My life in Honduras

God is good… all the time.

2010-07-22T19:44:00.000-07:00

I remember growing up, this was the mantra we would repeat frequently in church services. It became so routine I rarely thought about the words I was saying. But as I live my life day by day I seem to come back to this reality over and over and over again. God is good… all the time.

We all hear the questions… “If God is good, then why did He let an earthquake destroy thousands of lives in Haiti?” “If God is good, then why did my dad have to die and leave me and my family alone?” “If God is good, then why do cancer and AIDS and human trafficking exist?” I’m not going to go into a long discussion to try to answer these questions. Indeed, some situations are impossible for our finite minds to find answers to, at least in the context of our time frame. But despite all of the sin and hurt and death in the world, I continue to believe that God is good… all the time.

Sometimes it’s hard to see through the tears and pain. Sometimes it’s hard to believe God’s promise to “work all things together for good…” But I can testify that at least in my life, that promise has proven itself to be true over and over again.

It has been months since I have written to you all, but I want to thank you for your continued faithful support and prayers in the meantime! They have been needed and have not gone unnoticed. God has been good, all the time, and I’m grateful that He has used YOU as conduits of His goodness towards me and towards the Micah Project.

I will briefly update you on the latest things that have been going on with me and the project since I last wrote in February. That month we had the pleasure of seeing God bring yet another young man, David, off of the streets and into our home. David has now been living at the Micah house for 5 months and although he has his conflicts here and there he is quite the joy to be around and can rarely be seen without a smile on his face. At 14 he is the youngest in his 4^th grade class, and is a joy to work with.

In March, God was at work once again and we welcomed 12-year-olds Axelito and Miguel Angel into an already overflowing Micah house. These boys had been living on the streets since their infancy and were already addicted to yellow glue, the drug of choice for poor street kids here in Honduras. These two little guys are balls of fire, ready to explode at any minute. In their first few months with us we had to break up so many fistfights that I lost count and even a few rock-throwing instances as their bodies have gone through the confusing and sometimes overwhelming process of detoxing from the glue. Thankfully they are now learning to resolve conflicts in a healthy manner and have really become such sweethearts and love to give and get hugs as frequently as possible.

“April showers” could not have been more true or more welcome this year! After many months of drought and rumors that we would not see rain until mid-July, April was looking to be a painfully hot (and smoky) month. However, on the evening of Good Friday, we had just finished sharing a meal with a group from Biola University (my alma mater), when God opened up the heavens and poured down water from above. The Micah boys were so excited that they played soccer on the patio in the rain for hours, slipping and sliding all over the place and enjoying every minute of it. And with that, the much-needed rainy season had begun! Within a couple of weeks the hillsides had turned from a deathly brown to a beautiful luscious green, the smoke from all the brush-fires had been washed away and we could once again breathe free and clear. God is good, all the time!

The month of May was a pretty typical month at the Micah project: boys being boys. Classes continued as normal, we visited a few parks on the weekends and rested a bit before all of the mission teams started coming down for summer break. Something exciting that happened in my personal life in May is that I started dating Israel! Israel (Izzy) is from El Salvador and has been working as an intern at the Micah Project since January. He is a really great guy, very responsible and respectful. He loves Jesus and enjoys helping to lead worship at our Sunday night worship meetings at Micah. He speaks very little English, so it has been a fun challenge having my first relationship be in Spanish… forcing my ability to communicate in Spanish to increase by leaps and bounds.

June was a difficult month at the Micah Project. We had the joy of seeing Marvin (who I’ve written to you about before) enter a 6-month Christian rehab program, only to see him give up and walk away after just 4 weeks. We also walked the hard road with little Miguel Angel as he saw cervical cancer take his mother’s life. But again, God was being good through it all. We were reminded of His sovereignty as we realized that He had brought Miguel Angel into our family merely 3 months earlier, so that he would have so many people to love on him and encourage him through this tragedy.

And now, July! But this month has been full of its ups and downs as well. We are hosting group after group after group, which is a blessing because they are providing manual labor to take on projects like repainting the Micah house and replacing the leaky roof. But at the same time, having a group here means a lot more work for us, and a lot less rest! We have been doing our best as a staff to make sure everyone gets the rest they need. Two weeks ago a 21-year-old man from our neighborhood was shot and killed on the steps in front of our apartment building. It was a huge wake-up call to us, and we are now working even harder to take the steps necessary to move the project out of our dangerous neighborhood and into a safe place about 20 minutes from where we are now. Also this month we have seen Hector hospitalized for four days with dengue fever, but praise God he is finally getting his energy back and is recovering well! And now we are praying for Axel, a tall gangly 13-year old who left the Micah house on Saturday for a one-night home visit and never returned. We think he may fear that someone is after him due to past gang activity. It is a strange situation, but as we look back at God’s faithfulness over the past few months, we continue to trust Him to protect and care for Axel wherever he may be.

Praise be to God that even in the hard stuff, He continues to make His goodness evident in our lives. He truly is good… all the time! It’s hard to believe it has already been nearly a year since I started working at the Micah Project. And daily I continue to learn and experience God’s goodness and faithfulness in my life and in the lives of everyone at Micah. I hope this update can be an encouragement to you and a reminder that God truly is good all the time. And these triumphs I share are YOUR triumphs as well because it is your financial support and your continuous prayers that make all of this possible. I continue to firmly believe that this is the place God has me for now. He is using me daily, stretching me, testing me, loving me and calling me to be a faithful steward of the gifts and talents he has given me. And I want you to know I consider each one of you as a gift given to me by my good God. So be blessed and encouraged, because God is good… all the time!

If you are interested in supporting me financially in my work with the Micah Project, checks can be made to World Outreach Ministries (Attn: Jenna Miller #41) and sent to World Outreach Ministries - P.O. Box B - Marietta, GA 30061, OR you can donate online at www.worldoutreach.org

Prisoners

2010-03-10T07:42:00.000-08:00

Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord: "The LORD looked down from His sanctuary on high, from heaven He viewed the earth, to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death." - Psalm 102:18-20

I can't think of anything much sadder than seeing someone imprisoned who thinks they are free. Addiction is an awful form of imprisonment. I have witnessed firsthand too many people chained to their addictions. By leaving the structure and rules of the Micah house, they consider themselves "free" to do what they want (which usually involves some form of drug abuse), but they don't see that it's the drugs themselves that are hindering their freedom... their freedom to change, to do something with their life, to study, to enjoy true friendships and experience genuine love. They choose to trade all of this in for the high and excitement of no rules, no chores, no homework, and all the while they are handcuffed to their captor (a 50 cent bottle of glue).

The day I wrote the last post about Marvin and about thriving, another one of our young men, Hector, age 13 couldn't bear the anxiety any longer, and chose to hit the streets as well, falling back into the false satisfaction of the glue bottle. A couple days later we were able to convince him to return, but it has been a rocky couple of weeks for him. Yesterday, he again returned to the streets and the glue. The devil would love nothing more that to reclaim this young life from the path to freedom he has been walking for the past year and a half. But, I remember that we have someone so much stronger than the devil on our side. Christ's power is infinitely greater than the power of addiction.

AND we have it right there in scripture: He looks down... to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death. Satan has condemned Hector and Marvin to death. But Christ has come that they may have life and have it abundantly! Please join with us in claiming these promises over these boys' lives. PRAY for true freedom.

You only get one life...

