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Jul 1, 2009 9:29 pm US/Central
Carrollton Students Return Home From Honduras
Mission Trip Cut Short By Political Unrest In Central American Country
CARROLLTON (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
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Supporters of ousted President Manuel Zelaya burn tires on a street near the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa, Honduras on June 29, 2009.
Orlando Sierra/AFP/Getty Images
It was supposed to be a mission, young people helping out, spreading the Word and maybe doing a little learning themselves. They got a lesson -- a lesson in violence, after an unexpected coup cut short their trip to Honduras. Those young people are now back in North Texas, sharing their story only with CBS 11 News.
"It was very exciting," missionary student John Revell. "Kind of nervous."
"We call it the weirdest trip ever, but it's the best," added misssionary student Annie Hofstra.
That is how the teens remember their trip to Honduras. They are part of the Bent Tree Bible Fellowship in Carrollton. A week and a half ago, a dozen of them traveled to Central America with two adult volunteers, heading to the town of Siguatepeque, in the mountains of Honduras. That is where they taught vacation Bible school.
"We're teaching kids about Christ. We're playing soccer with them," said Revell. They also dug ditches for a new drainage system at La Providencia, a community devoted to orphans and widows.
"I think it was a great, great learning experience," said Hofstra.
But the lessons changed when soldiers broke into the presidential palace of Honduran president Manuel Zelaya, took him to the airport and forced him onto a flight out of the country.
"One morning, at about 5 a.m., we heard gunshots," recalled Revell.
"Our leader came in and told us to grab our laundry and some food, and we had to leave in 10 minutes," Hofstra said.
They were hours away from the nation's capital, where protestors have been clashing with police and security forces. But a small democracy rally was taking place nearby, and the students were still taken to the home of one of their hosts. "Which was gated by walls," Hofstra said.
"I was nervous, very much at first," said parent Stacy Roth. She, along with other parents back in North Texas, waited anxiously for word from their kids.
"We had to rely on e-mails," said parent Donna Hofstra. "We didn't get to talk to the kids the whole time they were gone."
"Then we heard more about the President wanting to come back to the country," parent Phil Roth said, "and we were, 'Okay, they do need to probably come home.'"
And that is exactly what they did, cutting their mission trip short and flying back to DFW Airport two days early. "Everything we learned from all the chaos, we learned God was in control of everything," Annie Hofstra said.
A second mission group from this congregation was scheduled to go to Honduras on Saturday, but that trip has since been canceled. The students and their chaperones will instead go to New Orleans.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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