The Lutheran Pilgrimage in Porte Cortes

It has been a whilrwind tour for the last 2 days.

I am hear with the team of 12 people from 6 different Lutheran Churches of the New England Synod. We are here on a pilgrimage to visit sites for the purpose of helping these churches find places to partner in mission - similar to how we found the partnership in Yuscaran.

I have been riding in the front seat with Francisco, our driver of the 12 passenger van for 2 days. He is very funny, and speaks, just a little more english than I speak spanish. So by the end of the day, I am mentally exhausted as a plethora of spanish words are bouncing around in my head. It has been great fun though.

We have now visited 9 different sites. Each one with different needs and in different locations. There was one place of extreme poverty, and a church that needs alot of work. It was also the church with the most number of people attending. As we pulled up children came out of every home, by the time we left we were surrounded by 60 children.

This trip has been a real eye opener to the variety of ministries. At some point, a year ago, I heard someone say the Episcopal Church in Honduras is doing ministry to the middle class. Well, I{ve just seen 9 sites, and I{d say that 2 of them were middle class, including a bilingual school. But the others ranged from poor to extreme poverty.

Yet there is so much hope and excitement in the people and clergy in these congregations. They all have visions of futures that include improving their churches and their communities. So much to tell.

See you all Sunday, if not online before.

Pastor Jim