Luke and I initially met in Antigua, Guatemala, where we lived with the same host mom as we studied Spanish for two months. Throughout this remarkable time in Antigua, Luke and I truly became like brothers! We ate every meal together, shared many moments and laughs as we walked home from the girls’ house every night, and had many incredible conversations about life, faith, and love while drinking a beer, eating a local pastry, or sitting atop the balcony at our language school.
Once we arrived at the Finca in late September 2021, our friendship continued to grow, flourish, and thrive throughout our 14ish months in Honduras. We shared a bedroom at the Finca for the entire span of our time here, threw around a football in the campo on Saturday mornings when we had time, talked in the office every Friday night after the movie ended in what came to be known as ‘formation’, and had SO, SO many incredible moments of laughter, joy, and genuine brotherhood. I will forever be grateful for God bringing Luke and me together during this wild ride at the Finca and for all of the moments that we shared over the last 16 months. He is truly one of my brothers for life, and I will forever be grateful for the ability to live so closely with one of my best friends!
That being said, when Luke discerned to leave the Finca after one year of service to take advantage of a scholarship to receive a Master’s Degree for essentially free, we decided that we needed to finish out our year together with some type of vacation around Honduras. We debated going to one of the three islands off the northern coast of Honduras, but we ultimately decided to travel to cities in mainland Honduras. & IT WAS TRULY ONE OF THE BEST VACATIONS OF MY ENTIRE LIFE!!
We left the Finca on Friday, December 2nd and stayed in a seminary in San Pedro Sula that night with Kristen and Megan, which allowed us to spend one more night with the ‘Core Four’! All four of us arrived to Antigua for language school at roughly the same time, and we spent SO, SO, SO much quality time with just us four during breaks at school, drinking coffee and studying in coffee shops in the afternoons, enjoying a beer or a margarita together prior to dinner, navigating the ENORMOUS market on Saturday mornings, and climbing Cerro de La Cruz for a sunset or to just spend genuine time together. It was simply amazing to be able to spend one more night together with just us four in a coffee shop next to the seminary!
On Saturday morning when the girls returned back to the US, Luke and I took a public bus to Comayagua, which is roughly half way between San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa. We stayed with the Missionaries of Christ in Comayagua, which is located about 10 minutes in taxi from the central park. Due to the proximity, Luke and I spent the majority of our time in central park during our two days in Comayagua! Comayagua is a BEAUTIFUL city with an incredible amount of culture and tradition, and the city center was stunningly decorated for Christmas. We also spent some really quality time with two of our tías at the Finca that live in Comayagua and happened to be on vacation from the Finca at the time of our trip. All in all, Comayagua was probably my favorite part of our trip because Luke and I had SO, SO much time to explore the city, have some incredible conversations while drinking a beer or coffee, and genuinely just enjoy one another’s brotherhood for the little time that we had left together.
On late Monday afternoon, Luke and I returned to San Pedro Sula to spend time with Hector and his family. Hector was a psychology intern at the Finca for roughly 6 months beginning shortly after we arrived in September 2021, and we became really great friends with him, aided by the fact that he is bilingual and we can talk in English with him! On Tuesday, we kayaked on the biggest lake in Honduras that is located about an hour from San Pedro, and we also hiked up this huge hill at night to experience a GORGEOUS view of all of the lights of San Pedro! Our two days with Hector and his family were full of incredible conversations and time to explore all of the sights of San Pedro!
On Wednesday afternoon, we traveled to a children’s home in Santa Barbara named Amigos de Jesus, which is about 90 minutes west of San Pedro. The volunteers at Amigos visited the Finca in early November while on retreat in Trujillo, and they invited Luke and I to stop by Amigos during our vacation to meet the kids and to spend time with all the volunteers. Amigos has over 150 kids at their children’s home compared to only 20ish at the Finca, so it was truly fascinating to see the differences in operations between the two places! Our time at Amigos was INCREDIBLE and was full of playing soccer with two boys’ houses, observing the school days at their bilingual school, and really quality time with all the volunteers at Amigos!
Lastly, Luke, three volunteers from Amigos, and I visited Copan Ruinas during the weekend, which has MASSIVE Mayan ruins that are very popular for people all over the world to visit. Copan Ruinas is located about 10 minutes from the Guatemala border, and the city truly felt a lot like Antigua, Guatemala with the number of tourists, a laundry list of tourist attractions, and an astounding number of restaurants and coffee shops to spend time at. While in Copan, we visited the Mayan ruins during the day and a popular hot spring about 40 minutes away from the city center at night, and we had AMAZING conversations about the differences between the Finca and Amigos, faith, love, sports, and everything in between!
When I returned to the Finca on Monday, December 12th, I was SO, SO grateful to have had the opportunity to visit numerous cities throughout Honduras and to learn more about the local cultures. However, more than anything else, I am SO, SO grateful to have had the opportunity to finish my year with Luke in such an incredible fashion, especially since we got to spend such quality intentional time together during our 10 days traveling around Honduras!
Despite how amazing our vacation was, I MISSED THE FINCA SO DANG MUCH!! It was essentially my first time away from the Finca for a significant amount of time in around 14 months because I didn’t return home last summer for a vacation, and I truly missed the kids so much! It was incredibly different to return to Casa Santa Teresita without the 6 missionaries that I called my family for the last 14 months, but I am extremely excited for our small community of 3 this year!
Please pray for all of our kids at the Finca during this magical time of the year, especially for their peace, joy, and that they open their hearts to God’s immeasurable love during this Christmas season! Christmas is truly SO, SO, SO AMAZING at the Finca, and I can’t wait to share more details during my next blog.
Please let me know how I can pray for you!
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I pray that everyone reading this thoroughly enjoys the family time that the holidays provide!
God Bless!