Adventures and Mishaps in Missions with Richard Swinnea and Jonathan Schmid part 2

In this continuation of our last podcast. Brother Richard Swinnea and Brother Jonathan Schmid reflect on their transformative journey, from the challenges faced navigating the roads of Honduras to the rewarding experience of building the GLO Center. we will talk about the work done on the GLO Center. The conversation highlights moments where small acts of kindness transformed lives, including how a simple monetary contribution helped a local pastor start a thriving coffee business. As the episode closes, the discussion casts a light on ministry. Encouraging listeners to consider how they can make a difference. 

Transcript

Speaker 2 0:07

Hey everybody, welcome back to the God's Little One podcast. I'm your host, Kent, and today I have the exact same guests I had last week Brother Richard Sweeney and Brother Jonathan Schmid. I'm not going to introduce them because we already know who they are, so thank y'all for being here still.

Speaker 3 0:25

Good to be here still.

Speaker 2 0:28

Oh, it's a burden, but I'm here so we had a blast on our last podcast and it started going really long well, not really long, but it's. It was getting a good length, so I decided to cut it off and go ahead and have a part two. So this is the part two. Really, at the beginning we're kind of just going to have fun with it and just talk about funny stories. Y'all have got. But you know we scattered me and Jonathan.

Speaker 3 0:54

There's no structure to us. We may be talking about the building one minute, talking about you never know next.

Speaker 2 1:04

So the first thing I want to talk about is I want to get both of your reactions. What was your first reaction to being in Honduras for the first time? Go ahead, Jonathan.

Speaker 1 1:13

Go ahead, richard. Okay, my first time flying in. Thankfully we don't fly into Tegucigalpa, which is one of the most dangerous airports around in the world, but flying in it's really. There's such a noticeable change. Yeah, like you can see. You can literally see the poverty from the air before you ever get on the ground.

Speaker 4 1:37

Yeah.

Speaker 1 1:39

And I'll never forget leaving the airport and seeing firsthand the slums which are just outside of the city and, from what I've been told, it's people that were basically coming from the mountains to the city to work. And there's just no work there. The economy is horrific. In fact, there was a couple times we went back there was civil war. A lot of the tolls were shot up with bullet holes, so you can see the effects of the yeah all them tolls are gone now.

Speaker 1 2:15

Yeah, they're gone, and so you can see the effects of the corruption there. So the first thought I had flying over was how lush and green and mountainous and really beautiful the country is.

Speaker 4 2:28

Yeah.

Speaker 1 2:29

And then you know the banana trees and the orange, or all the different tropics. Basically, that's different than what you see in the States, yeah, and then, like I said, you go from that to immediately getting into the slums and then back into the mountains, the mountains where we minister. They're beautiful, absolutely beautiful.

Speaker 4 2:50

Yeah.

Speaker 3 2:51

Yeah, because then you come right out of San Pedro Sula. Yeah, san Pedro Sula, and you go up that little road and there's trash on both sides. Yeah, and totally different.

Speaker 4 3:00

Yeah.

The Challenges of Driving in Honduras

Speaker 2 3:02

But you get into the mountains and it's pretty, it's beautiful up there. What was uh your reaction to going dad uh?

Speaker 3 3:10

well, I don't know, because I was, you know I didn't. I never had no desire to go yeah, you, you kind of went because of my mom, I, I went because of what daddy? Yeah, they had planned yeah, and that's what they told me. You know, what he had planned and that was the whole point of me going was, and that's what I've always went over there for.

Reflecting on the Building Process

Speaker 2 3:31

You know, we grunt you know, it's all I know. Yeah, Just hard labor, brutal, just pure brute losing skin and everything. But some reason they don't ask us to preach.

Speaker 3 3:48

I don't know nobody has ever asked me can you go preach, right so, but no, it was. You know, if I remember the first time I went, because we went with brother luis. He had a little rodeo truck or suv yeah, we mentioned it last time that poor little thing, he would put us in places.

Speaker 3 4:05

And then he tells us now we drive crazy. But son, this man liked to kill me so many times going over there and he thought that thing was a mountain goat Because he put it in places. A mountain goat wouldn't go Right. And so it was crazy Because I was like this guy drives like a maniac, yeah, but now you, you know, after the first time I went drove over there.

Speaker 3 4:26

At first you scared to death, yeah, because these people passing, oh yeah, you know, four or five in a one lane road right passing side by side right, and, uh, the other road would be washed out on half of the highway and everybody bottlenecks into one lane. And so I was like dude, this guy, these people are nuts. And now you go drive over there and it's like this is fun yeah, oh yeah, it's a like we said.

Speaker 2 4:49

The driving is a blast. It's like the Indy 500, you know and everybody going different directions one's coming. One's coming from one direction and the other one's just ramming into them. Nah, but you told me, before we was talking about, some more questions to or more stuff to talk about on the podcast, because we took a break between and you told me two different stories from driving to talk about. Tell those, please, which ones the one about, uh, the bumper? Or the one that was the tailgate? The tailgate, yeah, the.

Speaker 3 5:20

Yeah, jonathan was there I'm pretty sure so we was when we was building the building. Uh-huh, uh, we would. We have to go get the lumber yeah everything's cut by a chainsaw yeah in the one buys yeah and we'd go or two by fours, so we was driving, I don't know, it was a long ways it was a lot. It's a lot of manual labor in it oh yeah, you can't even imagine so much you go and what the building is now.

Speaker 3 5:45

You know, me and jonathan's had our hand in every part of that building. Yeah, basically, jonathan, since the roof's been done, you know, or since the framing of the roof, but uh, just like the stones in the foundation, yeah, we would have to go in a pickup truck, yeah, and you pick up boulders right down the mountain, you come back up, you unload the boulders, you go, pick up the others, you go.

Speaker 3 6:12

It's a lot of work, a lot of work. Same thing with the lumber. We drive down, drive up the mountain somewhere, go down this ravine back up, I mean, and we got trucks we rented from the rental company. Probably shouldn't say this, but the rental company may hear it.