2010-02-24T09:05:00.000-08:00

I have now been working at the Micah Project in Tegucigalpa, Honduras for six months, and boy have I learned a lot! I can’t even put into words all of the lessons I have learned in my first 6 months here at this ministry. Things like… a hug is the best way to start and end any day… you can never tell someone enough times that you love them… it takes a lot of positive comments to counteract one negative one… God is merciful and generous, and we should be too… There are so many more lessons I have learned, but I want to focus on one in particular.

You only get one life…

A quick google search of this phrase, completes the sentence in a variety of ways: …don’t waste it on video games. …what to do with it? …so paint it in bright colours. …so don’t let anything get you down.

If I had to choose a single word to complete the sentence, it would be: THRIVE.

The dictionary defines the word thrive as “to grow vigorously and healthily, to do well.” I think to thrive includes many aspects… to thrive in life means you figure out what God created you for, and you do it. You don’t do it half-heartedly; you do it to the very best of your ability. God created each one of us uniquely and has given each of us unique talents, skills, and passions. And when we use the talents, skills and passions God has placed within us to bring glory to Him by serving others, it is then that we THRIVE! When we take advantage of the opportunities that God has given us, we thrive.

In my six months at the Micah Project, I have seen boys that have come from unfortunate circumstances, seemingly destined to a life of drug addiction and failure, but given the opportunity they have chosen to thrive! I have also seen boys who have been given opportunity after opportunity to live and succeed and thrive, but for some reason that I cannot understand, they reject it. It makes no sense to me why anyone would choose death and destruction over life and growth, but sadly I see it on a weekly basis and it breaks my heart.

Marvin is one such person. He entered the Micah project in June of 2007 after living many years on the streets addicted to yellow glue. At age 15, he has already lived a life more difficult, and filled with more pain than most people will ever experience. Abandoned by his mother as a child, he has hardened his heart to the possibility of experiencing love again, for fear of getting hurt again. He is a funny kid who loves to laugh and smile, but he cannot seem to thrive. He picks fights and just can’t let himself be loved. Two weeks ago, Marvin made the decision to leave the Micah project after two and a half years of opportunities to do something with his life. After running away at least 5 times in 2009, it was clear that if he wanted to continue with the project, he was going to have to fight for it. All this time we had been fighting to keep him there, but he had been leaning the other way. It seems like an easy decision for most: The Micah Project with 3 square meals a day, an education, structure, staff members who love and care for each of the boys; or the streets with their false idea of freedom coupled with rampant poverty and drug abuse. He chose “freedom.” It breaks our hearts to see these kids with such great opportunities in front of them and then see them throw them away. Sometimes we imagine how their lives would turn out if we could just make their decisions for them for 6 months. But God gave each of us a free will, and we have to make our own decisions, whether they be constructive or destructive… whether we choose to thrive or to wilt.

All that being said, I want to ask two things of you, my friends.

1.) Please pray for Marvin, who is currently choosing destruction over life. Pray that God will break down the walls Marvin has built around his heart, penetrating it with His unconditional love.

2.) THRIVE – Please, please, please use the unique talents, skills, resources and passions that God has given you to bring glory to His name! Take advantage of the opportunities you have in front of you.

Oh, the characters… (part 1)

2010-02-18T16:30:00.000-08:00

My plan is to make this a series, so that with each new blog post you can start to get to know some of the amazing people that make up the Micah family. Each and every person has such a unique personality, and they all do things that make me laugh all the time. I wish everyone could have the chance to come down and meet all of these people, but since I know it’s not probable for many, I will give you a little introduction to some of the characters that I have the pleasure of sharing life with! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Junior is one of the newest members of the Micah family. He is 18 years old and will be starting his junior year of high school tomorrow. He can frequently be found in the Micah computer lab watching hours of Smallville (in 8-minute segments) on youtube. Junior loves dogs… so much so, that he will occasionally cuddle on the floor with the Micah dogs and even pretend to be one! He is learning English on Rosetta Stone, and can happily spend up to 6 hours a day sitting in the office conversing with the computer. When he’s not watching Smallville or practicing English, you can usually find him hanging out with the micah moms, watching them sew or helping cook and clean in the kitchen.

Mochacchino Supreme (Mocha for short) is a 115-pound, 3-year-old chocolate lab. He is maybe the biggest Labrador you’ve ever seen. His collar tells all passers-by that he is on a diet, but he doesn’t do a very good job of following it. His favorite thing in life is to have his butt scratched. When he has something in his mouth (a wallet, keys etc.) he will literally sing out of excitement! He is super loyal, loved by all, and does an amazing job of putting up with the two puppies that try to torment him.

Nelson has quite the unique sense of humor… it is very rare that you can spend time with him without you and him both cracking up. He is 13 years old and in Kindergarten, but he is really very bright… he just came from a background that didn’t value education, so he never went to school as a child. He is an excellent Frisbee player and will happily play for hours with a group of people who are all at least ten years older than him. He makes friends very easily, regardless of age or gender. He is missing a front tooth, which makes words difficult to pronounce, but it makes him even that much more precious! He absolutely loves taking photos, and will walk around the house taking pictures with special effects of everyone he sees. Although his older brother lives at Micah, you won’t easily confuse Nelson for anyone else because he wears the same outfit for a week at a time.

I am SO blessed!

2010-01-31T07:00:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure what it is, but over the past several months I have been deeply impressed by the fact that God has blessed me in SO many ways. Maybe it's because several times each day people come to the door of the Micah house asking for a bite to eat because they have nothing in their house... meanwhile I have a refrigerator and a pantry full of food. Or maybe it's because I spend friday afternoons with street kids who nearly trample me to get a warm pair of socks to put on their filthy, scab-ridden feet. Or maybe it's because I spend day in and day out trying to demonstrate what love is to boys who were abandoned and/or abused by their fathers and mothers - the very people who should have been protecting them from such evils. Or maybe it's the fact that I don't understand the pain of significant life. But whatever the factors are, i feel my best and only response is to run to my Savior's arms with complete and total gratitude for the life He has given me - my amazing, God-fearing family, wonderful, encouraging friends, plenty of food, clothing, a home, clean water to drink, people who believe in me and the work I am doing and support me in it both financially and with prayers, the love and salvation of my Father in heaven... and the list goes on and on and on!

Yesterday was another example of how blessed I am, and a good reminder to be grateful.
I celebrated my 25th birthday. An idea I had had for a while was that since baseball is my favorite sport, it would be fun to get a bunch of friends together and play it for my birthday party. But for lack of gloves and bats and balls, and quite the varied skill level, we decided that kickball would be a better option. And when I get an idea in my head, it's almost impossible for me to not do it, so that led to me (with some help from some friends) buying and painting 60 shirts, with 4 different team names on them in prep for the party.
We headed down to the field around 11:00 Saturday morning for a fun day with friends. It was so cool to see over 50 people come out to celebrate my birthday with me! We had a kickball tournament, ate hot dogs and watermelon and cupcakes, got sunburned, and had an all-around fabulous time!! Some of the boys had no idea how the game worked, but they learned it fast and really enjoyed it. Wilmer was telling me when we got there that he wasn't going to play, but shortly he was trying to be on every team so he wouldn't have to sit out and watch when his team wasn't playing. My little buddy Kevin (who is sadly back on the streets... keep praying!) even came along... and even though he didn't have tennis shoes, he kept commenting to me how proud he was that he kicked the ball so far with his bare feet.
the Marlins get ready to bat against the Cardinals
Michael pitches it to the opposing team

Watching happily from the sideline before the Dodgers take the field

Head-on collision at first base!
We were so prepared... but you always have to forget something. This time it was matches

It was an all around great day at the baseball field yesterday, and although all of my muscles are sore today, I can be grateful that the soreness is a result of a fun fun day with lots of friends. And for those of you who couldn't make it, we will just have to do it again when you come to visit!

thoughts.

