Wednesday...

Wednesday was a great day. After our usual 6:30am breakfast, we had a sweet devotional on "the rock" which is on the edge of Villa Gracia and overlooks the countryside...very beautiful. Then we headed to the food bags we had prepared on Tuesday and tucked Bibles into 100 of them and loaded them onto the bus; everything assembly line style. God has brought together such a good group of people and we work so well together. I literally have not heard one complaint the whole time, and we have been WORKING HARD! 

Once the food bags were loaded onto the bus, we were off to Mi Esperanza, a center dedicated to the empowerment and education of women. They offer classes on computers, sewing, salon, and pinata making. It is a wonderful opportunity for women that otherwise have a pretty bleak future ahead of them. The vision and opportunities for expansion at Mi Esperanza are incredible and I am very excited to hear about future endeavors there. I guess maybe I enjoyed it so much because there is tangible change there, the proverbial 'give someone a fish'. There is always a waiting line for classes and they are hoping to start doing remote classes so they can reach out to the people in the community and relieve some of the burden of transportation to the school. 

After Mi Esparanza, we headed to Casitas Kennedy (I'm sure I spelled that incorrectly) to have a VBS and pizza lunch with the children who live there. This visit was a little rough in that Casitas is the very first place children are sent when they become orphans, rather by their parents not being able to care for them any longer and leaving them there or somewhere, or because their parents have died, or whatever the circumstances may be, the children go to Casitas before they can be transitioned out to other Childrens Homes. The children here are pretty rough. They have been picked over and not chosen and have a strong history of sexual abuse. This was obvious in the way they interacted with us. Most were starved for our attention, but some were very reserved; it seemed to be one extreme or the other. They all called me Tia (Aunt) and were constantly asking for things that we had, bubbles, crayons, playdough, etc. It was so hard to refuse them but it was in their best interest to not keep giving them things, as it puts them at risk when they go back to their rooms for violence from the other kids. I do believe that most of the children received some small gift from our visit and the most important thing is that we spent time with them. We put on a VBS there and had a skit and a craft to go along with it. We presented the story of Jesus and the apostles and feeding the 5000, and Nathan was gracious enough to translate to the kids. They seemed to be pretty receptive, some of their little faces were very engaged and it was heart-warming. I mean, just if they get one thing...if even one child gets one glimpse at who Jesus is and how He loves them, that's what it's all about. 

After Casitas, we headed to Casa de Esperanza, a privately owned childrens home. Going from Casitas to Casa was like night and day. It was such a stark difference. For one, there are less children, but also it's like a giant family. They children are so well taken care of and loved and it was a positive note to round out the visits. While we were in Santa Ana (where Casa is located), we drove up into the mountains to deliver food to people. The area itself is gorgeous. The mountains and views are breathtaking, but its rural and the people are definitely in need. We met one family in particular that were so welcoming and receptive of the food bag and had at least five little ones running around in the yard. The father was expressing his gratitude and again telling us how faithful God is...um, aren't we the ones supposed to be encouraging him in HIS faith? And here is, yet another example of how their faith far surpasses mine. He prays for his family and God provides. End of story. He expects it. He believes it. He trusts in it. And this day when he asked God for provision, a group of people brought his family two weeks worth of food, and he was gracious and thankful, but not so much surprised. Because he prays to the God of provision, and he knows that his God will provide. Amazing. 

After the visit to Casa and the delivery of the food bags, we shopped a little in the small business are of Santa Ana and then headed to Sam and Jen's for Taco Loco...um, in a word? Delicious. It was a very authentic catering of tortillas, rice, beans, chicken and salsas. And I could probably eat it every day for the rest of my life. It was a nice time of fellowship with the group. It was one of the first times we have let loose and just hung out and watched a little bit of a soccer game on tv and ate. It was very relaxing and needed. 

After dinner we headed back to Villa Gracia and went to sleep! Which is what I am about to do now, because I am worn out...why am I worn out? Well you'll have to check tomorrow to find out all of the craziness that went on today...and it was a FULL DAY! 

Keep the prayers coming! Remember God said that if His people would humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways, He would hear their prayers from heaven and HEAL THEIR LAND! 

Mucho mucho mucho love! 

Tuesday...

Tuesday was a hard day...mentally and physically, but primarily mentally. We woke up around 6 and ate breakfast, then we split into two groups again. Some went to finish the building project and the others proceeded to make food bags. I was not on the buildsite so I know less about what went on there...I do know that a very sweet lady with an amazing faith in God, who has been ailed with diabetes which has greatly affected her ability to walk (she can still walk, but with difficulty) now has a safe, warm, bug-free home with a wonderful set of steps that allows her to walk down a mountain with much more ease than she had before. 