Speaker 3 6:29

But you know we would go back down in there. We was loading lumber on these trucks that was heavier than the trucks was. They don't have no trailers, so we put them on the tailgate, lean them on the headache rack and strap them down, and we'd go. And we had that one that it was so much weight on the tailgate. Lean them on the headache rack and strap them down, and we go. And we had that one that it was so much weight on the tailgate it actually collapsed the tailgate almost in half.

Speaker 1 6:52

Oh yeah, I remember that, yeah.

Speaker 3 6:54

And so, dude, we panicked. Well they got. You know you use your credit card to rent them. Yeah Well, you got a $3 deduct. Uh, deductible they hold. Yeah well, brother louise says, don't worry about me, though. He said I can get it fixed. I'm like, dude, there's no way this thing is jacked. So he, we put it in truck, we drive down the mountain, go to groshes.

Speaker 3 7:21

He goes over to a mechanic shop yeah and I mean they had a tarp for a canopy, you know they under and it's like son, there's no way this guy knows what he's doing, you know yeah so we pull in there and drop it off and he said, oh, it'd be ready. I think it was two days and we had to be going right so it had to be ready.

Welcome Back

Speaker 3 7:39

It had to be ready that day. You never, and you know. So we drop it off, we go back up the mountain, we work, we work. You know, I think it's the next day or the day after that, brother louise, we run down the mountain, get the tailgate, put it on there and you didn't look like it had ever been dented. I mean this thing, look and, and the guy actually when he painted it, because the truck was like older, so the paint was kind of faded or whatever Well, the guy actually put like a dirt or something in the paint to make it where it didn't look like a brand new paint job.

Speaker 2 8:16

Y'all straight up doing shop, shop stuff, and then we would take.

Speaker 3 8:20

You know you scratch them, trucks going up in them mountains and stuff and we'd take oil and rub the truck down so it didn't show the scratches. Maybe I shouldn't say all that stuff.

Speaker 2 8:30

Where do y'all rip from? What's the company called?

Speaker 3 8:32

again, but it would you know it would not show the scratches as much Because I mean things would happen Things happen. Yeah and so. But yeah, that was the story of the tailgate.

Speaker 1 8:43

And then so Things happen.

Speaker 3 8:44

Yeah and so. But yeah, that was the story of the tailgate, and then so Then you had the bump or the oh the tire.

Speaker 3 8:47

We was coming back. I can't remember who all it was, but it was like four trucks and we was coming down the mountain, yeah, and them roads there, the holes are so bad, yeah, you can get in there and drive around them and you know, got to find your way out. But we was coming and we flying down the mountain and I hit one of them potholes in my truck and thought I busted the tire, but it actually bent the rim and the tire is sitting there just spewing air. Well, you, there's no tools, I don't have no tools, I'm away from the house and there's a house back no tools.

Speaker 3 9:25

I don't have no tools. I'm away from the house and there's a house back way down the road. So I run down there and uh, get a hammer from the guy. Uh-huh, come back, I take a hammer and I beat that rim and beat the room, bang, bang and till. It stopped yeah, it's an error and we headed out, went on down the mountain, we we made it to El Progreso. So there's been a few of them stories, you know.

Speaker 2 9:50

Yeah, there have been a couple crazy things. Johnny, do you remember any that we ain't mentioned yet?

Speaker 1 9:56

No, I do remember that tailgate story because that was man, the lumber we were pulling out of that valley Stuff was so heavy and hard. Oh it was.

Introducing the Guests Again

Speaker 2 10:05

I was just like you got to be when we ended last time, we had talked about the dream how papa or brother daniel had the dream. So now we're going to talk about the building stuff. But the first thing I want to ask is where did the property come from exactly?

Speaker 3 10:23

I'm I'm not real sure. I know that uh brother louise had found it uh-huh and we had raised up some money. I can't remember Because, like I said, this was my first, you know, involved- in all this yeah. I can't remember. Daddy may have had that before he passed Uh-huh.

Speaker 2 10:44

I think he did. From what everybody has said, he bought the property but he died before y'all got to build on it. That's what I think Brother Danny said. I'm pretty sure he had the property, yeah, to build on. That's what I think Brother Danny said. I'm pretty sure he had the property, yeah.

Speaker 3 10:52

So I don't know where he got it from. I know Brother Luis has a hand in all that stuff you know on what he got and what he didn't and all that. But yeah, so, because when I come in the scene it was just a, it was just property, it was a field, a couple little saplings there that they wanted to tear down and I told them they could yeah, let's talk about those.

Speaker 2 11:13

Let's talk about those real quick.

Speaker 3 11:14

The little tree that's in the backyard on the left you know they wanted to cut them all they wanted to cut it down.

Speaker 1 11:19

Yeah, I remember, and I told my mom I told my mom you designed that building around that whole tree yeah, and now it's beautiful and I told mama and him.

Speaker 3 11:27

I said we can't tear that tree down. I said because one day that's gonna be pretty to sit under and you know it'll grow yeah, well, now it's grown into a a nice little tree yeah, everybody sits under.

Speaker 2 11:38

Oh, it's beautiful, the shade everybody so it is you know, because it's cool, because it makes kind of like a little yes, like a little courtyard.

Speaker 3 11:45

Yeah, like a little courtyard.

Speaker 2 11:47

It's really cool because you got the other side. It's got just grass, but you got that side, that's got the courtyard. And if you notice, that's the worst side.

Speaker 3 11:53

We always stay on.

Speaker 2 11:56

We always stay on the courtyard part.

Speaker 3 11:58

Right there, right where the trees are.

Speaker 2 12:01

So we talked about putting the Adobes and stuff. How many Adobes would you say you all used? Because if you listened to the last one, you know what the Adobes are Semi-load loads of mud.

Speaker 3 12:17

It probably felt that way to the people doing it, so I don't know exactly how many.

Speaker 4 12:22

I have to count. There's so many, it's a lot oh yeah.

Speaker 2 12:25

It's cool because once it's a big building you're talking.