2010-01-16T05:34:00.000-08:00

In just a few short hours we are heading out to the northern border of Honduras to a town called Copan Ruinas. It is a well-known Honduran landmark filled with Mayan ruins. In my two-and-a-half years of living in Honduras, I have yet to visit this popular tourist destination. So let’s just say I am a little excited! John, Becca and I, along with our two Micah interns: Hannah and Israel, are taking Maycol, Yeison and Cristofer to help out with a medical brigade that will be coming down from Houston. The bilingual ones of us will do translating for the doctors, while the others will help run a vbs-type program with the kids in the small village we will be working in. It should be an exciting week of ministry and an opportunity for the boys (and us) to do something out of the normal routine!

And while I am very excited to be going on this trip, my heart is heavy. A few months ago I got the chance to get to know a very special street kid, Kevin. Here is a blog post I wrote about him in early December: http://micahcentral.blogspot.com/2009/12/street-kid-spotlight-kevin.html
Kevin is 17, and has been coming to our weekly street kid soccer games for some time now. However, about two months ago, he decided he wanted to do something different with his life, and after a couple of failed attempts he was finally admitted into Casa Alianza, a group home/rehab center for over 150 teenagers in Tegucigalpa. He was doing well, and over Christmas vacation a few of us started going regularly to Casa Alianza to visit with him, encourage him, pray for him and occasionally bring him gifts to show him how proud of him we were. Last Saturday we were on one such visit… (actually Marvin Morazan, one of the older Micah guys who was on Christmas break from his university in Costa Rica, planned a little concert for the kids in Casa Alianza). As we were there hanging out with the kids, I began chatting with my friend Kevin. He complained that he was bored of living in CA and that he planned on leaving the project the next morning. We talked and talked with him, trying to convince him otherwise, trying to help him see what he would be throwing away if he left. Finally, he decided to make a deal with me.

Here’s how the conversation went:
K: If you take me right now to go get some Chinese rice, I will stay in Casa Alianza.
J: You’ll stay?
K: Yeah, I will stay, I promise.
J: For how long?
K: For three years. I will stay in Casa Alianza for three years… I will start studying again… come on, let’s go.
J: So you’re telling me that if I buy you one plate of Chinese rice, it will determine your future for the next three years?
K: Yep. You don’t believe me?
J: Not really.
K: And if you don’t, you can bet that I will leave here tonight, I will go upstairs right now and get my stuff and leave…. and you can tell your friends that I left because you wouldn’t buy me Chinese rice.
J: Well, I guess we better go find some Chinese rice… but you promise you’ll stay?
K: I promise, for three years.

So… we went and got the Chinese rice! Kevin was still in CA two days later when we went to pick up a few of the girls for a couple hours of bracelet making, which Kevin decided to tag along to. He seemed to be doing really well.

Then tonight, we were at soccer with all the street kids, and guess who shows up. I look over and there is Kevin, standing at the edge of the soccer field with a bottle of glue in his pocket. My heart sank. I hurried over to him, “What happened?” “Kevin, what happened? What are you doing here?” He said that the project had given him 3 days leave to go visit his family. Yet here he was, not with his family, but with his glue bottle instead. Several of us chatted with him, trying to encourage him to make good decisions, and in the end, he said he would be back at Casa Alianza on Monday like he’s supposed to be.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE PRAY WITH ME THAT KEVIN MAKES THE RIGHT DECISIONS. Please pray that he chooses to spend this weekend with his family, not wandering the streets like he used to. Please pray that he will return to Casa Alianza on Monday, clean and truly ready to give what it takes to turn his life around for the best. Pray that Christ’s love touches him in the deepest parts and gives him purpose in his life. Thank you for hearing my pleas for Kevin. Please know also that there are hundreds more Kevins in the world… and keep them in your prayers as well!

a resolve...

2010-01-13T11:55:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again... the beginning.
Well, technically we're almost two weeks in to this new year, this new decade. On January first a few people asked me if i had made any new year's resolutions, and although I had considered some ideas of things I would like to resolve to do... i had not made a formal list and had quickly forgotten the ideas I once had. Well now, 12 days later, I am thinking to myself maybe a resolution or two are not a bad idea.

So here's what I'm thinking...
I resolve to update my blog more frequently (my goal is at least twice a month... more if possible)
I resolve to memorize at least one entire book of the Bible (though again, hopefully more)
I resolve to be more grateful
I resolve to be more prayerful
I resolve to gain back some of the weight I lost when I had dengue fever

I'm going to need your help and encouragement with some of these. So keep reminding me to update this thing if you haven't heard from me in a while. I'm hoping and planning to do better!!

these are some of the girls we have started doing art class with! More about that later :)

testing...testing...1...2...3...

2009-12-04T13:28:00.000-08:00

I realize it has been months since I have written anything, but don't start thinking that's because nothing exciting has happened! Quite the opposite actually. I haven't written because TOO many exciting things have happened that I feel I hardly have 20 seconds to process it all, much less spend time writing about it.

However, I realize that there are some of you (though it may be very few) that do actually check this once in a while. I want to know that you are out there (it will encourage me to write more frequently!). So leave a comment if you read this to give me the "ganas" to write more!

Anyways I will leave you with these two photos from our recent spiritual retreat to a National Park in central Honduras. And remember to let me know if you are reading this!

Well, I'm off to street kid soccer! Have a lovely day!!

6 days in...

2009-08-23T14:00:00.000-07:00

I wanted to let you all know that I made it safely and soundly here to Honduras. I landed in the capital city of Tegucigalpa around 11:30 Monday morning and as I came out of baggage claim was greeted by my friends and fellow missionaries John and Becca Bell accompanied by approximately 12 teenage boys from the Micah Project. The boys grabbed all of my bags, and I was whisked off in the project’s green “busito” and so began my first day with the Micah Project. After they had given me some time to drop off my bags in my new apartment and eat some lunch we headed back up to the Micah house for my first staff meeting. It was conducted almost entirely in Spanish, because Roger, one of the project’s long-time Honduran staff members does not speak English… nothing like getting right into the swing of things! I got my new class schedule, which has me teaching (in Spanish) on Mondays Thursdays and Fridays, so thankfully I would have 2 days to get used to things before beginning my first lessons.
The view out my front window

Tuesday I got to do a little bit of basic grocery shopping, then we took the Micah boys to a juvenile detention center as an opportunity for them to reach out to kids who are in much the same situation many of these boys used to be in (2 of our boys had actually lived in the same center but escaped before coming to the Micah Project). Wilmer and Cristofer brought the sound system and got to share some of their songs with messages of hope for these young boys, and then one of the older boys in the detention center shared a couple songs with us as well, it was great fun! Also on Tuesday, my friend Marco brought me my dog, Sadie, who he had been taking care of all Summer, and surprisingly she still recognized me! But, oh boy has she grown since I last saw her!

