader) delivered a devotional that tied in extremely well with the things we are experiencing here in Honduras. Tomorrow we plan to spend a half-day in Namasigue before heading out to another community on Friday. Another great day in Honduras!!

We got a much earlier start this morning, leaving the ranch around 6:30am for Namasigue. This allowed for an earlier start in the clinic and for the evangelism team.

Evangelism – Today was another good day with the evangelism team in Namasigue. I continue to be impressed by the work of the local evangelists. Working with them, we distributed eight food bags, visited with six women who have recently visited the congregation in Namasigue to encourage them to continue to visit and study, and did follow-up with two women who were recently baptized (Including Eni from yesterday). The second of those two follow-ups was with a woman named Suyapa who was baptized a week ago Sunday. While visiting with her we were able to begin studying with her mother Candida. After studying for quite a while she decided that she also wanted to commit herself to Christ in Baptism. Praise God!

Candida Cordoba Ochoa being baptized by Marlon

The past two days we’ve been very blessed to have Seth and Riley from Mission Lazarus to translate for us. I really appreciate their dedication to the Lord, and the powerful work they are doing through Mission Lazarus.

From left – Seth, Javier (local preacher), Riley, Marlon (local preacher), me 

Clinic – Another busy day at the Medical Brigade in Namasigue. They saw 169 patients which included 39 teeth pulled and 65 pair of glasses distributed. It is obvious from working throughout the village, how much this medical care is needed and appreciated.

Construction – A small number of men from our group have been working over the past two days on a new warehouse for the Mission Lazarus ranch. This warehouse will be used to store the food which is used for the food bags like the ones distributed today. It will also be the new home for the Mission Lazarus offices.

Closing Out the Day

Since we started out so early this morning I didn’t get to go out for a morning run, but was able to get in a little over five miles in the mountains around the Mission Lazarus ranch just before sundown. It is amazing what a difference it makes running between 4000 and 5000 feet above sea level. Feels like trying to breath through a straw, especially when running uphill. I’m not sure how much total elevation gain there was in that run, but I’m guessing it is in the thousands of feet. Tough!!

After the run we had a fantastic dinner at the Posada, followed by a devotional with an excellent lesson by Wayne Smith.

All-in-all, another great day in Honduras for our group.

What are you there for? I’m going to be there in August…looking forward to hearing more about your trip!

This is my fourth consecutive year to come to Honduras during March. It is a mission trip focused on Medical, Evangelism & Construction. Most of our group are running a medical brigade in Namasigue, which is a small village outside of Choluteca in southern Honduras. I am working as part of a three man evangelism team also working in Namasigue. We help out the local ministers with Bible studies, follow-ups, food distribution, etc.

Why are you coming to Honduras?

While this is actually our second day in Honduras, it was first day for our medical brigade and evangelism in Namasigue. After getting in an early 6-mile run through the mountains and having breakfast at the Mission Lazarus Posada, we headed out toward Namasigue around 8:30am. We got the clinic up and running around 10:00am, and the evangelism team was out in the village by 10:30 or so.

Evangelism – One of the neat things today was to see the growth and maturity of the local church. In past years we spent most of our time holding Bible studies with new contacts, but this year has started off a little differently. We did follow-up visits with four women who have been baptized into Christ within the past 1 1/2 weeks. This is the result of the local preacher Javier and his emphasis on building a solid local evangelism team within Namasigue. These young men are doing fantastic work, and we are witnessing the fruits of those efforts. In addition to these four, we were also able to visit with several families who are active in the local congregation and offer them encouragement and deliver food.

With Javier the local preacher in Namasigue

We were blessed to have a Bible study with Esperanza Salinas and her daughter Dania who decided to put on Christ in Baptism. We were also able to participate in the baptism of Gloria and Ninosca Estrada and Eni Avila.

Praying with the new converts after their baptism into Christ

Overall it was another fantastic day in Namasigue. It is awesome to see the powerful work God is doing here. Please pray for our team as we continue to work throughout this week. 

Wayne Smith baptizing Esperanza Salinas into Christ

Clinic – While I didn’t personally spend much time in the clinic, they were able to see 160 patients, which included 22 tooth extractions and distributing 45 pairs of eye glasses. It was encouraging to hear from our doctors that they are seeing a lot less parasites this year, and we think that is a direct result from the water filtration system that was installed by Greg Armstrong and his team from Friendship Christian last year. What an incredible blessing this is to the village.

Tomorrow morning we will be heading out at 6:30am so, time to call it a day.

The drive down was harder than usual due to the flood damage to CA-5 and CA-1. Never seen potholes like that in my life.

We had a good dinner and the group is getting ready to have a worship service at the Posada before calling it a night.

Looking forward to tomorrow in Namasigue.

Our group made it safely to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. We’re grabbing a bite to eat before grabbing our rental vehicles and heading south to San Marcos. Feels strange to be sitting in a Burger King with the NCAA Tournament on TV. Glad to be leaving TV behind for a week.

Tomorrow morning I will leave Nashville with my Dad and a group of 30+ from Maple Hill Church of Christ in Lebanon TN on a mission trip to southern Honduras. This will be my fourth time to go down, and my third time working in the village of Namasigue.

Most of our group will be holding a medical brigade, but I will again have the opportunity to work with a three-man evangelism team teaching throughout the village with the local preacher.

I hate being away from Olivia, Kate and Sara, but relish the opportunity to teach the gospel in this impoverished country. Even though I don’t go down there thinking about what I can get out of it, I always come back with a fresh perspective on the things that really matter in life.

I don’t know if I’ll have Internet connectivity or not, but if I do I’ll try to post daily updates on the evangelism efforts. Prayers would be appreciated for a safe and successful trip.