Speaker 3 12:28

The center part of it was like six, it's a, it's massive building. Well it's. I want to say it's 40 by 60. Mm-hmm Is the center, and then the wings was another. I think it's 120 feet wide total. Yeah, is what the with the wings.

Speaker 4 12:46

Right yeah.

Speaker 3 12:47

And then the center of it was like a 40 by 60.

Speaker 1 12:50

Right.

Speaker 3 12:50

Don't you think?

Speaker 1 12:53

Yeah, I of it was like a 40 by 60 right, don't you think?

Speaker 3 12:54

yeah, I think that's about what it is. Yeah, I think so that's about right with the kitchen and then the back.

Speaker 2 12:57

Yeah, yeah, I think it's 40 by 60 because the wings went off with the the two bathrooms and then, the four bunk rooms right, yeah, or on each side three, three to four rooms on each side to four rooms on each side you can store a lot of people on that thing, yeah, but, uh, but, so what had been?

Speaker 3 13:13

So Jonathan was there when we was lifting the.

Speaker 2 13:16

Yeah, he was there for the heavy part, the beams.

Speaker 3 13:18

Yeah, he was there when y'all was lifting the beams, so let's talk about that. The beams was quite a little project because you don't have fart lifts or yeah.

Speaker 2 13:28

Or horses or donkeys, or yeah, you have all brute yeah it's all brute, you know brute force so talk, johnny, let's talk, let's get to you talking about. When you got off the building and you seen what had been done, uh, what did y'all? First thing y'all did was what? What was the first thing y'all did?

Speaker 1 13:48

well, when we got there, I remember we just you know, it was like literally like go to work. Yeah, hit the ground running. I remember coming up the mountain we stopped at a Chinese restaurant ate some good food, because we knew that was going to be the last good meal it's like your last supper.

Speaker 1 14:07

For the time being. But basically when we got there, it it was in the evening, probably six, almost about to get dark, so we kind of got a game plan saw, saw what we had to work with and uh, basically the next morning I don't know around six o'clock, we're there, daylight, and started started slinging, started slinging lumber, yeah. And I remember I lived in arkansas at the time and I remember richard called me and he's like dude. He said I don't know who else is coming, but he said I gotta have your help and uh, and I said hey, let's do it. And so got everything going and and and when we showed up, it was, it was work that was we.

Speaker 3 14:49

First thing we had to raise the beam yeah, the beams talk about because you have to put to put beams. The span of the center room is like 40, almost a 40 by 40 is what it is, and so we got beams that are. I say beams, they're trees.

Speaker 4 15:08

Yeah.

Speaker 3 15:08

They're what 14, 15 inches round and 40 foot long long. Well, the only way you got to get that up there is by hand, is by hand. So we 12, 14 of us get around it. You pick it up, put on your shoulders or you over your head yeah, pack it up there and we walk one end up, get it on the edge and then get on the top and drag it so yeah, y'all would get on the roof and pull it up there and then pull it up with ropes yep, and then we would wrap a rope around it.

Speaker 3 15:39

The log, yeah, because them adobes are stacked. Uh-huh or stared right because of the gable right so two guys would get up there and grab that we. We got pictures of it.

Speaker 4 15:51

Yeah.

Speaker 3 15:51

We'd grab them rope and pull it. And one guy, which I was, on one of them you stick a pole under it and you picked it up to make it roll up on that next spot. Right, yeah, and that's where we got all of them in. I remember the videos? Yeah, and then you had to put the rafters on that.

Speaker 4 16:09

Yeah.

Speaker 2 16:14

Nail it in that hard wood son. It was hard and y'all ain't using, like y'all ain't got an air compressor, no gun, it's straight up hammering nails. That's all y'all got yeah it.

Speaker 2 16:20

Yeah, it looked brutal. Oh, it was. We've got on the youtube channel god's little one, honduras missions. We have a video and it shows all that process right there working from bringing them up there and everything it shows, or it shows a lot of that. So definitely go on there and go look, it's really cool, uh. But so, uh, once y'all got the rafters up there, that's what y'all was working on, was the rafters.

Speaker 3 16:46

Oh no, we put the rafters yeah, we put the, the logs, uh-huh, the rafters and most of the decking. And when I say decking, we had one board cut four inches wide and one board cut 12 and one board cut 14 and three-eighths, and another one. And you had to make all that line up.

Speaker 2 17:07

It was like putting a jigsaw puzzle together.

Speaker 3 17:10

It was an experience. Did y'all put the tiles on the roof. No we didn't roof.

Speaker 2 17:16

No, we didn't, but y'all didn't have to do tiles, the people from honduras did that?

Speaker 3 17:19

yeah, I can't. Did we put the?

Speaker 1 17:20

actually the next time I come back the tiles, so they finished out the decking and the roof and the roof was on maybe we should have put the tiles.

Speaker 4 17:29

Yeah, well we forgot to put the ice and water shield on. Well, we didn't have it.

Speaker 3 17:33

Oh, okay, so they felt they put felt paper up there, right yeah, and then they had the hailstorm come through and bust a bunch of tiles and then busted a bunch of the skylight so they had to go yeah which now, if I'm not mistaken, they took all the tiles off they took a bunch of them yeah

Speaker 1 17:52

yeah, yeah shout out to rich, to Richard Edwards and his boys.

Speaker 2 17:55

Yeah, they went up there and helped them put on the ice and water shield. Yeah, we're grateful for that. They did a lot of work Because you knew you went on a trip, shout out to.

Speaker 1 18:03

Then Lowe's Shout out to TH Rogers. Actually, TH Rogers in Solomon Springs donated the ice and water shield.

Speaker 3 18:11

Oh, was it them Nice, it was yep.

Speaker 1 18:15

In fact, I need to get some pictures. I need to get some pictures and send it to that store manager.

Speaker 2 18:19

I might have some for you. Yeah, I might have some for you. I'll let you know. I'll go look at my phone.

Speaker 3 18:24

It was a pretty good deal because it was a lot of rolls and a lot of money.

