FCA MotoCross: Faster for the Master

The only sound was the whispered anticipation from the crowd. The roar of the dirt bikes had faded off momentarily as Ryan's bike, which was barely functional at this point, had disappeared around the corner and behind the last jump. The other two riders had gone several seconds beforehand, but had never popped back up, over the table top, to win the race.

The flagger, holding the checkered flag that would end of the race, and show who had won, stood at the crest of the Table Top. He looked down over the blind side of the hill, and we waited. What could he see? What was happening? Why hadn't Shawn or Jimmy soared over the last jump and ended the race?

Just then, he straightened and tensed. The sound of 3 loud engines buzzed to life. A cloud of dust proceeded the racers. Then, in perfect unison, all three bikes came over the rise together! Side by side!

Shawn and Jimmy, realizing Ryan's bike had broken and that it was all he could do just to finish the race, much less actually compete, had stopped at the very end of the run to that last jump, and waited for him. Who knows what may have transpired between the three when Ryan came around the corner and found them sitting there! They finished together. No winners! All winners!

The crowd of MotoCross fans, American, Honduran, riders, kids, and adults went crazy! That was so amazing!!! A perfect end to an incredible week of camp and racing! 

But it can't all be Stellar Jumps, Autographs and Movie-Made-Moments. This trip started months ago, with patience, fundraising, and phone calls. Emails back and forth between missionaries, translators, and dirk bike riders. FCA, FPCC, and OEM. But I won't go back that far. Let's just glance back over one week. The first ever FCA MotoCross Camp held Internationally. An effort motivated by a shared love and respect for Dylan First, whose dream we were chasing. One week, in Honduras.

We arrived in Tegucigalpa, Honduras on Sept. 22, 2012. The first two days we spent adjusting to the climate (hot but beautiful) and attending a Sunday evening church service. This was one of the most exciting parts of the trip. In a church service, 1666.8  miles from here, Ryan, a professional MotoCross Rider and FCA-Camp-Instructor-To-Be, accepted Jesus Christ into his heart for the first time! God had answered our prayers on day one. Many of us felt successful and whatever else happened was just extra!!

The next several days we visited lots of Malls, TV Stations, Universities, and schools. The Pros signed autographs and we gave out FCA stickers and posters. We talked about Dylan First, and his passion for MotoCross and his love of Jesus Christ. We talked about the race and that it was free. (No one could understand this!) And we got used to speaking through an interpreter. We went shopping for family at home, and God used this as an opportunity for Shawn and Courtney to witness to a little boy outside of a shop. He prayed and accepted Christ, there in the street.

Several of us visited a Foster Care home called House of Hope on Tuesday. We got the chance to deliver LOTS of suitcases full of clothes, costumes, and toys to the girls there. They are ages 4 months-11 yrs old. They melted our hearts. Then we left there and went to a "school" which is a concrete building with no doors or glass, in the windows. They had wooden desks, but not one other thing in the room. Not even paper or pencils. We gave the kids backpacks that Forestpark kids made during VBS this year. They were FULL of paper, pencils, toothbrushes, candy, toys, etc, etc. Courtney told them the gospel using an EvangeCube, and asked them to pray. 12 kids told us it was the first time they had prayed to ask Jesus into their hearts!

Finally, Wednesday came. At 11am we began signing riders up and sending them to find their bunk house. We all met for lunch and headed to camp. The next 2 days were spent on that track. In fact Thursday we didn't even leave the track for lunch! They brought it in! 

The campers were separated into Huddles ("Juntos") with one of our team serving as "Huddle Leaders" in each group. They stayed in their Huddle for the entire camp. Each Huddle stayed in a certain zone (area of the track,) learning an aspect of dirt bike riding, such as starting, cornering, hills/jumps, etc. Then after about an hour they rotated to another zone.

The first night of camp, we played a game, then held a simple chapel time together. We had nearly every person in the camp come forward to pray and give their lives to the Lord. The second night, I think all the rest of them came forward and did the same. Plus, all the people from the first night, came back up to say, "what's the second step?" There may have been one or two who didn't step up, but when almost ALL 27 people at camp want to know more, it's a raging success by anyone's standards!