The food bags I know more about...a ton more about...actually more like 3 tons more about. That's right, 3 tons of food...well that's what we're figuring. My math is as such: We made 400 bags which weigh about 15lbs each, so 6000lbs of food=3tons. We had huge bags of rice, beans, flour, and coffee 50 or 100lbs each. We then divvied those into smaller bags to the tune of 400 each. We also had boxes of spaghetti, spaghetti sauce, boullion cubes, salt, sugar and vegetable oil. We had some serious teamwork going on for all of this...for the bagging of the rice and beans and flour and coffee and then the mass bagging of all of the items to make the 400 bags. It was chaos and tedious and fun all at the same time and in the midst of it we had our devotion/worship time and it was very sweet. 

After the food bags were completed, we loaded onto the bus and headed to the elderly home, which I don't remember the name, but it is one of the most amazing places I have ever been, not structurally or aesthetically, but the amount of heart and soul that the Senor has put into the place is incredible. The man who runs the home has been serving since he was in his 20's and now has this home where he cares for the elderly, and not just any elderly, but the ones who have been forgotten by everyone else, who have been on the street and abandoned. He takes them in and rehabilitates them and cares for them and gives them dignity and peace for their final years. The establishment is humble, but very nice and the men and women there seem to be very happy. It was unlike most elderly homes that I have visited, in that the residents were sitting all together in a multi-purpose area that serves as their dining room and entertaining room, rather than just laying in beds. They seemed to be pretty involved in their surroundings, but that doesn't mean that they weren't delighted to see us. A very moving sight was to see our teammate Judy and a lady that she immediately took up with and the two just held onto each other the whole time we were there, even when the woman was served her lunch, she had Janet feed it to her so she could still be in Judy's arms. They couldn't understand the language the other was speaking, but they just sat there and laughed and smiled and held each other the whole visit. It was heartbreaking to say the least. After we served the residents, we served the people in the street who had gathered in their usual spot for their lunch. These people, we are told, started out as one person who came as an addict that no one wanted to help and the Senor did not turn him away, but served him lunch. That person told other people (mostly alcoholics and addicts) that he knew a man who would not turn them away, and so more and more came, and now he serves between 20 and 30 each day. The man's heart has touched these people in such a profound way that when they return their plate from their meal, they thank the person who served them, and thank their God for providing it, it's very precious. 

After we peeled Judy and her friend away from each other, we headed to the dump...with a surprise...we had to make 400 sandwiches on the bus. AHEM. ON THE BUS. Ha! If you haven't experienced Hondurian drivers, then you might not understand the full effects of this task. If you have experienced Hondurian drivers, then you will surely sympathize with us when I say huge tubs of mayonaise and slimy bags of bologna and some...bumps in the road. Aye aye aye. Somehow, by the grace of God, we were able to set up three stations on the bus to complete the sandwich process...one bread hander, one mayo spreader, one bologna stacker, one cheese placer, and one sandwich bagger and we were one well oiled sandwich-making machine! The sandwiches were finished and we were on our way to the dump. Hmmm...what to say about the dump...there really aren't words. It is, well, a dump. A huge landfill full of the trash contents of the city, and among the huge mounds of trash were hundreds of people, children, cows, dogs, vultures and trucks. Some of the people live there and some of the people work there. When I say work, I do not just mean they work for the city and bring trash, I mean that their livelyhood is founded on how many plastic bottles they can pick out of the trash (which contains everything you can imagine and worse) and gather to sell to the recycling companies. We helped a man dig through the trash to find bottles for his bounty and asked how much he would get for them...$2 is what it converted to in American dollars. His bounty was 6 feet tall and 3 feet wide...an entire days work for $2. Mind-boggling. The entire experience was humbling. Picking through trash to help people earn a living...flashing sandwiches and water and oranges at people who normally fight with vultures for a meal, and asking them to form an orderly line...? Trying to play games with children (like we had been able to at the worksites), and witnessing them have no idea what we were trying to do. They are workers. They help their parents dig through the trash. That's what they know. They don't know our games.

 As a parent, I can't even tell you what that does to me. 

ugh, just writing about it stirs up the same emotions I felt yesterday. It was a HARD DAY. 

