Okay.... So last Friday,
Criz and Nicole (both Hondurans) came with us to hang out for the
day. David, Criz, Taylor and I hung out and talked for a bit which
was fun. I learned the word for people who have the same name. I
forget it now, but I'll hopefully look it up before I post this so
that you can know it too! Haha. After lunch, we did evangelism –
with two groups: Criz's team and Nicole's team.
Evangelism time went well – my team visited three houses – Criz
was our awesome translator :-) If you think of it, pray for Juan. His
wife is a strong Christian, but he isn't. But apparently, his wife
thinks it's inevitable that he is going to become a Christian – so
pray that whatever is holding him back would disappear. Also pray for
another house – they're Christians, but they don't go to church or
lifegroups too often because of work. Pray that they can either find
a different time to have some Christian community or something,
because that is definitely necessary to stay strong in the faith. :-)
The other team actually talked to some of the younger girls for the
majority of the time. It was eye-opening how much these girls need
Jesus too – just because they're growing up in Casa Hogar and go to
the church does not mean they understand the gospel. It was a great
experience, from what I've heard!
On Saturday,
I did some laundry, then skyped the Kent h2o summer reunion party in
the afternoon. Soooooo fun! I LOVED being able to see people's faces
and wave hi and such. I miss all a y'all, but can't wait to have
another school year with y'all in a little over a month! Exciting!
After that, I went to band practice and got to hang out after to
watch the drama team practice and help fold bulletins. The drama team
was hilarious! My … supervisor(?), Eli, was an angry man yelling at
his wife and kids. It was fun to see him jump in and out of
character, especially since he's actually a super kind, more
soft-spoken guy :-)
Actual church was good – the pastor talked about the lie of
“that's just the way I am, and I can't change.” God is
all-powerful. If we depend on Him, he can change anyone. It was good!
After church, I was just hanging out or something when Sarah runs in
and says, “Come to the pool it'll be super fun!” and I'm like
okay... I get there and Sarah and Elsa are walking around on the
bottom of our drained pool. Immediately I'm like, where's my
camera?!? If you haven't seen the pictures on facebook yet, you need
to :-) It was a bunch of fun! We just hung out and read our bibles
then started climbing the walls and dancing around... eventually we
found out how to turn off the lights and we had a dance party with
Taylor's laptop and Sarah's strobe light app on her phone. Super
funn!!! So dark though, pictures don't look so great :-) Then
eventually we got tired and started stargazing. At the bottom of the
pool, there's no glare from any nearby lights, so the stars look a
lot brighter. Another fantastic night!
Sunday: We went
to the beach!!!! It was so fun!!!! I'm so glad I went!!!! We joined
Ryan and Melissa and their crew (Sierra and R&M's two kids), and
had a marvelous time. I'll get pictures up soon, but basically
there's this mass of huts – more pavillion-like – poles with
thatch or tin roofs with hammock hanging from almost every possible
spot. Once you maneuver your way through all that, the horizon opens
up and there's the ocean! With distant mountains interrupting the
skyline on the edges – one side was Nicaragua, and one side was El
Salvador. Cool, no?! We played in the shoreline for a bit, chasing
bricks (or running away from them – apparently there was a big
storm or something so there was a lot of debris – big rocks and
bricks), building sand castles, taking pictures... For lunch, we had
fried fish, chicken or shrimp. They literally just gut and fry the
fish – head and bones and all – so that was a fun experience!
Sarah and Elsa even ate the eyes. I didn't, once I heard they tasted
super fishy. The shrimp was delicious as well. All the meals were
served with plantain fries/chips, which tasted good when paired with
the spicy oniony type thing they had. Descriptions are so much
harder! Pics soon, I swear.
After lunch, I just wanted to sit in a hammock and read, so that's
what I did! Then I listened to some praise music and just soaked in
the day. It was glorious!
