It is a rainy morning April 30, 2024 and I am sitting in my home comfortable and blessed. So for this blog page I looked back to pictures throught the years of mission work to think and reflect, and I came across this photo. I am thankful I was able to go to the places I went during my mission traveling. This place is somewhere on the Coco River that forms the boundary between Nicaragua and Honduras. A 400 mile long river which to my knowledge still does not have bridge over it for its entire length. This photo is over 19 years old. And in the photo you can catch a glimpse of what life is like in these Latin American remote areas. People now days talk about living off grid, but this area of the world has a kind of life that people is the USA just do not even realize still exist.
Just examine the photo for a moment and realize some things. There are no bathrooms in this part of the world. You can see the outhouse at the top of the picture. There are people washing clothes in the river as there are no washing machines. If there were washing machines there is no electricity to power them. There are no cars because there are no roads. Just the river and if the world outside of these villages is to be contacted, it is by boat on the river. There is no medical care. There is little that resembles the world we live in here in in America. Life is primative and difficult. While it is changing some there, it is slow progress for many people in the third world areas to even realize the comforts of life that exist in our modern world.
The reason I was there is simple. To take the message of Jesus Christ to these people. Oh, they had heard about Jesus and many believed somethings about hime. But there was a strange mixture of culture, superstition, peer pressure, and bad theology that gripped the people and left them empty and afraid. Using a variety of means to touch the lives of the people there our goal was the truth of Scripture to show them the Lord Jesus. Over the last 25 years a great change in the planting of churches has brought a great blessing to many as they have learned the truth of a relationship with the Lord.
I was privileged to make about 50 such trips and I saw the Lord work in many ways. For this I am thankful. But having been there I am also thankful for everything that God has blessed me with in my nice home and life. I am thankful I have had the great opportunity to be used to serve my Lord. I am thankful I can share it with you by the internet. But I am thankful most of all for His love, mercy and grace to me a sinner.
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