The Worst Kept Secret

I’ve said this before but I’ll say it one more time.  I view God as an author.  A perfect author who is continually writing the best story ever told.  It is a story that began before time and a story that will never end.  One huge story full of millions of small ones that are all connected somehow at some point.  We each have our own little story that is woven together with everyone else’s story to create a masterpiece.  Each of us has our own part to play in His story but it is up to us how significant our role will be.  Will we try to write our own part or will we allow the Perfect Author to write our story, to lead us to live the part He has in store for us.   That is the choice we must all make. 

Our stories may not make sense to us at one time or another.  We may not see where God is taking us but one day we are going to be able to look back and see just what God was doing the whole time.  We’ll get to stop and say, wow He really was doing some amazing things.  That’s what I’ve been able to do lately and share a few instances in which I’ve seen that.

I was the kid who never left home.  Never went to spend the night at friend’s houses.  I never did anything like that.  I had a bed at home where my family was and that’s where I wanted to be.  Slowly that started to change as I entered the youth group.  I finally started going on some weekend retreats but that was about it.  So in 2005 when I was 17 and I told my parents that I wanted to go on a mission trip in the summer of 2006 for 10 days to Honduras with the Church.  I can’t even imagine what they were thinking.  This kid has lost his mind but I was completely serious.  I had some friends at school and we would always joke about how if we ended up as missionaries who would be the best.  Who would baptize the most people or if we were youth ministers who would have the most kids in their youth group.  We would joke with each other about how great or terrible we would be at it even though none of us had any experience at all working with a youth group or any mission experience.  I knew that it was something that I might want to do and I wanted to give it a try and see what God would do.  So at 17 I decided it was time.  After talking a lot with my parents I signed up for a 10 day trip to Honduras.  This is where the story gets interesting and it has taken me a few years to see what God was doing.  I applied for my passport in late April, plenty of time to receive it in the mail but I went ahead and had it expedited just to be on the safe side.  You know, plenty of time for it to get here, PLENTY.  So here I am on the first Thursday in July knowing that I have to be at the Church at 11pm to take a bus ride to Raleigh, NC to be on a plane at 7 am to fly to Honduras and….. I do not yet have my passport.  I sat at the front door all day, bags packed, waiting on that thing.  I called the postal service and they were trying to track it, I called the airline company and they said it was too late to change the ticket.  Yea, I was freaking out.  The hours kept going by one after another until it was time.  10pm, no passport and it was time to leave for the Church.  So I left my bags at home, drove by myself over to the Church and cried the entire way.  I remember punching my steering wheel over and over and yelling at God, “If you didn’t want me to go then why didn’t you just say so.  Why did you have to tell me like this.”  I was mad at the world and the God that created it.  I screamed and yelled and drove around an extra 20 minutes just to calm down before I went to the Church.  I couldn’t believe that this was happening.  I was soo ready for this trip and now I wasn’t going to be able to go.  Our group leader already knew what was going on but when I got to the Church I had to tell others that I wasn’t going to be able to go.  That is a feeling I hope no one else has to experience.  My heart was broken, my trust in God was shaken and I was mad at everything.  He always has a plan though.  Everyone loaded the bus to go to the airport and as they pulled out of the parking lot, literally just as the lights faded out of sight, my phone started ringing.  My dad had been on the phone since I had left and found out that the postal service was guaranteeing my passport would arrive the next day, Friday, and also to tell me that the airline was not only now going to change my ticket, but allow me to switch to a closer airport.  I would be flying out Saturday morning and would arrive in Tegucigalpa around noon.  So I quickly called our group leader to let him know and then hugged everyone that was still at the Church.  I got in my car and cried all the way back home while apologizing to God for doubting Him, I mean really He’s God, don’t doubt Him.  Needless to say I went from the most upset person in the world to one of the happiest in just a matter of minutes.  Unfortunately things didn’t all go as planned.  I was able to get to Tegucigalpa on Saturday, I flew from Columbia to Houston to Teguc.  My bags went Columbia to Houston to Las Vegas…. From Saturday to Wednesday I had to borrow clothes and soap and toothpaste and all that good stuff.  Everyone pitched in to help but it was still very inconvenient.  I had also just had surgery on my wrist in May.  I was cleared to do most things except really heavy lifting.  So on the very first house I helped build, I’m lifting a board up to the guys on the roof and one of them loses his grip, drops the board and of all places for it to hit it hits right across my wrist where it had been broken.  It bruised up pretty quickly and I thought I might have re-broken it.  Thankfully after I got back I had it x-rayed and it was fine but I really couldn’t do anything with it while I was still on the trip.  Despite everything that happened I loved everything about the trip.  The work we were able to do, the people I met, the impact we were able to make.  I loved it all.  So the next year it wasn’t even a decision for me, I was going to do whatever I could to make sure I was going to go back.  And I did.  I tell you this story because now I am able to look back and I think I know what God was doing.  I think He was looking at me and saying, “Lets see how dedicated this little guy is to doing this kind of work”.  “I want to see your passion, your desire and your willingness to endure”.  I think He wanted to see just how much I wanted to do this.  He pushed me to the brink mentally with my passport and taught me to NEVER doubt Him even when things seem completely hopeless, there is always hope.  He made things inconvenient for me to see if I could handle it and look past it to continue having a passion for the work that was being done.  To see if it would really bother me or if I would trust in Him to take care of me.  And I did.  He pushed me physically to the point where I couldn’t really use my right arm for much of the trip to see if I would give up or if I would find a way to continue being useful in the work that was being done.  And I did.  Then a year later He found out that I would be willing to endure it all again to be a part of the work that was going on in Honduras.  I went back for round two.  He threw me a curveball, a slider and a split finger, a tough trio to see how dedicated I was to this mission field.  To see if I was willing to let Him write part of my story in that place. 

