Sojourner #033: On The Ground In Intibucá

"As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" (Romans 10:15b)

On March 29, 2025, the Hurley Mission Team returned to the United States following a week long tour of duty serving the people of Honduras in support of the Honduras Baptist Dental Mission, working out of the Alas De Fe Bible Institute in La Esperanza, Intibucá. The Department of Intibucá is one of eighteen departments in the Republic of Honduras, covering over 1,186 square miles in the southwest region of the developing nation. 

Twenty-six American missionaries from several different states including Arkansas, Alabama, Texas, and Florida filled the team’s roster. Their mission was to meet the physical and spiritual needs of the Honduran people, to the best of their ability, so that the Kingdom of God might continue to grow in Intibucá, Honduras, by the grace of God, as the Gospel is faithfully delivered to the people living there by both indigenous and cross-cultural pastors and missionaries serving there. 

After arriving in-country, the team split into two groups. One team worked within the Alas De Fe (ADF) compound, giving away clothing and shoes to those living around the compound in the mornings, hosting a week-long “Heroes of the Faith” themed Vacation Bible School alongside ADF staff in the afternoons. 

Children gathered for their Bible lesson inside the ADF compound

The Vacation Bible School at ADF welcomed over one-hundred children each day. Each student was fed lunch, taught a Bible lesson, worked on crafts, and completed an activity during their time at ADF. At the end of the week, the children received a Spanish New Testament and a Christmas shoebox with gifts. 

Children working on crafts on the ADF grounds

The other group worked alongside indigenous pastors in Güise, Silimania, Planes, Rio Grande, Chogola, Laguna Grande, and Pinares. Pastor Jacinto Ramírez (ADF Seminary Principal), Pastor Joaquin (who trains local pastors in the Honduran mountains), and Pastor Eduar (ADF Alumni) guided the group as they went evangelizing door-to-door in each village they visited, but allowed the American team to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with those they encountered. 

On Thursday, Andrea Claros, one of the many faithful workers at ADF, led a small five person team to the nearest public hospital to give away baby clothes to families in the prenatal and delivery wards at the request of a few mothers who visited the compound. During their visit, the team prayed for the babies and mothers who were fighting for their own survival, and specifically prayed for a mother who had lost her child only an hour before the team arrived at the hospital. 

Looking back on the week, Andrea expressed that, “what [she] admired about that team is that they went down there to share the Gospel and the love of Christ with others.” Above all, this is the primary mission and central ambition of both the Hurley Mission Team and the Honduras Baptist Dental Mission - to see the good news of the love of God in Christ for sinners carried to the nations, beginning in Honduras, a land loved by all who set foot on her shores. 

Andrea Claros with Hurley Mission Team Members

Sheila Hurley, the mission team leader, has been serving in Honduras for many years now, and in many ways her life is tied to the land our friends call home. On Sunday afternoon the team traveled to attend a church service at the First Baptist Church in Planes and set up new worship equipment provided by her late brother, Scotty Dunar’s church in Arkansas. The construction of the church building in Planes was completed last year, and the building was dedicated in loving memory of Sheila’s husband, Joe Hurley. 

Sheila Hurley hanging her husband's plaque

On this trip to the church in Planes, the team hung a plaque honoring Joe and all the work he did for the sake of the Gospel in Honduras. The construction project could not have been completed without the work of so many cross-cultural mission teams, and especially the faithful, consistent efforts of Scotty Dunar, a short-term missionary with the Honduras Baptist Dental Mission. 

Last year, Scotty began serving with the Mission, truly embodying the belief that we hold here at Sojourner Magazine that the Gospel, the love of God, must be taken to every tribe, nation, and tongue. On January 26, 2025, Scotty passed into glory. 

In the midst of their ongoing grief, his family and friends celebrate the redeeming grace of God that saved Scotty from sin and death, and rejoice all the more in knowing that the work he accomplished here below, by God’s grace, is having an eternal impact of the lives of so many people not only in Planes, but around the world. Truly, Scotty’s life is a testament to the fact that the Lord is able to redeem the time and restore the life of every sinner who calls upon His name for salvation, working every aspect of life for His glory and the good of His people. 