Speaker 2 18:27

Oh, it was a lot. They A lot, a lot. They was up there for a little, we had them for a little while, because the problem is the felt.

Speaker 3 18:32

You know, it lasted so long.

Speaker 4 18:33

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 18:34

But it was always needed, and so the last couple times I went over there, it's like it was raining and it was more water coming in the building than it was outside yeah. I remember, and so you know it's going to start causing a lot of problems.

Speaker 2 18:55

Yeah, we was up there and it was pouring down like big old holes and so uh. So now that that's done, that's going to preserve the building. Yeah, real good. Yeah, we needed that. So, once the roof got up and all that, what was the next step?

Speaker 3 19:01

see, I told you we'd be jumping from spot to spot.

Speaker 2 19:05

You did warn me and I said I love it I said you'll never know where we're gonna wind up what was your question? Point a to point C? To point Q to point T?

Speaker 1 19:18

I think the next time I went well, I can't remember because I know I ended up working on a septic system that they had, which is just again, it's just rough carpenter work is all it is.

Speaker 4 19:30

Yeah.

Speaker 1 19:31

For the septic system. Richard did a lot of plumbing, had different ones from other churches. Come and do plumbing. We did all the electrical.

Speaker 4 19:43

Which I had what's his name?

Speaker 3 19:46

brother Phillip's son.

Speaker 4 19:48

Oh yeah, Caleb, no Bubba.

Speaker 3 19:51

Bubba helped me on electrical. I pulled about 2,500 feet of wire in that building. Oh yeah, caleb. Yeah, no, bubba. Uh-huh, bubba helped me on electrical. Okay, I pulled about 2,500 feet of wire in that building.

Speaker 2 19:58

Phone dropped.

Speaker 3 19:59

And so it was a lot of electrical. Yeah, it was different because you know you have to run it into the mud, the dirt or whatever Right, you have to chisel out for your boxes and all.

Speaker 4 20:11

Yeah, it was a lot of work it ain't nothing about over there, nothing over there and stay.

Speaker 3 20:17

That's why I like here's another rabbit trail. When we went with brother uh, randy snow yeah you know, we yeah, we was roughing it bad. We stayed in a airbeat. Uh, what do they call the airbnb?

Speaker 1 20:33

uh, up on the side of the mountain had wi-fi, you know, and it was brand new.

Speaker 4 20:38

Yeah, nice place, yeah well, I wasn't too happy no, yeah, you wasn't thrilled.

Speaker 2 20:43

I told kent, because I mean you told me, and bro louise, I've worked so hard there that when I go there, you want to stay in the building?

Speaker 3 20:49

I'm gonna be? Yeah, you know yeah, and so it's uh because I like going to stay there. Yeah, it's'm gonna be. Yeah, you know yeah, and so it's uh because I like going to stay there. Yeah, it's pretty peaceful.

Speaker 2 20:56

That's why I don't oh, it's awesome, you know, there's nothing like getting up in the morning, oh yeah, getting breakfast and like two because the chickens are crowed. Yeah, well, the thing there for daylight the thing there is we've talked about this is time stops. Oh, it does, it's. It's unreal because it can be six in the morning.

Speaker 3 21:12

It's daylight yeah, it's crazy. You don't even know you're, you don't even have your chicken the chickens start crowing at three in the morning.

Speaker 1 21:19

Oh yeah totally.

Speaker 2 21:21

They don't know what to do, they don't know what. They don't sleep yeah it's.

Speaker 1 21:26

They don't know when it's going to be their last time to crow.

Speaker 3 21:30

I'm surprised half of them can crow. They're so thin.

Speaker 2 21:33

Oh my word, you know what I mean, Besides y'all who else worked on the building.

Speaker 3 21:39

Brother Jeremy Griffith done the rough-in on the plumbing he did. Yeah, that was a nightmare, because the plumbing that they're used to using here in the States is PEX yeah. That's what it is.

Speaker 1 21:52

Over there they use pvc.

Speaker 3 21:55

Well, we had all the. You know they donated all the pecs and all this stuff or whatever, I don't. I guess it was donated, I'm not sure. Well, you get over there and all this pecs is done in this building and I had to pretty much finish most of the plumbing, and so pecs and and PVC, if you know anything about it, they don't go together by no means. So, son, we were running all over trying to figure this PEX stuff out and I didn't know much about it then you know.

Speaker 4 22:27

PVC yeah.

Speaker 3 22:28

You know, two things I hate is painting and plumbing. You know.

Speaker 4 22:33

I'm a roofer.

Speaker 3 22:33

I keep water out of a house, not in. And so that was a pretty rough deal there. Then, brother Wilson, they used to pastor Brother Joel's church. He had a bunch of people come from his church that had done the metal doors.

Speaker 2 22:50

I remember seeing that.

Speaker 3 22:51

They've done a bunch of the welding on the.

Speaker 2 22:54

It's like yeah, we got bars on all the doors and all the windows then brother louise had, uh, what was his name?

Speaker 1 23:01

oh, klutchy, klutchy oh, caballo caballo, that was his dog, caballo caballo that was his name, caballo.

Speaker 3 23:08

Yeah, caballo was uh his dog.

Speaker 1 23:10

his dog's name was glutchy Glitchy yeah but Caballo was.

Speaker 3 23:15

I think he was pretty much a drunk. Uh-huh, that brother Luis that was in La Sabre.

Speaker 4 23:19

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3 23:20

And he done most of all the carpet work for his doors.

Speaker 4 23:25

Right.

Speaker 3 23:25

Because all the doors and all the windows is all handmade, you know. And so he done all of that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 23:32

But you know, and so he done all of that kind of stuff, yeah, but, and just a lot of other people just a lot of other people just done.

Speaker 3 23:37

You know, like cody king was there, we know labor, joey and danny was there, a lot of different people. It takes took a lot of people, but yeah, then a bunch of the honduras and people yeah, they were people from the churches. Yeah, so it was a lot of hands on, yeah.

Speaker 2 23:55

A lot of people, so I want to. I'm going to ask both of y'all this in your opinion, Johnny, starting with you, what would you say was the hardest part of working on the glow center?

