Giggles That Last a Lifetime!

12/28/11

Shadow of Iris taking pictures of the chickens

After our "kick start" I saw the little girls playing on the porch of the hogar so I went to investigate.  They were playing with  the dolls they had received for Christmas, coloring books, balloons etc. and they were sitting on the ping pong table.  I great play place.  They were excited to see me coming and quickly invited me to join them in  coloring. Ludis instructed me what to color & what colors to use.  We had some interesting pictures when we finished. Love those pictures of Mickey Mouse with purple ears!  Iris, who is 8, took my camera and started taking pics of us, the rabbits in the hutch, the landscape, just everything!  I can still hear Dahlia giggling!  She would blow up balloons and pop them making me scream!

When folks ask me what I do in Honduras I often say "play" and that is really what we do a lot of.  Play, love the girls & boy do they know how to love in return.  It is all about building relationship and showing the love of Christ.  Even if that means  coloring and playing with dolls. 

Dahlia with my glasses on

Muddy feet and motivation

As we were leaving the hogar...in the big yellow school bus (there were about about 45 of us on the bus) we got stuck in the mud!  It was almost like something unspoken Jim opened the bus door and people started filing off...I'm sitting close to the back of the bus with the tias, we kept our seats.  The ones that exited the bus were actually going to try and push the bus out of the mud!  Jim slowly accelerated....they would push the bus and a rocking motion started on the inside of the bus!  As the bus would inch forward we would rock forward and the girls would scream!!!  The ingenuity of those on the outside won out as they started scurrying to find sticks to place under the tire of the bus. In no time we were out of the mud and on our way to the pool.  

Foot washing. Photo by Moriah Watson

On the way to the pool we stopped to pick up Ilene, she is a friend of the girls at the hogar & her father Louis drives the bus for us.  He also has a business washing the semi trucks in the area.  While we were waiting for Ilene Jim announced that those who wanted to wash their feet could do so there.  For a split second I thought he was saying that we were going to have a good old fashion foot washing!  

I love the ingenuity of the Hondurans.  As Americans we are often spoiled with the conveniences that  we have.  When we arrived at the pool I noticed that the tias had brought a pinata ...how fun is THAT?  However, I turned to Lance and said "how are they going to hang it?  They didn't bring a string OR a stick!"  He looked and me with a huge smile and said "Dee you are in Honduras".....!  I had to chuckle....indeed we were! 

We had to wait to get in the pool so the tias set out to hang the pinata ...sure enough...they found a rope AND a stick!  It was just like it was sitting out waiting for us.  The pinata was actually in celebration of Pastor Jim's birthday.  They had placed a banner across it that had his name on it & ironically it was dressed  just like him!  

It was so much fun watching him swing the stick  & finally break it open...and all the girls to rush forward to collect the goods. It was so sweet to see each of them walk up to him afterwards and give him some of their candy. They all love him so much.  It is truly evidence of the relationships that have been built over the years.  

New Every Morning

The mountain top to the right of the hogar...just across the river.

December 28, 2011
Entry from my journal

It is a beautiful morning.  It rained hard last night & it is crisp and clean this morning.  I have  noticed several different kinds of birds this trip.  The wren that sings such a sweet song, a pretty yellow bird similar to a finch but a little larger, some birds that sound like blue jays but are gray, the old gray crane that flies up from the river & the white cow birds that are in the field with the horse and cow.  It is a nice change from the normal grackles that are normally here...running up and down the roof making lots of noise!  I am sitting on the front porch with my dear friend, whose heart I know is breaking.  I am praying that God will make their heart fresh and new like the morning.

I truly enjoyed the mornings on this trip.    After everyone had their breakfast "Pastor Jeeeeem"  would have our Jump Start for the day.  One of the team members called it "Kick Start"  and that really was what it became.  God did so much around that table in the mornings.  Hearts were opened, prayer request were made & it was so obvious that God was there.  Jim had spoken the previous day about having a relationship with God and what that looked like.  Below is how I ended the above journal entry.

 Dear Lord, I want to have a true relationship with you.  I know you, I love you, but I am not sure that I have a relationship with you.  I want to depend on you for my life, like I have depended on you for all my needs for this trip.  Lord draw me closer to you.

22, Because of the LORD’s faithful love
we do not perish,
for His mercies never end.
²³ They are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness!
²⁴ I say: The LORD is my portion,
therefore I will put my hope in Him. 

Lamentations 3:22-24  (HCSB)

 

Psalm 37 God Will Prevail

From my journal 1/27/11

I am sitting on the front porch -feeling rested & content. the birds are singing, a wren was sitting on the window singing as I made my tea. The rooster is crowing & the horse is grazing in the field outside the gates. There are two men at the school (one I believe is Manuel the guard) and they are weed eating ...it is barely 7 a.m!! I read Psalm 27, I'm not sure why that came to mind if I have seen it before or if God placed it in my mind to read...let's call it God because it is is perfect for here and for what Yobani is going through. The wicked & evil will be defeated & God WILL prevail.