Friday morning they got another hour on the track, and then we had awards and certificates to hand out. They all asked us to please come back next year! We had the rest of the day off, so some of us (Sunday School Teachers...) went off to give out more backpacks to another school! We had at least 5 or 6 raise their hands this time that they had made a commitment for the first time, but it was hard to tell, because the teacher began saying "Put your hand up! Put your hand up!" Which of course they all did. Oh well. :-)

Saturday was a quiet day with the track being set up for the races and practice runs going on! Then came race day! Sunday, the track was packed!! We held the first race, for 12-14-year-olds. After that, they stopped everything to let Matthew First ride around the track alone on a Hot Lap, in honor of his brother, Dylan. Shawn Clark and a translator explained to the crowd who Dylan was, and what his dream had been. He told them that this whole trip was because of Dylan. He explained who Jesus is, and that Dylan's life was devoted to Jesus. He told them the gospel, and led them in a short prayer. Lots of people raised their hands that they had prayed, and we passed out ALL our New Testaments!!

The rest of the races went on, separated by age or experience, and ending with the Americans. Ronnie and Mike raced with a couple of Hondurans, and then, as we mentioned before, Ryan, Shawn, and Jimmy. It wasn't until the race was on lap 2 that Ryan discovered his bike was having a major problem. But, just like everything else God has planned, even this was a chance for the guys to show the Hondurans, Christians live life differently. We couldn't have scripted it to all go more perfectly, and more glorifying to God.

We pray that this time next year, the biggest group we've ever sent to Honduras will have just gotten back, from a race three times the size of the one we held last Sunday. Thank you for all your support, contributions, and especially prayers. All I can say is, "Topela Papa!!"

Last Day of the trip and Home Again!!

We are home!!

The last day was spent in travel, and as you noticed, no, we didn't get a chance to write from Houston. By the time we had claimed our bags, gone through customs, re-checked the bags, eaten, and gotten to the gate, we only had about 30 minutes till flight time, and honestly, I was way too wiped out to worry with getting the computer out and setting it up! :-)

I had gotten a little bit of a sore throat the night before, and by Houston, I felt like I had quite a cold/allergy attack (never know which!!) and was doing my best to take my Sudafed and be nice to everyone!

I have uploaded all the pictures I have to Snapfish, and will try to send a link to everyone soon! I know, you've seen all the good ones anyway! But, these are much better quality, and of course it's easier to print from there too! Plus, I could only send about 12 pictures maximum each day, and there are about 800!!

We had lunch Monday at the McDonald's in the airport in Tegucigalpa, which was interesting. I got an all Spanish Happy Meal, as did Amanda. I brought the box and toys home to the kids. They were reasonably impressed. :-)

We got to gate 4, which you have to travel through the Latin Duty Free store to get to, only to find out that we had been moved to gate 5 back on the other side again! (Or maybe that was vise versa!) They loaded us down some stairs and outside to find that they load this plane from the back!! I never heard of that before!

Then, another surprise was that the flight attendant was American! They all were! I'm not sure why this was such a shock, but when she started talking and I realized I understood everything she said, I actually almost hugged her! Odd, and luckily I didn't!!! 

We got seated and decided rather or not to swipe a credit card for an $8 charge to watch movies on the back of the seat in front of you. Sam and I turned his tv on, and he plugged in his IPod earphones, with us each taking one. But he wanted to watch Promethius, a scary aliens movie, and I quickly handed him back his other earphone!

Just about the time they shut the back plane door, people started murmuring all over the plane, "Oh! This is that really crazy take off!" and "I forgot, this is a wild take off, wait till you see!" I was sitting between Sam and Ronnie, and Sam was already giggling at me. 

Ronnie informed me that "Oh yeah, this is the number 2 most dangerous airport in the world. You should look it up when you get home." I looked at him and as calmly as possibly said, "I don't like roller coasters." Then I grabbed on to Sam's hand. Ronnie says, "Well, this is pretty wild." Super.

Basically, there is about 6000 feet of runway. You know it's bad when the pilot turns left when there is less than a parking lot length of runway in that direction, and you realize it's so he can back up to the very very edge! They hit the gas, several of the guys yelled, "Topela Papa!!!" which even had me laughing, and then they take off down the runway at a zillion miles an hour, and almost instantly tip back at a crazy angle and blast nearly straight up!!

