In Honduras, sowing seeds of service

Just a few days after school finished in May, Regina Lawrence was on a plane to Honduras.

Lawrence, 19, a junior at Ave Maria University, had never been on a mission trip, but before she knew it, she was on her way to a town so small — Zacapa — that she couldn't even locate it on a map.

She wasn't alone, though. For two weeks in May, 10 AMU students spent time in the small town building houses, planting gardens and helping improve the community, said Dan Lyons, AMU residence director.

"It's a hard thing to tell people about," Lawrence said. "You really had to experience it to understand what it was like there."

This was the first time the university took a mission trip to Honduras, Lyons said. The trip was planned through Ave Maria Missions, the university's sister organization, he said. Students worked with a local parish to improve the life of Zacapa community members.

Lawrence said the trip to Honduras was the first time she had been on a mission trip, but it was something she had always been interested in. When Lyons approached her about attending the trip to Honduras, Lawrence said she knew immediately that she had to go.

"We got to do so many different kinds of things," Lyons said. "(But) it was all work for the most part."

Provided Photo

Ave Maria University students help build the foundation of an adobe house in Zacapa, Honduras, as part of a mission trip in May. Students spent two weeks in Honduras helping the small mountain community by building houses, planting gardens and working in local Catholic churches.

Lawrence said students lived with community members, and did everything from helping to build houses to showing the women how to become financially independent through agriculture.

Students also spent a lot of time working with the community's children, which Lawrence said made even the most tedious work enjoyable.

"Most of what we did was hang out with the children," said Kate Romens, 21. "The children would come and sit on our doorstep and wait for us, they were so excited to see us."

Lyons said students took advantage of their surroundings and decided to take some of the children on a field trip.

In Honduras, Lyons said, children only need to attend school until the sixth grade. So to congratulate the students for finishing school, Lyons said, students brought one group of students to the beach and another to the ancient ruins.

"It was really neat, because they live so close but have never been to the beach," he said. "It was such a great eye-opening experience."

Communicating with the local children did pose a problem for some, though, since English isn't spoken in Zacapa, and few people in the group were fluent in Spanish, Lawrence said.

"It was difficult and challenging," Lyons said. "A lot of the students picked up the language though."

Lawrence said her Spanish got so good that she was thinking in Spanish by the end of the trip.

While students were able to give to others, Lyons said, he thought many students were able to take something back to Ave Maria with them.

"This was an outpouring of love and friendship," Lyons said.

Lawrence said she was so moved by the experience that she plans to spend next summer doing mission work.

She isn't alone, Lyons said. Romens left the trip with a bond so strong that she'll be returning to the town in September to teach English at three schools for several months.

Romens said she'll teach English to the older students and their teachers at Catholic and public schools.

"(The children) really touched my life, and even though I'm only going to be there for three months, I want to do something to give back," Romens said.

"I knew when I went down there that I was going to love it and that it was something I was going to want to (continue) doing."