When we arrived back at Villa Gracia, we were told that three people needed to go with the bus to the neighborhood of Los Pinos and the Iglesia de Cristo to pick up members of the congregation and community who would be joining us for a pizza dinner at the Jesus statue (for those of you who do not know what this is, it is exactly what it sounds like: a giant statue of Jesus which overlooks the city...it's breathtaking). I was fortunate and blessed to have the opportunity to be one of the three to pick up the people, and after the elderly home and dump, it was a moment of refreshing that God provided in his infinite wisdom. We arrived at the church and 80-ish men, women and children piled onto the bus with us...piled on. We were packed.. three to a seat, and some in the aisle. It was hot, it was tight, it was sweaty, there was horrible traffic and many sudden stops and bumps and do you know what? These wonderful, beautiful, amazing people started singing. Singing their hearts out to their God with huge smiles on their faces. And not just the children, the women and men also. All of them just singing and clapping and smiling, while I cried like an idiot in the aisle and they gave me concerned looks. But it was a complete and udder joy that overtook me. A reminder after an extremely depressing day that our God is faithful, and the joy of the Lord IS OUR STRENGTH. 

The evening was as beautiful as the bus ride. All of our new friends were so gracious and thankful and welcoming and it was beautiful to be able to share a devotional/worship time with them again. I suspect in the end that they are the recipients of only a tenth of the blessing that they have given to us. 

It was a hard day, followed by a sweet night of refreshing. An awesome reminder that our God is our comforter, our deliverer. He is mighty to save. He makes all things new. 

Until tomorrow...love to all.

Pictures..

Scroll down to see some pictures from saturday and sunday...tomorrow we'll try to post monday and tuesday pictures. ;)

Buenas noches!

y mas....(and more)

As promised, here are some day-late details about our Monday activities, and hey, it's only 9pm and I've been up and working since 6, so I might decide to write about both days...we'll see.

Breakfast on Monday was served at 6:30am and was delicious as usual. The women who work in the kitchen are wonderful and work so hard! After breakfast, we had a group devotional on the deck of our dorms, then we headed back to Los Pinos and separated into two groups once again. One group headed back to a project that was started on Sunday and also build a house. I hear they had some difficulty with their house, as the walls were so close to the side of a mountain on one side, and directly against a neighbor's house on the other, that they had to build their walls from the inside out! While they were at their site, the other group was building a house for a sweet elderly lady, Aurora. The buildsite was once again down a steep mountain (par for the course these days) and we carried down all the materials for the house...lots of wood, shovels, massive buckets of nails, chainsaws, etc. etc. etc. Again there were a ton of children around the site, and there is a serious lack of wide open spaces to play with the children here, so we were on a rooftop and tucked into the side mountain in spaces to try and keep the children far away from the chainsaw! The teams once again worked in perfect unison and harmony and God was the ultimate build lead on each site, coordinating everything beautifully, including the weather! I am so grateful for the expertise and manpower and 150% effort of every person here. No one is ever too tired, too worn out, or too busy to help with someone. I haven't heard, "no" one time since I've been here when anyone has been asked to do something. It's a blessing to work with these people.

At the end of the day we had two almost-completed houses. We have to leave the sites each day by 5 or very soon after because it gets dark here so early and it's not safe for us to be on the mountain after dark...don't worry about this, our leaders are very, very, very mindful of our safety and well-being. So, anyway, we were so close to being finished with both houses, but decided it was for the best if we sent people back the next morning to finish. So we gathered all the tools and headed back to the truck, where people had stolen the lamina (roofing) out of the back and told us it was because we left it there...left it in our truck...but that's the mindset here sometimes, if it's ungaurded, it's fair game. We were all safe though, and left without a struggle so it was all bueno.

Some very cool things happened at Aurora's site, the neighbors and children came out in mass droves and they helped! It was crazy to see how they just jumped right in and wanted to help us, and the children are always a blessing (precarious and rowdy as they may be sometimes). Please ask us about the different ways were blessed here, there are a ton of stories, and also from the other site, I don't know as first hand about that site because I wasn't there, but I've heard some awesome stories!

One hilarious note from Monday: When we had finished the floor of Aurora's house, Donna yelled up the mountainside to Aurora (and about fifty of her neighbors-seriously) "tienes bruha?", because she wanted to sweep the floors and make them nice for Aurora...well, Jen starts yelling at Donna, "no! no! no! YOU ARE ASKING IF SHE HAS A WITCH!" needless to say, uncontrollable laughter ensued with the whole group and the Hondurans on the hillside just sat staring blankly at Donna. We have yet to let her live this down, and encourage each of you to ask if she has a bruha the next time you see her!

Ok, guess what kids...you will have to wait until tomorrow to hear about our Tuesday activities, for I am once again exhausted!

Much love to all! I was so encouraged when I read the blog comments from yesterday, thank you so much for your prayers and keep them coming! Their effectiviness is felt and seen. God has been with us every step of the way and it is evident in everything we do!! We are here to serve Him and His people and He is honoring it in so many ways. Thank you again for your love and support and prayers, you have no idea how much it paves the way for our work here!

