To Mega Therion

Today marked the beginning of the end of the 2012 mission trip to Honduras. To celebrate the completion and the success of the experience, the team took today to walk across a swinging bridge, shop, and trek through the wilds of the Honduran mountains to swim at a beautiful waterfall. The day ended with feasting on pizza for supper.

Abby, one of the girls from the Aiken team, had suggested the swinging bridge at the beginning of the trip. The bridge is reminiscent of the bridges seen in movies (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Romancing the Stone, for movie buffs), with the wood planks attached to ropes, or in this case, cables, that crosses a river. This bridge was well kept and several people crossed it while we were there. In fact, we watched as a woman holding her baby practically strutted across the bridge, never loosing her balance once.

After the swinging bridge, the next stop was a souvenir store that contained quite a collection of merchandise. Hammocks, clothes, paintings, and backpacks are just a few examples of what the store carried. The girls were only too happy to spend time in there. Lakey bought some cigars for Stan the man.

Once the shopping was completed the team returned to the ranch to quickly change into bathing suits and then began the main event of the day: the waterfall... the "March to the Great Beast."  This activity was highly anticipated throughout the trip and did not disappoint.  After a brief hike through the jungle, the team reached the waterfall. Almost at once, Alex and Dane were jumping from the highest jump point at the waterfall, which is approximately thirty feet. Jennifer jumped from that spot as well but the rest of the team stuck with jumping from a mere twenty or so feet. After we had all swam 'til our hearts were content, we were about ready to leave until Brad decided that he wanted to climb to an even higher tier of the waterfall. There were three different falls, with the third being approximately 90 feet in height.  Brad began climbing a trail beside the 90-foot fall that went straight up - a trail that much resembled the trail Sam and Frodo climbed in Lord of the Rings to reach Cirith Ungol. Soon Alex, Aaron and Jarred followed Brad further up the mountain to see what was at the top of the waterfall while Jennifer, Lorie and Lakey waited anxiously at the bottom (with their hearts in their throats). Everyone returned to the ranch safely and enjoyed pepperoni pizza that Sam and Daniel brought back from a trip to San Pedro Sula.

Meanwhile, while the team was embarking on all these activities, Mark and Jerry returned to Gloria’s house to finish up as much work as they could on it. They placed more pins in the roof so water would not leak. That marks the end of the day and the 2012 Honduras mission trip. 

Brad, in the pouring rain, climbed through the river of mook to come out clean on the other side

Thank you for keeping up with the team’s progress. We will see you all tomorrow at the airport barring the tropical storm that made its way to Quimistan at 7:30pm tonight delays our flight.

Lorie & Brad