We had a bit of time after the beach to freshen up before dinner,
then went to Toita's like usual. I was so confused though – there
were a bunch of cars there and we went straight to the back, where
there was a bbq party going on – surprise! It was fun, but a little
unexpected, so it threw me off a bit. :-)
Back to business on Monday. Sarah and I sat at the park and read our
bibles until the exercise class was done and joined us for Xan's
lecture. Then Taylor told us that Eli, Maura, and Oscar wanted to
talk to us – have a meeting, per se. Basically they just wanted to
check up on us and see if there's stuff that we should do
differently, if we're stressed or confused about anything... It was a
very good meeting. I enjoyed it a lot, because it helped me feel more
like the things we're doing here are intentional. Even though there's
only three weeks left, it was good to remember that God's not leaving
in three weeks, so we can't just slack off or be like, “well, we're
almost done. No big deal if we just do what we've been doing, because
changing things now wouldn't be worth much.” At the end of it, Eli
also said he might have some “special missions” for me that have
to do with conflict management – obviously, in any community there
will conflict :-) and I may be able to help resolve some? Hopefully!
We shall see!
After lunch, we tried pave at Edith's house (a kind of dessert that's
really hard to explain... it was cold, and slightly jelloy but more
firm... layers of different flavors with graham crumbs separating
them... with whipped cream and fruit on top.) Then Sarah and I read
our Bibles at the park again and invited others to join us. English
class in the afternoon – we presented the bridge diagram in
Spanish, but used English key words. It went well – a bit of bad
behavior from some of the kids, but overall it was good :-) While the
kids played at the park afterwards, I chatted with Sulema (the former
tia) and Erica. I looove getting to know them better! So fun!!!
Right when we were about to leave though, a kid got Xan and April
because apparently one of the women we talked to like the first week
here was really sick. She had a lot of stomach pain and was crying.
We took her to the hospital (Xan, Ed and April went in, the rest of
us waited in the car). Pray for her, if you think of it :-) She's
doing a lot better now, but she's had chronic stomach pains for a
while now...
Since it was the last night Criz was going to be with us, we had a
huge farewell party for him. Coffee involved, of course. A couple of
games of Mafia as well. Sad to see Criz go, especially since he's had
so little time with us...
Tuesday
was Sarah's BIRTHDAY!! Elsa and I had a blast planning it and putting
it into action. We made her breakfast and packed her lunch with the
favorite foods we can get down here :-) Started a scavenger hunt that
continued on to Casa Hogar... One of the presents was getting to talk
to Hilda – that was so fun! It was just me and Sarah, and Hilda was
excited to talk with us, as always. It worked out great because Sarah
was sitting between me and Hilda, so Hilda could talk to Sarah and I
could murmur the translation in her ear pretty well, so we got along
well. Sarah understands a ton more Spanish than she used to, and God
gave me the ability to understand Hilda and translate things
decently. Today I think was the day that it just clicked and now I
feel a ton more comfortable with Spanish. Crazy!!!
We
had Bible class – since it was Sarah's birthday, we talked about
being born again in Christ. We also reviewed the bridge diagram. It
was super exciting – there were some people there that hadn't come
before and the kids that had been before remembered a lot of the
bridge diagram! So great!
We went to Espresso Americano for Sarah's b-day (coffee is a must! I
got the caramel granita again). Since Ed was in Teguc with our cook
(taking Xan's mom and Criz back and doing some stuff with the cook),
we had Wendy's for dindin. :-) Had band practice soon after that with
Xan. Fun times, but after it was over, we waited for Taylor to come
pick us up, but after it was about time for him to be there, we
called the apartments and he was swimming. Fail. So we went with
Walter and the rest of the band to one of the singer's houses to
visit their family, because their 1 month old baby is sick :-(
Busy day! Mrrrr!
Wednesday
Sarah watched one of the mom's baby so that the mom could go to the
exercise class, so I read at the park by myself until I remembered
that one of the women we've talked to can't read, so I went to her
house and read a bit of the Psalms to her. Then we just sat and
chatted and I met her little sister who was visiting. Hey guys! I can
carry on conversations in Spanish! Ahhh God is good :-)
We had coffeeeee and cookies for Sarah's b-day, since Eli was gone
for the majority of the day yesterday so we couldn't have any. After
lunch, we talked more as a group about the meeting on Monday and
things we can improve on, etc.