It wasn't as bad as I was prepared for. But it did feel a bit like being on the Space Shuttle for a second. :-) {Just as a side note: Back at home we went to Bible Study and told this story to Patty, who informed us that they used to catapult her planes off the end of the aircraft carrier. http://science.howstuffworks.com/aircraft-carrier3.htm I do not intend to experience that.) }

Ok, so that's not really us. It's a picture off the site "fearofflyinghelp.com" It is explaining that a steep take off isn't dangerous. If you say so...

The flight from there was very uneventful, and as I mentioned the most exciting thing in the following airport that happened was customs. Although, I will say Courtney had a bit of a snag when they made her walk from customs all the way back down to the checked baggage area to put something back into her luggage that she had actually bought in Duty Free in Honduras. We all thought that was kind of crazy.

Once we had eaten and were finally at the gate in Houston, we found out that due to a combination of bad weather out East and maintenance issues in Texas, lots of flights had been delayed. Our own still showed up as on time (7:45pm) but they announced it would be delayed. After another 30 minutes, about 7:40 maybe, they finally boarded our plane. 

We had to walk out a door, down a long hall, through another door, and outside. Then we climbed onto what I thought was much too small a plane. It was only 3 seats across! 

 

We all got settled and just before they were going to shut the cabin door, a man in bright orange security gear came onto the plane with a clipboard and asked Ronnie, I guess because he was the first person in our group that he came to, if he knew Nichols or Jackson. I actually didn't register the names because we had been calling them both Mark.

Ronnie must have thought the same thing, because he didn't answer at first. The man, who I thought looked a bit like Einstein, said, "Are you with the group of 17?" (btw there are 20 of us, so don't ask me why he said 17.) Finally it kind of clicked and we all said, yes, we knew the two men.

He said, "well they aren't on the plane and we are leaving." With that he turned around and walked off the plane. No one moved at first, but then suddenly we understood what they were telling us and everyone started asking Shawn to call Mark Nichols, because we knew he had Mark's cell phone number.

He, correctly I might add, pointed out that he was the last person that should call Mark. They had been pranking each other and joking all week. He said, "he'll never believe me!" Sure enough, Mark pretty much figured it was a joke and was ready to hang up on Shawn. Amanda got on the phone and said, "really, it's not a joke, we are on the plane!" But he must have thought she was in on it. Finally someone, I think Amanda again, got Mark back on the phone and said, "Seriously, where are you? We are leaving!!" Bad news was, that by this point it was too late. Right at that moment the flight attendant slammed the cabin door and kind of nonchalantly shrugged and walked away. A man in front of Ronnie said, "It's too late now, they aren't allowed to open the door again once it's closed."

I don't think I truly believed it. I kept expecting Mark and Mark to come running out the outside door or someone to radio the plane. But neither thing happened. The plane started rolling.

By this point, once there was truly nothing to be done at all, people started nervously laughing, and eventually making jokes. Oh man, I felt soooo bad for them! Someone later said they had gone to get ice cream or something once they had told us the flight was delayed. I think we won't really know what happened until Mark tells us himself, however at this point, he may never tell!!

Anyway, Ronnie talked the flight attendant into getting a picture with Shawn laughing together as if they had caused the whole thing, which surely Mark knew was a big joke. But, they did text the picture to Mark. 

When I went to the Dominican Republic (I know I say that phrase every couple of days, sorry - it's the only other mission trip I've been on!!) we got stranded for an extra 48 hours because of a missed flight! It was so upsetting to us. We had prepared ourselves to make it through to that day, and when the airport told us that our flight was cancelled - due to a volcano in Puerto Rico if you can imagine - we just melted down. :-( So, that's what I was thinking about when I finally knew that Mark and Mark had missed the flight. 

I heard last night that they finally got home the next afternoon at 1pm. Not sure if that's correct, but man have they got a story to share later!!

Ok, I have one more picture to share. If it looks totally black, you may have to look in dimmer light. The big white thing is the moon. :-)

 

This is the best I could do trying to take a picture of the incredible scene out the window on the way to Louisville. There was a thunderstorm below and low clouds above us for some of the trip, but for a little while the full moon was glowing down onto the fluffy white clouds below. It was amazing. But my camera could only see blackness. Finally, I found a setting on the camera called, Starry Night. It holds the shutter open for 15, 30, or 60 seconds. I took lots of pictures using this, but as you can imagine, the plane was bouncing like crazy over those clouds. So, this is the best I could do. :-) The clouds must have been whizzing by pretty fast. They just look like streaks. I couldn't help wishing my kids could see it, and finally resolved to look at it really really good, and then describe it later instead.

