A 13-member mission team from Second Baptist Church of Hamlet consisting of 11 men and two women recently returned from its annual nine-day trip to southern Honduras to build a house for a needy family and to hold three Bible School sessions for the children of the community.
The 19-foot-by-25-foot cinder block house was constructed in the village of Colonia Williams, about 200 miles south of the capital city of Tegucigalpa and a few miles outside the southern city of Choluteca, according to church staff.
As the team was constructing the house, several Hondurans living in the neighborhood volunteered to join the working group each day. Church officials said the construction leader was a Honduran pastor called “Pastor G.”
The mission team also constructed a pila for the family. A pila is an outdoor cinder clock structure that serves as a place for the washing of clothes and as an outdoor shower area.
“The trip, which lasts just nine days, takes about eight months to plan,” said Chris Hawks, pastor of Second Baptist Church of Hamlet. “Team leader Trent Strickland must make sure everyone in the group has passports and shots to protect against several diseases. Also, each mission team must raise $3,000 to pay for construction materials.”
In addition to Hawks and Strickland, team members were O.W. Altman, Bennie Billingsley, Steve Davis, Chuck Edmonds, Mike Grant, Fred and wife Anna Lee Jenkins, Rev. Jason Moore, Bill Reinbott and daughter Meredith and Rev. Daryl Wrape.
Families who are given newly-built houses are identified and approved through North Carolina Baptist Men out of Cary, the organization the church works through to plan the trip. Richmond County natives Mike and Ginger Shelley Greene serve as full-time North Carolina Baptist Men’s coordinators for all the numerous mission groups who travel to Honduras each year.
“It is amazing what strong bonds one can build with people in just nine days,” said Hawks, when speaking about the villagers the team met and worked with. “Our mission is to help families in great need and this gives us the opportunity to show God’s love in action.”
“Each mission group has about 12 people but must have at least seven,” said Strickland. “More than 20 teams go to Honduras through the N.C. Baptist Men’s organization every year.
More than 100 children attended Bible School sessions lead by the Jenkinses and assisted by a language translator (Egla) and Meridith Reinbott, church staff said. Each child received a Bible, box of crayons, and a jump rope. The kids also enjoyed a slice of birthday cake in honor of Pastor Hawk’s birthday.
Second Baptist has already secured a date in October for the 2013 mission trip. For more information, call Second Baptist at 910-582-3696.
— Staff Writer Dawn M. Kurry can be reached at 910-997-3111, ext. 15, or by email at dkurry@heartlandpublications.com.
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