The End

Posted in Guatemala by Mark Shrauger on 4/30/2008

Well race fans this is it. My last blog from the field. Can you believe it? It's been 11 months. I will have a few more blogs but I thought I would tell you what's up for the next few days. Tomorrow we all get on a plane for Fort Lauderdale, Florida. That's in America!!!!!

In Florida I say goodbye to my world race family and on Thursday Sarah and I head for Colorado to see family and friends. Then on Sunday we will be going to Nebraska. We will be there until the next Saturday. After that we head for Massachusetts. This is where Sarah is from. If I'm going to be in your area shoot me an email and I'll see if we can stop by.

Now on to a few pics from our last big dinner at the end of the race.

The Whole team

Mark and Sarah

Team Concrete

ALL the men of the World Race

a sad day

Posted in Guatemala by Mark Shrauger on 4/16/2008

This morning when we woke our pastor friend told us some very sad news. While we were sleeping, an eighteen-year-old boy who lived next door to the church had hung himself. We went to the house with the pastor to see the family.

We walked down a dirt path with walls on each side to a small concrete house with a tin roof. It was maybe ten by twenty. There were many people standing around and you could here the cries of mourners coming from inside. The pastor pushed his way into the house. As I followed him in I had to wait for a moment for my eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room. Once they did I was confronted with a scene of such sadness and despair.

There were over sixty people crammed into the small space. Many cries of sadness could be heard throughout. The pastor worked his way through the crowd to get to the mother. She was standing in front of the casket. I reluctantly followed.

I am a six-foot tall white man. In this world that makes me the tallest person in the room by far. I felt so out of place. I did not know this boy. Nor did I know his family. I felt like I was intruding.

It was not hard to figure out who the mother was. Her face was wracked with such anguish and pain. At one point she showed us the rope her son used to take his life. We prayed for her and the family. I don't know what was said but I know God's heart is breaking for this family. Mine was.
Pray for the family.

Our last ministry site...

Posted in Guatemala by Mark Shrauger on 4/16/2008

I thought I better get everyone up to speed on where I am and what I'm doing. I am now back with my old team minus Lauren. Sadly she had to go home a few weeks ago. She had gotten sick with Typhoid even though she had the shots. She is doing better now but this puts team Concrete down to just four people.

We are currently in San Pablo, Guatemala. It is a small village on the edge of a huge lake with volcanoes and mountains all around. It is amazing how beautiful it is here. The people are so welcoming. I can't believe that this is our last ministry site. We will be here until the 23rd of this month. After that we will have our final debrief and then fly home to America.

Crossing the lake to our ministry site

Sunset over the mountains

San Pablo, Guatemala. Our home until the 23rd.

Don’t be a silly Israelite.

Posted in El Salvador by Mark Shrauger on 4/7/2008

Looking back at our time in Santa Anna, El Salvador it has been so different from normal. I can't believe I just used normal to describe anything in my life, but I digress.

"Normally" our ATL's have gone like this. We pray and find a city to go to. Then we pray some more and walk around until God puts something or someone on our hearts and then we hook up with them. Jesus Centered Ministry was a great example of this (see my Nicaragua blogs for details).

This time we found a city, Santa Anna. Then we walked around until we found a church. We felt like we were to talk to them. This turned out to be very hard with our lack of Spanish and their lack of English. After two trips to the church and finally finding a translator, we found out that all we could really do was pray for the church and speak life into them.

At first I wondered if we had gone to the wrong place. I thought maybe there was someone we were to talk to somewhere else. But then God showed us in his quiet way that we were doing what he wanted us to do. Praying for these people in this small struggling church was what He wanted us to do. We got to share with them and speak life into their little church. We spent most of our time praying. For World Racers so used to doing things for the people we meet this was hard to do. But just what God had in mind.

I find myself minimizing God way to often. Even after all the crazy amazing things I have seen Him do this year. I still find it way to easy to shrink God down to a size I can manage and understand.

I never thought I would say it but I can kind of relate to the children of Israel. They saw all these amazing things God did for them on a daily basic as they traveled through the wilderness. Yet when it comes down to it instead of saying ok God, it's your turn. They run off to try to make it happen themselves. I am notorious for trying to fix things. I used to think; silly Israelites just listen to God and let him show up big. But sometimes I guess I am a silly Israelite.

I think this last week was God's way of shaking things up for me in my crazy, comfortable world race life. Yes even on this trip of something new and different every month you can get comfortable. I have gotten comfortable with traveling, meeting people, border crossings, etc. But to just pray, now that was a tough one.

