What A Day! A trip to Lake Yajoa

What A Day ( Trip to Lake Yajoa)

We finally got out of the city for the day, and we headed up the mountain up to Lake Yajoa. What an experience full of very different emotions.

I was completely jazzed about getting out of the city and up into the mountains and we were on our way. Lake Yajoa is about an hour and a half drive from San Pedro Sula. A ways out of the city we passed a road side fruit market that probably ran about a half a mile along the road. In it were all kinds of fruit and about every kind a banana you never knew even excited. Did you realize there are over 25 kinds of bananas? Get out, who knew!

The trip was yet one more eye opening experience to the culture here in Honduras. We were just outside of Lake Yajoa and were entering a more congested area. The car in
front of me came to a stand still, and then began to change lanes. We saw a road block of tree branches in the road, and just when everyone was starting to ask “what is going on?” I looked just ahead and the answer was revealed and my heart sank! A young girl had been hit and her body was lying out in the middle of the road. As we drove by we watched the crowds just stand by as her lifeless body lay there with just a towel over her face. It was a very difficult thing to see and just be able to carry on with our day as planned. It left an indention in our hearts and our minds through out the day. So heartbreaking.

We met the missionary couple I was previously telling you about at lake yajoa for lunch and some of the men from the mountain Church of God up there and their pastor. We had a great time of fellowship and enjoyed the main cuisine in the area of fried whole tilapia. We also were introduced to a Honduran delicacy: tilapia eyeballs! Yum, yum!

After we ate we all hopped into the back of the truck and headed up into the mountains (only accessible by 4X4, animal, foot). It was then that my heart really began to sing for the first time. I love the mountains, and I loved the people there. We went to be a blessing, but they blessed us more I know.

We met with the sweetest elderly couple, I can’t remember their names of hand, but I call them Grandma and Papaw Curly (if you see the pictures, you will understand). We all sat around their little humble home on benches as we listened to papaw curly give his testimony. He said about 4 years ago, they were both very sick and there was no one to care for them, so they each were in a room, and they lay on the floor for days, just waiting to die. One day there was a knock on the gate. The lady asked him who it might be at the gate; he replied that it was probably just someone trying to sale clothes. He decided he would attempt to see who it was anyway, when he did he discovered two missionaries at his gate and he invited them in. The missionaries prayed for them and witnessed the gospel of Christ to them. That day, both of them gave their hearts to Christ. He says that in that one day they both were saved, and healed all to the glory of God! It almost frightened some of the locals because that next day they were running up the hill to go to church! Praise God! He was such a funny little guy, he told us: “This is the truth; I can not lie to you, that would be a sin! I tell you the truth.” He also told us that he always had straight hair all his life, but right after he was saved he grew a single curl on the top of his head, now his whole head is shaven except for that single curl (hence the name papaw curly).
The missionary we were their with told us how they had not been married, that they had lived with each other for over 50 years, but had never married. This was common in the mountains because people could not afford to legally get married. Well, the man wanted to take part of some kind of leadership in the church and the pastor told him that he would have to be married, that he could not live with a woman and not be married to her. So, the missionary arranged a wedding and married the elderly couple. In the ceremony, when the missionary asked the man if he would take this woman to be his bride, he turned to him and got before the congregation and said: “How can you ask me this! I have lived with this woman for over 50 years! Of course I take this woman! I LOVE this woman” We all laughed. The little lady went behind the curtain to her room and came back out with her framed certificate of marriage to show off to us, she held it close to her, she was so proud of it. They were such sweet wonderful people; it touched my heart to the core. They were a blessing to me.

Next we visited with the pastor of the church there in the mountains and his family, they were absolutely precious! Then we headed down that mountain and up another one to drop off another pastor and his wife. There we prayed with a woman who had terminal stomach cancer. Two weeks ago the doctor sent her home to basically die. She lay in her bed unable to move at all. The pastor came to pray with her and she gave her life to Jesus. She started to gain strength, when we went to pray with her, she was able to sit up in bed. While we prayed she would lift her hands and praise the Lord and thank Him for everything He had given her. She had such an amazing, sweet spirit.

Well, we were suppose to stay for a church service that night in the mountains, but when Tamara (the teenager who is staying with us for the summer) was getting out of the truck she turned her ankle, and hurt it pretty badly, so we had to get her off the mountain so we could ice it then head back to the city. We stopped at a local restaurant for dinner with an amazing view of the lake, and then we were on our way back to the city – IN THE DARK! And I was completely paranoid the whole time driving back that I was going to hit someone in the road. The people here are not very careful on the roads. I just can not stress this enough. It is terrible!

All in all it was an amazing trip out, and I can hardly wait until we go out again. This was my heart and was a very fulfilling experience, hopefully one of many to come. All glory to God and His Sovereignty. The Lord, He is good. Amen.