It looked like an ocean with white fluffy foam floating along silently. The blue/white glow of the moon combined with the dark grey highlights from the shadows of the night gave the whole thing a fresh snow kind of look. But had it been snow, the surface would have been flat. But not this! These clouds were like thousands of shining puffs drifting along.

Thanks for keeping up with us during our trip!! I got an envelope from the missionaries just before I left Honduras, from the little girls at House of Hope. It was full of pictures they had drawn and letters they have written. Finally, there is a picture titled, "The girls are dancing for the Lord." I will try to scan them in sometime and pass them along.

Here is the link to the www.snapfish.com album if you want it!

Bye!!

Haven't I commanded you: be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

Joshua 1:9 (HCSB)

Mary Conver

Doo Wop Shop

Up and Out

We are packed and ready to roll! The slow to rise, and the guys who've been staying at the little bungalows that just arrived, are eating breakfast now. Ms. America made us pancakes again! Boy I will miss her cooking!

Matthew scared us all this morning and made us slightly less sad about leaving when he told us a story about going into the downstairs bathroom at 4am and seeing a scorpion! He saw it run across the room in the dark and thought it was a centipede, but just as he was turning to leave, he saw it move and thought how odd it looked, so he picked up the garbage can and saw it curved up and ready to strike! 

He slammed the can back down and ran out to get his shoes, (barefoot, not good) and smashed it flat. Whew. I don't think I would sleep easily now, of course, I guess I knew the whole time it was a possibility and just prayed as I fell asleep that I'd be safe, and I was. God is pretty good at controlling his creatures. Grace had a Bible Verse right before we left, "In His wisdom He made them all, the earth is full of His creatures." I recited that a lot while we were here!!!

Everyone I think is secretly dreading the moment when we have to actually say goodbye to Terry, Ms. America, Doris (the other cook/house keeper,) Pamela, Hans, and Lucila. Jennifer left us a sweet note when she left, right in the middle of the floor. Krystal gave out lots of hugs when she left last night and the others have all said goodbye as they got out of the van or walked out at other points.

Everyone is picking up our "Anti-Parasite" medicine. This one is called, "Zentel." The boys are complaining that we've carefully used filtered water the whole time. I am grinning thinking of the homeade ice cream they had and that lunch they bought at the race yesterday (the one I refused to eat...) It causes you to "pass the parasites out" and we aren't supposed to take it till we get home. Sounds like a colonoscopy prep to me. Gee...fun. Oh well, part of the adventure I suppose.

We are going to all meet together again Oct. 18th-ish to exchange pictures and stories. Hopefully we can bring the kids and they can see the Pros in their Jerseys. I have posters signed for my kids.

Well, thanks for reading our blog, and if I can I will post again from Houston!

Haven't I commanded you: be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

Joshua 1:9 (HCSB)

Mary Conver

Doo Wop Shop

Race Day!!!

Well, today we had the big race! Actually, Races. There were 6 but sort of 7 races held back to back. I got to be a Flagger for the first one! Best "seat" in the house! Loved it! (Thanks Shawn for standing out there with me because I was chicken, don't think I didn't notice...)

They had the youngest kids go first, about 12-14 years old. Then we all walked back in from the track and they had a special presentation. Matthew First had put on Dylan's jersey and took a "Hot Lap" driving a Dirt Bike around the course. While he drove Shawn explained on the Mic what was going on, who Dylan was, and why we had come. They played music that Kramer had brought. It was very emotional. Patty, Tony, and Lauren all stood together while Matthew rode. 

Everyone was so respectful. Unlike the States where several kids would be yelling back and forth to each other, some guys would be talking, and people would just keep walking around doing whatever, here everyone - even the little ones - got quiet and watched and listened. 

Then Shawn got to give a gospel presentation. He explained that Dylan loved Jesus Christ and lived his life for Christ. He told them that we had come all this way, not just to honor Dylan's life, which was taken too soon, but to tell them about Jesus. That although racing is great fun, it can't compare to life with Christ. He then prayed a simple prayer and afterwards asked anyone who prayed with him to raise their hand. 

