3:18 AM

Well, this is our last day in this wondrous place.  We have been  blessed this past week by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in many different ways.  The weather has been uncommonly mild and cloudy and cool.  The day the team went snorkeling the day was clear and beautiful.  We were blessed to come to know Mike and Erin, John and Kathy and Mike and Ashley.  The three missionary teams working down here.  We were blessed to have the perfect team: Zach our team leader made it easy for us to enjoy our trip since he worried about all the stuff behind the scenes, Daniel and John the builders who helped actually build the home, Trevor and Caleb the young men who were able to see the world thru different, innocent eyes and loved the kids here. Phil the friend, the pastor, the mentor the best friend I could ever have, and myself, Richard, he guy who was lost when he got here, who was blessed to be able to come, who now understands why God put me here in this particular place ,during this exact week, with these wonderful people.  I don't ever see myself as a long term missionary, but like I told Mike after dinner last night, I'll be coming back as long as the Lord wills it and Mike wants me back.  And when I can't come back, I'll be supporting those who will come after me.  I needed this trip to understand what I am about, what my life is about and to appreciate all I have in my life. From my wonderful sister Jackie whom I would love to bring down here, to the children Stephanie, Richard, and Kevin whom the Lord blessed me with, I plan to bring them down here, maybe not all at once, but hopefully one a year. To Josie the woman who has stolen my heart, ( no thats not true, she didn't steal my heart I gave it freely and with abandon to her) I am such a blessed, blessed man.  I don't live in a beautiful 4 bedroom home with a pool and greyhounds racing across the rolling hills I don't drive the latest sports/luxury touring car, but what I have I need to appreciate more and thank the Lord for providing it to me.  What I have is through his will, and I need to understand that and embrace it with all my heart.  when we went to the Honduran worship service on Sunday night, the speaker was talking about being proper stewards of Gods gifts.  Everything we have is a gift from God. Not somethings, not most everything, but EVERYTHING we have is through Gods will and we need to cherish and embrace the gifts we have. If I have learned nothing else,  I have learned that on this trip

8:55 A.M.

We are at the ferry landing waiting for our departure at 9:30 watching Honduran tv, blogging, reading.  Boarding the ferry, I moved to the front to watch a bit of Animal Planet.  After about 15 minutes I moved back to the safety of the rest of the team. Put on some Alan Jackson and fell asleep to Itty Bitty.  As the drone of the engines stopped I woke up to the sight of the ferry landing.  We gathered our bags and once again Phil took the lead getting us 2 taxis for the ride to the airport. As we got the airport at 11:30 we got in line to check our bags and we were told we needed to wait until 1:30 to check our luggage. As we searched for a bit of floor to park our luggage and our tired sunburnt bodies we looked like a bunch of lost ragamuffins.  But we were a bunch of happy ragamuffins, we are on our way home!!  I sat down for a bit to read my book but soon the hot hard floor and my old bones were at war and in the end the floor won making me yield,  I had to get up and walk around.  Soon enough it was time to get back in line to check our bags and go through the X-ray machine again.  Once through we found seats and proceeded to wait some more.  But finally it came time to board, and board we did, now we are winging our way to Houston and the arms of our loved ones!!!  Arrived in Houston, with a list of things we needed to get accomplished, get our checked bags, go thru customs, go thru the screening process and then recheck our bags to get them to Phoenix.  All in 45 minutes.  Normally that would not be an issue except that it seemed that the entire 737 needed to catch a connecting flight, everyone was rushing, and everyone was trying to get the same thing done.  When we were finally thru everything we came to find out that the flight was delayed about 45 minutes.  So we got to the gate as fast as we could, then went on a search for food, panda express, subway, and some Greek restaurant that caught my eye were where we ate at.  Then we boarded the plane for the flight to Phoenix.  We landed in Phoenix, and Phil, Caleb and I  took off to Tucson.  During the drive Phil and i had wonderful conversation regarding the Bible, how to learn from it and how to talk to people about Jesus.  Before I knew it we were at my house and I was saying goodbye to Phil who was gracious enough to drop me off at my house to see the people I love.