By Sean & Carmen Garrigan
We want to thank you for all your prayers, support and craft supplies as we led a children’s ministry event in several villages of Eastern Honduras. We were in Honduras from January 16-31.
The mission organization we serve operates a remote clinic in the area of Honduras known as La Misquitia. The primary focus of our organization is to provide access to medical care for this underserved region through the use of small aircraft. But we also invest in the area spiritually and one of the ways we do that is an annual VBS event in January before the children begin their new school year in February. La Misquitia primarily has an indigenous population and differs in language and culture from the Latino interior of the country. This region is also quite remote and requires boat or aircraft transportation to reach. Upon leaving RDU, it took us 3 days to reach our destination! This region is also ecologically unique. Often when we think of Central American countries we think of the rainforest/jungle. There is lots of that in Honduras, but the Misquitia is mainly a pine savannah. As far as the eye can see there are rolling hills, narrow pine trees and clumps of knee high grass emerging from the rocky ground. Only in the areas surrounding rivers is there dense Jungle.
Our goals for this trip were:
To conduct a Vacation Bible School Event for the children of the region.
Prepare our remote base and national staff for a large medical event happening at the end of February.
Report on how the base systems are functioning (such as infrastructure, IT, generator, water)
Visit our MAG missionaries who are in language school in Siguatepeque (a different region still in Honduras).
For the purposes of the Blacknall newsletter we will focus on sharing about our VBS event. This year instead of a significantly North American team we shared leadership with Hondurans from the interior of the country as well as with our leaders from la Misquitia. This is our 4th year working with this team—we love each other well and seek to make things better each time.
Our focus this year was the Life of King David and our theme verse was Psalm 27:4, “One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.” Carmen was encouraged and stretched to do the teaching in Spanish. The Lord provided and everybody seemed to understand reasonably well. Many of the young children in the area do not speak Spanish yet, so we also had translation into Misquito. Our ministry focused on three villages:
Rus Rus (where the Missionary Air Group base is located)
Mahbitah (around a mile from our base, but a 40 minute drive on rough roads. This is also the home of a Macaw Sanctuary)
Suhi (this is a larger community on the Coco River which is the border to Nicaragua).
Overall we were able to engage around 130 children in the events. Children’s ministry is quite different in these remote areas. One of the most obvious contrasts is simplicity. When we have to travel such a great distance we don’t have elaborate decorations. We make do with simple things, but also try to incorporate things that will be special to the children and bring delight. Also, there is less paperwork. In the US we are always filling out release paperwork for our children to participate in any event. Often in developing countries children will walk a significant distance to bring themselves and younger siblings to our event. If they come, that means their parents have given them permission. Twice we even transported 30+kids in the back of the truck to another village so we could do VBS all together. They were so happy! There was no paperwork and no fussing, just smiles!
One of the aspects of Children’s Ministry at Blacknall is how creativity is fostered. Our first grade daughter is delighted every week to work with water color paints and use pipe cleaners to reflect on Bible stories. I was so grateful to share some of Blacknall’s gifting for creative arts with a group of kids who rarely get to color and probably had never used water color paints before. Thank you so much for your contributions that helped make this happen! Every day for VBS we would open our time with coloring sheets as children arrived. Next we would do singing and worship with lots of movement. This would be followed by our Scripture lesson and a response time. Then we would finish with a craft that coordinated with the lesson and some free play activities such as jump rope, soccer, baseball and paper airplanes.
(Pics: Craft pictures, soccer, paper airplanes, jump rope)
We also love to engage the teenagers of the community in VBS leadership. They enjoy being part of the team and are a help with interpreting from Spanish into Misquito. We have also started the tradition to have a special ministry time with them to minster to their hearts and bless them for the time they spent. This year we had a special event for the teenage girls who helped and then a bonfire for all the teenagers in the community. We have found that all the children respond so eagerly to God’s Word. The difficulty is as they transition into even more challenging circumstances as a teenager for them to really own what they have learned and put it into practice. The village where our base is only has a one room school for elementary students. So beyond the 6th grade they need to go to a port town for their education if they can afford to do so, but often they are not well looked after there and fall prey to a host of temptations around them. So we are glad for opportunities to encourage them in their faith and pursuit of the Lord Jesus.
We also had the opportunity to minister to the local soldiers who are based in the village. All 5 said yes to Jesus’ call on their lives and received a new Bible! Having the local soldiers committed to Jesus and serving their country in an honorable way makes all the difference in the well-being of the community.
Carmen had the opportunity to preach in 2 of the villages. This is the 3rd year she has gotten to share God’s Word in the small Catholic Church in Mahbitah—the village with the Macaw sanctuary. We often joke that you know you are in a remote place when the female Presbyterian Pastor is invited to preach at the local Catholic Church! We are thankful for a great relationships with the churches in the area that help us to do ministry together. Sean was able to share some special songs and even joined the men of the church in singing their special in Misquito. When we were back at Blacknall the following Sunday we missed worshipping in the midst of the macaws and parrots, but thanked the Lord for indoor plumbing!
We are so grateful for our Blacknall Church family and the many ways that you help us live out the call God has placed on our lives.
Read more in the March Newsletter…
Pastor’s Letter | Allan Poole
The Gathering | Anne Paulson
Reflections on the Alpha 2020 Conference | Trig Steinbrenner, Ali Shoenfelt, Elizabeth Brill