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I recently had the wonderful opportunity to go to Honduras on a 2 week long mission trip and help the people who live there. A group of 33 of us, which included 8 adults, stayed in a beautiful house in La Paz owned by a lady named Ina. Ina was so nice in letting us stay in her house for a full 2 weeks. She and her family of 4 moved out of the house for 2 weeks so their house could accommodate our entire group. When I arrived and saw the house I knew we were lucky and very privileged to be able to stay in such a nice home when neighbors were sleeping on dirt floors and only had tin sheeting as a roof to their houses made of only scrap woods and metals.

In the first week, we held medical clinics in surrounding areas around La Paz. We pulled teeth, gave medicine for protection against parasites, and gave medicine as simple as Tylenol. I had the opportunity on the first day to work in the pharmacy. With the help of a translator, I explained to the patient what medicine to take for what problem, and how often to take their medicine. After telling them these things I often was given a hug or a firm handshake from the person thanking me for just a little medicine. Even after seeing them thank me for these simple things, I wasn’t affected. Their thankfulness was beyond anything I have seen in the United States. The next day I had an even more exciting opportunity to work with the dentist who came along on our trip with us. Before the patients came to the dentist, the pre-clinic area would ask the patients what hurt. If anyone pointed to a tooth, they were immediately sent to us. 100% of patients who saw the dentist had teeth pulled. Some of these patients were having up to 7 teeth pulled at a time. Although the blood may have bothered me a bit, the part that astonished me the most was after we removed their teeth. We had just yanked teeth out of people’s jaws and put them through pain, yet every person stood up, thanked us, and hugged us one by one. It was unbelievable. They were so thankful that we had come from the US to help them. But even then I wasn’t moved by their thankfulness. I went through the clinics all week being thanked over and over and over again and wasn’t affected emotionally at all by these people.

On Sunday we went to church. I was told before hand that services would be 4 hours long and the only thing I thought was, “Ugh! 4 hours! That’s crazy.” When service started I was blown away. Every hand in the building was in the air praising God! Every person was singing as loud as he or she could. Every person had the most obvious, passionate love for Jesus. Even though I couldn’t pick up every word of those Spanish worship songs, I knew that everyone of them was praising God with the utmost passion and was thanking Him for everything He had done in their lives. These people had nothing. They had no physical belongings to put their trust in. These people only had God to place their faith in. As a result, every one of those Honduran people in the Iglesia Evangelical de Santidad had placed all their faith in Him. The worship was Amazing! No one looked at you funny because you were American. They have more passion than any other church I have ever been in.

Yes, it was a great trip. Yes, I do plan on going back next year. But one thing bothered me when I came back. When I came back to my church’s worship that following Sunday, I was sad because all that zeal and passion had disappeared when I reentered the U.S.  Matthew 22:37 says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” The bible tells us to worship in spirit and in truth. In John 4:23-24 it states, “That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.” It doesn’t matter how we worship God. Everyone worships in church in different ways. But the essence is the same in our worship; we must love him, thank Him, and adore our one true God. All we have to do is place our trust in Him and have a strong passion while worshipping him. The more passion we have, the better relationship we have with Him.

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