Cemento

Early this morning I hopped in the truck with Marc and Kale to Mirador de Oriente to help with the women's center.

Today, we, that is all of us of the Tindalls' home, were to try to go a day only speaking Spanish which is going to be every Monday. Todo Lunas. It was especially funny because Kale and I started off the day on the upper level sweeping and shoveling up cement debri, and Marc made sure that all the hands knew that we were not supposed to speak English, so they were giving us a hard time. It was a lot of fun trying to figure out words with my pocket dictionary like finding shovel to ask for "pala".

Later, the rest of the team showed up with John. Feesh and I asked Louis and Milton if we could help which is, after much correction, I believe, "Te ayudo". Eventually we ended up cleaning up the building that the crew keeps supplies and stuff in. Louis speaks very good English, and he and Steve watched us pick up cement bags and laughed at us and gave us a hard time. But, though we're not all that buff yet, we will get fuerte(strong). It was great though getting to try to know Louis. We did speak some English to try to learn Spanish, but we did slip up some other than that. At one point, we were brought coffee that was stout and Steve was telling that straight black coffee grows hair on your chest after I'd already said how much I love black coffee. And that got a whole big laugh going that I have hair there, but I insist that I don't . Anyway, it was much fun getting to know Louis.

Before we headed out of Tegus, after we'd dropped off Milton and Louis, we made our daily stop to the grocery store. We got some dinner stuff and bologna and bread for the dump feed we are going to do tomorrow, Lord willing. As we were going out of the store two dear little girls in their school uniform were asking for money, which is a heartbreaking and common thing here in Honduras, and they helped Marc and I put loaves of bread in the back of the truck. Marc got a cell phone call so I was continuing to talk with the girl who was still with me and she said that I am alto(tall) and I said you are bajo(short) and she asked how old I am and I did my best to say 18, I had to use my hands to explain, and I asked how old she was and she was 10. Her name was Maria Fernando. Children, beautiful souls. We said goodbye and Mark gave the girls some Lempiras(Honduran currency) and I told the younger girl God bless you as we pulled off. It's hard to explain how the heart feels, but it does ache on behalf of those girls.

Anyway, my words fail me, I should go to bed and sleep. Let the people in your life impact you.

Sunday

Hello!!

Today was a fairly chill day. We went to the Iglesia de Cristo de Santa Ana today here on the property. I didn't understand the Spanish much, but I could definitely feel and see their love and passion for Christ expressed through their worship to God. Wow. Afterwards we hung out with the youth and we played games for a while. We went back to the house and Feesh found a blue and green prickly lizard in her tote. We caught it and took it to show the kids playing outside. One of the boys took it, I think it was Marvin, and him and Danela played with it until it bit him and took off in a little hole. They thought it was great.

We ate rice and beans and dottled around the house cleaning and such and all of us but Feesh and Terri crammed in Marc's truck and ventured to Tegus to watch Indiana Jones with Spanish subtitles. Sweet.

Tonight when we got back we met the Tindalls' friend John, who'd showed up unexpectedly. He's from California and is going to be traveling to some different places in Honduras for a week. It was neat meeting him while he stayed and ate ham and cheese sandwiches with us.

Dios le bendiga.

Saturday

Today I slept in a little and got up at 8. We helped Terri paint at the building that is going to be the store. All the kids were playing outside and as we were painting all the sudden it sounded like an uprising. We found out later that the kids were going crazy over these giant jungle ants. After a while, I went and got the bubbles out of my backpack for all the kiddies at Casa de Esperanza. They loved that! They were blowing them and after a while many of the boys were taking small sticks and shoving the ants into the little bubble containers. I was jumping with Pamela, Daniela and Cindy on the trampoline for a while. Then many of the kids embarked on an ant hunt and collected them in a little yellow bucket. They probably had at least 50!! Fernando got up on my back and I helped them go for the hunt. Those 14 kids are most precious souls. They are troopers. With what they've gone through in their young lives they are so resilient. They care for one another and they love with all their might. They've been helping me learn Spanish so much also.