Since then I have spent part or all of my summers in Honduras.  It seems like each year I stay a little longer.  This summer it was 2 months and it has had a real impact on me.  The kid that wouldn’t stay at the neighbor’s house spent two months in Central America.  That house that put me out of commission the first year, yea I’ve now built 54 of those.  Crazy right?  I have a passion for the work there, a passion I don’t have for anything else.  He has seen my dedication, my passion and desire for this work.  He has seen what I am willing to sacrifice and how far I am willing to go for a work I believe in and for Him who I trust in.  My experiences there have changed the way I view everything.  For years I have been saying that I feel like God is leading me to live and work in Mololoa, a community in Tegucigalpa.  The last 6 months this has really been on my mind a lot and for a few different reasons.  I went this summer with the focus of seeing if this was where God was going to write the next chapter of my life.  After seeing the dominoes fall in place one after another and talking with many people about the work in Mololoa, I have decided that it is time for me to hand the pen completely over to God and let Him write me into His story on His terms.  His role for me, His place, His plans, His design.  The worst kept secret is that I am planning on moving to Tegucigalpa within two months.  There is no doubt in my mind that this is what He wants.  With everything that has happened in the last 2 months I can’t see Him wanting anything else.  I have been back in the States since Monday and I’m itching to get on a plane back.  It has been great to see my family and I am working on getting things done that will lead me back to Teguc soon. 

Palmetto Church of Christ in Columbia, SC are the main supporters of the work in Mololoa.  We have a Daycare that provides free childcare 5 days a week to moms who need to be able to go work to provide for their families.  We have a Kitchen that feeds anywhere from 50-100 kids a day and sometimes more.  We also support a preacher who works everyday in the community.  The community is one of the poorest you will see.  Small wooden, one room houses. No electricity or running water.  The families work all day just hoping to have money for food that night.  The people are amazing but they are living in a cycle that doesn’t allow them to escape.  Most of them have to quit school early to work just to help their family survive which then hinders their ability to have any kind of a decent job later in life.  So they repeat the lives of their parents, not able to escape the cycle of poverty.  In order to survive, they have to give up the only opportunity they have to escape, their education.  It really is sad and it’s something that we are hoping to change and in many instances are changing.

