1 John 3:16-18

"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” 1 John 3:16-18

In other news...

So out of the blue the other day Sandy told me, "Our horse gave birth last night.  We found it this morning."  Sure enough, the little guy was next to the mom right in from of the clinic gates grazing even though they live down in the village...since I had my camera with me, I snapped this shot...a new born horsie.  It doesn't have a name yet, so I'm open to ideas.  It was funny to watch it try to walk -- it looked so awkward with its little stilt legs.  Pretty big to be inside the mom the day before!

Honduras Project

This most recent trip has also proved to be a formative time that will certainly shape my life; perhaps similar in the crazy way just I ended up being called to move to Rio Viejo (I was first introduced to Martin and Wendy through a Wheaton/HP alum, Larry Smoak, who lives in a nearby village and has been an influential leader and mentor for many HP teams over the years).  It was exciting to see and feel God at work but also difficult to continue to wrestle with ongoing questions of poverty, justice and God’s sovereignty.  

 I really felt God used the time in the village of San Ramon and the 2 debriefing days directly following to reflect on the relationships and questions from the week and process how these experiences can be used to spur others on to a life seeking Christ – for me, with groups that come to serve at the clinic, my family, friends, and others later on, along with my own personal walk.  

Joe, Caterino, me and Ricardo.  Topics of conversation ranged from faith, to proper cement consistency, diabetic diet modifications, beauties of a simple lifestyle, sustainable farming, and soccer.  Caterino was a pretty well off community member as evident by his house, business and he even owns a car.  As one of the few people with wheels, he was the go-to guy for transportation of workers, materials, and delivering us snacks.  Joe and I spent many afternoons on his front porch playing with his kids, talking to his wife, and sipping Coke out of glass bottles and eating chips.   

Along with the water system, the project emphasizes building relationships within the community.  This was facilitated through 4 of the team members working alongside the women in the kitchen, preparing all the food for the group.  Also, we had children’s ministry every afternoon, which included a craft, skit, songs and games.  At night the village and many people from surrounding villages came together for a night service, with songs and personal testimonies from the group, a drama, and a message (either from a local pastor, Larry, or one of our advisors, Dr. Roop).  This picture was taken the last night in the village – each work partner shared a few memories and thoughts with the rest of the village about his North American work partner and also gave each group member a “San Ramon” t-shirt as a departing gift.

The director this year was my good friend Blake.  We did HP together our first trip, and the following year we were on cabinet together with 3 other students.  Blake is a senior at Wheaton this year and did a great job leading the group, addressing the village in Spanish, keeping track of cultural awareness/sensitivity/minimizing the negative impact of bringing in a large group to a small village, and encouraging us throughout the week to focus on Christ as the ultimate example of love. 
This being the third time I’ve been on HP, I’ve realized to an even greater extent the importance of taking time to think through and make decisions during this short window of time since the trip and life as usual in the States.  How to act them out and how to remain in a the “chaos” of difficult questions and frustrations and injustices, amidst the temptation to again find more comfortable and less meaningful things with which to focus my attention, continues to be a struggle for me. 

It is my hope that I, as well as all of my fellow HHIM family and endless volunteers, continue to seek to develop a deeper relationship and understanding of Christ and his Word and to continually look to Jesus as a perfect example of love and justice.  May we all strive to overcome doubt with confidence, complacency with new challenges and arrogance with humility, using our gifts and abilities to serve the Lord wherever He leads us in this world, an ever-present mission field.

Wheaton Honduras Project 2009

Wow, what a powerful and wise God we have, right?  It was amazing to see Him move in the small village of San Ramon and in the group of 25 students and 2 advisors from Wheaton College Honduras Project during their 10-day spring break trip.  This project has been very influential in my life as it first introduced me to the country and people of Honduras during my sophomore and junior years at Wheaton.  

This project is a student-led initiative that involves raising support for materials and travel expenses while working in conjunction with a Honduran engineer and his wife to install a gravity-fed water system in a rural Honduran village.  The project focuses on a holistic approach in active love through service and seeks to build meaningful relationships by living and working alongside Honduran people.  
A couple weeks ago I had the privilege to accompany the group as a translator and again I was stretched and challenged to continue to wrestle with issues of poverty and brokenness in our world, while at the same time encouraged and inspired to find hope and joy in the love of Christ. 

Most of my time translating was spent at the tank with the two men who were brought in to build the two tanks and facilitate the construction of the rest of the system.  I mostly observed and made conversation with Joe, a fellow HPer, and his work partner, Ricardo.  We learned how to mix cement, lay bricks, throw cement and accept lots of candy, chips and soda.  It was fun to be able to encourage Joe and the other team members to use the Spanish they did know and be able to clear some of the fog in their brains from communicating in another language.
The presence of God was evident in the lives of everyone involved and I was really blown away by their sincere generosity, openness and grace – certainly a testament to the faithfulness and goodness of our God.  Ever since I was a sophomore in college, this project (HP) has been instrumental in laying a foundation for my faith and desire to learn how to love others.  

I'm a Teacher?

A couple months ago, a week before school started, I found out I would be a 9th grade English teacher.  So far we have learned classroom commands ("Underline the word.", "Pass out the papers.", etc.), cardinal and ordinal numbers, the alphabet and the vowels, 5 different verbs, and pronouns.  I know this because I just wrote their first major test today -- it's exam week this week since they're off the whole week next week for Semana Santa (Holy week).

