Mike Munson, Rayan Sillie, and I drove to the local high school, where we have been developing a relationship. When we arrived and walked into the office area, all eyes were upon us. It was as if royalty had entered the room, and we were the royalty. The Director quickly ended her meeting in one room and ushered us into her office, where she was joined by a gentleman whose position I don’t recall. We began to introduce ourselves, though they made it clear that was not needed, and then told them we would like to host an event for the students, as we had done in the past two years. When an immediate affirmative was given, the principal went on to tell us that the government is now mandating one hour of teaching time each week on civic and religious training. She asked if Rayan would like to do that for her school. We had talked and prayed for a way to influence the teens, turning them into an army of Gospel warriors, helping with soulwinning, discipleship, and starting new churches. Still, the Lord has now given us “exceeding and abundantly above that which we had asked or thought”.
After accepting her offer, we settled on a date for the big event. I reminded her that for the past two years, we had given food bags to teens who were undernourished or malnourished. So, I asked what the number of teens in such a condition would be, and she quickly replied, “They are all undernourished, and many are malnourished.”
In the past, this would have been a burden for us to overcome, but with the generous contributions from many of you, we had more than enough to give food to all those in need.
The event was scheduled for 1:15, as school ended at 1:00, and it was about a one-mile walk. But some arrived before 1:00, “playing hooky,” I suppose. Then, minutes later, we had about 300 teens on our campus, accompanied by another ten or so teachers and staff.
One thing that astounds me each year is that we don’t have to organize the kids; they take over with different games, and we do our best to keep up with them. It’s like Christmas. Most of the equipment is provided by Visionary Trip groups, who bring and leave soccer balls, game equipment, and a giant four-foot-tall ball that they use for soccer and volleyball. We had egg tosses, always a favorite, as well as tug-of-war competitions where, as teams are pulled across the line, they are squirted with water guns or pelleted with water balloons. There were more events than I can recall. Then, they made up their own games and attacked our fruit trees to see how much they could eat. This was not a game; they were hungry.
Finally, it came time to eat and because you gave so much, we were able to upgrade the meal, giving them a plate of arroz con pollo (chicken and rice), which is one of any Honduran’s favorite meals, but usually reserved for holidays and special days because of its taste and the fact that it requires expensive chicken to prepare.
I have to give praise to our staff, who handled everything without a hitch. When we ran out of food with about 40 left, no one had to come to me to ask what to do; they got out the bread and sliced ham and began making sandwiches. No one went without a meal.
I didn’t think it was possible, but we were able to crowd all the teens into our main dining hall for a group picture, and the kids loved it. As Rayan took the microphone to preach, he called Nolin and me to join him. As we stood there in front of the kids, my heart swelled, not because of what had been done, but because of what would be done as we train these kids. In one afternoon, we had seen the Lord produce the largest youth group in the city, and in fact, larger than all the others combined. And now I knew that this would not be a once-a-year event, but a weekly study time.
As we looked over the crowd, Rayan asked for all those who had grown up eating at our feeding center to raise their hands. I was shocked to see that more than half the hands were raised. Then, after seeing more come to Christ, we dismissed the group, and as they filed out, we gave each one a heavy food bag. After the crowd left, I walked outside to survey the damage and begin picking up trash, but none was to be found. The teens had cleaned up their own mess, and our staff was already carrying it to the trash pick-up point. Now that I am approaching seventy, I am relieved to know that I am no longer necessary to the continuance and the massive growth of this work.
For the rest of the summer, as we walked through town, teenagers would come up to us to say hello and shake our hands. Word spread, and before long, we had a meeting with the Mayor, who asked us to help them put the roof on the new senior citizens’ activity center. Still needing $2,000, we gave them half of it. He has since advertised our involvement on his Facebook page so everyone in town could know. Then the Fire Chief called to ask for an appointment, but as I had to leave, Mike and Rayan took over. He requested medical supplies and assistance repairing one of their motorcycles. (If you want to help, tell me.)
I want to extend a final thank you to all of you who gave and prayed. And if you didn’t, don’t worry, the 2026 Teen Day is just around the corner. Unfortunately, camps in other lands like Pakistan, India, and several African nations went nearly unfunded. Hopefully, next year we can help them all. Sound like a good idea?
A special thanks to the group from Burnsview Baptist Church who helped us with this event. This was their first Visionary Trip, and they helped us start a new feeding center in the mountain-top village of Plan Fresco. We will also start a church there.
