Loaves and Fishes on the Road to Honduras

Five weeks from today I leave for Honduras with 17 other people on a mission to build houses with Habitat for Humanity. This will be my third trip, and incredibly, this time I’m the leader.

The first time, in March of 2007, I went with my wife Pat and not a single other person I knew. Honduras was a shock, my first exposure to Third World poverty and desperate, subsistence living. Walking through a slum with the group, we were confronted with the sight of child no more than three years old, standing guard at the gate to his house with a knife in his hand. The look on his face told me that, even at three, he could and would use that knife. It is an image that still haunts me.

And yet the people that we met – outside the barrio at least – were universally happy and incredibly grateful for the little that they had. Not only that, but they shared what they had with truly Christ-like generosity.

I could feel the tectonic plates shifting inside me, but I didn’t yet grasp what was going on. But I knew I had to go back.

And so I did. In March of 2008 I went with a different group that included my son Dan and Butch Sherrill from the previous year’s group. I could write a book about our leaders, Margaret and Miguel Rubiera, even after so brief a time as ten days together. The light of Christ burns brightly in these two, and I am humbled at the prospect of trying to fulfill the leadership responsibilities they so joyfully and graciously fulfilled. Margaret was the quintessential Mom to all two dozen of us, and Miguel (Jefe Segundo) was an effective yet hilarious mix of Father Flanagan, Ricky Ricardo and Gen. George Patton. There is so much to tell about that trip, and in time perhaps I will tell it.

We can all point to times in our lives when an event or situation changed our perspective or even the direction of our lives. That was Honduras II for me.

For now, suffice it to say that the trip turbocharged my spiritual journey and rearranged the spiritual tectonic plates yet again into a new and more Spirit-filled configuration. My prayer life changed for the better, and I began to pray more frequently and ardently to know God’s will for me, and for Him to grant me the grace to carry it out.

And so it was one day last summer I was praying, and it came to me that I needed to lead the next trip. I mentioned this to Pat the other day, and she’s like, “So what did that sound like, was it like a big booming voice saying ‘Rob, Rob, lead the trip to Honduras’?” Not really, and I didn’t get knocked off my horse like Saul either. I just knew.

Recruiting people for the trip was tougher than I ever dreamed, though in retrospect maybe the economy had something to do with that…do you think? I tried to encourage people to not let money be a barrier to going, that somehow we’d find the money. And sure enough, one of the people on the trip told me they knew someone that would love to go, but couldn’t afford it. Now I had what I’d asked for and no clue where the money was coming from.

Segue to today’s Gospel reading:

Mk 8:1-9

In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat, Jesus summoned the disciples and said, "My heart is moved with pity for the crowd,
because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat.
If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way,
and some of them have come a great distance." His disciples answered him, "Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?"
Still he asked them, "How many loaves do you have?" They replied, "Seven."
He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd. They also had a few fish. He said the blessing over them and ordered them distributed also.
They ate and were satisfied.
They picked up the fragments left over—seven baskets.
There were about four thousand people.

Jesus was moved with pity for the crowd (that empathy thing again), and the disciples were clueless about where the food would come from. And yet, just from the resources they had with them – seven loaves, two fish, and faith – there came enough food not only to feed four thousand but to have plenty left over.

And so I found myself earlier this week meeting with Lisa Reynolds at the Habitat offices, with Gerard Davidson, a Habitat board member, former trip leader, soon-to-be advisor-in-chief for yours truly, going over trip details including the budget. To this point, Lisa has done virtually all of the heavy lifting on trip preparation (aside from recruiting), and has done a masterful job of it. Gerard led my first trip to Honduras, and I can’t tell you what a blessing I consider it to be having him along this time.

To make a long story short, we found the money to fund the trip for the person who didn’t have the resources to go, and then some. Not only that, our “seven baskets of fragments” will be enough to make a nice contribution to Habitat Honduras as well. I felt like I was flying when I left the Habitat office – the Spirit had come through in the clutch again.

I confess that a few months ago I had wigged out a bit when recruiting wasn’t going so well, but that’s part of the territory that comes with being an Enneagram Six like me. But I settled down once I realized I was truly inadequate for this job (which I still am), but that if I let go of control and handed over the reins to the Spirit, that would create the space for great things to happen.

And so they have – we have continued to add to our numbers, even at this late date. Word came late this week that there could be as many as four more people joining us from Grace UMC, which could bring us to 22.

Lisa has a quote on her email signature I’ll share with you because it is so true:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. -Marianne Williamson

“They ate and were satisfied.
They picked up the fragments left over—seven baskets.”