Later in the day my teammates and I took some garbage bags and went out into Santa Ana. There is much trash. It seemed like a great way to get involved in the community and interact with people. Just down the drive from Casa de Esperanaza many people were chatting at the junction. We all smiled and did our best say hello in Spanish. Over by a fence I was picking up some trash and along hopped a big fat toad, and I picked it up, and some of the people came to see what I had and we all had a good chuckle. It is definitely a neat opportunity from God. I think that if we had some down time at any point it would be great to continue to do.

Much to say, but it has been a blessed day. Much love and peace to you.

Friday adventure

This morning Marc, Kale, Felicia and I went up to Mirador Oriente, a village outside of Tegus. That is where for the past few weeks Marc and the Hondurans have been building a woman's center so that the women can take their families to wash up and clean clothes on the downstairs floor and on the top floor the women will be able to learn how to sew and teach classes to oneanother. It is way neat and is coming along so beautifully. Tomorrow they will probably be roofing it.

We got there early this morning and after a while Marc, Feesh and I went into Tegus to meet with a lady named Nora who had requested a new home. We met her and she was so sweet. Feesh and I were doing our best to speak with her, but our Spanish is limited. We listened as she spoke with Marc. We found out that her house is 13 years old and that she has 3 children. We drove up a narrow, rugged road into a rough neighborhood. People had starving eyes and scarcily anyone would smile. We got to up above her house and walked down a dusty path to her home. Outside was a little girl, I took to be her daughter and she was holding a puppy that we pet. Her heart seemed as though it was deeply hurting.

We all went inside and a couple of her family members were there. It was cramped. A tiny room that was pungent and had no food. One person could not live comfortably there. When it storms the water comes in and the wind cuts through. Destitution.

Nora showed us around the outside and Marc told her in Spanish that they would build her a new home. We all held hands and prayed and afterwards she said "Thanks be to God!" and then thanked Marc by giving him a big hug. That joy, that sincere faith in God was overwhelmingly impactful. The power of Christ is magnificent!

The rest of the afternoon we were in Mirador. When we got back there Marc dropped off Feesh and I at the Comisa, which is a place where sweet sisters prepare and serve the 250 children of the village everyday before they go to school in the afternoon. As we got there, a few children were already mingling outside. We were introduced to the women back in the kitchen and all the smells of the kitchen were so delicious. Feesh and I were greatly appreciative of their patience with us Gringas as we tried to express that we wanted to help and made hand motions. Kia, one of the women, was trying to tell us what different words were. They set us to work helping dry some baskets, squirt soap on the hand of the children as they came through the door, and served the children the rice and beans with morrila. They also had a type of juice that might have been pinapple. They insisted, after many of the kids left, that we have some of their food. I'm so grateful for that.

I'm also thankful for feeling foolish. I really, really can appreciate better what my foreign friends of the past went through with struggling to communicate. It is very humbling.

Those women there are incredible servants of God; body, soul, and with all their might. Their bones ache; they work to the glory of God.

After all that Feesh and I went to see what we could do to help the guys out. Marc had us cleaning up some concrete rubble. That was fun.

Anyways, I'm muy sueno and should turn in for the night. But God bless you and I hope to write some more insight tomorrow.

Plane trip to the jungle on the 20th of May

Out of Dallas, TX on a 757 after not sleeping the night before for the sheer excitement of heading out to new places, Steve, Rayner, and I could say, "This is it, it's official".

We met up with two of our other teamates, Kale and Felicia, in Miami after going through Taca's ticket counter and through security with our passports. We were ecstatic and I looked around at all the people waiting at the gate and thought, "Wow, these are the people of Honduras and we are going with them to their country. "

We boarded the plane and I came to my spot were there was a very beautiful elderly woman. I tried to communicate that my spot was the window, and she quickly understood that I didn't speak much Spanish. After I'd sat down I quickly learned that she could speak English very well.

Before the flight took off, the flight attendents handed out visa forms for entrance into Honduras. My teamates and I were sitting fairly near eachother so me asked eachother questions, but with what we didn't know, the elderly woman, Lilo, was so helpful.

