“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” — Matthew 28: 19-20.

Christians know that passage of The Bible as The Great Commission, an exhortation from Christ to carry his message of hope and salvation to all people all over the globe. Twenty-seven area residents recently got the chance to do just that recently when they undertook a mission trip to Honduras.

The Rev. Aaron Childers, pastor of Solida Baptist Church, said a member of his congregation, Doug Button, has been working in Honduras and got to know the Rev. Jorge Duran, pastor of Mt. Horeb Baptist Church. On his trips back to Lawrence County, Button began sharing with others his experiences in Honduras and the possibilities for mission work there. Childers said Button’s experiences inspired members of his church and Button family friends, Scott and Donna Bowling and their two children, to make the trip to Central America.

“Of course Doug saw the great need and a great window of opportunity for our church to fulfill the Great Commission and fill that need there,” Childers said.

The group left the area June 6 and returned June 16. The Lawrence Countians, aged 5-65, roughly, conducted children’s ministry, including Vacation Bible School, for the kids in the communities of La Ceiba, Porvenir and Masia.

The ministry impacted more than 500 children. During the evenings, Childers preached to various congregations. The men worked each day building tables and benches for use at the outreach churches and some of the young people performed various tasks at the Casa Cielo orphanage.

Donna Bowling said the people were open and friendly—and grateful.

“The thing that impressed me most was how thankful they were for everything you did for them. Even if you just smiled at them,” she said. “If you gave the kids a balloon their faces would just light up and they would stand there in line and wait for just a piece of hard candy or a pencil or a balloon.”

And some of those children, she said, were willing to walk long distances just to get to VBS.

The orphanage was one stop on the trip that left a lasting impression as well. Some of the children there had stories of tragic neglect and poverty.

“One child, her mother tried to sell her to witchcraft and another, her mother tried to sell her for drugs,” Donna Bowling recalled. One little girl named Breysi was also the child of a drug addict. When the mother got high, she would place her child in a dumpster where ants would bite the baby. The child still has the scars from the insect bites.

But those same children have found a haven at the Christian-run facility that is operated entirely on faith and donations. For those who may want more information about the orphanage and who may want to donate to it, a website is available: www.casaderoc.org.

Though the Lawrence County delegation went to Honduras with the intention of giving to others, they discovered the trip was as beneficial for them as it was for the people they went to help.

“It’s nice to help other people but as much as we gave them, I feel like we got that much or more in return,” Scott Bowling said.