Women's bible group went well – we talked about the importance of
teaching your children the gospel. They all shared a good bit, so
that was good – other days, the discussions haven't really taken
off. And today! We got to use the meeting house instead of crowding
around the tree with the hormigas (fireants) and constant
distractions, so that helped a ton!
Tonight was the HLT session, for some reason. Probably just when the
speaker could be here, I guess. He was from El Salvador. It was a
great message – I don't know if it's because Frank was back from El
Salvador as well, so the translation was actually clear or what, but
I really enjoyed it. He said God is innovative (he will reveal great
and mysterious things that we do not know), he's new (his mercies are
new every morning), and he's absolute (he's constant and unchanging).
So good to hear.... Also, I got to jam out to Eres Fiel, which was SO
FUN!!!! That's all :-)
At Casa on Thursday, I read a bit at the park, then decided to
continue the trend of reading the Bible to someone who can't read,
and since Maria had joined me at the park (she wanted to play with my
dictionary, like always), I had her take me to her house. I read
Ephesians 1 to her mom, then chatted a bit. She wasn't as chatty as
the woman the day before, but it was still good to hang out for a
while at least :-)
After that, I helped Sarah out with looking after the baby, and I got
to meet a girl, LG, who was hanging out there too – she's had a bit
of a tough life, but it's cool to see that she's hanging out at the
house of one of the stronger Christians here :-) I pray she continues
to get to know God and rely on Him through the trials of life.
During lunch, I asked Eli if he'd be interested in me teaching a
mediation class for the leaders of Casa Hogar (well... Xan got the
conversation started for me... thanks for the initiative! Haha). He
said definitely, and scheduled it for next Tuesday! Praying that that
goes well and I can prepare well :-) Eli and I chatted a good bit
about his experiences after college, when he was the supervisor of 50
people at a factory – the patience he learned, the people skills,
the ways to resolve conflicts. He learned a lot! Definitely knows
more than me, I've only ever learned stuff from books and a few
experiences with friends. Supervising fifty people is an entirely
different matter! Haha
We got to have English class in the meeting house, which worked well
since we wanted the kids to draw out the bridge diagram – in
Spanish and in English. It went well, in my opinion! There were some
new kids and (for the most part) everyone behaved! After class, while
the kids played at the park, I sat on the fence with Faviola and
talked about life. It's so much easier to talk to people now! I love
it!
And then who would be in the truck to pick us up than Criz! Surprise!
He left in the first place because he had school stuff to do, but now
he has like a week before the next thing, so he came back! Haha. I
love Honduran culture. That's how it is all the time here. It's one
thing one day, then changes so quickly! (In some ways it reminds me
of college life too in that way).
Band practice in the evening, and a birthday frosty celebration for
Jack (Happy birthday!!!). Fun stuffs!
Friday: Nicole came along again, and we met up with Nisis (who lives
in Casa). I played at the orphanage for a bit, then helped make
bracelets at Manualidades with Sarah. During lunch, I wrote out
everything I could remember about mediation – I think this class
shouldn't be too hard!
We split into two groups again for evangelism. The other group
finished up the last of the houses while my group (Sarah Xan and I
[David and Ian tagged along]) went to find LG to hang out and get to
know her more. She wasn't home, but her dad was, so we got to talk
and pray with him. He's a sweet man. :-) We visited Senora S to see
how she was doing (she's the one who went to the hospital on Monday),
then chilled at the park with the kids. Soon I went to sit with four
of the women who were sitting on a nearby porch, and hung out with
them for the rest of the day. I enjoyed every bit of it! Even when
they eventually just started talking to each other and my brain was
so fried it was hard to keep up, but just sitting there, sharing
company, and laughing whenever I did understand something was
so great! I must be crazy. :-)
In the evening, we hung out at the pool and ate pizza and talked
about life. After dinner, we had a spiderman piñata,
just for fun, which also gave everybody who has ever been thrown in
the pool by Taylor a chance for revenge... mwahahahahaaaa! He took
Elsa with him though! Sooo funny!!!!
And today I've just been hanging out,
working on mediation stuff and blogging. Yup yup yup! I'll be going
to band practice in a few hours, then church tonight!
