A Day in the Life: Comayagua, Honduras

Yet again, H-Squad is at the end of two months in a country and I am wondering to myself ‘where the heck did the time go?!’. Our time in Comayagua truly felt like it passed in the blink of an eye. 

At our last debrief in Guatemala, 2 months ago, I said goodbye to my old team, Fresh Fire, and hello to a new one, Las Amadas. Las Amadas (the beloved ones), was a team of 6 gals that each offer and cultivate such a sweet, accepting and loving space. I am so thankful to have gotten to spend the time we spent together. 

Our first month in Honduras was all squad month! This meant 44 people all living and doing ministry together. We took a bus from Guatemala to Honduras at the beginning of May and arrived in Comayagua, then threw our bags and ourselves into some truck beds and drove another hour up a steep and windy road into the mountains. Needless to say, the past couple of months have been pretty unplugged. 

For our ministry, we partnered with Catracho Missions, started by Pastor Paul and his wife Tania, along with their family and close to 15 Honduran students and young adults. Paul and Tania are incredible people with a powerful story who truly demonstrate what it means to follow the Lord. The mountain communities that they have been called to minister to are full of beautiful people who, like all of us, need to be seen, heard and loved. The cycle of alcoholism, depression, teenage marriage and pregnancy and lack of food and finances is a common story and one that Paul and Tania long to eradicate from this mountain. Their approach is to reach the people  through relationship and they do this in a variety of ways (women’s ministry, sustainable agricultural programs, home visits, etc). For our two months in the mountains, we helped to prepare the land, gather resources and begin construction for a church and women’s ministry building that will aid Catracho Missions for many years to come. We also had opportunity to do a couple days of home visits and women’s ministry as well as community-wide church services on Sunday mornings! 

So here’s what a typical day in Honduras looked like 🙂

5:00? 6:00? 7:00?! Who even knows what time I woke up on the mountain hahah with no electricity and a broken portable charger, there wasn’t always my phone to set an alarm. At the crack of dawn, the sun would start beating down on our tents, making it both a really nice way to wake up and a literal sauna at the same time. I’d do my morning tent routine (brush my teeth, spit it outside my tent door and wriggle into my clothes for the day lol), and then head down the hill.

Time was pretty much non-existent on the mountain, honestly, so not a lot of our daily routines happened at consistent times but the next thing was breakfast! There was a group of women from the community that cooked every meal for us which was a huge blessing. The most common meal we ate was eggs, beans and homemade tortillas but the best meal we had was pancakes. Pancake day was always a good day 🙂

Then we’d get to work! The start time varied but eventually one of the Honduran girls, Belin, would yell “time to work!” and we’d pick up a shovel or pickaxe and head up the mountain to where the church would eventually be. Most days we dug and moved a whole lot of dirt but the view of the mountain around us was always beautiful. We definitely gained some muscle, some callouses and some funny tan lines. 

Next, lunch time! Most likely a variation of eggs, beans, tortillas and we’d always get a fun little juice.

Back to work! Maybe more dirt digging, maybe a house visit, maybe helping in the kitchen or carrying wood and bamboo through the mountains for supplies for our campsite/future church. Maybe no work at all if it started raining in the afternoon due to it being rainy season. Work truly depended on the day. 

We would typically get done with work around 5 and then I would hurry to the get in line for showers to wash the orange dirt off, because that stuff got everywhere, y’all. I’d spend some alone time in the evenings in my tent reading a book (probably Harry Potter tbh) and then we’d have dinner, most likely another variation of beans, eggs and tortillas. 

In the evenings and during any free time, there was a lot of time to hang out with friends. We would play lots of cards, tell stories, have team time with our teams. It got dark pretty early on the mountain but with a headlamp, anything is possible!

Then, it was time for bed (much earlier than I’m used to). We’d fall asleep to the sound of lots of little buggies, the stray dogs barking and the shuffle of our tent neighbor’s sleeping bag, ready to do it all again tomorrow.

The time I had on the mountain was challenging, muddy, sweet, restful and full of a lot of quality time with the Lord. If I’m being honest, there were times I needed to really press in and ask God for help with my perspective. Why was I there? What were we doing for the Kingdom? And time and time again He would remind me that I actually don’t have to know all of the answers. He is a God that asks us for our obedience and in that obedience, to trust that His plan is good and that He is working in ways we might never see. We probably won’t ever see firsthand the impact of our time in Comayagua, Honduras. But we can rest knowing that we were obedient and we laid a foundation for a church that is saturated in prayer. Prayer that one day, many people would step foot where we spent hours digging and they would encounter the Lord and know that He is good.

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone” Galatians 6:9-10

Much love and many blessings,

Annie