The City of La Ceiba

Above: One of many horse drawn carts on the streets of La Ceiba.

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One of the best aspects of our trip last weekend was getting to explore and know the city better. Officially, La Ceiba is a city of 170,000 people, which makes it the third largest city in Honduras. Yet as we drove around and explored, I couldn’t help thinking that the city felt much smaller. After only a few days we had seen almost all of the city and could get around fairly well.

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Though the city is growing, it still maintains a small-town feel. Most people are friendly and helpful, downtown is fairly manageable, and a taxi ride anywhere in the city is only $1 per person. We loved the city and are excited about raising our family there.

Above: Mike and Sean on the dock. The dock was built by Dole Fruit Company and was once a hub of activity. Now it is broken and falling apart and only inhabited by a few local fishermen.

Above: A street near downtown. Downtown is filled with street vendors like the ones in this picture. They sell everything from fruit and veggies to soccer jerseys and leather shores.

Home from La Ceiba

Above: A typical street in La Caiba, Honduras

On Tuesday night, Mike and I returned from our scouting trip to our new home. We had a great time learning more about the city and its needs, meeting people, seeing the sights, and dreaming about the future of our church planting ministry.

We’ll have more details in the days to come, but for now here is a brief list of what we were able to see and do in three days.

We visited/toured the following potential ministry sights:
- A local agricultural university
- A publicly run nursing home
- A small private hospital
- The large public hospital
- A school for our teammates daughter
- Multiple houses for rent
- A hotel for short-term teams
- An immigration attorney
- A boys orphanage
- Multiple neighborhoods
- A poor village

We were very encouraged by all the opportunities for ministry, but it was also daunting to see such a great amount of need in such a small city.

Stay posted for more details about our future home.

Honduras Scouting Trip

Above: A view of La Ceiba from the town landfill.

As you are reading this, I (Sean) am (hopefully) on a plane headed to La Ceiba, Honduras, via San Salvador and San Pedro Sula. Mike and I will be arriving in La Ceiba around noon Saturday and meeting up with our team leader in to check out the city and begin to lay the groundwork for our future ministry. We are essentially starting our church planting work from scratch, so this is an important planning trip. Some of the things we hope to do while we are there include: housing search for our two families and future interns, setting up schooling for our teammates daughter, meeting with immigration attorneys, touring the hospitals, checking out the neighborhoods and possible ministry sites, meeting with past and current ministries, and much more.