Beaches, Birthdays, and Bibles (A Novel)

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!