A couple weeks ago it was Father's Day in Honduras -- the students had a special day where they had a program with dramas, special songs, traditional dances, etc. and also each classroom chose and cooked a meal for the dads that could come (about 30 out of 140) for the afternoon.
Some of my students -- Katy, Martín, Walter, Marlon and José Daniel.  I have 2 classes every morning of 39 students total.  In the first week of class I had them choose English names which ranged from the ever-so-popular Brittney, to an English pronunciation of their original name (i.e. "EL-veen" --> Elvin or "KAH-tee" --> Katie, etc.) but the most unique being Mainor's insistence on being called "Barack."

Acapella song

"LET US ADORE"

Let us adore (Let us adore)

The ever-living G0d (The ever-living G0d)

And render praise (And render praise)

Unto Him (Unto Him)

Who stretched out the Heavens (Who stretched out the Heavens)

And established the earth (And established the earth)

And whose glory (And whose glory)

Is manifest throughout the whole earth

He is our God (He is our God)

He is our God (He is our God)

And there is no one else

He is our God (He is our God)

He is our God (He is our God)

And there is no one else

Nick's Visit III

Nick's new friend, Paco, from Jason and Sarah's orphanage up the road from Rio Viejo.  Paco is a kinkachu, which is like a monkey/bear and he is nocturnal and very friendly.  To check out their website, go to: http://www.givehope2kids.org.
This is a picture of me, Heather and Claire on our hike up to the waterfall near our village.  I was the caboose, which backfired in the end as I wasn't paying attention and we missed our trail.  Much to our dismay, at the culmination of our expedition, we pushed back the foliage and took the final steps of the short descent (or so we thought) and were stupefied by the sight of the cement walkway which led to the suspension bridge at the ENTRANCE of the park!  So, apparently we found the only way the two separate paths conjoin, which is no small feat in itself, but was quite disappointed to 4 very tired and worked up gringos who had been hiking for almost 2 hours.  Needless to say, we didn't have time for a second try, so now I'm 0 for 2 with family hikes to the Falls. 
Any guesses to what is hanging out of Nick's mouth?  Ever heard of "mondongo" soup??  Yes, it is cow intestines.  It's actually quite common here and they even serve it in restaurants.  The mother of my friend, Sandy, was kind enough to make it along with fresh tortillas and surprised us one night!  No, they didn't stay for dinner so don't think Nick made this face in front of the chef!  He did manage a couple bites and did enjoy the yucca and other veggies.  We still aren't completely positive that his intense diarrhea came from this or the other stuff he ate while he was here, but it is high on my list of culprits.
Now this is more like it!!  The next night we made tons of guacamole and ate it all.  Or at least Nick did I think.  Due to the recent encounter of my new amoeba friends, I wasn't quite so enthusiastic, but I must admit, Heather makes a mean enchilada sauce.

Nick and I did venture down to the local soccer field, although neither one of us joined in.  Men play separately from the women and supposedly there is a women's team (I have yet to see them play).  The village teams around the mountain, like the guys here in Rio Viejo, are quite competitive and take the game very seriously.  No, they didn't ask Nick to play, but we had fun watching -- cool how they found this piece of flat land for their field in the midst of such steep mountains!

Nick's Visit II

One highlight of Nick's trip was crossing the river in a hand-cart that dangles over a huge rocky gorge.  

In order to cross you need to purchase something from the co-op across, which sells different tapestries, blankets, etc. which are handmade by women in the area.  We bought 2 lovely potholders with birds embroidered on them.

Fun in the sun -- climbing on the boulders, exploring the river, going for a swim, etc....oh, life in Honduras.

Waterfalls, suntans, enjoying the breeze...quite different than wintry Michigan this time of year!

Nick's friend (Sandy's brother), Victor, who took him for a bike ride in the mountains his first day here.  Apparently the bikes broke about a mile or two outside the village so they had to walk them back before they went out again.  

It was cool that he got to spend some time with someone from the village and also experience Honduran life from a local's perspective.  Victor was quick to offer Nick some coconut water from his yard and I think Nick was a bit jealous of his tree-climbing and machete skills.  

Nick's Visit

Last week my brother, Nick, came down for a visit -- his first time outside of North America.   It was great having him around and we had lots of fun exploring and spending time together.  Here he is with some of his new friends: Isis, Norely, Belen, Saudito, Fernandito and Claudia.

As his more experienced (less gringo) sister, I was able to show him a few Honduran tricks of the trade, for example, how to eat an orange Honduran-style, and how to kill scorpions (actually Claire nailed the one pictured).  

Actually, most of Nick's free time here was spent helping us interns clean out the dorm for the upcoming influx of teams (currently there's a 2-month team of HS kids from Canada).  We scraped cement, scrubbed, vacuumed, and mopped floors, painted, moved bunk beds, made the beds, etc. and Nick won "Best Scrapper" award by scrapping off a chunk of the dining room floor in his attempt to get off a paint splatter.

It was Nick's goal while he was here to find a tarantula and a scorpion, so he was 1 for 2.  We seem to be having an increase of scorpions in our house in the past month, and I think the count is now up to 7.  Fortunately so far the sting count is 0.