Speaker 1 24:06

Probably access to tools we brought. We brought what tools we had. Yeah, but like literally you know Brother Luis is so used to working on a budget or working with little money that like for us. You know, if we need some nails, we go to Lowe's and we'll grab you know three pounds or five pounds or you know whatever 25 pounds. There he like literally asks you how many nails do you guys need?

Speaker 3 24:30

Instead of 25 pounds he'd get 25.

Speaker 1 24:35

He'd get 25. You get 25 nails and so, and so you use everything you know they're very resourceful. Um, like I remember caballo, anytime we were tying stuff to the truck, like I pulled my knife out to cut his rope, man, and you'd think I was trying to pull a knife on him. He's like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, cut, no, cut, no cut, yeah, no cut.

Speaker 1 24:56

Like because things are so hard to come by you know, I mean his table saw this guy's a carpenter and his table saw was run off of a motor. You know like some of you would get at like Harbor Freight with a motor and a blade and a chain, you know, just rigged up on a flat table.

Speaker 4 25:14

Yeah.

Speaker 1 25:14

And that was his table, saw, you know?

Speaker 4 25:16

And he done good carpeting work.

Speaker 1 25:20

They did good carpeting and so not having I hope you guys can hear me because it's pouring here but not having access to tools that we're used to having here and still have to complete some of the same work is really not a you know, that was probably the most difficult thing.

Speaker 2 25:37

Right. What would you say? Daddy was the hardest part to you, or do you agree?

Speaker 4 25:42

with that, okay, tools.

Speaker 3 25:45

And the ones you did get was pretty sketchy.

Speaker 2 25:47

And then you had the chances of losing your hammer at the airport.

Speaker 3 25:51

Mm-hmm Then your skill saws was, or your extension cords was wired up to where the ends was stripped off of them, and they was wrapped around the main boxes, you know.

Speaker 4 26:04

Yeah.

Speaker 3 26:05

And so it was not a lot of you know it was not a lot Talk about the electrical.

Speaker 2 26:11

Anything interesting happen with the electrical no other than it was not a lot.

Speaker 3 26:14

Uh, talk about the electrical, anything interesting happening with the electrical, no other than it was just a lot, yeah, a lot of crawling and a lot of you know one cool thing about it is when we brought the glow center to honduras, that whole area we brought electricity.

Speaker 2 26:24

There was no electric there and that's something really cool, because now the churches, a lot of churches we go to now they have electricity. We just got in an area uh well, we've been in there for a little while now, but we're building a church in an area green wells, I think that's the name of the town. They have no electricity, so they're getting electricity thanks to us. So that's that's something really cool. How I wanted to talk you. You me was talking about this. How did y'all get money? Because I know you told me a while back, money was always an issue.

Speaker 3 26:51

I think that's what it is with everything. That's true.

Speaker 2 26:55

That's pretty fair.

Speaker 3 26:57

No, well, in the beginning, after they had the property or whatever, they had a guy come up to Brother Wilson and he had some money and he wanted to give it, and I think he wound up giving them thirty eight thousand dollars or something like that. Uh-huh, and that's when it all began right was from that right and then it was. Everything else was donations or people giving you yeah and that's why it was such a slow process yeah because, it was not like we started out with a hundred thousand dollars or whatever.

Speaker 1 27:32

You can only do it with the money easy. So it was not like we started out with $100,000 or whatever. You could only do it with the money it would have been easy.

Speaker 3 27:34

So it was like we'd do something and almost by the time we got to that got pretty much everything finished. You'd go back and stuff wasn't finished because you didn't have the money to finish it, just like right now with Mom's room.

Speaker 4 27:48

Yeah, it's still not finished, yeah.

Speaker 3 27:55

Because that was an had on years and years ago, yeah, and it should have been finished, you know, but it's, it's all in the money. Yeah, in memory of momo, you know, and and it's got a shower, everything there, but it's just not ever been finished.

Speaker 2 28:06

They use it for storage for toys yeah but one day we'll get it one day, we'll have it. One day, we'll have it and we'll have her memorial in there. No, I'm kidding.

Speaker 1 28:16

Richard, how much money do you think that needs to finish that room?

Speaker 3 28:20

Probably a couple thousand. Yeah, probably a thousand 1,500. Because, you've got a whole shower to put in. You know your bath and toilet and doors and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 28:33

Yeah, what they're talking about is there's a building in the Glow Center, off beside the kitchen, connected to the kitchen, that they built the room for, a room for my momo brother Daniel's wife, the founder, a place for her to stay, and we've never got to finish it. It's basically an empty shell right now. It ain't got no lights in there or anything. So that is what they're talking about right now, and we will get it done one day. If anybody wants to donate to that, we'll accept it and we'll get her done. I promise you that there you go.

Speaker 2 29:05

So what was some of the final things that y'all did on the building, besides the electrical and stuff, the painting and stuff, after the painting and stuff, what was left to do?

Speaker 3 29:13

it's been painting three times first time, yeah right, jonathan, yeah, no, the first time it was just a stucco, yeah, this stucco finished. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Then they sealed it yeah right. I don't know what the Well, then, we stained the concrete.

Speaker 4 29:32

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 29:32

You know they was talking about just regular floors like the showers. Uh-huh, they done the showers. We plastered the showers.

Speaker 4 29:39

Yeah.

Speaker 3 29:40

And I had stained my floors in my house, uh-huh, and I told them I said you know, that's pretty cool stuff, yeah, so we wind up staining all the floors.

Speaker 4 29:48

Yeah.

Speaker 1 29:57

And then the showers.

Speaker 3 29:57

They turn out nice, it's a sealer and they're really nice, that's one thing good about it. You go over there, you got good hot water and good showers, and it's nice. That's the funny. Go in the hotels, in the hotels, as they call them, widow makers, and they got a little. They got a little electrical box as the shower head, yeah, and then there's a plug-in right behind that with water running through it, the heating element, yeah. And so it's like you know any second. Now you're just going to light your world.