Right away 5 people we could count quickly in a huge crowd raised their hands, but afterwards we gave away EVERY New Testament we had brought, which had filled a plastic tote just about. Including Fernando, the man who was in charge of the MotoCross stores here and the owner of the track! And just to be clear, we didn't walk around talking people into taking a Bible, these people came up and asked for them! Later, Big Mike (El Gran Mike they call him) sat down with Fernando and answered questions, and they talked for about 25 minutes.

After this was over, the races continued! We had 3 more races, then Ronnie and Mark, then Shawn, Jimmy and Ryan. The really bad news there was that Ryan's bike quit working almost right away, and he barely made it through all the laps. It kept dying. Grrrrr soooo frustrating. Everyone had been waiting to see those 3 race!! But the best part of the show, and the part that I think made the biggest impact, was that right before the final jump, Shawn and Jimmy stopped! They waited a LONG time (or it certainly felt long) for Ryan to make the damaged bike go all the way around the track, then when he caught up, they all 3 took the last jump together! It was amazing to see the 3 bikes flying through the air synchronized! The crowd LOVED it and mostly that they had waited for their friend. It was like they said, "We won't win this unfairly. So, let's just do it together." What a message for today!

The reason I said sort of 7 races, was when everything was finished, a group of guys on 4 wheelers went out and ran the track! That was interesting too! Not that I recommend it! I couldn't look. They are notorious for rolling over!

Anyway, a GREAT time was had by all. I gave away who-knows-how-many stickers, trading cards, and posters.

One fun thing was that the little kids were so excited that Jimmy, Mark, Shawn, and Mike were signing autographs, they also asked several of the rest of us! I signed several autographs, which was cute. I would put, "Mary" in fancy script then, "Joshua 1:9" in print. Well, what? I didn't have a Moto-Number or whatever to put after my name. :-)

  

At the end they got everyone together and gave away cool trophies that they had made with Dylan's picture over a map of Honduras, which, by the way, you can turn upside down to make it a map of Kentucky! They also awarded cash prizes as well!

We had to stay afterwards to clean up the huge mess and help put down the big tents that the catering company had rented us. There were also also kinds of food vendors, and even a Motor Oil company had a booth!

When we got home the ladies all ran in different directions to the bathrooms! Remember, no bathrooms at the track! We were there from 9am to 3pm!!! A couple of people admitted to finding a hiding place in the woods to go! I was too busy with the job of handing out PR stuff to notice.

Ms. America made fried chicken and mac-n-cheese for dinner, which I considered a reward for not buying any of the vendor's food at the race. I didn't think it was smart, but most people did. Ms. America was so sweet. She had packed up everything we needed to fix PB&J sandwiches and even some drinks and chips, plus cookies! So, I did have that out there.

Later tonight, we went in 2 vans to the Mall for some last minute shopping. I'm not saying what since it will blow the surprise! :-)

Then we came home for our last share time. It was pretty emotional. We had to say goodbye to our interpreters, which if you consider they were our voice for the week, is hard to part with. Plus, they are all friends now! Most of us have connected with them all on facebook already! Can you imagine? What a world we live in! :-) I even had guys from the MotoCamp already add me as friends on facebook!

The other reason it was a little bit "tear jerking" was that we all discussed Dylan and how much we really really miss him, how important he was to everyone here, and how much seeing Matthew take that Hot Lap had meant to us all. Even Lucila (the interpreter who lives here) said she had cried all through that lap. 

Well, everyone is packed, and the suitcases are appearing behind me at the front door. We have breakfast at 7am and leave here at 8am. Sadly we don't get in till 11:25pm, so even though we leave here at 10am Louisville time, we won't get in tomorrow in time to see the kids. :-(

But we are kind of glad to get a little extra time together during our 5 hour or something layover in Houston. I've packed Apples-to-Apples and In A Pickle, in my carry on.

All I can say is, Topela Papa!!!

Which is secret Honduran Moto-code for "Twist it Daddy!!" and if you don't get that either, well, I guess you had to be here. :-)

See you tomorrow night!

Haven't I commanded you: be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

Joshua 1:9 (HCSB)

Mary Conver

Doo Wop Shop