Wednesday was my day off, so I took the opportunity to go visit all of my old friends at International School on the other side of town. It was great to see all of them after nearly two months apart. Wednesday night, my new roommate, Bethany moved into our apartment.

On Thursday began classes! I was so nervous for a couple reasons… first of all, the oldest student I’ve taught before was 7 years old, and at that age, they don’t even know or care if you make a mistake. And secondly, I was super nervous because I would be teaching my classes in SPANISH! Yikes! Now my Spanish has definitely improved over the last 2 years I have been living in Honduras, but to teach in it was beyond me. But I gave my fears over to the Lord, and the first day went surprisingly very well! Praise God! Thursday evening, my other roommate, Christine, moved into the apartment, so now we are 4 (if you count Sadie ;)
Our living room (and Sadie sniffing something)

Friday I taught classes again, and then in the afternoon we went to play soccer with the street kids. We’ve been playing with them every Friday since last October, and it was great to see all the familiar faces, like Jose Daniel, Alejandro, Rosa, Wilson, Jason, Carlos, Sergio and many more, especially now, knowing that many of you are praying for these kids by name. There were more street kids there this week than any time we’ve ever had it! There was even one kid I had never seen before, Axel. He’s 10 years old and he said he lives next to a dumpster with his Grandpa and that he has been sniffing glue since he was 8. It was so sad to see his bloodshot eyes at such a young, vulnerable age.

On Saturday, John, Becca and Roger took the Micah boys on the 3 hour drive to the beach. Because I was still trying to get all settled into my apartment and had lots of errands to run, I opted out of the weekend adventure. And it’s probably a good thing, too because many of the boys came back sunburned, and if Hondurans in their dark skin got burned, I can only imagine what a “gringa” like me would have looked like coming back! And because I stayed home, I got to celebrate my friend Lauren’s birthday with a Murder Mystery dinner party with my friends from International School. It was so much fun!
The gang being very mysterious.

Now today is Sunday, a day of rest. I’m here in my apartment, relaxing, and still hoping to finish unpacking the rest of my boxes before another full week begins tomorrow!

I hope to bring my camera to Micah and to Street Kid Soccer this week so I can put up some new pics of the kiddos!

new beginnings.

2009-08-05T15:50:00.000-07:00

one time... a little over two years ago, i received an envelope in the mail. there was no return address, no name, nothing. all that could be found inside was a small strip of paper. in white words typed on a black background it read "some endings are just the beginning." I never found out where or who it came from, and thus I never knew the intent, but it is a phrase that has been very true in my life. It came at a time when i was making the tough decision to give up my dream of pursuing a career as an astronaut and to fulfill another of my dreams of living in Honduras. It was a difficult ending that came with a lot of tears, but i had no idea what this new beginning would be. And man, was I in for an incredible surprise!

As you all know, I moved to Honduras to teach Kindergarten for two years. In my time there, I have had the wonderful opportunity to begin spending time with a ministry called the Micah Project. This ministry has many facets, but two main parts of it are the outreach ministry, (where they spend several hours each week building relationships with kids living on the streets of the city), and the group home, (where through the relationships built with these kids, they have given several of them over the years the opportunity to leave behind once-and-for-all the pain, hopelessness, danger, hunger, and addictions of street life in order to start afresh in a safe environment, pursue a Christian education, and learn to be leaders of transformation in their country.

Please take a moment to watch this short video, to help us remember that even when these homeless street children feel like no one notices them, we have a Heavenly Father who sees them for the precious creations He made them to be.

Yes. This is their reality. Sniffing glue to help them forget the pain and the hunger. But the story does not stop there! Through Christ’s transforming power, many kids who were once just like the ones you just saw have now found hope, have now found a family, have now found a future for their lives! Take a few minutes and learn about some of their successes.

These two groups of people are the people that are drawing me back to spend another year in Honduras. I am so excited to get started on yet another new beginning, that I’m sure will have it’s fair share of joys and challenges, triumphs and failures. But since I feel this is where God is calling me now, I am ready for whatever this new beginning will bring. But, I cannot do it alone! I NEED you. This last video talks about the importance of working together to accomplish God’s work in the world, and it gives practical ideas of how you can be involved more in my life and in the Micah Project, even from a distance!

Now, if you are interested in helping the Micah Project in any of those ways, please let me know so I can add your name to our Community Board.

If you want to choose one kid to pray for, or you want to help make thank-you cards, or you can set up a fundraiser, please email me at jennafer.miller@gmail.com and I will get you what you need to get started. We love that God can use us all working together to make a much bigger impact than any of us could make on our own.

dilemma

2009-06-04T15:05:00.000-07:00

Name: Jenna Miller
Age: 24.4 years
Citizenship: USA
Residency: Honduras
Soccer Team: TBD

So, i have lived 19 of the last 22 months in Honduras. I kinda like it here, in case you didn't know that already. As we practice every morning for the upcoming Kindergarten graduation ceremony, I have had the opportunity to memorize not only the Honduran National Anthem, but also their Pledge of Allegiance. In order to ensure that my students are participating, I stand up in front of them and sing/pledge right along with them (don't worry, i raise my left hand... I kinda think that makes it count less). I got a little worried the other day when I realized that I have the Honduran pledge down word for word, and I wasn't sure I could even remember my own country's pledge, and same with the National Anthem. It's okay though, I did them both for my roommate and passed with flying colors!

All that to say, I'm having a bit of an identity crisis. I am still American through and through, but I just really do love Honduras! There is a big game this Saturday between the U.S. National Soccer team and La Seleccion Honduras, and I can't decide who to root for. I've already let my country down to some extent by repeatedly saying the Honduran pledge of allegiance. But at the same time, I don't think I would ever watch the U.S. play soccer if it weren't this game against Honduras. Also, I do have a Seleccion jersey, which is far less than I can say about the U.S. team. Am I a traitor if I cheer for Honduras? I think I may have to.

But fear not, I will still stand boldly and proclaim "I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free..." (in fact, Anna and I just did that a couple of days ago at school).

kindergarten quotes from today

2009-06-03T20:10:00.000-07:00

While the Star Wars soundtrack was playing during graduation practice...
"Miss, this is the music of Skywalker" -Werner

While Hector's watch unexpectedly starts making noise in his pocket....
"AY NO! Este clock!" -Hector

As 5 Kindergarten girls surround my desk watching me paint my fingernails 5 different colors for fun...
"Miss, aren't you going to be embarrassed?" -Valenllelitn
"No! She is already an adult!" -Maya

Set!