My role will be to work closely with Evelyn to help manage and run the Daycare and the Kitchen.  That will be my primary goal.  I will also be able to work with Noel, the preacher, to help the people of the community grow spiritually.  In my opinion you need to meet the physical needs of people, build relationships with them, in order to have a greater impact on them spiritually.  We are doing just that in Mololoa.   There have been some ups and downs along the way but things are looking up.  I will be able to help fix a few issues that are going on and assist in the ever increasing workload that is weighing down those who run the ministries as they are growing.  I had two big obstacles that I was worried about when I started seriously thinking of taking this leap of faith.  First that the elders of my Church who oversee the work in Mololoa would allow me to move and work with their ministries.  And Secondly, the financial support.  After conversations with one of our elders, he has told me that one of those obstacles was actually never an obstacle.  I have the approval of our elders to work in the community, that will not be an issue at all.  The only other obstacle is financial support.  After talking with some people who live and work in Teguc as missionaries, I’ve been able to create a budget of what I think it will take to live and work in Mololoa.  $1500 a month is my goal.  If you break it down that’s only 30 people at $50 a month.  I think that is attainable.  Being a missionary is in no way a one man job.  It takes a team.  A team consisting of financial supporters, prayer warriors and someone who is willing to go.  If you are reading this then you have found someone who is ready and willing to go.  I have no doubt that this is what God wants for me, I think He is just itching to write the next part of my story  and yours.  I am so excited to let Him and I hope you are too!  I have seen too many things fall into place over the last few months and years to believe that He wants anything other than for me to put all of my trust in Him and go for it.  I pray that we can partner together, work as a team to allow God to write our story.  Allow Him to weave our stories into one as we serve Him.  If you will please pray for me and for this work that is being done I would really appreciate it.  Everything has to start with prayer and trust me I’ve gotten a good jump on that.  God knows exactly what I want and knows my heart and He is continuing to push me towards this work.  If you think you might be able to join the team as a financial supporter then I ask you contact me through email.  My email is jtgist@hotmail.com.  It doesn't have to be $50, it can be anything. Everything helps, $5, $10, $25, $50, $100.  It will all help.  If you have any questions I will be extremely happy to answer them or if you want to talk on the phone then just email me and we can swap numbers.  If you need more information just let me know and I will be glad to give you whatever you need.  Pray about it, think about it, and then pray about it some more and if you feel God calling you to this team then I’d love to hear from you.

In Christ, Tyler

The Wrap Up

Ok so I'm the worst blogger ever....or at least I say so.  I haven't let you in on anything we have done for like 3 weeks and I'm sorry.  We've been ridiculously busy and I just haven't sat down to type.  So here's the wrap up.

The second team that came in was a group of 50, mostly from Tennessee and Pennsylvania.  There were lots of Torch veterans on that team but also some rookies.  It was a blast to work with them and it's always great to see friends who you really love and respect a lot.  We built more houses, had more visits to the hospital, gave out more food, visited a blind school.  We went to Didasko to repaint their playground plus add another tower and slide, fix the swings and bridge as well as replace the climbing rope.  We saw God's hand in everything we were able to do.  I'm trying to remember some other things we did but right now it just isn't coming back to me.  That's why you should never wait 3 weeks to blog.  One thing I know is that there are lots of people in these groups who will do great things for the Kingdom in our lifetime.  Great things are being done now and the young kids who are falling in love with Christ and are experiencing mission work at an early age will continue the great work God has for us.  I enjoyed every second that I was able to work with Terry's groups.  From Panama through Honduras it was a wonderful experience.

The second group left on July 14th.  That left just the interns and a few other awesome people to spend a few days together before our time together ended.  I really only had Monday with them.  The group left on a Sunday and the Interns and the others left on Tuesday to go to San Pedro Sula to fly out Wednesday morning.  So we went to a movie and we were able to spend some time together which was awesome.  The last couple of years that I've done this the interns have gotten along fairly well.  When you are with people for so long you tend to eventually get irritated with someone and some little arguments and things happen.  This team didn't have any of that or at least if they did I didn't see it.  We all got along so well and worked perfectly together.  We all had different abilities and we used those abilities to work as a team.  It was terrible to see them go.  I've missed them everyday since.  They are all amazing people and I know God has great things planned for them.  One of the other wonderful things about this summer was that I was able to spend it with two of my close friends, Andrew and Leah.  If you walked up on us you would have no idea that we live 7 hours apart and see each other only a handful of times a year or less.  We are like family.  It's a privilege to be able to serve alongside the two of them.  Riley, Jenny and Hannah were all three new to the Torch team, they hadn't been on a trip before.  Those are the ones you look at from day one and think, poor guys don't know what they are getting into.  They all three were amazing.  They stepped up when they needed to and were able to quickly get the hang of things to the point that you would not have known they were rookies.  It was so good to get to know them and work with them.  Joanna was a late addition to the intern team but Terry new what he was doing when he asked her to come.  She was great in the VBS skits and may have been the best possessed girl we've had for a skit.  She did a great job at everything she did this summer.   I also made a new great friend.  Jose from Panama was with us the entire trip as well. We were able to form a great relationship, some call it a bromance, but this summer wouldn't have been the same without him.  I am honored to call him my brother and I have the feeling that our time serving together isn't over with just yet.  You never know what God has in store for the future.  He keeps his cards close sometimes and gives you glimpses of great things He will do from time to time.  So all the interns left on the 17th except for Jose, he left the 19th.

