Mountains and more mountains...

The past month has been a whirlwind tour of the beautiful mountain villages of Honduras. Near the end of November we began training local youth to lead mission trips to the mountains. The training week was packed with talks, team building, prayer and practical training. At the end of the week they all packed their stuff and prepared to go to our first aldea (mountain village).

The first parish was the parish of El Rosario, three different groups served the villages of Loma Larga, Huertas, and el Horno. Over the week the youth visited homes in the mornings and led programs for kids, youth and families in the afternoons and evenings. It was beautiful to see the simplicity of the families and their lives in the mountains. Their generosity was overwhelming. Every home we stepped into it seemed no matter the level of poverty welcomed us and showered us with gifts of bananas, vegetables, sugar cane and coffee (some of the best because its mountain grown and ground fresh right there).

Their love and appreciation was apparent, but even more so, their faith. For most of the communities Mass is a rare gift as their Priest is assigned to dozens of aldeas. To have the gift of Mass three times in one week, along with confessions and adoration it was a very blessed week for them and for us. At the end of the week the different aldeas met in the central aldea for the closing night. It was an amazing experience walking together with our community singing songs and praying together along the way (almost and hour walk).

The second week we traveled even farther into the mountains of Minas del Oro. After taking buses to La Libertad we climbed into the back of four different pickup trucks and drove 3 hours to the aldeas of Ojo de Agua, Pimientia, and Socorro. Again we encountered very simple lifestyles. None of the aldeas had electricity and many groups had to bring water up from the streams to bath and wash our clothes, but the people were as generous and loving as ever. Accepting us into their homes, feeding us, and praying with us. Because the aldeas were even more remote, the sacraments were even less frequent. Mass is said once a year in their village. You could sense the hunger in the people, longing to be supported and fed in their faiths. One woman upon hearing that a priest was coming to her home (she lived about an hours walk away from our aldea far from almost everything) she began to cry. It was so convicting as to how much we take for granted: materially, physically, spiritually, all the opportunities and privileges we have that we consider rights. Overall it was a very challenging but very blessed experience.

Over the last weekend we traveled to yet another part of Honduras to lead a retreat for the youth of the parish Florida. Almost 200 youth spent the weekend with us there listening to talks, sharing in small groups, singing, praying, playing and most of all spending time with Jesus in the Mass and Adoration. It was great for the youth, many of whom had been with us in the previous weeks of missions to the mountains. God was really moving in them throughout the whole weekend and their openess was so apparent. While there is an abundance of youth ministry and retreats in the US, it was a rare opportunity for them. We hope to be able to offer one there every year in the future.

It is incredibly hard to desribe what the past few weeks have been like, how beautiful the mountains are, the intensity and grace in our experiences, and it is impossible to speak for everyone because each person has had their own experience, but what is for certain is that Gods love has no limits.
God Bless.....

Greg’s Reflection

Hello again all! It has been several weeks since our last post, we have been very busy as it is vacation time for the youth here and we are busy with training and Mountain Mission Trips, retreats, and other service projects, etc. We hope to have updates and photos up soon. But for this update we have something a little different.

On November 19 our community said goodbye to one of its members. Greg was here with us serving the people of Honduras for 6 months and returned to the States to finish school, discern his vocation, and Im sure, do a lot of his favorite activity: chilling. The following is his personal reflection on his time here. Greg you are already very missed and always in our prayers....


When I got off my plane in Tegucigalpa, I was shocked that I was actually in Honduras. The idea of coming here just seemed like nothing more than another half thought-out dream of mine that would never really be realized. But then I found my slacker self here. The only explanation I have for how I got down here is God wanted me here. I had wanted to come too, but when I saw I had to complete an application, do interviews, raise money, etc., I almost just gave up and forgot about it. But God somehow got me to do it and got me down to Honduras. And I think that is the most important thing of the many things I learned here; God’s Will is a mystery. I don’t understand it, but its going to happen anyways.

I had hoped to discover my vocation while I was here; but while I didn’t have an epiphany, I did feel and see God working in me more than more than ever before, far more. And I´ve learned to trust Him more and more. I know that I have a long way to go, but I also know that He is guiding me and will put me where He wants me when He wants to.

As for my time here in Honduras, I enjoyed it immensely. Some highlights: Growing my beard out. Playing late night soccer and basketball with the friars. Mass, everyday. Repeatedly getting humbled on the soccer field by 12 year olds. Visiting Fr. Max in the mountains. Riding in the back of trucks though the mountains, early in the morning. Spending time with the people in the mountain villages, especially in San Antonio. Witnessing the simple and very beautiful faith of the Honduran people in spite of great suffering. Visiting and talking to Marta. Getting Dengue fever, which I am probably going to brag about for the rest of my life. Living and working so close to the friars and seeing their faith everyday. Licuados. Just working and hanging out with my mission brothers and sisters. Learning how to pray. Never losing a game of volleyball, especially not to Carol. Pan de Vidas and Eucharistic Adoration......I could go on, but the most important thing that happened to me here is that I think I grew closer to God. Not very close, but closer. And ultimately that is all I wanted or want.