Speaker 2 30:17

Yeah yeah, yeah, so there's something we can talk about. Through this whole building process, where did y'all stay? We stayed in La Campa. Yeah, that's the town right there.

Speaker 1 30:32

Yeah, it's like a little hotel. Jonathan, did you stay in the hotel?

Speaker 3 30:37

Did you stay in the one right there?

Speaker 1 30:40

We stayed in two different ones. Yeah, we stayed in one that was a little bit lower come on down the road a little ways and there was like three or four rooms in there, and then we ended up staying in another one where you pulled back in behind the gate. There was actually two buildings.

Speaker 2 30:54

And we stayed up there, they called her Ms Karma. Yeah, I remember them talking about it. Yeah, ms Karma, she took us breakfast Actually good food.

Speaker 3 31:01

I don't think the other hotels even work anymore. Somebody said that.

Speaker 1 31:07

And that's something that you can tell people. I mean, unless Danny gets to a set mission strip, this mission strip is as affordable as any. Any trip you can go on, oh yeah if you can find a good, if you can find a good deal on your ticket, yeah, three, four hundred bucks, literally you can go. I mean if you say, even if you give a hundred bucks for the rental, yeah, another hundred dollars and you can go yeah, we'll do that, not three or four hundred dollars right now.

Speaker 2 31:34

No, me and my dad just got tickets to go. We're going. I think they're what close to $700?.

Speaker 3 31:38

Oh, they were.

Speaker 2 31:40

A lot of money. I don't know what's going on, but they're expensive right now son. Well, it's beginning of the year, we'll see what happens later in the year. But yeah, they were expensive. But If you can find you a cheap ticket, then sometimes. But we had one trip come up to where they made people. They had people pay for the rental and stuff. But if you get on them trips you can get some pretty affordable trips, as long as you can get your tickets cheap enough.

Speaker 3 32:02

Yeah, that's basically your most expensive thing.

Speaker 2 32:04

That's your most expensive part of the whole thing, the rest of it.

Speaker 3 32:07

you go over there and eat. You can go break a hundred bucks and you, you know Now a hundred bucks. Yeah, you, you know, unless now, if you're going, you can pretty much eat all week? Yeah, for nothing basically, especially if you're eating at villages, yeah, so well, that's pretty, that's pretty rough there sometimes ah okay, remember your first time.

Speaker 1 32:25

Okay, yeah, let's, let's, let's talk about anybody that goes there and tells you that the food is good yeah they're lying.

Speaker 3 32:32

It's horrible kent said that first time he went and hey, he paid for it okay, okay, okay.

Speaker 2 32:39

I went on my first trip and I get sick every time I go. I get, I get stomach problems every time I go but my first trip I probably is. You'll eat anything. That is the truth, because last two, three times I've went, they've've made a spaghetti.

Speaker 3 32:52

He's like my goodness, this stuff is so good. I'm like dude, there's no way.

Speaker 2 32:57

The fried chicken, that one place that we go that stuff is actually really good.

Speaker 3 33:02

Yeah, but it's the soups when you go in these houses.

Speaker 2 33:06

Okay, let me tell you this story, what he's talking about. We went on my first trip. We had two days left on the trip Well, technically three or four days, but the last day we was in the mount, or the day before we left the mountain, we went to one more village and they didn't have a church. We actually ended up building a church on that property, or was looking into building a church. Well, I, uh, I would eat, and I ate anything that they gave us yeah, nobody knew these people.

Speaker 3 33:31

Yeah, this was a place we didn't really know. We didn't even know we did it.

Speaker 2 33:35

I think we had done it one time there, but we did it in somebody's house and we actually seen some crazy things on that. That was a medical trip. We've seen some crazy things. I'm eventually going to do another podcast on about that. But anyway, they gave us some kind of soup broth thing and everything they have with their soup.

Speaker 2 33:52

Yeah, except their fried chicken the next day I was not much help. I seriously sat the drive home. I was so sick. And then we had a whole nother day that we was just sitting around in the in a hotel going. We went down the mountain, stayed in hotel the whole next day. I was sick as a dog the entire day. I went home and I stayed sick for at least a week.

Speaker 3 34:13

his mom was so mad at me, oh my word.

Speaker 2 34:15

I got food poisoning or something. I don't know what it was. I don't know if it was going the first time, but I got sick as a dog.

Speaker 3 34:21

It was bad. It was so bad. It was bad. I never got sick over there. You never got sick.

Speaker 2 34:26

As of right now gets warns about the water and I warn people. One time on a trip and my cousin and they drank the water and they got sick.

Speaker 1 34:37

But uncle, joey told me he goes over there drinks the water he don't.

Speaker 3 34:38

I don't get it. I've never tried.

Speaker 2 34:39

He's got an iron stomach, he can go over there drink the water. You don't even get sick. But so, johnny, have you ever seen getting back to the glow center? Have you ever seen the glow center finally built? Did you get to go? Have I seen the glow center? What did you get to go up to the Glow Center and see it fully done? Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 34:55

Yeah, when I went on the toy drive it was pretty well done, and then I think it seemed like we went up there another time, Rich to work, and there just really didn't end up being that much work to do it's like the last time I went up there.

Speaker 1 35:10

I think what it was is. We went up there. Yeah, we went up there to do some work and, like what we did, I think we did in a half a day, right and then after that it was like there wasn't a lot to do. You know, there were some projects, of course, to do, but the funding wasn't there.

Speaker 2 35:24

So we just, you know, we found things to do, but uh, right what I want to ask you is what was your reaction to finally being done, getting to see the finished product both of y'all?

Speaker 3 35:36

well, you can go up there and relax a little bit. You know where it ain't always you going up there just to work which now they build a fence around it. Yeah, so that was cool.

Speaker 2 35:45

Yeah, because before anybody and we had got robbed one time yeah, anybody and their grandma could go in there yeah you know.

Speaker 3 35:52

So they got pretty much got a, I'm pretty sure got a fence all the way around it. Now I don't know about all the way around, but it's a good well, it's on three sides up front and they said the gate they built so heavy they can't pick it up yeah, I see.

