Mountain Life!

Sorry about the big delay everybody! A lot has happened the last few months and finding time to blog and process everything has been crazy! So this next week I’m going to do my best to put out more for all yall beautiful people!

So let me tell you about my first month in Honduras. This month was crazy, first we started with team changes. My new team became all the men on my squad which is crazy because we all did not think that would happen. Looking back I am so thankful for this opportunity with the guys because we really got to know each other and just build each other up as men in the kingdom! The next thing we where told is that all of May in Honduras would be an all squad month. And considering we have 40 people on the squad that’s a lot of people! And last but not least we where all then informed we would be living out of our tents on the side of a mountain in Honduras! The last bit of news for me was definitely the worst because anyone who knows me knows I HATE camping. 2 or 3 days in a tent perfect not a problem but you tell me anything more than that and I’m like dang it!

So going in I knew I had to get my mindset right! I may not like camping but this is where God wants me here and prepared this way for us! After a 17 hour bus ride from Antigua, Guatemala to Comayagua, Honduras we arrive at this mountain and set up camp in the pitch black. To tell you I was tired was an understatement, so when one of my squad mates woke me up at midnight to move I was not a happy camper! But it all worked out and got some of the best sleep of my life!

The ministry we partnered with was fun. The land we where staying in was bought the week before. So the first week and a half we where there we made more camping spots and leveled out part of the mountain to build a church and woman’s shelter. Let me tell you this was some of the most tiring work I think I’ve ever done. The most grueling day I can think of was in the morning we where all I the jungles cutting down trees and carrying them back for a couple hours to get the day started. Then after lunch all the guys walked about 3/4 of a mile and carried logs at least 150-175 pounds. I think we carried back 10 in all! Afterwards I couldn’t move for a good hour. But God is good and we got it all done.

And of course I have super fun stuff to share about the mountain. Every night after dinner I would always find myself playing uno and just having an amazing time with all my friends on the squad. From all the laughter and inside jokes it was an amazing time. Then of course all the fun of actually living on the mountain. From using a hole for the bathroom to having cicadas poop all over you. It is safe to say I still think camping for over 3 days is absolutely insane! And of course I have to mention that while on the mountain I had the pleasure of running into a tree called the witch tree! This tree when cut has a sap that when in contact with your skin flares up and you get an awful rash and of course your boy decided to touch this sap. It got all over me and it was hands down one of the most painful things I’ve had! I had to go to the hospital for a good ole steroid shot. And right before the nurse put it in me she laughed because they where giving 2x then what they usually do. And man I was dizzy!

But in all I loved the mountain being able to spend time with the squad and my team and camping wasn’t the worst. On my next blog I get to tell yall all about man-month and all the fun we had!

God bless and tell someone you love them!

Daniel J. Ford

P.s. Happy birthday to my Mom (Deborah), brother (Ryan), and sister (Lauren) because I missed all there birthday’s!