Praise God that we had no problems getting here! The delay we had in Houston helped us unite with the Chicago family in good time. On the first flight, W. and I were moved to the front of the plane and sat next to Esteban who was on his way to Mexico. As we were preparing to land, CNN was showing an amazing story called ‘unlikely friends’, which showed a turtle and a hippo who were best friends. I wasn’t listening, only watching. The hippo would defend the turtle when people got too close and when they were separated and people reunited them, the hippo immediately ran over and put his paws on the shell. I was amazed by how much physical tough the two of them shared while together. On the second flight I sat across the aisle from Juanita who was returning form visiting her sister in North Carolina. She lives close to Choluteca, which is really cool. I’m glad to have had these chances to brush up on my Spanish! The landing in Tegucigalpa was amazing- we came in fast after clearing a mountain.

I am plesently surprised by how nice the hotel is. I was expecting quite a bit less from the Hotel Gualiqueme, but other than the critters outside and no water pressure, its great! It is just outside the city of Choluteca and there is an armed guard outside ¡Que divertimo!

After dinner, we left for Choluteca’s GCLA church service. Luis Reyes, the bus driver drives around every Saturday night to pick up families for Church. There was standing room only! The church is fairly close to the hotel. When driving down the streets you can clearly see the poverty - especially just one block removed from the main roads. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot and started to get off the bus, some young kids met us there. Some were playing soccer and others were climbing on the basketball hoop structure. I introduced myself to a few of them. One boy in particular, Hugo, caught my attention on the basketball hoop. He was sitting on a pole about 4 feet off the ground and he would put his legs on the next highest pole and hang upside down. I thought he might be trying to get my attention so I climbed up and sat next to him. S. took our picture and Hugo wrapped his arm around me to get as close as he could for the picture. [pic shown below]. He liked being able to see the picture right away on the back of the camera. Then I told him I needed to go inside for church and he jumped down, grabbed my hand, and walked into church with me. We sat down together - he was beginning to grab my heart

The church has a band and the worship leader’s name is Luis Fernando. The first song they sang was called "Si Fue En La Cruz" and as I read the words with my broken Spanish, I was captivated by their meaning:
Si fue en la cruz que el salvador
Me dio su amor mi vida para siempre
Si fue en la cruz que cancelo
Todo deber que condenaba mi ser
These words talk about going to Jesus cross and how it cancels our debt and how he gave his love and his life for me forever. While singing this song I truly entered the presence of God and the language barrier was gone - I could worship freely singing the words from my heart.

Pastor J. spoke at the church and to be honest I was not very focused on it; I was busy thinking about how I could minister to Hugo. He told me he was at church with a woman named Reina, with whom he also lives. I suspect he was an orphan. As we left I tried to encourage him, calling him "un gran chico" then he smiled and ran out the door. Hugo grabbed my heart tonight and I am praying for him quite a bit.

I also met a young boy named Antony. He followed me around after church for a good while. Meanwhile a ton of young boys were chasing and playing with G. - he was a real hit. After awhile we left, had a quick dip in the pool and went to bed around 11.