On Monday, March 12, the eighteenth Gehlen Catholic Mission Honduras student mission team participated in the send-off prayer service in the Marvin Langel Memorial Gym. This year’s theme “Lead the Way, God” was apparent throughout the prayer service. Cindy Harpenau, a chaperone of the 2016 team, spoke about the impact her mission trip had on her and her son Brady, who also a member of the team. The missioners then lit candles as the Christian Leadership Team members read aloud the reason each missioner was lighting his/her candle and why he/she wanted to participate in the mission trip. After that, all missioners received their t-shirts, crosses, and “junta” booklets from various family members, as they said their farewells before leaving the gym.

Mission team members walked through the back gym and hallway to the bus while Gehlen Catholic School students and staff, along with family members and friends, created a human tunnel for the missioners to traverse. Each person was encouraged to touch the bags the missioners carried to signify that a part of them would travel with the missioners into Honduras.

All that is worth cherishing in this world begins in the heart, not the head. ~ Suzanne Chazin
	Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world. ~ Archbishop Desmond Tutu

The 2018 Gehlen Catholic Mission Team had the ambitious goals of constructing homes for three poverty-stricken families in the Nueva Capital area of Tegucigalpa, building twenty bunk beds and three picnic tables, creating a vertical garden, and delivering as many gift bags as possible during their stay in Nueva Capital. Nueva Capital is mainly comprised of families who had to move to higher ground when Hurricane Mitch destroyed their homes in 1998. We believe approximately 125,000 people live in the Nueva Capital area. Due to the unavailability of water projects in the area to which we’d previously traveled, this year’s Gehlen Catholic Mission team focused on construction, similar to the 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 teams. The team worked in Honduras from March 13^th to March 21st.

Francis Seivert, Julio Rivera, and Marta Sosa, met the team at Toncontin Airport in Tegucigalpa. Francis had been in Honduras for a few weeks, helping to prepare for the team’s arrival, as well as working with various children who have medical problems. Julio Rivera accompanies Francis throughout Honduras and is a long-time friend of Mission Honduras LeMars, Gehlen Mission Honduras, and Then Feed Just One. Marta Sosa, a member of the Cerro de Plata Foundation in Tegucigalpa, handles the distribution of Then Feed Just One food in Honduras. She also helped in the planning for this year’s Gehlen Mission trip, as well as the previous trips into this area. After the military transport truck was loaded with the 77 bags of materials, the team climbed onto their buses and was on the way to Nueva Capital.

This year’s mission team consisted of Carolyn Bickford (team leader), Linda Reichle, Pat Jones, Juan Uribe, Dennis Schmit, Dave Klein, Tom Kellen, Keith Bretey, Erin Hoffman, Joe Kessenich, Steve Larson, Todd Scheitler, Fr. Matthew Solyntjes, Mark VonArb, and Nancy Zubrod, as chaperones; Lucas McCarty, Brady Livermore, MaKenna Alesch, Chris Begnoche, Carlyn Bretey, Abbie Dickman, Eli Ellensohn, James Kellen, Mason Kellen, Daniel Kessenich, Caden Kneip, Jordan Larson, Krista Lipp, Kayla Mayer, Jared Morris, Delanee Nilles, Matyas Pavel, Kathryn Ripley, Alexa Scheitler, Jordan VonArb, Claire Wingert, and Brooke Woerdehoff - Gehlen Catholic High School students;  Rebecca Johnson - Remsen St. Mary’s High School student; and Addison Hirschman – Kingsley-Pierson student. After arriving at Santa Teresa de Jesús School, their compound for the trip, the team settled into their cramped quarters and prepared for their 9-day mission.

Each missioner on Gehlen Catholic mission trips is responsible for his/her own costs. To date the Gehlen Catholic and Mission Honduras LeMars programs combined have placed 986 missioners (42 different teams) on the ground in the second poorest country in the western hemisphere. Five other mission programs have been created from Gehlen Mission Honduras - the Briar Cliff University program in Sioux City, IA; the Sisters of St. Francis, from Dubuque, IA; the high school mission teams from Springfield Catholic High in Springfield, MO, St. Thomas More High School, Rapid City, SD; and Bishop Heelan High School, Sioux City, IA. The Gehlen program, along with the Briar Cliff, the Sister Water Project, Mission Honduras LeMars, and Rotary For Life Water Project, have completed 44 water projects to date and sent eleven full scale medical and dental brigades over the years. The program has also built 32 homes for some of the poorest families in the Nueva Capital area. Clean drinkable water, Then Feed Just One food, home building, and professional medical care remain the major goals of the Gehlen Catholic & Mission Honduras LeMars programs. For more information on the medical program please visit this same website for the January medical trips. For more information on Then Feed Just One please visit www.thenfeedjustone.org. For more information on Mission Honduras LeMars go to www.missionhonduraslemars.org.