So many ridiculous things ran through my mind. What will I tell everyone I did last week? I spent time with God? That's not a good blog. What pictures do I take for that blog? I know, I know, dumb. But I'm trying to be real. This is the way I felt.

If God tells you to do something, do it. Don't get comfortable with your normal view of God. And what ever you do don't make God manageable. He is God. You're not suppose to fully understand him. What would be the fun in that? Let him shake up your world this week. Seek out what God has for you to do. He may just ask you to sit down and pray. But how are you ever going to know if you don't ask him?
Don't be a silly Israelite or a silly World Racer.

Nelson

Posted in Honduras by Mark Shrauger on 4/4/2008

When I was in Tegucigalpa I met this man named Nelson. He lives in the barrio near one of the Impacto churches we worked with. This is his story. if you want more information about nelson contact impacto church.www.impactohn.org

nelson from mshrauger on Vimeo.

Gangs, Daggers, and Video Cameras

Posted in Honduras by Mark Shrauger on 3/27/2008

Today was a fun day. We started the day by going to FEB21. This is a project in a gang run area of Tegucigalpa. We were told that when we got to the neighborhood we had to roll the windows down. The gangs don't like dark tinted windows. They can't tell who is coming into their area. The gang knows the truck we are riding in and the driver so we are safe. Iglesia Impacto (Impact church) is our destination.

The gang that runs this part of the city likes and even protects the church. Why would they do this you might ask? Well, they know that the church teaches their kids at their school, treats them at their clinic and feeds them at their church. Why would they run them out when all this help comes to them for free?

I was asked to do a video story about an elderly couple that was raising two of the kids that come to the project. Video is why I'm here so I jumped at the chance to document this. Then the reality of what I had volunteered to do sunk in. I have to walk about ten blocks round trip through the neighborhood with my not so little video camera and then shoot a video in a not so private front porch and then walk back to the church. All the wile being told not to take any pictures along the way and don't go anywhere without one of the men from the project. God what where you thinking on this one? I'm a big, very white guy walking through a barrio that a gang runs with a large video camera hidden in my bag. I stick out like a walking billboard. But then the real reality of my God starts to come through. I am exactly where God asked me to go. I am doing what He asked me to do. I am helping His people. I am as safe here in gangland than I would be home in America. This fact became very real this week.

When I go "home" at the end of the day here in Tegucigalpa I go to the apartment that was provided for us to use. It could be anywhere USA. It looks just like an apartment you would find in the US. It is such a blessing but even here, danger and harm try to sneak in. But God's provision is sneaker.

After a long day at one of the projects the girls and I came home to relax for a bit before dinner. After a long day of shooting videos, setting up spreadsheets, and teaching kids it's nice to just take it easy for a bit.

I decided to go out on the balcony to enjoy the evening and the amazing view, a simple decision that didn't seem life and death by any means. I walked out and stood for maybe a second or two when the wind caught the door behind me. This sent the door, a single plate of glass hurtling shut. As you probably already guessed the window exploded!
I was only a foot maybe two away when this happened. Here's the real scary part of the story. They don't use safety glass in Honduras. Well, at least not on this door. The door hit with such force that pieces of glass landed on the other side of the balcony a good seven feet away. Daggers of glass a foot long went flying at me! I was facing away from the door so I knew nothing of the danger until it was already happening. I only had workout shorts and a t-shirt on and was now standing barefoot in the field of glass that has flown all around me.

Needless to say this was not what I had expected in the "safety" of our apartment. Once the shock of the initial explosion wore off I thought I better get out of the glass and check for damage. My legs felt like they had razor burn on them. I only found four small cuts on my legs and foot. They had small pieces of glass in them but nothing to terrible. And then it hit me. I have done more damage to myself shaving than a full sized plate glass door exploding 24 inches from me had! I must keep my angels very busy. I had nothing to show for this but four small band-aids on my legs at the end of the day. The door on the other hand didn't fair so well.

This accident was nothing more that a glass door, a very large gust of wind and bad timing. It could have happened in my house in America. God always provides and protects when we are following what He has told us to do.

As I thought about all of this one question kept coming to mind. Am I in more danger out in the barrios with the kids, the people, and the gangs or at home in America? The only answer I can come up with is both… if God didn't tell me to be there.

Tegoo? Teg what? Oh Tegucigalpa

Posted in Honduras by Mark Shrauger on 3/22/2008

It took us four tries to get on a bus. We would try to get on the bus but with our big packs we had a serous disadvantage. It started to feel like our time in Africa when we ran back and forth across the platform to get a train.

Other than that our trip to Tegu turned out to be very uneventful. Aside from the guy that that I shoved off my laptop bag. He stepped right on it and about gave me a heart attack. But by the fact that you are reading my blog you can assume it all worked out.