Hasta manana!

More from Honduras

Hola! We are here! We're in Honduras! I think Donna already posted that, but I just wanted to reiterate that we did in fact survive our travel day and we are here, safe! Thank you, Lord!



I'm going to break down this blog into a few parts to tell you about the last few days. We'll start with Saturday...(side note: I apologize for the delay in updates, but the "rainy season" has hindered our internet access a bit...also, it has caused us to drive through torrential rain runoff in an old school bus, calm down, we're okay!)



Saturday was our travel day and most of us had been awake since early morning Friday, so by the time I went to sleep on Saturday night, I had been awake for something like 39 hours, and I'm pretty sure that was the case with most. It was well worth it though. When we arrived in Honduras we were picked up from the airport and immediately wisked away to Good Shepard Children's Home, which is an amazing home for children. We were greeted at the gate by armed gaurds, which was a bit of a shock for me, but they let us pass and the fun began! The guys with us, especially those who had visited before, were so excited and ready to play soccer with the kids, and the kids were equally ready to play! Those of us who did not want to play were busy coloring, making bracelets and playing other games with the children. We were not able to stay at Good Shepard long due to our travel day agenda and we loaded back onto the bus, said "adios" to our new (and old) friends and headed off to Villa Gracia, our home for the week.

Villa Gracia was more than I could have expected, considering the homes I saw on the way up the mountain, it truly is a haven; safe and beautiful. We ate a wonderful meal, received a quick orientation, had a group devotional and WENT TO SLEEP! I have never slept so soundly in my life...(until Sunday night! ha!)



Sunday morning started with an amazing breakfast at 7:30am, followed by a group devotional, and then church at Los Pinos. The church service was primarily in Spanish and we were blessed to have Nathan and Janet translate some of the service for us. It was beautiful to have the mixed Spanish/English congregation and it was evident that we were all there praising the same God. After the service we had an opportunity to play with the children from the congregation and community for a while and then we headed to our first worksites of the trip. We split into two groups for three projects. Some of us headed to a house near the church building where we built a complete roof. The second project was digging into the hillside to create a foundation bed below a house that was beginning to slide. The dirt was very sand but was mixed with garbage, clothes, and other waste (if you know what I mean). All of this had to be carried in buckets up steep steps (we were on a mountainside). Side note: also mixed into the dirt was a GIANT tarantula...yep...tarantula. Third project was to start the corner posts for a new house. However, it was located down a muddy trail, one hundred feet below the nearest walkway. All of the material had to be carried down the steep slope. I cannot begin to tell you the hardwork that the team put into these projects. We were absolutely exhausted; the travel day exhaustion turned out to be light in comparison. But it was all worth it and it was evident that God was providing strength that we did not have on our own. Second side note: at the same site as the tarantula, I overheard some little girls yelling, "serpiente! serpiente!" and let me tell you, even to those of us who don't speak or understand a lot of Spanish, THAT translates! However, it was just a tiny baby snake, so all was well.

The projects were so rewarding and the people we were helping were so grateful and adamant that God had sent us as a miracle. They are all affiliated with the Iglesia de Cristo of Los Pinos (the Church of Christ in Los Pinos) and have been recommended for help by the Preacher who has been helping as at almost every site. The faith of these people is incredible and has touched my heart profoundly. They have so little and we have so much and yet their faith far surpasses mine; it's truly amazing.

Please know that the we have done so much and met so many amazing people and played with children who are loving and sweet and absolutely filthy and I'm sorry that this is somewhat lacking in detail, it would take weeks to give every wonderful detail and we are exhausted! Please take time to sit with us when we get back and look at our pictures and I'm sure we will all want to share the intimate details of the ways and specific people and children and experiences that have profoundly touched our hearts.

Tonight, however, we are going to sleep! ;) Love to all, tomorrow we will write about today's experience, we'll probably always be behind...lo siento!

Saturday and Sunday pics

We made it!

Hello All!  Just want to let you know that God faithfully brought us safely to HondurasJ Our time in the country has already been eventful- soccer with the kid’s at Good Shepherd, driving through rivers of water running through the streets from yesterday’s rainfall, a surprise gift of watching the US vs. Honduras soccer game and devotional before falling into bed and awaking to a beautiful sunny Sunday. Can’t wait to see where God leads us today! We’ll write more later. Just know that we are safe, we are blessed, and we are delighted in the ways God is being revealed and how He has graciously chosen us to be a blessing- making a difference in the world in the name of and through the power of Jesus.