That's "Thank you much God" in the Miskito language.
I recently had the opportunity to explore the Rio Platano and the villages of the Moskito Indians that live along the river. We went with the purpose of scouting out new areas to evangelize. I traveled with Osmany Hernandez, pastor Pablo Hernandez (no relation) and Manuel Iraeta from Tocoa. We started out in Palacio in a pipante, which is a 50 foot long dug out canoe made from a mahogany log. Our pipante had a 15 horse outboard engine and made a fairly good speed. Our driver had a lot of experience on the river and had made many trips. Our destination was Las Marias. It took us about 7 hours to travel from the river delta to Las Marias. Along the way we saw many Miskito villages and many of them waved to us as we passed. They are very shy people and would hide if they saw me holding my camera up to my eye. Many of them were traveling along the river in their own pipantes, hauling bananas, oranges, and other produce. We saw wild toucans, macaws, egrets, herons and other native birds. All of this land is inside the Rio Platano Biosphere and is a very primitive area.
When we arrived at Las Marias, some local people came down to the river to help us unload our boxes and take them up to their place. The Moskito people live in wooden houses up on stilts. We visited awhile with them and they let us set up the movie screen beside their house. We set it up so people could sit under the house while it rained and watch the Jesus film without getting wet. We showed it the first night to about 40 or 50 people and about 20 came foreword to receive Christ.
The next day we walked through the village visiting people and ended up at the village chief's house. He was sick in bed with Malaria. We prayed with him and got his permission to show the film to the entire village and to work in the area. Our guide within the village was the tourism director for the region and 100% Miskito. He offered us 1 manzana of land (about an acre) to build a tabernacle.
We ran into one man who takes the pods from the cacao trees that grow all around the village and processes the seeds to make chocolate. We were given some very good tasting hot chocolate to drink and even some chocolate cake made with the local chocolate. They also fixed us lots of coffee. The children learn Spanish in school so they all speak Spanish as well as Miskito. They are a very friendly people.
That night we set up the screen against another house along side the soccer field and showed the Jesus Film to about 200 people. Over 100 came foreword and receive Christ. We were very excited about the response. Our pipante driver was among those responding.
We are planning to make several trips back to this and some of the neighboring villages this next year. There is a need to show the Jesus film in several other villages as well as building a tabernacle in Las Marias, and following up with the new believers to help disciple them.
The plan now is to fly from San Pedro Sula to Palacio on Sosa airlines and pick up the pipante. These trips will not require any hiking and are a good opportunity for those who would like to work with a new people group in a very remote area, and do not want to hike. Las Marias has a couple of nice clean wooden floored houses on stilts where visitors can sleep.
If you want to work there with children, building a tabernacle, or discipling and encouraging the new believers, please join us on one of these upcoming trips. We will be putting them on the calendar soon.
We also have many other opportunities for all types of trips throughout Honduras with Trish and Marlon, Osmany and Jennifer, and Dario. It's UP2U!