Hello Again! As we move past the period of discernment and begin to really dive into our ministries and projects and attempt to get into a rythym, we are discovering that...well...there really is no rythym. Everyday there is a new opportunity to serve and all of them involve being flexible and willing to jump in with our whole heart.

Our youth formation programs our nearing vacation time, during December and January we will be switching gears and focusing more on special projects with the youth, retreats, and trips as well as facilitating numerous short term missions teams.

This past weekend was a great example of an atypical weekend. As most community members were nearing the end of the 90 days we are allowed to remain in the country on our visas (we must leave Honduras for at least three days every three months), many of us spent the weekend traveling.

Carol, Greg, Brad, Richard, Andy, and Erica traveled to Belize to visit and establish a relationship with the mission community of the Society of Our Lady of the Trinity or SOLT. Rachel and Tracy spent the weekend in Costa Rica. Also, Marylee was blessed to be able to travel home to spend some time with her parents. Those who remained in Honduras were no less busy, as Milton, Maynor and Andres traveled to visit Fr Balthazar in the aldeas and those in Comayagua were busy attending the first communions of many of our youth and preparing for the Medical Brigaide that began this monday.

Below are some excerpts from our weekends:

"Tracy and I went to Costa Rica to renew our visas. The bus ride was a grueling 20 hours! But the views of the ocean, volcanos, mountains, and flora were breathtaking. Tracy called it a "feast for the eyes" It was great to experience a new culture and see a new part of the world. The people were very friendly and generous. Whenever we got lost people would walk with us out of their way. Although it wasnt much of a change of pace being as it was a big city, it was nice to have a change of scene and a break from the stresses that sometimes exist in community. It was also a good chance to spend some time with my pal Tracy and have me some good laughs."

"Belize was beautiful with all of its culture and the mix of people. We were blessed to be able to see so much of the country in such a short time. We stayed for several days with the Society of Our Lady of the Trinity community there on the border of Belize and Guatemala. We were able to participate in their prayer life, share with them about their mission, and visit the school they run. They are beautiful examples of the goal to unify lay men and women with the religious to work together in mission. We were able to spend time with their priests, sisters and several mission families. We then began the long trip home which included Belize city, Dangriga, and Punta Gorda as we traveled our way down the coast, not to mention a Mass with some great Garifuna women and a missionary priest, dinner and breakfast on the beach, and a very interesting boat ride. It was an excellent chance to meet and share with other people with the same hearts for the poor as well as a chance to spend some quality time together exploring as a community."

Photos from Belize:

Greg leaves our community on Monday to return home to the states, he will be greatly missed and we are not looking forward to his absence but we are looking forward to his "Despedida" or going away party that we will be throwing!! Look for his reflection on his experiences here with the mission to be posted soon.

Here We Are...

The Missioners for 2007-2008 are here, and getting to work! God has blessed us with an amazing community this year. New faces and old faces, Hondurans, US Americans, and even one Scottish face, we have 9 women and 9 men! We range in age from 18 to....well....older. Some of us are just out of college, some have been working or volunteering for a while, and some are planning to finish their schooling after leaving. All of us have been called for different reasons, but with our diversity comes great strength because we all have different gifts and talents to offer. We have everything from english and theology to social work, psychology and pre-med backgrounds. And we are all bearing with one another in love as we settle in, learn the language, discover what our gifts are, and learn to be a community. Because we have a larger community this year we are able to offer some new programs and hopefully add some more stability to our existing programs.

So without further ado...the 07-08 Missioners: Maynor Ballesteros (Siguatepeque), Roger Blanco (La Paz), Brad Fassbender (Wisconsin), Marylee Grabowski (Virginia), Greg Hamilton (Georgia), Rachel Hoffman (North Carolina), Andy Kadlec (North Dakota), Tracy McGee (Glasgow), Bob Monahan (Illinois), Erica Noble (Illinois), Andrew Pocta (Virginia), Krista Popp (Minnesota), Carol Restaine (now...Honduras), Milton Rodriguez (Comayagua), Toni Sacca (Georgia), Richard Vaughan (Texas), Lorena Ventura (Comayagua), Diana Ramos (La Paz)

A New Year.....

Its a new year, and so we have begun a new blog. We are hoping to have new updates posted here throughout the year, about once a week. Hopefully here is where you will be able to keep up with our community through stories, pictures, videos etc. Also hopefully it will be a bit more personal than our website and newsletter which you may already be reading.

Here too you can leave us comments!! Which means we will know who is thinking of and praying for us! So whenever you have a bit of extra time, stop in and take a look around. We would love to have you. God Bless....

The Missioners