Michelle, Jenna, and Jose and I had a few days to hang out before the Palmetto and Mayesville groups arrived and we had a great time together....well except for Jenna who was sick :(.  On the 19th the next group arrived.  70 people with fresh legs to climb and strong arms to swing hammers.  At least we thought we were getting 70 on the 19th.  The plane from Charlotte was cancelled after they found a problem with the plane.  So it took them all day to get to Miami where they were able to fly to Teguc Saturday morning.  Needless to say they weren't too happy about that but they still showed up ready to work.  The only problem was that their bags didn't show up with them.  20 people with 40 bags and one bag showed up....Thankfully it only took one day for all of the bags to arrive.  With this last group we were able to build 11 houses, give out 1000 bags of food, visit the hospitals, orphanages, have 6 medical clinics, two clothing give aways.  They hit the ground running and didn't let up until they went home.  We were building houses almost everyday.  I can't remember a time I was so tired but it was all ok because of the reason we were tired, we were serving those in need.  I think every joint in my body was hurting and every muscle I had was slowly dying.  It was a great week of work and I'm amazed at the amount of work a group of 70 accomplished and the ability of everyone to push their limits to get things done.  The Mayesville group left on Friday the 26th which cut our group in half but we kept right on going.  Monday was the day, the day I had been looking forward to and dreading all at the same time.  There's one great thing about coming home, seeing your family.  It has been 2 months since I've seen them and it has been nice to be back home with them.  There's also a whole host of reasons to dread coming home.  You leave behind those you care so much about, the work that you had been doing, a culture that you have begun to love and don't even get me started on the food.  It even feels like I've left my purpose in life right now, the place where God wants to use me right now.  So I'm happy and sad for those reasons I just listed.  There were a lot of people that I hated to leave but a lot of people that are glad I'm back in the States right now.  I keep looking down to see if there is a rope attached to me and this three year old that's been following me around.  Like every time I go to the bathroom she follows me and sits at the door until I come out and if I'm in there more than 30 seconds she starts knocking telling me to hurry up.

I've had an amazing summer, a grand adventure to rival them all.  Seen new places, made new friends, created new relationships and strengthened old ones that will hopefully last a lifetime.  I give up my time in the summers that I could be using to earn money, I pay to go on these trips and I wouldn't change that for anything.  Money isn't what life is about.  You do need it to survive but it isn't what life is about.  His Kingdom, that's all that matters.  Not school, not your house or your car, not anything that doesn't breathe.  It's all about God's Kingdom.  It's all about His Son that He sent.  When you breathe your final breath it isn't going to matter what you have or how many degrees you have.  What's going to matter is who you've served, how you've served, your relationship with the one who just gave you that breath you just took and the one that you are about to take.  What matters is His Kingdom and I'm starting to understand that for myself.

In the next day or two I will be posting a blog about my plans for the near future.  I hope you will read it because I am pretty stinking excited!  But you'll have to wait a day or two to find out why.  I also hope you've enjoyed reading about my adventures this summer.  It has really been a blast.  I can't thank God enough for the opportunities He has given me in my short life so far.  But stay tuned and I will talk to you in the next day or two, I promise.

This Girl Is On FIIIIIIRRRRREEEEE!!!

In case you haven't noticed, I haven't written anything in NEARLY TWO WEEKS!  We have been pretty busy and I just haven't sat down to type in a while.  But I want to give a shout out first before I get to what we've been up to.  In Agua Agria down in Choluteca there is a man who has lived there all his life like most others in that village.  It is a poor village and he has never really had much to call his own.  Some of you might know Timeteo Estrada who is a huge part of what Torch is able to do.  Timeteo's dad has always lived in Agua Agria and will eventually die there, never really breaking free from the chains of poverty and now in his old age doesn't really want anymore than he's always had.  He raised his family the best way he could over the years.  He was able to provide Timeteo a way to go to school in Tegucigalpa 4 hours away even though they struggled just to get by.  Timeteo graduated and now drives from Teguc back home every other week to preach in the village he grew up in.  He lives in the city where he has raised two boys.  One which works with Torch Missions and the other that works with Honduras Hope.  So what's my point?  Well here is a shout out to parents who came from nearly nothing and have been able to give their kids everything.  Timeteo's dad could worked the fields and blown the little bit of money that he had but instead he saved his earning to send his son to school.  Now his grandkids have a life completely different.  They could be sitting in a small village working the fields for a few dollars a day but instead work with mission organizations and have a chance to do great things with their lives because of the actions of their dad and grandad.  Timeteo's dad didn't accept where he was and assume that for generations his offspring would live in the village and work just to eat that night.  He had a drive to make sure his kids and grandkids had a better life than he did.  My mom came from a poor family of 11 and my dad grew up in a divorced home.  Neither of them accepted their beginnings in life as the way things would always be.  Instead they strove for greater things.  Things for themselves but also for greater things for us, their kids.  Now with a few grandkids they have been able to provide a life that is completely different from the one they were born into.  Like Timeteo's dad, it's a product of wanting more for your kids, hard work and a faith in the one who set the world into motion.  Most of us are where we are because of our parents and i'm pretty stinking happy with where I am in life.  So here's a shout out to parents who gave been able to give their kids much more than they ever dreamed.