2009-06-02T20:06:00.000-07:00

Went over to the Micah house today. All the boys were unexpectedly gone playing soccer, and didn't get back for a really long time. Luckily I had thought to throw the game "Set" in my bag before heading over, so I used the extra time to teach Megan, Stephen and Hauner how to play Set. We had great fun!

try it out with today's daily Set Challenge
http://www.setgame.com/set/puzzle_frame.htm

thought for today

2009-06-01T15:41:00.000-07:00

When i got up this morning and decided i wasn't in the mood for another cold shower (my ducha hasn't been heating my water since last Tuesday), i opened up my Bible and picked up reading where I left off. Thoughts of Jose Daniel were still fresh in my mind after writing last night's blog post, and perhaps that's why this stuck out to me so much. (if you haven't read "perro de agua" yet, read that one first) I have been praying for that kid a whole lot lately, and one Tuesday a few weeks ago Michael, the director of the Micah Project informed me that Jose Daniel had "almost" spent the night at Micah one night, and he had promised that he would come back and spend the night the following Friday. What great news! I was so excited. I started praying more and more that he would hold to his promise, that maybe just maybe after 2 years of the Micah Project trying to get him in, that he would finally accept the offer. Friday came and Megan and I tried to make it to our weekly soccer game with the street kids, but other circumstances prevented us from meeting up with them. I continued praying that Danny would stay the night. On Sunday as soon as church had ended I found Becca to ask her what had happened with him. She regrettably informed me that not only had Jose Daniel not spent the night at Micah, but also one of the boys, Erick, who has been a part of the Micah Project for 6 years now had decided that his addictions were too strong for him to keep fighting and he had left the project. WHAT?? I had been riding this high of excitement thinking that God was about to do something great by finally bringing victory in Jose Daniel's life, but instead Danny and Erick are both now on the streets, Erick's brother Cristofer and best friend Juan Carlos feel abandoned by him, and my heart is breaking once again with all the pain I am seeing. I feel burdened to continue praying for Jose Daniel, now add to the list Erick, Cris and JuanCarlos, plus the rest of the Micah boys and staff who are confused at everything that's going on. I begin to see that working at Micah next year is going to be quite the spiritual battle. There are so many needs to be met... so many big needs that only God can meet. That place is in desperate need of faithful prayer coverage, and I am just one person.

But THEN, God once again opened my eyes to see something great He is doing. A group of 10 people from Houston, Texas came down last weekend to see the Micah project. I quickly discovered that these servants (among hundreds of others) are fighting the battle for these boys by faithfully praying for and financially supporting the ministry. Most of them have been doing so since before I had ever even heard of the Micah Project, much less tried to carry this burden on my own. Although the staff at Micah might be a small number of people, we are in no way alone.

Now back to my Scripture reading from this morning. I Cor 3:6-10 says "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds."

WE ARE NOT IN THIS ALONE! God has raised up Pauls and Apollos's all over the world. God doesn't tell us, "sit tight, don't worry about it, I've got it all taken care of." Nor does he tell us, "OK, it's all up to you, I'm gonna let you handle this one on your own, let Me know when you're finished" NO! He has given us work to do here on this earth, but He has also given us COMMUNITY. We are not expected to fight our battles alone. That is why he surrounds us with Pauls and Apollos's to carry our burdens with us. If we find ourselves planting seeds, we should also be looking for faithful servants to water them. Or if we have the watering can of prayer in our hand, let's be looking for seeds that need some watering. I'm so encouraged by this verse and by my recent realization of it's significance in my own life. I hope you can be encouraged by it as well!

I challenge you to be someone's Apollos today!

perro de agua

2009-05-31T19:07:00.000-07:00

This, my friends, is Jose Daniel.
He is 14 years old.
He lives on the streets of Tegucigalpa.
He enjoys swimming in the dirty river...
...or he fell in by accident one time and thus picked up the street nickname: Perro de Agua (Water Dog).
He tries daily to forget the pain of his difficult life by inhaling yellow shoe glue from an empty coke bottle.
He is one of the most hilarious kids I have ever met.
He is one of God's most precious creations!

He has been offered countless times the opportunity for a new life, a home, a family, safety, love and so much more. He knows the doors to the Micah house are open to him if he will just accept the offer, yet countless times he has come so close and walked away. My heart breaks to see the hold that his addiction to yellow glue has on him. It breaks to know the enemy is laughing because he still has him at his fingertips. But my heart also knows that there is a God who is soooo much bigger than a silly addiction. The God I serve sees the devil laughing to think he has Danny in his grasp, but He reminds me that He still holds him in the palm of His hand.

Please PRAY with me that God will continue the process of setting Jose Daniel free from the bondage he is trapped in. Please PRAY that the glue will stop clouding his vision long enough for him to make choices that lead to hope and a future instead of despair and fear. Please PRAY that it will happen soon. And please REMEMBER that our God is Mighty to Save.

"For the Son of Man came to seek and save what was lost." Luke 19:10

i keep getting in this rut.

2009-05-31T18:44:00.000-07:00

i wish there was more time in a day... or that somehow I was able to manage it more carefully. sometimes i try to. I make lists of the things that i need to do, with hopes of crossing everything off by the end of the day, yet i frequently add so many things to my list that there is no way I could possibly accomplish them all in one day, and probably not even in a whole weekend. one of those things that usually ends up on the list if I even have enough time to sit down and make the list, is writing on my blog. throughout my week, situations arise or i take pictures of something interesting or one of my students just says something absolutely hilarious and i think to myself "oh! that will make a good blog post!" but when it actually comes to sitting down and remembering those situations or uploading those photos or recalling exactly what it was that he or she said, it's just so time consuming. a blog is great, if you are dedicated and update it frequently. however, if you wait... a few days can easily turn into a week, one week into 2, 2 weeks into a month and so on, until the thought of writing a new blog post seems a formidable, daunting task. do i just pretend that the last 2 months didn't happen?? should i try to summarize everything that went on sparing no details?? a balance between the two must be found. highlights?? probably a good starting point. but will people be disappointed if there are no pictures? this is the rut i have found myself in lately. every monday morning without fail i receive a reminder email (i set it up) to post on my blog so it doesn't get like this. and every monday i think to myself "naw, it can wait... i have other more important things to do today" So the email sits in my inbox reminding me every time i open my email that I need to do this, until sometime around thursday or friday i delete the email, only to be reminded again the following monday. it's a vicious cycle, that i wish i had the extra time to tend to. wow, what a rant. ok, i'm hoping by writing this that i will be able to somehow talk myself into keeping the blog more current. my goal for this week is to post once a day, whether that just be one sentence or a photo or anything, but at least I will be getting into the habit of frequent updates and maybe i can train myself off of this pattern i have developed. please help keep me accountable!

mi cachorrita

2009-05-05T19:45:00.000-07:00

Honduran Labor Day is May 1st, and this year it fell on a Friday, which meant we had one of those rare occasions known as a three-day weekend. My friend Blanca is from a small village called Manzaragua, about 2 hours outside of Tegus and she offered to take Lauren, Heather and I out there to meet her family and have fun in her village. Sadly at the last minute Lauren got pink eye really bad and couldn’t go, so it was just Heather, Blanca and I. As we were driving out there on Friday, I randomly thought to myself “what if I got a puppy while I’m out there this weekend?” Now, I’ve been thinking for a while that when I start working and living downtown next year that I’m going to want a dog who will help to deter any potential robbers I might encounter. But, I didn’t really think anything would come of this random fleeting thought about getting one now. Friday was a good day, we ate good food, relaxed, hiked, took lots of photos, had a bonfire and more. Saturday morning Blanca had planned for us to visit Doña Tila, one of the ladies who lives in the village and who makes homemade bread in a 40-year-old stone oven. We made the 15-minute walk to her house. She welcomed us warmly and we pulled up chairs to observe her as she whipped the bread dough around with her hand. They have electricity in the village, but she would rather mix the dough by hand than “waste” money on using an electric mixer. Her simple little house was bustling with life: 2 of her daughters were handing her the ingredients she needed for the dough, 3 grandsons were running in and out of the house kicking their little plastic soccer balls, 2 cats, a dog and 2 puppies were scouting out the kitchen for crumbs. And that’s when I fell in love. Those 2 puppies were a couple of the most precious little creatures I’ve seen. I couldn’t keep my hands off of them. I was petting and holding them so much, that by the time we had finished the bread-making process Doña Tila had offered to give me one of them. I had to make some phone calls back to Tegus first to get permission from my roommate and my landlords, but finally the deal was sealed and I had my very own 3-month-old puppy!! Sunday, when we got home she got 2 flea baths. Tomorrow Sadie is going to get her shots and very soon she will start potty training! Oh the joys of little pups.

lions and zebras and bears, oh my!