	Every moment is full of wonder and God is always present.
He who plants kindness gathers love.

Because there is much preparation that needs to be completed before the team travels into Honduras, planning for this year’s mission team began during the summer of 2018. With the lack of water projects around the Esquias area, and other mitigating circumstances, it was determined five years ago the team would take a new direction, focusing on relocating to Nueva Capital. Marta Sosa of the Cerro de Plata Foundation, in conjunction with ACOES, located three extremely poor families in the Nueva Capital area of Tegucigalpa who desperately needed homes. Planning then began to prepare the team in the task of the home construction.

The team “lived” at the school, using classrooms as dormitory rooms. Supplies, such as paint, construction tools, painting supplies, and generators that the team used, were stored inside their dorm rooms also. Missioners slept on mattresses that were placed on the floors in the classrooms. The team used the library for meals, which were prepared each day by the hired cooks, Cinthia and Marlene. Work days began at 6:00 – 6:30 a.m., allowing the team time to eat breakfast and finish chores before beginning the day’s projects.

Unfortunately, the house wood did not arrive on their first day in Honduras, but they were lucky that the bunk bed and picnic table wood had been delivered. The missioners were divided into groups to work on beds and tables. Another group began the task of building a vertical garden, a project that no mission team had accomplished before. The missioners also got a good start at emptying the black duffle bags, filled with all the items that their supporters had donated throughout the year. The wood delay also allowed the construction crew leader Pat Jones time to visit the house sites and plan out the details for each one. On their first work day in Honduras, the missioners were thrilled when the house wood was delivered just as breakfast was completed. As soon as the wood was sorted and reloaded into the military transport truck, all missioners convened on the house sites to begin the process of building homes for three extremely poor families.

We are not here merely to make a living. We are here to enrich the world. ~ Woodrow Wilson
	The true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolutely no good. ~ Ann Landers

After the homes were built, the missioners and families painted the outside and inside of each home and installed the wiring, even if the family did not have access to electricity presently. Once that task was completed, the student missioners took a day to make each home “special” by brainstorming possible enhancements to each home. Then, the students created/built those items with the help of the adult missioners. The student missioners truly enjoyed the chance to install items like shelves, benches, tables, and toothbrush holders into each home. They also purchased items that each family could use, like plastic chairs, tortilla makers, plates, glasses, and silverware. The team also provided a generous amount of groceries to each family, purchased with a donation given from a Le Mars family.

Other donations by charitable people allowed the missioners to present almost 100 little girls with a handmade pillowcase dress. Hearing the giggles of pleasure as they wore their dresses for the first time brought smiles to the missioners who were helping them choose their dresses. Forty-seven small children, who were selected by the school’s principal, were provided with a pair of “The Shoes That Grow.” These leather shoes can be purchased for only $15, and amazingly, can be adjusted five sizes.

The overall Gehlen Catholic Mission Honduras ‘Changing Lives’ program has three main goals for each mission journey into Honduras: to do a work project of some kind, to immerse themselves into normal Honduras life, and to experience the poverty that grips so much of this beautiful country and people.

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love. ~ Lao-Tzu
	When we are generous in welcoming people and sharing something with them - some food, a place in our homes, our time - not only do we no longer remain poor; we are enriched.   ~ Pope Francis

When the missioners delivered the gift bags to the homes of the Santa Teresa school children, the poverty was quite apparent to all. The families receiving the gift bags smiled as the missioners unpacked soap, shampoo, toothbrushes, toothpaste, lotion, toys, clothes, and shoes. Even the bag the items were delivered in was considered a gift to the family. Seeing the dirt floors and walls of worn boards with gaps between them truly gave the missioners an eye-opening look at the reality in which the Honduran children live each day. The formidable walks the children undertake in the early morning hours to get to school by 7 a.m. showed how important their education is to them.

