Arrival

Saturday, 9/13/14 9:03 p.m. EST The team landed safely and is settling into life at the team house here at Orphanage Emmanuel. Rick Copley states it was smooth sailing, but there may have been one or two bumps along the way … Like one of the most harrowing airplane landings the Hillside and Heritage Presbyterian team has had. If you haven’t ever landed in Tegucigalpa, it’s one of the world’s more intimidating airports to land. A quick bank around a mountain, a steep spiral down, an almost grazing of rooftops ... all brings you to the world’s shortest runway. Cloud cover caused the pilot to be a little less decisive about his exact approach, and by the time the wheels hit the ground, the entire plane broke out into applause. More experienced Honduran travelers reminded the other passengers we clap when the plane actually stops, not just when the wheels touch down. The plane stopped just fine, so it was like a curtain call for the pilot! We disembarked to find ourselves in a little bit of a lengthy immigration and customs line. Two hours later, finger prints taken, money exchanged for limpyras, and we were on our way! Oh … did we forget to mention it was Independence weekend in Honduras? Driving is another one of those things you can only understand by experiencing. In a combination of a slow-mo game of chicken, a series of cattle calls and horn blasts, and some creative impromptu stand-in traffic cop pantomime, we navigated the streets and took a little bit of a back way up the mountain. By back way, we mean the roads were "sort of" paved… in spots. From our bus window the landscape changed from a literal city on a hill (complete with evidence of a recent landslide) to the slice of heaven we find ourselves at whenever we arrive at Emmanuel. Truly, a place touched by the hand of God that is felt the instant the gates open and you are admitted in. For some of us, tonight, our loved ones are far away, but our hearts are full of love. We are eager for church in the morning, for running into the arms of the children waiting most likely as eager as we, for the experience of opening our hearts to let God move in us and through us. A special thank you to those who rose early to meet us at Hillside at 5:30 this morning for the sendoff. Thank you to Linda Evans who sent us off with the breaking of bread and a blessing to carry us across the ocean. It’s almost lights out on our end. Please know that internet here is spotty. It is the rainy season and the electricity has flickered once or twice already. (Again, no worries, our house is run on a generator). So, there may not be a lot of photos here, but we will try and keep you updated. Keep us in your prayers.