Ninth Grade Field Trip
by Mary Kay Phillips

(This is my last article for a while as Brad and I are on Homeland Ministry Assignment. This is a year spent in the States to raise funds to return as well as visit supporters and acquire additional training and education as needed. I’ve enjoyed keeping up the website during this past four and one-half year term. Blessings to all of you for your kind words and encouragement that I’ve received about the website. Thanks to Jeremy Umbaugh, volunteer missionary, for all his technical support and encouragement. Thanks to Juan Carlos DeGrandez, a Honduran university student and church member, for his help at giving me enough bandwidth to upload my articles.)

Ninth graders were up and at my front door at 2 AM on October 25, ready to leave for their field trip to the North Coast. We had set the departure time at 3 AM, so I was really running behind as I had just put their take-along breakfast in the oven.

We left El Sembrador at 2:50 AM and headed to Tegucigalpa. Not bad in a society that can run behind! We picked up our tour guide and policeman on the north side of Tegucigalpa and kept going. We arrived near Lake Yojoa at about 10:00 AM, so the boys were able to walk out on the pier and enjoy the scenery while we waited for our fried fish dinner. Is your mouth watering yet??? At times, it seemed that all we did was eat—and ride a bus!!!

After lunch, we loaded on the bus again and took off for Pulhapanzak, the waterfalls near the lake. They are quite impressive, especially to young men who have never seen anything like them before.

Once back on the bus, we continued north to Puerto Cortes, the port of entry for all imports by boat. However, being youth, we had to make a stop at the huge City Mall in San Pedro Sula. Then, we stopped at a church that had sent 17 people to minister at the school during our special services just two weeks before. They treated us to a tour of the church’s ministry property complete with a clinic and conference room and then donuts and tamarind drink. We finally made it to Pto. Cortes. Our hotel was right on the ocean. After a light supper, the boys enjoyed the pool even though it was pretty dark out. Unfortunately, the ocean was quite turbulent and the kids couldn’t swim in it.

After an excellent breakfast the next morning, we headed to Fort Omoa, one of two forts on the North Coast. It was built to protect Honduras from invaders and pirates, but in the 1900’s, prisoners were incarcerated there.

We then rode the bus on over to La Ceiba where we spent the night at a nice hotel only about 3 blocks from the ocean. Since we arrived early, we were able to walk around the community some. Many students made it to the ocean and / or the mall that afternoon. After another light supper (light suppers are typical in the Honduran diet), many students hit the pool. The next morning, we had a little more time to explore our surroundings in La Ceiba after another really good breakfast.

Late morning, we boarded the bus to head to Palma Real, a very nice all-inclusive hotel right on the ocean. We arrived and had a buffet lunch. I couldn’t believe how many plates of food these young men could eat!!!

We spent most of the afternoon at the adjoining water park. I believe everyone had a really good time and even tried some of the slides and things that they have never done. Even Lenin had a good time in spite of getting several stitches in his knee!!!

Back to the hotel and some “fast soccer” on the beach. I even played for a while—until my foot collided with Angel’s tree-trunk leg! At 7 PM, almost all the students showed up for supper when they opened the doors. Again, I think every student had at least 2 to 3 plates of food. WOW!!! Glad I don’t have to cook for them all the time! After supper, some swam while others just hung-out poolside until evening when the “show” began in a small theater down the beach. Sorry, I went to bed—remember, I discovered on this trip that I’m old!

The next day, we took pictures and last walks on the beach—after another all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast! They piled on the food again. Then, they ran back through the dining room to grab plates of food to take on the bus!!! I honestly believe everyone was ready to board the bus and head home even though we had a really good field trip.

Please continue to pray for these students. Several are strong Christians and will make excellent leaders some day. Pray for their continued spiritual growth. Also pray that those who have not accepted Jesus as their Savior will soon make that decision.

(This was an end-of-year activity prior to graduation. To see graduation photos, please go to the archives.)