Mission beckons as group prepares for Honduras trip
Ashley Titter has worked on lots of mission trips.
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Ashley Titter, 20, and Jane Payne pack toys at Wesley United Methodist Church on Thursday for the church's Honduras Outreach mission trip this week.
Photo by Valerie Rowell
But she never needed a passport until this week when she traveled to Honduras with the Honduras Outreach Team of Wesley United Methodist Church, where she is a member and a summer intern studying missions.
"(I was told) it is going to be hot, and there is going to be bugs," Titter, 20, said Thursday before the 33-member team gathered at the church to pack up trip supplies including medicines and medical supplies, eyeglasses, flip-flops, toys, clothing, toothpaste and toothbrushes.
The Evans native, who is a junior at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, is majoring in Christian Ministries with an emphasis on missions.
"I have done mission work since I was in high school, which is when you can start going on mission trips," Titter said. "I loved it, and I decided that was what I wanted to do as a career."
Titter spent the summer helping trip coordinator John Robinson get the volunteers, travel plans and supplies together for the week-long mission.
The group met in the church parking lot at 1 a.m. Saturday for communion before loading buses to Atlanta. They flew to Miami, then to Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The group, donned in their HOT orange t-shirts, are staying in Rancho el Pariaso, in the Agalta Valley of central Honduras.
The plan is to build a kindergarten, but plans can always change, Robinson told the group Thursday.
"You have to be flexible," Robinson said. "There is no telling what we'll really do. But we'll get to know each other better, get to know the Hondurans better and have a great time."
While in Honduras, the group will meet with U.S. Ambassador to Honduras Larry Palmer, who is also a Josey High School graduate.
"Last year, he couldn't remember our names, but he remembered our orange shirts," Robinson said of the teams unifying bright orange T-shirts.
The color began on the first trip when some villagers gave the group orange Fanta to drink in the first village where the team worked. Robinson said the hardest part was having to drink the beverage in front of the Hondurans, who had little, but were thankful for the team's work.
"We go over there to help them, but we were the ones who got the help," Robinson said.
Titter is not the only young person on the trip. Robinson said he encourages families to do mission trips together.
Andrew Neal (from left), 16, and his father, Tim of Martinez try to zip up a bag packed with supplies for the trip to Honduras.
Photo by Valerie Rowell
Andrew Neal, 16, and his father, Tim, decided to take their first mission trip together.
"I am excited, big time," Andrew said as he and his father stuffed a bag full of toys and trinkets Thursday until the bag simply would hold no more. "I am really looking forward to it."
Titter said she was a little nervous for her first international mission.
"There's a little bit of anxiety, but that's only because it is something new," Titter said. "But I am excited about it."