These are a few of the verses that spoke to me that morning:

37 1-3 Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away. Trust in the Lord and do good dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.

37:10 But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace.

37:16-17 Better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked; for the power of the wicked will be broken, but the LORD upholds the righteous.

^{37: 39-40} The salvation of the righteous comes from the LORD; he is their stronghold in time of trouble. The LORD helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him.

The funny part is that after writing those verses down & looking back in my new compact bible I realized that it WAS God who led me to that passage. I hadn't ever read the passage before AND if you look back at what I wrote in my journal I thought I was reading 27 but actually it was 37! I later discovered that I had read 27 before the trip but it was 37 that God placed on my heart. I know ...confusing but it works for me!

God is in control ...He knows the desires of our hearts. He will take care of the righteous & he will prevail!! Yobani knows that...and despite the trials and false accusations he has encountered he continues to love the Lord & does not talk badly about his accusers. He has been released temporarily (on bail) but his ordeal is not over. The Saturday we were there Yobani returned to the prison where he had spent the last 3.5 months (arrested on false accusations) and preached to the 200 men there. God is using Yobani to love those that are not loveable, just like Jesus loved and forgave the thief on the cross. Please pray for Yobani and his church as God leads them to minister to the men in the prison & as he continues his legal battle. Hopefully that battle will be over soon & he will be totally free & all the charges will be dropped.

Game On

I'm not even sure what time it was when we arrived at the Mission House but what I do know is we had three hours to unpack the crates that housed the Christmas Gifts we had brought....organize them & wrap them. I was so nervous...everyone dove in though & worked well together. Todd became the 'checker' and marked the name off the list when it was wrapped, Moriah loved to wrap & dove right in...and all the others helped to get them in the right places. There was just one catch....the crate with all the gift wrap, tissue, tape, gift bags etc. and a couple of gifts were missing!!! I panicked....YIKES how could this happen? We surmised that the crate containing those items was sitting in the house where we packed, in Hendersonville.

But no fear! 24 gift bags that had been donated arrived, along with two huge bag of bows & some additional totes. We had EXACTLY enough to wrap the gifts & if we couldn't wrap them they were covered in bows! Of course it worked out....although I was surprised....God wasn't....He had it all under control. (OH...and the last day of the trip in the middle of cleaning a HUGE bag of gift wrap tape etc. from previous trips was discovered in a crate under a table! Go figure!!) There had been 'extra' gifts donated and all the perfect gifts were there to replace the ones that were missing :o)

It didn't take nearly as long as we expected to wrap everything & before I knew it we each grabbed a handful of presents and like a line of ants we headed to the hogar! We placed them around the Christmas tree that they already had decorated & the girls were obviously excited (especially the little ones) I even caught a couple of the little girls peeking in the gift bags LOL

We all ate ate.....MMmmmm.....our first Honduran meal. Shredded chicken...and all the fixins. I joked with some of the team members that they had prepared Eastern Style BBQ just for us! One of the things that I have a hard time getting used to is the girls and the staff wait for us to eat. We have to all be seated and eating before they serve themselves.

After the tables were cleared a ring of chairs was set up and the girls all took a seat...a couple of "Santas" proceeded to hand out the gifts. Each girl was allowed to take out one gift & have their photo taken....and after that I expected the chaos to begin but it didn't. As I watched they were almost embarrassed. The older girls peeked in the bags to see what was there but didn't tear it all out. The little girls did take their gifts out and they proceeded to play with each others toys. It was so amazing to me though, even looking back...they were so appreciative of the littlest things.

The tias were so excited about their gifts. One of the tias even received a sawing machine!!! She was thrilled! It was such a wonderful evening!

Even the part about me falling spread eagle with a handful of gifts....I had to make a grand entrance you know!

In the beginning

In the beginning there was bananas & pineapples!! The stop at the fruit stand has become a tradition & something I look forward to each trip. The team stops on their way from airport in San Padro Sula to the campus in Taulabe. There is something special about the fruit stand. I'm not sure if it is the first glimpse of the culture, the smell of the fresh fruit, or the care that the lady at the fruit stand gives us. I think it is a bit of all. Just like everything in Honduras the fruit is a bit sweeter & there is something familiar that the fruit stand offers for the Americans that are arriving for a week of wonder.

I enjoyed the bity bananas & pineapples every morning for breakfast mmmmm so good. This year one of our team members, Todd, planted the tops of the pineapples in the yard of the mission house. It will be interesting to see how long it takes the plants to produce fruit.

I have been back a week today & it seems like it was forever ago that I was in Honduras. It has taken me a week to 'decompress' from the trip & get back into my routine. It is hard for me to recapture the week in one entry so my hope is to continue my blog using the entries from my journal.

I do want to thank everyone for your prayers & support as I was on this trip. Each trip has been different in many ways but this trip was so special...there was a peace and contentment among the team & you could feel God everywhere. God is definitely at work in Honduras & I hope you will stay tuned to hear about it all.