Boys of Armenia

Above: Some of the boys in Armenia Bonito.

We’ve only been out to this poor community 3 or 4 times, but it is fun to start building relationships with the kids there. Our teammates have been working here for months, building trust and relationships, so when we come out with them, the kids are much quicker to trust and befriend us.

The kids have come to love seeing the red truck (Mike and Erin’s) pulling into town.  They run along side and jump in as we head to the town hall for classes, club, or health clinics. It is amazing to see how quick and easy their are to befriend, and what a joy it is for us love them.

Team Worship

Above: The living room in the house we are staying, filled with our teammates.

One of the things we started in Costa Rica and have continued here in Honduras is team worship. It is an excellent time to sing, worship, and study in English, usually after a difficult, Spanish church in the morning. It is also a time we have really enjoyed to grow closer to our team.

We started in Costa Rica with just us and the Pettengills. Then the Pettengills left for Honduras, and we welcomed three interns to Costa Rica. Then the interns left and joined the Pettengills in Honduras, while we finished up school. Then last week, another family arrived, the Severinghauses, and finally we made it, a grand total of 9 adults and 5 kids. Last Sunday was the first time we have all been in the same country together, and it was a joy to all worship together.

House Update: We have a pretty good option, and we’re going to the real estate office tomorrow to see about signing a lease if all goes well.

First Day Here

Above: Us and our stuff. Lucy is hiding behind the trunks in a stroller pushed by Lindsey. The worker in the foreground and the guy behind Sean’s shoulder are both pushing our bags.

As we finish up our first full day in country, we sit here in our temporary house exhausted. We had a full day of house hunting, grocery shopping, getting phones and PO boxes, and oh yeah, being parents.

Lucy and Ellie both had a good day, albeit a hot one spent in just t-shirts and onesies. They spent most of the day playing and napping at our temporary home, a needed day of rest and stability.

We’ve found some good leads on houses, so we’ll continue our search tomorrow and keep you posted.

By the way, here is our brand new Honduran address (send us some stuff and we’ll get it in two weeks!!):

Sean and Lindsey McCann
PO Box 171
La Ceiba, Atlantidad
Honduras

Team News

Above: Our new team website, Serving in Honduras.

We have a lot going on with our team lately and just wanted to send out a few updates.

Our teammates, the Pettengills, arrived in La Ceiba last month, and last week hosted our first short-term trip. The team was made up of doctors and nurses who worked in the local, public hospital as well as putting on a clinic in one of the poorer neighborhoods of La Ceiba. The week went great and was helpful in kicking off our ministry work in Honduras.

Also helpful in kicking off our work in our new team website. We all have individual sites/blogs, so this site is simply intended to introduce our team and ministry and be the starting point in learning about our ministry. The website is: www.servinginhonduras.com

And lastly, we are excited to welcome some new members to our team. Three recent high school grads from the Boston area, Andy, Jamie, and Josh, will be joining us in Honduras as interns. They are taking a year off in between high school and college, so will be with us for a full school year. We are thrilled in have these new members and excited to see how we all work together in serving God in Honduars. You can see there website here.

(Both the team website and intern website have been added to our links if you want to keep tabs on them in the future.)

Honduras Team Picture

Above: Our most recent team photo, Mike, Erin, and Madison Pettengill, Lindsey, Tica, Lucy, and Sean McCann.

Today is quite an exciting day for our church planting team as we are about to arrive in La Ceiba, Honduras and begin our work there. No, we have not completed language studies yet, nor have we abandoned them to go to La Ceiba early. Rather our teammates, the Pettengills, left San Jose, Costa Rica this morning at 4 am and now are in our future home.

It has been amazing to see the Lord work in bringing our families together over the last 2 years or so. Separately, he placed Honduras on both of our hearts and then united us together as a team with one vision, simply to see God glorified in Honduras however he sees fit. We have ministered, traveled, and trained with them in New York, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Honduras during the past year and we cannot wait for the times to come.

If you would like to see pictures of La Ceiba and our future ministry work, they will be updating both their website and personal blog as they get settled in our new home.

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.