Sunday Services and Programs

Sunday in Honduras started with some French toast, fresh bananas and cereal at Lydia’s guesthouse. After breakfast we dressed and readied for church at Comunion.

Chip Phillips started our morning devotional with a message from Julio, a seminary student and treasurer of Comunion. His email from the night before was exciting and he expressed that he couldn’t wait to tell us his good news.

Of the fifty people that approached the altar at the Banquet last night, twenty-one accepted counseling from the leaders of the church. Five of the twenty-one accepted Jesus and twelve more rededicated their lives to Christ.

Chip went on to share the miracle and dedication of Dick and Rick Hoyt who is a father son team that runs marathons. You can read more about their miracle at http://www.teamhoyt.com

After devotion we traveled back to Comunion for church.

The service at Comunion starts with music as a call to worship. Everyday when we arrive at the church the doors are wide open since there is no air conditioning. Today the music could be heard from the street and brought people into the sanctuary.

Today was Pastor Cesar’s birthday and the congregation honored him by singing happy birthday. Tim Snyder gave the sermon and discussed supporting your pastor.

After the service at Comunion we went to a restaurant, Por Cal for Sunday lunch. When we returned from lunch we split up and headed in different directions for the different programs planned for the day.

A handful of the men accompanied Pastor Tim Snyder to the Honduras Olympic Village, where the Olympic hopefuls train each year. The facility also serves as a center of physical fitness and recreation. Although we were amazed by the Olympic pool and the various arenas, we were not sight-seeing.

As it turns out, each of the five Central American nations are represented by male and female teams that play a sport called
Goalball. A combination of soccer, bowling, volleyball, tennis, and “Marco Polo”, goalball is a sport for the blind. Blindness does not diminish competitiveness, as we soon learned.

Teams of three face-off on a volleyball court. Even though the sport is for the blind, each athlete is given a blindfold to assure complete blindness. Strings are taped to the floor and the athletes find their positions by feeling for the strings. A center and two guards are tasked with preventing the ball to roll past them. If the ball leaves the back of the court, that is a point for the other team. The balls are similar to basketballs, but do not bounce. Bells inside the ball jingle to provide an audible reference point for the athletes to locate the ball and block it. Accomplished “goalballers” have a technique whereby they put a special spin on the ball, minimizing the jingling and the ball stealthily passes the other team.

Pastor Tim was invited to play and joyfully accepted the challenge. Within a few moments he soon realized how demanding the sport is. Knee pads and elbow pads are a must, as you must extend your body on a hardwood floor to properly block and catch the ball. The Honduran team does not have enough protective equipment to go around, so both the men’s team and the women’s team share equipment.

That evening the youth of Comunion met with part of our group for a devotion and fellowship. They played games with Frisbees, a soccer ball and some played UNO.

We returned to Lydia’s that evening and had a devotion. After discussing the days events and our plans for Monday we all headed to bed. It had been a long day.