I've been rushing around.

I've been gathering last minute items.

I've been buying cool guy stuff for hiking and camping.

I've been getting lots of hang-time in with my family.

I've been preparing myself physically, mentally, and spiritually.


I'm leaving around 4:30am for a mission trip to Honduras. My friends Eric and Ryan will be staying over at my house tonight for our early departure. Around 10 of us men will be in Honduras for 7 days lending our hands and feet to people who need them. We'll primarily be doing manual labor, building adobe houses, mixing concrete, hauling materials up and down a mountain, and a slew of other unbeknown tasks.


Please pray for us as this will be an extremely physically demanding experience. Also pray for our families as we leave them behind for a week. I know how much more work my wife will have ahead of her without me helping. The hardest part of this is not me worrying about what's in Honduras...I'll deal with whatever is there. I'm just really struggling with not being able to communicate with my wife and little girl for a week. Man, I love those ladies.

I'm excited to go and pour myself out so that Christ can fill me back up again. Mahatama Ghandi once said that "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others." I guess we'll see what happens. Hopefully I'll bring back about 50lbs of Honduran Coffee.


I've asked Allison to fill-in for me during my blog vacation...we'll see what she comes up with.

I've made the decision to be a part of a men's missionary group going to Honduras in April. This is a big step for me as I've never done anything like this before. From what I understand thus far, our group of guys will be doing guy-stuff. We'll be doing manual labor and building things. We may get to build a house or we might get to work on existing projects...I suppose I'll find out exactly what we'll be doing when we get there.

What I do know is that Honduras is one of the poorest countries in the western world. They have an outrageous unemployment rate and as with many downtrodden areas, the wealth is very unevenly distributed. We'll be hooked up with an organization called Mercy International from April 3 - April 10th. Mercy International is located in a small village of Central Honduras called Yamaranguila. MI will let us know what we'll be working on and who we'll be working with.

One thing is for sure, we'll be working with "the least of these". I'm excited and I'm nervous at the same time. One of the exciting parts is that I'll be going with a group of amazing men. So far the roster looks like this:

*Dan Thoms
*Ryan Doan
*Matt Pfannenschmidt
*Vince Gramaglia
*Jonah Price
*Jon Price
*Tim Urmston
*Jamison Lyman
*Jim Mandershied
*Ryan Detzel (hey that's me)

This is bound to be an incredible journey. The travel costs and grounds fees will be $1200. I checked my bank account and since I have pretty much zero dollars I had better start trying to raise funds. I need $600 by the middle of February. I'm not too terribly worried about coming up with the cash because it seems like God always provides the green when He wants to get something done. That said, I am a little concerned. All of my friends are poor...or at least they don't come off of the money too easily. We'll see what happens.

If you would like to help me financially you can contact me at detzelpretzel AT gmail.com
I will be your internet slave forever.

I've got to get my passport together as well as a bunch of shots. (Malaria, Hepatitis, Tetanus, Typhoid) This should be an interesting venture. Pray for me.

"I tell you the truth, whatever you have done for the least of these brothers of mine, you have done for Me." - Jesus, Matthew 25:40