Speaker 2 36:04

So I think they're having issues with the gate. Yeah, we might have to work on that next week or uh, whenever we go. So what was your reaction to seeing it all done?

Speaker 3 36:14

I was kind of happy.

Speaker 1 36:16

But I don't do anything, but I don't do nothing else over there you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 36:21

As far as your preaching or your this and that my whole deal is work.

Speaker 3 36:28

And so when I go over there and ain't nothing to do, which I probably can't rest, you need the rest.

Speaker 2 36:34

That's what you go up there and ain't nothing to do, which I probably can't rest, you know? Yeah, you need the rest. That's what you go up there for what about you, johnny?

Speaker 1 36:39

You know, anytime you see a dream fulfilled, somebody's dream fulfilled, you know it really makes you feel good. Yeah, and I knew that was a big dream of Brother Daniel's. Right, I never went on a mission trip with him. I never went on a missions trip with him. I really didn't know Brother Daniel that well other than a few times I met him, working with him and, of course, all the stories we heard about him. But when I was given the opportunity to go, and I went the first time, I'm like, alright, I'm going to go until this thing is done. And I mean, I think for three or four years I went once or twice a year and so it just, it was really good.

Speaker 3 37:15

Yeah, it was crazy at first talking about that, that first year when we first did that, built it. Yeah, I went 12 times the first year, yeah.

Speaker 1 37:25

Yeah, that's crazy.

Speaker 3 37:26

It seemed like I was over there every week. It was like, really that's poor to daddy, because my daddy used to yeah, he would go up there all the time go up there every two, three weeks. Yeah, he was over there almost the same like.

Speaker 2 37:38

So it was like really I got something I ask everybody when I do the podcast in a different way. I was talking to you about this earlier, but uh, in this, I want to ask this in this way what would you say to someone who doesn't see, uh importance for a building over in honduras or just over in missions, doesn't see importance for a building over in Honduras or just over in missions, doesn't?

Speaker 1 37:57

see an importance for missions.

Speaker 2 37:58

No, doesn't see an importance for a building overseas like we have.

Transitioning to Part Two

Speaker 1 38:03

Oh no, you absolutely. I mean it really. I guess it really depends on what you're doing. Yeah, you know there's a lot of different missions out there. You know there's a lot of different missions out there, and so if you want to have you know, so the building is used for the tour distribution. It's also used for teaching seminars, pastor seminars, different things like that. You know a lot of things like that.

Speaker 3 38:30

So if you're going to do that and you want to do it in a controlled environment, in your own place, then that's certainly something that is of utmost importance because you can only do so much out of a hotel yeah, you can only do so much, you can only do so much out of a hotel, even out of another pastor's church.

Speaker 1 38:47

Right, it's vital to grow up like we was talking about last podcast.

Speaker 2 38:52

We was talking about how the dream was to use this to go teach Right and do everything there.

Speaker 3 38:58

And to have people, when they went over there for toy drives, to have them placed to stay, or have the minister conference like we had yeah, and like when Jonathan went with the kids coming there and handing the toys out, and then we did the medical thing.

Speaker 2 39:12

Yeah, the medical thing there.

Speaker 3 39:15

So that's what you need it for. Yeah, it's important and plus, you get places to stay where it helps on cost of going to hotels and stuff like that.

Speaker 4 39:24

Right, yeah.

Speaker 2 39:25

And it's just needed, yeah, so we're getting close to ending this podcast. I want to ask you both how has missions work affected y'all's lives?

Speaker 3 39:36

Well, it's pretty life changing. Yeah, because you in the states, you have everything at your fingertips, right, you go over there. You know you take everything for granted. Everybody in the United States take everything for granted. Yeah, you go over there and they have nothing, right, and it really makes you step back and think at how blessed you are.

Impacts of Mission Work on Lives

Speaker 4 40:01

Right.

Speaker 3 40:02

To be where you're at Right, whether if you're poor, poor, poor, yeah. Or you got money yeah, you know, and it's just life changing.

Speaker 4 40:12

Right.

Speaker 3 40:13

It is.

Speaker 4 40:14

I recommend anybody to go.

Speaker 2 40:15

Oh yeah, what about you, johnny? Or send your money, either way, yeah it's the same.

Speaker 1 40:21

It's the same thing. I remember like I swore when I come back. I was like, okay, I'm not going back till I learned Spanish, because I want to be able to communicate with these people, you know.

Speaker 4 40:29

Yeah.

Speaker 1 40:30

Well, now I've been on six or seven times, once to Nicaragua with another pastor, and I still don't know Spanish, but it's definitely humbling and it does, like Richard said, it does make you grateful for what you have, because even in our hardest times, when things are lean, we're so much, we're so blessed. I mean, you're talking about an economy where the average demand, the average pay, is like five bucks a day, right, I'll never forget One of the things that really impacted me one time is there was a pastor there. Richard, you may remember who it was. It may have been the pastor. No, it's the pastor that he's got coffee beans now, el Temio, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 41:19

So we, me and Danny and Richard were talking to this pastor and we all felt led to give him an offering and I believe we gave him $300. And I'll never forget this not to threaten me for long, rich, but when we give him that money, it was $300, american money. He just fell to his knees and started weeping and he said something in Spanish and, brother Luis, I think he told us he had a need, and so that's what we did. And Brother Luis told us. He said the money you have given give this.

Speaker 1 41:53

This man said it's going to change his life and and it did. He took that money and I believe he purchased some plant and basically started growing his coffee business from from that offering, if I remember that to be correct. Yeah, you can't really ever out give the lord, I know. I remember one time richard gave a hundred dollars for a little girl that had a skin, a rare skin disease, and, uh, they took her to a hospital in the city and I think I think he got to go back and actually see this girl maybe a year or two later and talk about that experience.

Speaker 2 42:27

You know, I sent him money.

Speaker 3 42:29

I sent him money a few times to get her because it was bad. Well, I got a picture on my phone right now to where she grew up. She got married and she has two little babies, and I think it was a couple. Was you there?