Lilo and I talked quite a bit. She is from Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. I found out that she is a Christian and that her daughter is too. Her grandson is not much older than me, and she says that he is a good kid. She helped me with my Spanish and she was so patient. She said I was a good student, but I told her that she was a good teacher. I asked, "Como se dice "God bless you" en Espanol and she smiled and said, "Dios le bendiga".

Our plane stopped in San Pedro Sula in the north west corner of Honduras and it was neat to see the land there, which from the sky wasn't all that much unlike the farmland in northeast Texas. The landing was cool. At the descent it was quick because they free falled and did some great turns, finally to hit a bumpy runway that was short. Once we grounded, there were crates of chickens flapping their wings as they were unloaded with the rest of the planes' cargo and a whole crew came on the plane to clean and there was a air cleaner that rolled out in a fog from the vents. After an hour stop we flew out to Tegus.

Shortly after being air borne we were descending again. It was a similar landing, except before we descended we went over a volcano to get down into the valley. On ground, Lilo and I parted, and I am going to try to be in touch with her and her family while in Honduras. She told me if I needed anything, to got to the market, or just hang to call her. Really, her love is beyond what I can express, except that that it is compelled by the love of Christ.

We all got in the line to go through customs and at my turn I gave the lady my passport and visa papers, she looked at them, and took my picture and summoned me through. We all got our luggage off of the belt and stood in line for the luggage check. Once I got there, I put my luggage through their scan and waited for my turn to get my luggage search, but since I was last, and security seemed tired, they just waved me through.

Some men in green shirts helped us get out luggage out and we were met by Marc and Terri Tindall the missionaries of Santa Ana, our coordinators, and Keith, our other teammate who'd gotten on a flight earlier out of Dallas. We all hugged and tipped the guys and then loaded up in Marc's truck and Terri's SUV.

I was feeling stoked and sort of hazy. All around was Spanish and new smells, fruit stands and the wildest driving I've ever seen. People watching from the streets, and windy roads and mountain air and trees and humidity and so many new and exciting things. After driving for about 45 minutes we came to the village of Santa Ana, which is where Casa de Esperanza is, our new home.

Us girls packed the luggage down the rocky path to Marc and Terri's and then worked on setting up a bunkbed for our room. The guys got there later with Marc with some groceries. We met Marc and Lori, another couple who have recently returned to live and work permanently as well as their dog Esperanza and the Tindalls' dog Skillet. I helped Terri get some sheets out of the guest house and Marc started dinner. We all mingled and just were taking in the newness and enchantment of the jungle, all the birds and bugs and plants, etc. That night we all ate fried tortilla with beans and fellowshipped and tried to start to get to know one another. Eventually we all turned in for the night. Our God is amazing!

Ambassador for Christ

Tick...tock...tick...tock...BAAMM!!

It's almost time to load up and roll out to a whole other country. Honduras!

In Ephesians 3:20-21 the apostle Paul writes, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."

That even our biggest dream is tiny in comparison to what great things God will do.

It is so cool that God chose to carry out his will in us; those who have put on Christ! I'm so incredibly excited to see what God is going to do through us.

I'm on a team with Steve, Kale, Keith, Felicia, and Rayner. It is not "my team" or "our team" but God's team! We come from totally different pasts, have different talents, and personalities...praise God! We are a body. Each person has a unique place. We are like a family. We don't get along perfectly, but we resolve. With Christ placed as the Head of the body, as he is the Head, we will grow closer together. We are ambassadors for Christ.

2 Cor 5:11-21 Paul writes to the church in Corinth,

"Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. We are not trying to commend ouselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. If we are out of our mind, it is for the sake of God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. we are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be a sin offering for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. "

Jesus Christ died on our behalf so that we can be reconciled to God, and he arose on the 3rd day!! This faith would be useless if Christ was not resurrected! (reference to 1 Cor 15: 12-34).

So God has sent me to spread the good news of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world. He blesses me so much. Our God is so good to us!! And he is calling me to Honduras! I'm so excited to see what God is going to do. He grows me and molds me and shapes me more and more into the image of Christ. I'm a disciple of Christ. A child of God trying to follow in the footsteps of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.