The Hurley Mission Team gathered with other believers inside the church building in Planes

The church in Planes is faithfully pastored by Félix Hernández (Editor’s note: Who we would all like to congratulate on his recent marriage - may the God of every grace bless and keep you all your days as you live out what God has graciously worked in you, by faith! ¡Felicidades Félix! ¡Dios te bendiga siempre!) 

Their wedding at the church building in Planes

Throughout the course of the week, the Hurley Mission Team recorded seventy-one professions of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The long-term missionaries and indigenous pastors will follow up with each of the individuals who professed faith in Christ as they practice ongoing discipleship within the context of the local church, in accordance with the Scriptures. They also gave out thirty-six solar-powered, portable audio bibles, seventy-two paper bibles, one-hundred pounds of beans, one-hundred pounds of rice, and a large bag of essential items like as crank flash lights, clothes pins, plates, toothbrushes, hairbrushes, and more. 

Clothing distribution inside the ADF compound

Each night, the team gathered for a service at the ADF chapel, a building project that was recently completed on the ADF’s seventeen acre compound, along with a fully-functioning medical clinic. The youth on the team shined brightly in keeping with 1 Timothy 4:12, setting the example in speech, life, love, faith, and purity. They worked tirelessly during the week, and held their own Bible studies each day, holding fast to Paul’s exhortation in Romans 1 that all believers should make it their aim to encourage and build one another up in the hope of the Gospel. 

Children gathered outside FBC Planes

On Friday night, before making the trek down from the mountains, the team gathered everyone together at La Guara, a famed local bar and grill in La Esperanza that is a more than welcome sight to all who serve in the mountains of Intibucá with the Honduras Baptist Dental Mission. They returned safely to the United States the following day.

Reflecting on the trip, Sheila Hurley remarked that, “It was a beautiful mission full of love and God’s grace. All of us are ready to go back next year!” She has already started her yearly countdown to the next trip, and begun fundraising efforts to support the Mission Team. 

Here at Sojourner Magazine, we look forward to seeing what the Lord will accomplish through the Hurley Mission Team in the coming months and years. May their work for the sake of the Gospel on this side of eternity ever be for God’s glory and the good of His people in Honduras - for when in themes of glory, we sing that new, new song, t’will be the old, old story, that we have loved for so long.

-

Photo Gallery: (click on any of the images in this article for full resolution)

The Hurley Mission Team:

Members of the Hurley Mission Team alongside their Honduran counterparts

If you would like to support the ongoing work of the Hurley Mission Team, please send us an email at sojournermagazine@gmail.com, and we will direct you accordingly.

The Honduras Baptist Dental Mission:

Félix Hernández (ADF Alumni) preaching at FBC Planes

The Honduras Baptist Dental Mission is a non-profit 501(c)(3) mission organization that "aims to spread the Gospel to the people of Honduras by filling both physical and spiritual needs, fulfilling God's instruction in James 2:15-17, and living the Great Commission from Mark 16:15" (HBDM).

Throughout the year, the Honduras Baptist Dental Mission hosts numerous short-term mission teams who support the long-term / indigenous missionaries who operate in the region full-time. The impact that the Mission has on the people of Honduras is significant, shining the light of Christ in the midst of great darkness. Furthermore, the impact that following Christ in obedience to His call to carry the banner of Zion to the nations has on those who go is tremendous. 

When asked about the affect that serving in Honduras has had on her own life, Josarah Slover, who has been serving with the Honduras Baptist Dental Mission for many years, said, "It is such a blessing to be able to spread the Word of God to these people and foster these relationships with them. Having the opportunity to help water the seed that is planted is life changing and a beautiful process I’m grateful to be apart of." 

The Honduras Baptist Dental Mission believes that medicine is the magnet that draws people to Christ (HBDM), and the Hurley Mission Team shares in their belief that while the people they serve are in great need of physical healing, their greatest need is that they know Christ; that they receive a greater healing from a greater disease: sin. Praise God that this salvation has come through His Son, Jesus Christ the Righteous.

Visit the HBDM website for more information by clicking here.

Visit the Sojourner Magazine Website here.

Please share this article with your friends and family. Follow the Sojourner Magazine Facebook page, visit our website to read other articles, and sign up for the Newsletter to receive updates, information about the print edition, and more stories from the front lines of the greatest fight in the world.

Questions? Email sojournermagazine@gmail.com