2009-04-22T15:23:00.000-07:00

A few months ago our church had a "ladies luncheon" after church one sunday. Heather, Lauren and I decided to attend. It was good fun, but let me tell you, the spanish version of "Cranium" is REALLY hard for some non-native speakers. At this luncheon, our pastor's wife, Karen, decided to go around the table and as a little get-to-know-you activity have each person say a few things about themself including one thing they are good at. For some reason I said "painting" although I wished shortly thereafter that I had said "baking." Anyways, Karen remembered from then on that I was a "painter" (lol), and since she is very intentional about seeing to it that every member of the church is using their gifts, I was recruited to direct the painting of a mural in the nursery at church. Oh boy!

Thankfully, we also have in our church a man named Luis who is actually a professional mural painter... he has done the paintings on the inside of all of the Espresso Americano's (read: Honduran Starbuck's) in the city, and he was also recruited for this project. So... professional Luis, draws the outlines of the Noah's Ark with all the animals, leaves a tray full of a plethora of colors of paint and takes off, leaving me in charge. Here I am, supposedly directing a team of about 8 people only 3 of which speak English. Needless to say, I was a bit overwhelmed. But once again, I was blessed to have a number of people on my team who are also skilled and gifted at painting, so my only job was really giving the ok for each of the colors chosen for each of the animals. And even those decisions I think I ran past Lauren about 90% of the time.

We worked on the mural for about 4.5 hours on Saturday. There is still more work to be done, but at least we made some good progress! Here are some pics of the process and the (for now) finished product.

por fin!

2009-04-12T15:02:00.000-07:00

SURPRISE! I'm still alive, and I haven't forgotten about my little ol' blog... though it is taking some time to scrape off the dust that has accumulated on it. Since it has been nearly three months since my last post I will give you a quick photo update of some of the exciting happenings of February, March and April to date (p.s. you can click on any of the pictures to see them larger). Then I will try to give you some insight into what's going on in my little world now and what I'm looking to in the future. Ready?? Here we go....

First, I promised an update on the flower-growing process. I have been taking pics along the way, but never had time to post them til now. The cosmos broke through the surface at the end of january, within a few days had grown to be about 2-3 inches tall. By the end of February they had added several more inches to their height and were boasting large feathering leaves. Then finally on April 2, we got our first flower!

In February, we had a week-long break from school, so Megan, Myself, Anna, Lauren, Corrie and Leah took to the road and made the long, arduous (but well worth it!) trip up to Ambergris Caye just off the coast of Belize. We spent the week relaxing, reading, snorkeling and tanning before making the 2-day trip home. Here we are with all of our gear ready to take the 7am ferry back to the mainland.

Every year at IST we take all 4 sections of Kindergarten up to a retreat center in the mountains just outside of Tegus. We had fun playing games and learning stories about God Almighty. Anna and I were finally able to relax a bit on the bus ride back after we got our students to play a "game" of "who can pretend to be asleep for the longest time?"

Ricardo won the game when his pretend sleeping turned into actual sleeping.

Here Kristi and I are showing some Honduras pride on a teacher's retreat we took in March.

I was able to go home for the first week of April. While in California, I got to see the Dodgers beat the Angels!

I also participated as a bridesmaid in my little sister Kimmy's wedding to Eric.

When I returned to Tegucigalpa in the middle of Semana Santa (Holy Week), all of my teacher friends from IST were already all off on various traveling adventures around Central America. So I took the opportunity to spend some time getting to know the people of the Micah Project. Now, for those of you who don't know about this yet, I am planning to work full time with this ministry after my contract with International School ends in June. The Micah Project is a non-profit organization here in Tegucigalpa that ministers to street children. Tegus has hundreds of kids that live in the marketplace or under bridges, many of which are addicted to drugs and to sniffing Resistol, a yellow glue that they can buy for about 50 cents. Throughout the past 10 years, Micah has helped about 25 of these boys come off the streets, overcome their addictions, become followers of Christ, receive an education, and live a life of hope and purpose. About 12 of these boys (ages 12-18) live in "The Micah House," the main group home, and another 4-5 who have graduated from High school are in the "Leadership House" while several more are attending universities in other countries.

I am very excited to work there in the future and have a lasting impact on the lives of these young men. It has been fun hanging out with them the past few days, getting to know them more and more. We went camping on Thursday and Friday, and the boys just had a great time playing in the river, catching crabs and tadpoles, roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over a big (hot!) bonfire, playing hide-and-seek in the dark, skipping stones and eating raw sugar cane.

It is crazy to me to think that even six months ago some of these boys were homeless, hopeless street kids, wondering where they would get their next meal and their next high. Now I see in them carefree spirits, excited to run and play and be normal kids, not beggars, not thieves, not drug-addicts. I see them and I think to myself "God is SO good!" THIS is why Jesus died. THIS is why He rose again. It's because of Him that we have hope for a future. It's because of Him that lives are changed. It's because of Him we live and move and have our being! Praise be to God Most High!

If you are interested in learning more about the Micah project, check out their website at http://www.micahcentral.org/

we're planting flowers!

2009-01-26T19:53:00.000-08:00

Saturday afternoon, Anna and I were hanging out on our front porch with our neighbor, Joseph, when suddenly Anna remembered that she had some flower seeds she had bought over Christmas and really wanted to plant. So a lazy saturday afternoon was quickly transformed into a workday. Joseph ran home and got some tools, while Anna and I started filling up some buckets with water. First step was to take all of the dead plants and foreign matter out of the planter that is attached to our front wall.

And man, was there a lot of foreign matter: ranging from cat feces to rusty nails to cigarette butts to part of a vertebral column of some unidentified long-dead animal (which I accidentally picked up before realizing what it was, gross!). After we got all of that removed, Joseph started tilling away at the soil (if you can even call that dry dirt "soil"). Once it was all cleaned out and somewhat tilled, we added bucket upon bucket of water until we were playing like kids in a slurpy, soupy mud mixture.

Then at that point, there wasn't much we could do cause it was so wet. We gave the planter a Sabbath day's rest to let the water penetrate through, and then this evening, Anna and I took to the actual sowing of the seeds. Using forks, (the best tools we could come up with for the job) we dug our little holes and carefully placed the seeds approximately 1/4" below the surface.

Now we begin the waiting game. It says it should be 10-15 days before they sprout, and hopefully not too long after that they will begin flowering. We're excited to see what comes of our little proyecto. I'll keep you updated with pictures as our babies begin to grow and flourish.

can't sleep

2009-01-10T21:16:00.000-08:00

Big decision to make this month whether to sign on for another year at IST or to go back to the states. And if I decide to return to the states, what will I do? where will i live? how will i make money? etc. And since I am terrible at decision-making (especially important ones), it's going to be a very back and forth month I feel like. Your prayers (and words of wisdom) are greatly appreciated.

coming soon to an airport near you...

