mennonite family

It's the first day of February! Less than 5 weeks til one of my favorite friends, Paula, comes to visit...less than 3 months til Easter week (which is a big holiday here) and about 6 more months left on my SALT term.

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to attend a retreat for young adults in the Mennonite church of Honduras. Lucky for me, it was just outside of Teguc, so I didn't have far to travel :) A few other MCC friends went along too, which was really fun. I wasn't sure how the whole thing would go, being that I only knew 6 other people attending the retreat...but in true Mennonite fashion, we were warmly welcomed and offered plenty of hospitality as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Friday night's worship service started around 7pm and lasted til about 11:30pm. We were instructed that devotions on Saturday morning would be before breakfast, at 6am. When this announcement was received with a round of groans, we were asked "Did we come here to sleep? Or have we come here to worship the Lord together?" ...in the rather quiet auditorium, the leader then said "Can I get an amen?!" ;) Apparently youth the world over hate getting up early. Who knew?!

So Saturday started early, which had us fighting sleep the entire day. There were devotions, breakfast, worship time and then 2 workshops. For the 2nd workshop, we (the MCCers) got to share with the country-wide leadership committee of the youth about our volunteer experience with MCC. We shared a bit about what MCC does, what service programs are available, and why we serve. It seemed like many of them were not familiar with what we shared, so it was great to be able to help connect MCC with the church in that way. Especially with the rising leaders of the Mennonite church.



The afternoon offered another workshop (something about Mennonite history, but I'm afraid I almost slept through most of it...) and then recreation time. Johanna (fellow MCCer) and I took naps while the 'kids' participated in sports and group games.

Saturday evening we had a worship/talent show kind of event and everyone dressed up. Each region of Honduras shared something with the group, be it music, drama, video presentation, etc. It was a crazy service, but pretty fun too. Towards the end of the service, the lady preaching asked all the foreigners to come forward...we were pretty nervous, but we did anyway. There were already about 40 people at the front to receive prayer, so we had to stand in front of them. She then proceeded to talk about each one of us and the sacrifice we were making to be in Honduras, how great it was that we were planting seeds, and that each person should be thanking us for coming to their country and serving. It was a rather awkward experience for me, and I know Johanna (fellow MCCer from Columbia) felt similarly. The way were presented as heroes is just really not what MCC is about...and what we tried to communicate in the workshop was that we aren't any different than the youth in front of us. We have come as sisters in Christ, to work alongside people here, and we are not doing anything that any one of them couldn't do.

But, even though we felt uncomfortable, I think God was able to use our time up front in a positive way. For some reason, this really opened the door and made people feel comfortable to talk to us. After the service ended at 12:30pm (yeah, it started at 7 :) we were up until almost 2am talking with people from the Mennonite church in Tegucigalpa, had invites from the church in La Ceiba (on the north coast) to come and visit, and felt very welcomed by the young people of the church here. It was really fun to connect with people from all over the country and I was excited to be a part of such a great movement of young leadership within the Honduran Mennonite church.

Although I did not get much sleep, it was a really fun weekend. I am thankful for relationships with my MCC friends that were strengthened by this time we shared together...thankful for new friends and faces that have welcomed us into their churches...and thankful that God can and is using us to build bridges within the church.

We may come from different countries and different cultures, but somehow being with Mennonites can make one feel at home wherever they might be :) I remember feeling this way after attending Mennonite world conference in Paraguay, and am feeling that way here in Honduras too. I love to see what God is doing in the church around the world, and excited to be a small part of that here with the youth in Honduras.