Once we got to Tegu we were dropped off in a not so great neighborhood. Our phone wasn't cooperating so we used a cel phone from a nice person from the bus. We called our contact and he came quickly and picked us up and took us to where we are staying. Our home for our time here is an apartment that belongs to an American that is only here a few times a year. It is such a blessing to have a place of our own and even a full kitchen. I made tacos for the girls for dinner tonight to make sure the kitchen worked.

On Sunday (tomorrow) we get to see some of the ministry they do here. Once we get a better grasp of what we will be doing I'll fill you in.

On the Road Again

Posted in Honduras by Mark Shrauger on 3/18/2008

This morning we sadly said goodbye to our friends here in Leon. They gave us a ride to the bus station and we were off again to parts unknown.

We got on a bus for Chinandega, Nicaragua. Once there we caught a bus to Guasaule on the Honduras border. I didn't move fast enough to get a seat so I had to stand much of the way. Once we got to the border we had to fight off the guys and there little carts who wanted to give us a ride. They wanted to charge us the same price to go about a mile across the border as we had just paid for a two-hour bus ride. We walked. And then it was another hour-long bus ride to Choluteta. I should also tell you that if you are picturing chicken buses you have the right idea.

Once we got to Choluteta, our chosen city in Honduras we had no contacts and no idea were to go. So we walked to a large church we had seen on the way in and asked them if they knew of any cheap hostels or hotels. On our walk there someone out of the blue pointed down a street and said Pacifico. We thought, Oh you can see the ocean from here. It must be were all the tourists go. We continued on to the church and found some very nice people who did some calling around and found a small hotel that was sort of in our price range. Guess what the name was, yep Pacifico Hotel. When we checked in we were happy to find three beds, a shower, and AC! What a blessing. Oh and our new friends at the church even gave us a lift to the hotel.

After showers to wash off all the dirt we had accumulated on our trip we went to Wendy's for supper. Yes it really was Wendy's. You should have seen us trying to order baked potatoes and cokes. We stopped both lines with our terrible Spanish. I was behind Tam and told her don't move. I walked up and pointed at her potato and said that I wanted one of these. It was a riot and all we did was order. Then we went to a grocery to get water. Like all groceries we have seen in Central America it is owned by Wal-Mart. They even wear Wall Mart tags and some have blue vests.

We will be in Choluteta for the next few days. After our last adventures in Leon and our start here I wonder what God has in store for us here. We will find out…

God Strikes Again!

Posted in Nicaragua by Mark Shrauger on 3/13/2008

Ok, so I thought I better get everyone up to date on what we have been up too. On Monday we got our English classes set up. Then we decided to check out a building we had seen when we came into town. All we knew was that it said Jesus Centered Ministries on the wall. This seemed like a good sign to us. By the way it was written in English. Our Spanish lacking team took this as a sigh that we should check them out.

We walked up to the door and knocked and politely asked what they did here. The next thing we knew we were sitting in rocking chairs getting the whole story. JCM helps kids get to the states to get operations. They also help with MRI's and other such procedures here in Nicaragua.

We asked them if there was anything we could help them with and they said they had some painting that needed to be done. We jumped on this opportunity. At one point in the conversation they mentioned hosting teams in the past. We asked if we could work something out to stay in there spare rooms and just like that we had a place to stay for the price of a love offering! And they even feed us. I should also mention that Esther had it on her heart to look for a place for us to stay with a women. Guess what, JCM is run by a very nice lady. We have a place too stay, good food to eat and even free wireless. God is so cool.

So this week has been taken up with painting walls at the ministry, teaching English classes at the University, and playing with the half dozen kids that live here.

We will be heading north on Monday we think. We are not sure if we will be going all the way to Tegucigalpa or stopping along the way.

Our English Class.

Here is some of our work at JCM

Painting at Jesus Centered Ministries from mshrauger on Vimeo.

Leon Nicaragua

Posted in Nicaragua by Mark Shrauger on 3/9/2008

We made it to Leon on Saturday afternoon. By two pm we had a hostel and were settling in. When we left Granada we were told it would take two buses and a rather expensive taxi ride to get to Leon. But the favor of God won out and we only had to take the two buses. This saved us the taxi and a few dollars. A very big deal on a small budget.

When we came to Leon we had hoped to work with English students at one of the many universities here. This was something we had done in China. Thanks to God putting us in the right place at the right time we had an appointment with the head of the English department of a university here in Leon by 12:15 pm Sunday. We weren't even in town a full 24hours before God hooked us up!

We have been going less than 3 days and already we have seen God at work so much. I can't wait to see what else he has in store for us.

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