Once the homes were completed, the missioners had a home blessing ceremony. During the ceremony Fr. Matthew blessed each home, both inside and out. The families receiving the homes took the opportunity to thank each and every missioner for their beautiful homes. The house keys were handed to the home owner, who signed papers of ownership while the missioners witnessed the signatures. As a special touch, a wooden cross that was handmade by Chris Begnoche and signed by all missioners, was hung in the home to remind everyone that God’s light will continue to shine in each family that received a home. Our prayer is that the families will continue to share Christ’s light with all around them.

	Serving is a powerful thing. God wants to bless you, but He also wants to be a blessing through you.
I have the strength to face all conditions by the power that Christ gives me.   ~ Philippians 4:13

The day of their departure, Principal Jessica thanked the 2018 Gehlen Catholic Mission Team and shared with team leader Carolyn Bickford her amazement of the wonderful example the missioners had set for her students through their hard work, their willingness to speak with them in Spanish, and the positive role models they had set for her students. The missioners also thrilled the school students by presenting the school with several soccer balls. These soccer balls were donated by One World Play Project, whose goal is to donate soccer balls to groups living in poor areas around the world.

Every evening of the mission trip the missioners gather together in what is called the “junta.” The junta provides the missioners a time to share some of the items in their personal journals, but more importantly, it provides the missioners an opportunity to process all they are witnessing during their mission trip. Often emotional, none was more emotional than the final junta the night before the missioners left.
 

A spirit of harmony can only survive if each of us remembers...that we share a common destiny.   ~ Barbara Jordan
	Just as there are no little people or unimportant lives, there is no insignificant work.   ~ Elena Bonner

At the end of the meeting, Carolyn Bickford shared a message with the team from Mission Honduras Le Mars / Then Feed Just One Director Richard Seivert titled, “A Humble Beginning, Humility Throughout, Love Forever, and A New Me.”  (GCMH blog on Wednesday, March 21) Seivert’s last paragraph stated: "When you return home please share your story and don’t stop until change has occurred – it begins with you and it begins right now. God has given you this wonderful opportunity to grow, reflect, and change – and you have already made a difference. Don’t be afraid what others might say. Think about this for a second, You have held poverty in your hands, you have looked at it in their eyes and seen it on their faces, you have felt it in their lives, and you have communicated with it when talking to and hugging those children of Santa Teresa. The rest is up to you. Be the change that you can be.  And by the way, you are not guilty of poverty’s existence – guilty only when we do nothing about it.”

A winning smile is the best accessory any dress ever had.    ~ C. Terry Cline, Jr.
	First it is necessary to stand on your own two feet. But the minute a person finds himself in that position, the next thing he should do is reach out his arms.    ~ Kristin Hunter

The 2018 mission team more than met the goals of their mission trip. From working diligently on their chosen work projects, to playing with the children, to participating in liturgies, the team received the opportunity to focus on others. From hand washing their own clothes in the pila, doing daily chores, and taking one-minute cold showers, our missioners experienced a little of what life is like for a person in Honduras. The missioners worked hard at using their Spanish, and many students were happy to be able to carry on a conversation with someone in Honduras. Many friendships were forged. Not a single team member was ready to return to the States when the final day of the trip arrived.
 

	If you are a Christ follower, you are a missionary. Whether it's next door, or across the globe, it's OUR mission to share the love of Jesus!

It has become customary for the missioners to return home with only the clothes on their backs. Team members sorted through all personal belongings and stacked them in a designated area in the library. These items will be taken by the ladies and men of Nueva Capital, washed, and distributed among those who are the neediest. Team members leave not only their clothing, but their shoes, flashlights, sunglasses, and other items. That alone says a great deal about the quality of young people with whom we deal on our mission teams.

The physically exhausted missioners returned home to their families’ welcome at the Omaha airport late on March 21. Though all missioners were happy to be home, every single person shared his/her wonderful mission experience with all who would listen. This year’s theme “Lead the Way, God” was shown by all missioners as they lived their mission journey in Honduras. Each day they followed God’s example as they worked and played among the Hondurans. They prayed as God taught them while celebrating Mass together. They were examples of God’s love as they worked alongside their families to build them beautiful homes. God could be seen in each missioner as their lives were changed through their mission work. Gehlen Catholic Mission Honduras ‘Changing Lives’ – was proven by every missioner!

Click above to browse the March 2018 Trip Photo Album