Taylor Steffen

is raising support to go to Honduras!

This summer from August 3rd to August 13th the high school youth group at my church, Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara, is embarking on a missions trip to Roatan, which is a small island off the coast of Honduras.  Roatan is about 48 miles long and 5 miles wide at its widest point.  Although Roatan is a common cruise ship destination, most of Roatan’s inhabitants are quite poor.  Roatan is filled with contrasts. On this island, there are rich people and poor, clean neighborhoods and slums, starving children and drug barons, loving families and homeless orphans. From the air, luxurious resorts and open beaches catch the eye . . . until they give way to lush forests and high mountains. While the tourist industry thrives on the rim of the island, most local people live toward the interior. The locals are open-hearted and generous, eager to hear the Word of God and to show kindness at every turn. In the same way, it will be our honor to serve the people of the Roatan and share our lives with them.

 I’m writing you this letter to raise financial support.  The total cost of the trip is $1,600.  To raise money, I will be babysitting, participating in a bike sale, using my own allowance, and any other jobs I can scrape together.  I want to go on this trip because I know that by going to a third world area I can help the less fortunate and serve God by serving others.  On this trip, I will have many opportunities help those who are not as fortunate as us in America.  In Roatan we plan to refurbish Calvary Chapel Roatan by painting and cleaning their facility.  We will visit and help a group of people who live in a dump, even preparing a BBQ for them and giving each a few days supply of rice and beans.  We will also take day trips for Missionary work in other areas of the island.  When we are not serving, we will have an opportunity to visit the beautiful beaches that this Island has to offer. 

 If you are able to support me, either by praying or donating money, that would be very much appreciated.  I’ve set up this webpage where you can either donate online or learn more about the trip and keep track of my fundraising progress.  You can also send a check through the mail if that would be more convenient for you by clicking the "Financial Support" link below. Thank you for your consideration in helping me go to Roatan!

Schedule:
August 3rd-13th

Total Cost:
$1600

Current Support Total:
$1600 - I've reached my goal!  Thank you to all who have contributed.

(Click the links below for support information)

Information about Roatan and the Honduras Mission Trip

After our plane lands, we will drive to our first home base: Calvary Chapel Roatan. This church serves the English and Spanish-speaking people nearest to it, offering bilingual services. We will be privileged to help them add to their building: doing construction projects, painting and cleaning. This work will allow the church to host missionary teams, and to provide a modern facility for worship. We are planning to stay several days here, building relationships with the resident missionaries, as well as enjoying fellowship with believers from all nations.

While we are staying at Calvary Chapel, we will take day-trips for missionary work. The Colonia is an area a mile from the church where people live in poverty. We will have the opportunity to interact with them via translators and the wordless love of Christ. Here, people scrape together a living in any way they can, sometimes living with 8-10 other people in stilted shacks. We will be walking these steep streets, sharing the Gospel, praying, and doing what we can to help inhabitants of the Colonia.

We also plan to visit one of the island’s largest trash dumps. A group of desperate people have constructed a shanty-town among the garbage here. Whenever a truck delivers trash from a nearby hotel or resort, the residents of the dump swarm in, looking for any edible food or reusable items. It will be our honor to meet these people, cook hot dogs for them, and hand out a few days’ supply of beans and rice. As the people congregate to receive food, they will hear a short Gospel sermon from one of our team members or pastors. Jesus cares about the least of these, and we are excited for Him to send us to these precious people.

Once we have completed our time at Calvary Chapel, we will drive to the other side of the island, where the residents speak English and refer to themselves as ‘Islanders.’ We will stay at a Church of God near Pandy Town, where the drug trade and an epidemic of absent fathers has ravaged the culture and the lives of its children. Here, we will participate in a feeding program for local orphans. We will also worship with Pastor Hank’s congregation in Pandy Town; their service has been referred to as Bapti-Costal and it definitely lives up to the name! We look forward to praising the everlasting God with new people, by new methods, but with the same Lord and Savior in our midst.

While in Pandy Town, we will undertake painting projects to beautify the church, and clean-up projects for local people in need. In our off-hours, we will mingle with the Islanders, eat local cuisine, and even visit a beautiful offshore island for recreation. There are many opportunities to serve Christ and proclaim the Gospel in Roatan. We thank you so much for your interest in our trip, as well as any prayer and support you could offer us!