MU student returns home safely from Honduras
MU student returns home safely from Honduras
Sunday, July 12, 2009 | 12:01 a.m. CDT
BY David Goldstein, Columbia Missourian
COLUMBIA — As soon as Tyler Shields walked off the plane, his mother screamed and gave him a big hug.
It was an emotional reunion for the MU senior and his parents on Thursday evening, with Shields returning to the United States after being stuck in Honduras amid a government coup.
“I breathed a sigh of relief when he finally got back,” his father, Mark Shields, said.
In an attempt to block Honduran President Manuel Zelaya from returning to the country, interim government officials closed the country’s main airport last week, leaving Shields to find an alternative departure route.
Shields, who was in Honduras for six months on a mission trip, said he was calm at first but started to get unnerved as the week wore on.
Read more
Student stranded by unrest
Student stranded by unrest
Coup prolongs his Honduras mission.
By T.J. Greaney
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
University of Missouri student Tyler Shields poses with Luz in a recent image
from Honduras, where a government-closed airport has stranded Shields,
who has spent six months doing mission work with HIV-positive patients.
If everything had gone according to plan, Tyler Shields would be home by now. Last week, the University of Missouri senior was scheduled to complete a six-month mission to Honduras.
Based in the southern river city of Choluteca, Shields has been helping run a clinic for malnourished children, working with AIDS victims and teaching English and history at a bilingual school. He said it’s been a life-changing experience.
“You really completely forget that you are working with people with HIV, AIDS or children that are malnourished,” he wrote in an e-mail to the Tribune. “They become just another person to you, and I believe that’s the point. We are trying to destroy a huge stigma that exists in this country.”
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Tyler in Honduras (2)
Tyler recently posted an update on Facebook. Here is his work schedule:
Mondays: Work with Casa Hogar Vida, the AIDS orphanage, doing anything from visiting houses to administrative work on the computer.
Tuesdays: Work in the malnutrition center and daycare in Limon.
Wednesdays and Thursdays: Teach in the school at the church. Teach Bible class, English, PE, music, and computers.
Fridays: Work in the malnutrition center and daycare in Limon.
A quote from his update:
"I love being apart of this community of people, they are so loving and funny. It’s a lot of fun. I also love that I’m getting to live like a Honduran. i walk to work at the school and I take a city bus (a lot different that Columbia’s bus transit) to Limon. Its a great experience."
Please continue to pray for Tyler, the work he’s doing in Choluteca, and the work God is doing in his life.
Tyler in Honduras
God has really opened the door for intimate sharing between Iglesia Gran Comision and The Rock. A big part of that has been through the opportunity for some of our students and recent grads to go to Choluteca for extended periods. Melissa was the first to go in Fall 2007. Aimee follwed in Fall 2008. She has now returned, and Tyler has just begun his 6-month stay in Choluteca.
Tyler first went to Choluteca on the Spring Break trip in March 2007. After 3 short-term trips there, he decided he needed to stay longer, and began the process of raising support for a 6-month trip. He’ll be staying with Pastor Geovanny, and working with the Casa Hogar Vida project, among other things. He’s started a video blog on his Facebook page, so if you haven’t friended him yet, you might want to.
Be praying for Tyler as he adjusts to life in Choluteca and as he seeks out how God wants him to use this time.