2008-12-17T18:28:00.000-08:00

25 hours until I step foot on California soil. Getting prepared for flushable toilet paper, carpet, driving, chick-fil-a, taco bell, and most exciting: my family and friends!! See you soon.

a caribbean christmas... not quite

2008-12-09T16:42:00.000-08:00

Well, i guess if Christmas technically starts on the day after Thanksgiving, then technically it was a caribbean Christmas. Casa Verde and Friend, consisting of Anna, Corrie, Megan, Melissa, Eduardo (Megan's bf) and I traveled by bus to the caribbean coast of Honduras where we caught a 1.5 hour ferry ride to Utila, one of Honduras's three Bay Islands. We were able to spend Thanksgiving Day and Friday riding bikes down the beachfront, playing frisbee in the water, reading in the sunshine and spending time with friends. It was a wonderful vacation.

Upon returning from the actual Caribbean, Anna and I returned to another Caribbean, in full force: "A Caribbean Christmas" this year's preschool Christmas program. Imagine for a minute, 200 children between the ages of 3 and 6 performing a number of songs with choreographed dances. Cute, right? Adorable. Now, imagine those same 200 kids 1 week before the actual performance, practicing for literally 3-and-a-half hours a day those same songs and movements. Those poor things: standing up, sitting down, shaking their shoulders, shaking their hips, flailing their arms, bouncing their knees, trying to smile while singing at the top of their lungs in a language they don't know. They hate it. We practice from 7-9am, do some phonics, have snack and recess and then practice again from 10:30-12, followed by some more classes, lunch, and then the occasional in-class practice of our own class song for the program. The look on their faces when I line them up for the second rehearsal of the day kills me. Now you know what my life has been like since Thanksgiving.

In other news, we did not end up going to San Pedro to visit Nandi and her family last weekend. Some things came up and it didn't work out. There is still a chance that a couple of us may go this weekend, but my confidence in that idea is quickly fading. Please continue to keep them in your prayers though as the dad is still going through some major surgeries, Nandi has about a month of recovery before she even begins to do physical therapy to re-learn how to walk, and the mom is having to be so strong going back and forth between the hospital where her husband is at, and her relatives house with her daughter.

in less than 8 days I will be back home in California!! I'm so excited, I can't wait. But there is yet so much to be done between now and then (homeless dinner, tamaleada, another filling, possible SPS trip, Christmas program, and more), so I'm sure the next 8 days are going to fly. And when I get back it's not going to slow down much either. Lots to see and do in Cali as well. Pray that I find time to rest. My love is with you all. Can't wait to see you!

::update::

2008-12-05T04:15:00.000-08:00

Here is the latest of what I have heard on the family who was in the car accident. Maria, the mother, who suffered the least physically (several fractures as i understand), is now in a recovery room in the hospital. Nandi, the little girl, broke both of her legs and her wrists. She had surgery on Wednesday on one of the legs and yesterday on the other one. I think she is in the recovery room with her mother. Jose, the father, is still in intensive care. He has finally come to, but is suffering from memory loss. He apparently recognized his wife, but he has no recollection of the accident. I'm not sure how much of his memory has been affected. Elisa, the sister who passed away in the accident was buried in Nicaragua (where the family is from), while the parents are still in the hospital. Yesterday, a few teachers from the Bible department at IST drove up to San Pedro Sula to visit them in the hospital. Rumor has it that when the little girl saw Mrs. Nieto, her Bible teacher from last year, she was asking about me and my assistant too. Myself and a couple other Kindergarten teachers and assistants are planning to make the 4-hour drive up there on Sunday. Please, please continue to pray for this family, and for us as we drive up that same stretch of highway where the accident took place. Pray that God will give us wisdom and peace in the midst of it all.

you never know

2008-12-01T14:16:00.001-08:00

This is Nandi. She was one of my smartest students last year. This partial she got High Honors in First Grade. Yesterday afternoon Nandi and her family were in a very serious car accident. Her twin sister, Elisa was killed on impact. Nandi, her mother, and father were taken to the hospital where Nandi and her father are both in critical condition and her mother is being sedated because she has suffered numerous fractures to her body. Please pray for complete physical and emotional healing for this family, and peace for all those involved in their lives.

http://www.latribuna.hn/news/45/ARTICLE/50216/2008-12-01.html

a.r.t. d.a.y.

2008-11-24T17:04:00.000-08:00

my apologies once again for the long delay in updates. i didn't know anyone was checking the blog, so i got discouraged and stopped writing cause it felt like a waste of time. But now that I know at least 2 people check it, I will try to update more frequently. BUT, you have to comment on the posts so I know you're still checking them. Ok?

Alright, so since it's been forever since the last post and it would take a really long time to update you on everything that's happened since the robbing, i will pick a couple random samplings from the time in between.

1. After my cell phone was stolen (as you read about in the last post), it took about 3 or so weeks to get a new one, and when i finally got the new one, I found out that they didn't have the same one I had before, so one of the administrators at school worked it out that I got an even better one. So my new phone is a 3G Motorola Razr with some pretty sweet features including Moto ID (which can listen to about 10 seconds of any song, analyze it, and tell you the name of the song and the artist who sings it), USB transfer of songs pictures and video to and from my computer, and the best feature: video calling. Sadly, I only know one other person who has video calling as well, so I haven't been able to take much advantage of this.

2. At school we have been practicing every morning for the upcoming Christmas program. One kid in my class is so funny when he sings. We try to get them to sing as loud as they can, but he is apparently incapable of singing loudly without making a sort of scowl on his face. So here he is, singing Feliz Navidad at the top of his lungs with a furrowed brow and a huge smile on his face. It's awesome.

3. Art Day! I've been trying for a couple months now to have an art day some Saturday morning, and it finally worked out. It actually ended up being saturday afternoon and it was quite a success. I was expecting it might go for about 3 hours, but we went strong with the art-making from 3pm until 8:30. It was great! There was cross-stitching, painting in various formats, coloring, baking, and different types of paper art. All in all, we had lots of fun, and I can't wait until the next one!

ay ladrones!

2008-10-14T17:24:00.000-07:00

Today in continuation of our Community Helpers theme for Social studies we talked about Police Officers. The kiddies all made their little police hats (I wish I had my camera, they were so cute), and then took turns acting out scenarios for when a police officer would be needed. All they could come up with was robberies, so one girl had her purse stolen, a boy had his backpack taken and two more robbers stole some kids' play-doh as they were playing. As soon as they shouted "Police!!" however, two cops quickly chased down the thieves and recovered the stolen items.

If only it were that easy. Last Saturday I fell victim to my third robbery since being here in Honduras. While visiting a neighboring town, a group of seven of us were hanging out in the main square right next to the church when two men came around the corner saying (in Spanish, of course) "this is an assault, give us your things..." We were all very stunned and there was nothing we could really do 'cause one of them had a gun. By the time it was all over they made out with two cell phones (one of which being the new one I just bought) and three digital cameras. It was a huge bummer, but thankfully the Lord kept us all safe. It was a good reminder that we always need to be aware of our surroundings, and never to get too comfortable. Praise the Lord we are all ok though!! His hand of protection has been upon us all along. Sometimes it's just more noticeable than others. Thanks for all your continued prayers.

