In January of 2023 a team of fourteen people from Explore Church went to serve with Catracho Missions in Comayagua, Honduras. This was an intense, rugged adventure deep in the heart of the Honduran mountains. Catracho missions has an incredible ministry to indigenous people. The following is a blog from Tom Attard, one of our team members.
Tuesday, Day 8
After eating our final breakfast, we loaded 15 people, all their camping gear, and luggage into two small Toyota pick-up trucks and headed back down the mountain. One flat tire later, we stopped at another Catratcho Mission Campus at the base of the mountain. Tonya and Paul took us on a tour of their new site to share their future vision for a women’s school for single mothers and a milk goat program for selling cheese and yogurt. We got to meet their 29 milk goats. After praying over this particular property for years, asking God to help them to buy it, it finally came up for sale and they were able to purchase it. They had revitalized the property entirely, from an old swampy marsh to a lush green field. They ran youth soccer academies there.
Never before had I met a group of people who found so many ways to be involved in the lives of their local community or seen a small group of Christians think of so many ways to help their fellow man. Every need in their community was studied and brainstormed about. They truly want to revitalize their small towns, cities, and country. The list of programs and ideas was huge: reforestation projects to prevent erosion and landslides, over 5000 trees planted, partnerships with the local university agriculture program to diversify crops to move away from clearing forest to grow corn, creating economic opportunities outside of farming through beekeeping, raising milk goats to sell cheese and yogurts, providing sewing and crafting classes to local women, plans to build a coffee warehouse and drying facility to help their local farmers sell directly to market instead of to middlemen at 7% of market value, free soccer academies for local youth, and the list went on. How could so few people, with so little money, do so much? They had rebuilt over 40 homes after the gigantic hurricane that hit Honduras two years before. They had delivered meals to shut-ins during the Covid lockdown in their country. It was staggering.
I want to see my world and my community like Catratcho Mission sees theirs. I want service to be my lifestyle. I want to go back and help them accomplish their vision, financially and through continued volunteer work. For Honduras and also to continue the amazing relationships we started.
Check back tomorrow for our final day as we follow Explore Church, Missoula on their journey to Honduras.
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