Speaker 2 42:46

I was there on that. That was the trip with Harvest Time yeah.

Speaker 3 42:49

And we was up in that mountains at that one village and they found her, and they come, found her, and they come chasing me down trying to find me, to show me to her.

Speaker 2 42:58

What was funny is they also showed us a guy who had the same thing but, had not got got it taken care of, and so so it was pretty neat, surreal deal.

Fun Stories and Reactions to Honduras

Speaker 3 43:06

Yeah, you know it's something that you know. It's not much money, yeah, but it was like they couldn't afford because they had to actually take her out of there and her dad had to bring her like four or five hours to another place, yeah, and they didn't have the money. Yeah, so she was gonna grow up and it was eating her face and it was yeah, and she was, you know, and nobody's never gonna, or whatever.

Speaker 3 43:32

And here it was years later she's grown up into a lady and she had two kids and she has two little kids and it's pretty cool yeah it was really cool, so it just you know, that's helping people.

Speaker 2 43:43

Right, it means a lot and, like I said last time, we got that picture. So if you want to see that girl healed, you have it. I have the picture. I think One of us has it. I'm going to put it on the Facebook page so that you guys can go look and see for yourself. That's a really, really powerful thing because that shows it don't matter the amount, whatever you're doing is being used to touch somebody, whether it's through a toy or through a surgery. It's there to help somebody, right? Yeah, because's there to help somebody.

Speaker 3 44:13

Right yeah, because they're appreciative of everything. Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 44:17

So if you want to see that picture, we'll have it on the Facebook page God's Little One I don't remember the exact, but I think it's just God's Little One, but okay, so the last thing I want to ask y'all before we go is what do y'all want to see in the future? What do we want to see?

Speaker 3 44:32

I'm sorry, just to grow and grow and grow yeah.

Speaker 2 44:37

What do you want to see in the future?

Speaker 1 44:39

Well, you know, like Danny talked about, and I'm sure Joey has too, the goal there is to have a place, a headquarters, and eventually bring churches under your ministry umbrella. I guess you would call it or whatever, the ultimate goal is seeing souls saved. And whether you're swinging a hammer, mopping a floor, whether you go on a trip to cook, whether you go to do kids' crusades, video video plumbing a doctor, the ultimate goal is seeing people saved.

Speaker 4 45:17

Right.

Future Aspirations for the Mission

Speaker 1 45:19

And trying to change people's lives and giving them an opportunity to have their lives changed by God, right, and so that's the greatest thing that you can do and that's probably the greatest thing that you see on the mission field is, like some of the services I got to go to, I would just weep because you could see the hunger in these people seeking after God. And I mean, some of these people were walking two and three, four miles, crossing rivers, and walking to church to be there and carrying in the altars and praying and crying out to God, kneeling on the concrete floors. And this is after working in the fields all day and carrying their bundle of sticks home to cook that night, and nothing but hard labor. There's nothing easy for the locals there in that country. Nothing easy Because if you don't work you die, and that's just the way it is. And so seeing the hunger of the people in those villages that would come to church is just that, should be the driving force you know to see their lives changed.

Speaker 2 46:20

Right, so that's the last question I got for you guys. I'm going to give you all I do this at the end. I'm going to give you both. If there's anything I haven't asked you to like to say, or if you'd just like to give some closing remarks, either one of y'all or both of y'all, here's your time to do it before we close.

Speaker 1 46:36

Go ahead, richard, I just gave mine, I'm talked out.

Speaker 2 46:41

He tapped out. Well, I would like to thank my guests Richard Sweeney and Jonathan Sweeney, richard Sweeney and Jonathan Schmid for being here on this episode of the God's Little Own podcast. Well, these two episodes of the God's Little Own podcast, thank you. These have been some phenomenal podcasts. We have hit some phenomenal rabbit trails and thank y'all for being here.

Speaker 2 47:08

Good to be here Y'all have a good one, god bless. I was in Honduras with my dad last week and he told me that his calling was to work. And you know, we're not all called to be preachers or missionaries or singers, but we're all called to do something, whether that's to work, whether that's to clean the church, whether that's to support with our money, we're all called to do something. Those are our ministries. If that's what God is calling us to do, I don't know what you're called to do. I don't know what your ministry is, but I do know that God has something for you to do, whether that's to help build, whether that's to help clean, whether that's to use your money to support someone in ministry or to support something being built. God has a calling for your life. He has a ministry for you to do. He wants you to do it. So, no matter what it is, no matter what your ministry is, no matter what God is calling you to do, do it with all your might. Thank Him for allowing you to do it and do what he is telling you to do. Well, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the God's Little One podcast. This one went a little long, so I'll try not to say too much today, but I would like to make one statement and I will say when we was talking about me getting sick in Honduras, we don't know if it was the food in Honduras. We assume it was the food in Honduras on that last day, but we don't know 100%, so don't quote me on that. But anyway, thank you for listening to this episode of the God's Little One podcast.

Speaker 2 48:40

In our next episode we will be talking to brother Randy Snow. It's a good episode. We don't talk 100% about God's Little One, but we do talk about God's Little One. But we do talk about God's little one, but we also talk about work that he's done in Africa and it is a phenomenal podcast. So be listening, be watching for it.

Speaker 2 49:01

I know today we kind of had to post later than we usually do. We had to post Tuesday instead of Monday. We had some complications come up to make us not be able to do that. I apologize for that, but I promise, moving forward, we will do our best to make sure that don't happen again. This podcast that I'm talking about with Brother Randy this one will be out on time, I promise. So just be watching for it. But thank you for listening today. Thank you for giving us your time. God bless you. Also, if you'd like to contact us, you can call us at 318-491-1772, and if you'd like to send us an email or send us a donation, our PO Box is 904 Oakdale, louisiana, 71463. Any kind of donation you could give would really be appreciated. But thank you for listening to this episode of the God's Little Home Podcast. We hope you enjoyed it. We hope you keep listening. God bless you and you have a good day.