For our first month’s placement in Honduras, our entire squad (45 Racers) spent our time working with Catracho Missions atop a mountain near the town of Comayagua. We were joined by our ministry leader Pastor Paul, his wife Tania, the rest of their family and ministry workers, as well as 10-15 middle/high school age students fulfilling a service requirement for their English school. In total we had roughly 70 people living on one plot of land atop this mountain.

Oh, did I mention we were all living in tents? And sharing one toilet?! This is the World Race after all. 

The mountaintop ministry is something new to Pastor Paul and his ministry Catracho Missions. It wasn’t until after back-to-back hurricanes in November 2020 that the Lord called Pastor Paul up this mountain to share the gospel and meet the spiritual and physical needs of the villages devastated by the damages of Hurricanes Eta and Iota. Most of the people up in this mountainous area are coffee farmers and in our trips up and down the mountain we were able to see the extent of the devastation, observing countless places where landslides washed vast amounts of farmland entirely down the side of the cliff.

With that being said, our main objective was to assist Pastor Paul in building a church building to begin building a church community on the mountain. The majority of our time working was spent doing various types of manual labor. We spent entire days chopping down and hauling bamboo up and down the mountain back to the church property to be used for the structure of the church. The same went for very large trees to be used for the supports of the church, as well as tables and benches. Clearing and leveling out two plots, one for the church and another for a women’s center, occupied a lot of our time, as well as various other tasks such as constructing barriers on the cliffs to protect against landslides, creating additional campsites for all of us, and digging a massive 7x8x9 foot latrine for a new bathroom on the church plot.

The women of our squad have also had the opportunity to serve alongside Pastor’s wife, Tania, who has a very evident passion for women’s ministry. They’ve been able to assist in teaching women’s workshops to help the women of the communities learn skills and trades to bring in income for their families. We were also given a few opportunities to walk through the mountain villages doing house visits, delivering food and household supplies and praying over families and their homes.

It was a blessing to be able to help Pastor Paul and Catracho Missions begin to build the Lord’s church on the mountain top, a true city on the hill. It was extremely moving to see the Lord’s heart conveyed through Pastor Paul for the transformation of these unreached mountain villages. And it was an incredible honor to participate in the first church services held atop this mountain.