But as for me, I've been busy.  I don't think that things could have been much better than they were the last 2 weeks.  Thursday before last I got a big surprise at dinner when this crazy Florida girl came into the cafeteria looking for me.  I't's been a year since I've seen Jenna Hostetler and I wasn't expecting to see her here at all but she has been able to come for about a month, so that was awesome.  She's been working with us for nearly 2 weeks now and it's been a lot of fun.  I got a great surprise that Sunday when I sent this self proclaimed crazy Honduran girl a message to see if she could meet up with us at the Valley of Angels so I could see her.  Michelle Gross actually responded to a Facebook message in less than 3 weeks, that is crazy, quite possibly a record.  It only took her a couple of hours to say, of course I can meet you there.  But she did tell me that my blog was boring....yea for real, I was like saaayyy whaaaat?? Her idea of making this blog more interesting is to talk about her.  I thought about doing that but then what if that made people stop reading the blog and never read it again?  Who wants to read about someone they don't know right!?  The thing is, this isn't just someone.  She's pretty amazing.  So it's time to get to meet Michelle, the crazy Honduran girl who likes to use chainsaws just a little too much.  She is the director of a program called Shine Honduras!  They place kids in Bilingual schools, tutor them and find sponsors for them to be able to go to school here or in the States.  As the director and only employee in Honduras, she has 10 kids that she has to get to school, pick up from school, tutor for about 3 hours a day, take them all home plus some other things that she does with the kids.  All of that on top of the full-time school schedule that she has.  Not to mention she lives about 45 minutes outside the city so she's got to be up early and doesn't get home until really really late, plus she then has to do her homework.  And it gets better, she's a civil engineering student which isn't the easiest thing in the world.  Pretty impressive if you ask me.  She was the first Shine kid to go through the program.  She went to high school in Oklahoma and one year at Oklahoma State before she decided to come back home and go to school here in Tegucigalpa.  She likes to build but I think it's only because she gets to use a chainsaw.  It scares the crap out of me.....not really but (yes it does!).  She has done an incredible job.  I'm pretty sure when she hammers she imagines my face on the nail and just whacks the heck out of it haha.  She's pretty awesome though.  Hopefully that spices up the blog a little bit.  :)

I've built 4 more houses since we've been in Teguc.  Today we built a house in 2 1/2 hours which is impressive and we were able to meet up with the other group at the blind school.  So I was on the beast team today.  We've gone to the hospital, bagged up tons of food bags, gone to the Valley of Angels.  We've said goodbye to a great team of 70 and welcomed in another of 50.  The team that left last week was really great.  It was mostly people from Florida (the Keys and Bell Shoals).  I love getting to work with them because they are just great people to be able to work alongside.  They are ready and willing to do anything.  I've got a lot of friends on that team and made a few new ones this year including a few new poker friends and a fantasy football friend.  I was really sad to see them all go but all good things come to an end.  They left Monday the 2nd.  Oh I almost forgot about our spa day in between the groups.  The first group left the 2nd and the next came in on the 4th so we had a spa day.  Yea, manicures and pedicures all around.  Margaret Reeves even had her hair dyed and I'm pretty sure purple wasn't the color she was going for but it is unmistakably purple.  It was a lot of fun.  We spent a day out at the Didasko orphanage where we gave them the best gift an orphanage director could hope for, 9 sets of drums..... Payback from that guy is going to be intense.  We've moved some mud up at the daycare in Mololoa from all the flooding they've had which caused a sinkhole under the slab which had to be partly torn out.  We've carried wood forever and a day up a mountain to a house site and moved rocks the size of car engines at another, as well as chiseled out the rocks the size of cars in order to get an area for as big a house as possible.  It's been a great couple of weeks and hopefully I won't go this long again without letting you know what I've been up to.  It has been an absolute blast.

Tomorrow we are going out to Didasko for the entire day for a VBS program as well as to set up a computer room for the kids and to do some repair and additions to their playground.  It should be a fun day but in order for me to have energy for it, I need sleep.  We've built the last two days and my body hasn't liked the lack of sleep in days.  So I'm hitting the hay, Goodnight.