Kalli Bontrager's Blog - Life Update!!

hey people!!

wow. It’s been 23 days already!? It feels like I’ve been gone for 2 days yet 3 months at the same time. But the crazy thing is that Honduras also feels like home. Living in tents, exploring the city, and doing life with these people. On the race you never know what to expect, and the Lord is teaching me to trust him in that and it’s so good! Walking with the Lord is truly beautiful and it’s crazy how he works!!

Let me update you all on these past 3 weeks :)

On training camp ⛺️

yikes. Where do I even start. well I’ll try at the beginning :) waiting in the airport and slowly seeing people come in was only slightly scary. I think one thing I was most afraid of was having drama within our squad and simply not connecting with people. Haha well I’m not sure why that was a fear because you know your girl likes to talk to people ;) God immediately erased those fears as I met person after person as people filled the airport. People from different squads going on different trips, all called by Him and for Him to live out the great commission. It was actually kind of sad meeting these great people and then finding out that I actually don’t get to serve with them. Once the clock hit one we headed off to base. Training camp hit me like a truck. A pretty big truck. If I’m being honest, it took me a good 5 days to not cry day after day. I didn’t think I would feel homesick that quick, but being in a place where you don’t know anyone and nobody knows you is a really weird feeling. Still being in the states but living in tents, using porta-potties, taking bucket showers, and doing bucket laundry threw me a little bit. However, I did find out I was a big fan of bucket showers; they’re actually so much fun guys. :) Training camp is a pretty much constant go full of meals, sessions, worship, and prayer. We had sessions on forgiveness, The Holy Spirit, pursuing truth, feedback, cultural differences, our God as a missionary God, identity, knowing God by revelation, and The Sabbath. The Lord made himself known to me in so many new ways and I’ve already learned a ton! We were all ready to get training camp over with and get on the field to start sharing The Good News!!

My squad 💌

T-Squad is my squad!! We have all connected so well and I am beyond thankful for that!! Each heart of my squad is so near to me and Jesus placed these people in T-squad with so many talents, abilities, and gifts. We truly have fun together and are becoming family! My squad leaders are Marissa and Jerome, and my mentor is Areonah and they are all on the field with us. Mike and Charlene are our coaches and will join us for debrief in both Guatemala and Indonesia. The intentionality of my leadership team is insane and The Lord continues to bless me through them <3

On Honduras 🇭🇳

Our squad set out to Honduras knowing only this: we were gonna be staying in our tents, on a farm in the mountains! We started with spending the night in the airport with a very noisy escalator, and safe to say not much sleep was slept :) In the morning, we hopped on the plane and set out for Comayagua, Honduras. We had a very safe flight with which I slept the entire time and we were greeted with beautiful smiles from our hosts. I was so excited to finally be in Honduras!! We hopped in the bus and started our 3 hour drive to Catratcho Missions. Honduras greeted us with beautiful skies and unbelievable landscapes. I am continually in awe of the Lord’s creation! The ride felt long but we got pretty attentive once we started heading up the mountain. Pulling into Catratcho Missions, people lined up all around. People grabbed our bags, which I was entirely grateful for (I packed way too much by the way :) and we met everyone. Pastor Paul is the pastor of Catratcho Missions, and they do a lot of relational and community outreach. Our first couple days consisted of learning the culture of the mountain and what our time was going to look like while in Honduras. We plan on doing VBS in schools, manual labor here on the farm, and going and doing house visits. To give a little bit of insight on the mountain, alot of the people are Catholic. They grow up Catholic and stay Catholic. Most of these people live in tight quarters with about 4 houses making up a community. But here’s the sad thing, if one house comes to Christ, they kick them out. Another aspect of this culture, is that the girls and women are abused by men. Fathers, uncles, brothers. Women here don’t have a voice or any rights. By the time a girl gets her period, she is considered unclean, and no longer able to touch a Bible. By the age of 14 most girls have their first child, and by 20 they normally have 3 kids. Often times, the man will go find another woman and the process repeats. This is the life of the mountain. Catratcho Missions is a light in this hurting place. They have developed classes for women to come to on Fridays to teach them practical life skills like sewing and cooking, and also doing Bible studies with them. Pastor Paul told us a story of how he tried to give one of the women a Bible, and she got scared. She told him that she can’t have it because the priest would have to come to her then and her mother in law would kick her out. The classes Catratcho Missions offered, became a refuge for women to read the Bible. The people here at Catratcho are full of life and abounding with joy and eagerness to share the Gospel. It has been such a blessing living with them for 2 weeks now and truly becoming a part of them.

A week consists of 5 ministry days, 1 Sabbath, and 1 ATL day which is an adventure day and a day that we set aside to simply “Ask The Lord” how he wants us to use our time and to present people to minister to. I typically wake up around 5:30 to all the noises of chickens, donkeys, and goats. We have devotions every morning and night, and the day is filled with ministry work. Our time here so far has been a lot of manual labor, which our leaders said is very abnormal for the race. I have scrubbed the large white church tent, shoveled and sifted rocks for concrete, and shoveled and shoveled and shoveled dirt in the trenches. The trenches is the water filtering/septic part of the farm where all the pipes are, and we are digging all the dirt out around it to pour concrete beside it then. Saturday, I did concrete. Why did nobody tell me how fun concrete was!? I genuinely love it so much and I think it’s such a beautiful process!! Lots of manual labor :) We have done some house visits and kids ministry alongside manual labor. The women’s ministry comes on Fridays and they bring their kids, so we get to be involved with that, then on Saturdays the kids come and we essentially do Sunday school with them. It’s a blast :) I love seeing all the kids and their hearts and pouring out love to their tender souls.

Testimony 🤍

I know I’ve already said a lot, but I’ve learned so much and I can’t not share!!

Some things that Jesus has laid on my heart and shown me:

daily bread!!! 🥖 Jesus is my daily bread, and His bread is sufficient. Not yesterdays. Not tomorrow’s. Today. Take it. His portion is enough!
Jesus points us to a relationship with the Father. A relationship with the Father comes in revelation. Do not be orphan hearted! Orphans have to prove themselves, provide for themselves, and protect themselves. The Father has an unconditional love for you. <3
When you’re on a relationship there’s no end to, you’re always at the beginning. When you walk with an eternal God, you’re always at the beginning. We hinder ourselves if we think we know everything or if we don’t think the Holy Spirit can speak to us anymore.
Lean on your Beloved. I am my beloveds and he is mine!! He brings you out of the wilderness. He is always there to lean on!!
Be interruptible. Our culture is self-focused. That’s the opposite of Jesus. We go day by day with an agenda of things to do that when someone interrupts that, we push past it and get back on the agenda. How can we expect God to use us if we aren’t willing to stop and allow the Holy Spirit to work? Be interruptible.
Lay it down. Lay it all down. The Lord has seasons for everything and to lay it at his feet in utter surrender is a gift. A beautiful gift. To let go of the unknown and to trust that he is in the unknown. Because he graciously and purposefully brings everything together. He holds it all, and I mean all.