Honduras (Engineering LHBH) Summer 2024 - Philip's Story
June 6, 2024
Dear Donors, Family, Friends, and Loved Ones,
Thank you all for your support, whether through encouragement with your words, financially giving, or most importantly through your prayers all of what you all have done for us to get to Honduras and back was greatly appreciated. The following is a short glimpse of what our team was able to do with the Lord’s help in Honduras serving Little Hands Big Hearts.
Little Hands Big Hearts is a local Christian group in Trujillo, Honduras that focuses on serving the often neglected group of children with special needs. They hold classes to help these children and their families deal with their special needs all while teaching about Christ. They also run a clinic for the community to do general health practices.
The trip was full of opportunities and displays of the Lord’s hand and provision. Beginning with travel, we knew from the start that it was going to be a tight window from when our flight landed in Roatan, Honduras to get through customs, retrieve checked bags, and get on a shuttle to get on a ferry to mainland Honduras in La Ceiba. Our flight was scheduled to land at 12:30 pm local time and the ferry departed at 2:00 pm. Thankfully, our flight left/arrived early and we landed at 12:10 pm right before another flight that brought a lot of people into the slow moving customs line. The blessing of the landing twenty minutes early would be evident as we arrived at the ferry building exactly 20 minutes before the boat departed, allowing us time to bring the engineering equipment and our materials and get them all checked before going on board. Had the Lord not been with us there we likely would have lost a day of work as we would have been stuck on Roatan.
There were many other moments where the Lord showed his protection and help when needed, whether through breaking the language barrier and helping communication happen smoothly to sweet moments of worship and devotionals that proved God truly is everywhere and moving in mighty ways. It was beautiful to see how God is still present even in different styles of worship than what I am accustomed to. A hymn we sang often that captivated me was “El Mismo Amor” which in English is a Common Love. The song’s lyrics were powerful.
A Common Love For Each Other
A Common Gift To The Saviour
A Common Bond Holding Us To The Lord
A Common Strength When We Are Weary
A Common Hope For Tomorrow
A Common Joy In The Truth Of God’s Word
It was a song that touched my heart as we sang in Spanish and English, helped light a spark in my heart that there can be a unity that doesn’t make sense in the Church that transcends borders and barriers and the Good News could reach the ends of the Earth.
Our team split into different groups for the work that needed to be done. The main issues that needed to be addressed were electrical issues with a water pump, erosion issues, and water security. Aaron Hardy mainly worked with Ricky Cadena on the electrical issues and were able to fix issues with the pump and explain troubleshooting to the locals.
Michael Cochrane led the work on erosion remediation. Philip Lamartiniere spent a lot of time working under Michael, though most of the team ended up helping with erosion remediation at one point due to the scale of the work it required. Reece Boyd, Kevin Mendez, and Van Uk did a lot of work in surveying and photogrammetry to help evaluate the land and help Dr. Wilson (who did work in just about every aspect of this project). with future planning for water security and other future projects. Heidi Wright helped with a lot of logistical work and making sure we didn’t burn ourselves out during the project. Before the trip Mariluz Rivera Dorado helped organize the team and helped with a lot of logistical things, communicating between Little Hands Big Hearts and our team as well as sharing verses of encouragement before our departure. A lot of their work was unseen, but very important in helping the project get done. Erosion and surveying work took a majority of the time of our project, thankfully erosion remediation finished on Friday, while surveying work finished on Saturday, our last work day.
It was a wonderful opportunity to be able to use engineering to serve others, especially those of the household of faith. It was an eye opener to see that engineering, (and all fields or vocations) all can (and should) be used for the Kingdom of God. All of our vocations can be used for good, and be gateways for us to share the Gospel with the people in our lives. Whether in Nashville, Albuquerque, Lexington, Honduras, or anywhere else in the world.
To keep this brief, I’d like to leave an encouragement/reminder to you all (and myself) to use whatever our respective field as a means to do good work the Lord is calling us to and use the opportunities our job gives us to spread the Gospel, locally and globally.
Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith. (Galatians 5:10)
But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? (Romans 10:14)
Thank you all again for all your support, please continue to pray for the Little Hands Big Hearts organization and for us all to continue to be on mission for the Lord, even though we’re back in the U.S.
God Bless,
Philip Lamartiniere, Little Hands Big Hearts Team 2024
Not a Trip
Category: Student Life
Tags: lipscomb missions, missions, Honduras, engineering, lhbh, little hands big hearts