El Dia de la Biblia

2008-10-08T15:16:00.000-07:00

In Honduras they celebrate annually "El Dia de la Biblia" (The Day of the Bible). That's pretty awesome. No other books, religious or otherwise, get a special holiday all to themselves... hmm, maybe this isn't just any other book. At IST we celebrate this national holiday by dressing up each class from nursery to 2nd grade (16 sections total) to represent a different story from the Bible, and then parading around the entire school accompanied by the High School marching band. It is quite a celebration! This year, my class was the story of Jesus' birth. We had Mary and Joseph, 3 wise men, several shepherds, a donkey, a cow, 2 sheep, and 2 angels. It was great fun, and the kids were super cute!

The Long Weekend

2008-09-16T15:13:00.000-07:00

Monday, September 15th, Honduras celebrated it's independence day. In light of the holiday we were given both Monday and Tuesday off, making it a 4-day weekend. Most of the North American teachers took advantage of the long weekend by taking a vacation to the caribbean coastal town of La Ceiba. But not the green house! Most of us had already been there and we didn't feel like spending so much money this early on in the schoolyear, since we've only gotten a third of a paycheck thus far. Instead of the vacation at the beach, we had many other adventures to keep us busy instead:

Saturday morning we got up early, Jake picked us up at 8:30 and we spent nearly the entire day building a classroom for a small church about 5 miles outside of Tegus. When we got there, we found a pile of rocks and dirt, 7 posts cemented in the ground, and a large pile of wood planks on the other side of the fence. 7 hours and a lot of hard work later, we left them with 4 walls, a doorframe, 2 windows and half a roof, while we took away some sore muscles, sunburns and lots of mosquito bites. It was great fun, but we had no energy to do anything else that night except sit at home and watch Friends.

On Sunday, Megan, Melissa, Bertha and I set out to find the CRC church that Gregorio Sanchez is the pastor of. BT had a bit of an idea where it was, so we commenced the search. We drove halfway up the mountain, keeping our eyes peeled on both sides for any sign of it. After asking a number of nice people and getting the same number of confused looks, we decided it was hopeless. But as Megan was quick to point out, "Who needs church, when you have Mas por Menos?" When we got back down the mountain, we decided to check out Mas por Menos, a grocery store that carries a lot of U.S. brand name items that you can't get elsewhere in Honduras. So after a little shopping, some lunch, and a visit to the big Catholic Basilica, we made our way back home. That afternoon, we hear Bertha holler down from her apartment, "Corrie! Megan! come look at this." Megan runs upstairs and comes back shortly announcing that Bertha had found and trapped a live chinche in her bedroom. Now, keep in mind, we just got our place fumigated for chinches on Thursday, and this is Sunday. We were all a little freaked out. After talking to a number of people, including Fu, who came over and looked at the bug and a suspicious-looking bite on Anna's arm, we decided it would be ok to spend the night that night (apparently chagas is fully treatable if you take care of it in a reasonable amount of time). We spent the night, but everyone was quite uneasy the whole night and I don't know how well anyone slept..

Monday morning the fumigator shows up again. We pack up enough stuff to spend 2 nights at Dona Bertha's house again and take off. This time they are fumigating our house again, spraying the whole mountainside, where the chinches are coming from, with the pesticide and then on Thursday or Friday the government is supposed to come and cut down all of the grass and brush on the hill above our house. So we're keeping our fingers crossed that everything will turn out ok. After dropping stuff off at DB's, we went out for lunch and then Melissa, Corrie and I took a taxi to the dentist. Dr. Marco Mass, a friend of ours from IST gave me a filling and Melissa a cleaning. When it was all finished we headed back to the mansion for spaghetti dinner and a game of hand and foot, which BT and I won!

This morning, after a quick pancake breakfast, we all piled in Bertha's Land Rover and took a trip to Danli, a town about an hour outside of Tegus that is famous for its cigar industry. We took a private tour of one of the cigar factories... that place was amazing! They get their tobacco from all over the world: U.S.A., Italy, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Brazil, and many more. There are 600 people who cover all parts of the process, from sorting leaves, to rolling cigars, to wrapping them with damp tobacco leaves, to putting brand name stickers on each one individually, to packaging them in bundles or boxes and shipping them to all over the world. It was quite an eye-opening experience. Now we are back at DB's, we just got out of the pool and are getting ready to go get dinner.

WHAT A CRAZY WEEKEND!!

Tomorrow we have school, and then hopefully we can move back into the green house which if everything went according to plan should be chinche-free!

El Chinche Picuda!

2008-09-12T16:47:00.000-07:00

Wednesday afternoon, I walk over to the office to sign out, in a bit of a hurry because I had missed the bus the day before. When I got over there, though, I saw all of my housemates, including those in the 3 apartments connected to mine having a bit of a discussion. I walk over to find out what's going on. Turns out Megan had had some termites in her apartment, so the exterminator had come that afternoon to take care of them. In the process, he found in her ceiling at least six chinche picudas (chinches picudas... chinches picuda? not exactly sure how to pluralize things in spanish yet). Now, if you've never heard of this bug before, you're not the only one. But almost every Honduran we mentioned it to warned us that Megan dare not sleep in her apartment that night and highly recommended that all six of us get out. So, being that we had Bertha with us, she decided we should go to Pamela, one of the top administrators, and see if she could get us a hotel room for the night. We told her the situation and instead of getting us a hotel, she told us we could stay at her mom, Doña Bertha's house for the night and they would fumigate out entire house the following morning. Doña Bertha, who is THE owner/director of our school, is in Mexico for the month, and boy does she have a NICE house. So the six of us, Megan, Melissa, Bertha T, Anna, Corrie and I went out for some Chinese food dinner and then to DB's house. It is a very nice house, but there weren't enough beds so I ended up on the futon that had no mattress... it had little couch cushion things, but not comfortable at all. Not the best night's sleep, but I do have the privilege of saying that I have spent the night at Doña Bertha's house, so I'm not complaining.

Whoa... sidetracked, this was supposed to be about the chinches. Chinche picudas are a black and yellow bugs that are about an inch and a half long and carry a parasite called chagas, which apparently if you get bitten, it releases the chagas into your muscle where it grows and eventually can cause heart problems if not treated. And the ones that were in Megans ceiling were apparently dead already for who knows how long. But when we heard the story, it went something like this: Megan has chinche picudas in her house, if you get bitten, it stops your heart. Thankfully though, we were not in as much danger as we originally thought, and we survived our two daysaway from home and our now safe and sound back in the recently fumigated green house, about to head out for a green house dinner at chili's. I will post pictures later, cause I have to go right now. Thanks for reading, feel free to respond.

i can finally send text messages

2008-09-07T07:53:00.000-07:00

I got a brand new phone about a week and a half ago. it is very nice compared to the old one which looked like a toy phone and could only fit 6 letters on the screen at one time. But for some reason it would not send text messages. I bought the new one from IST who put me into their cell phone monthly plan as opposed to the prepaid one i had been using. So I talked to at least three different people in the office, who all tried to get ahold of the cell phone company in different ways to get it fixed, but to no avail. Finally yesterday I went myself to the cell phone store and asked the guy about it. He pushed a few buttons on the phone and voila! Now I can send texts!! Yay. The school plan allows us 50 or 100 free texts a month, and I think I probably used all of them yesterday cause i was so excited!

can you guess which one is the old one and which is the new one?!

how do YOU spend friday night?

2008-09-05T20:16:00.000-07:00

just got paid, friday night, party hoppin', feelin' right

well, we got the friday night and the feelin' right part... forget the other two.
it started out as any ordinary friday: granitas after school with all the other NAT's, ride in the back of a truck to the bottom of the hill, 14lemp hot dog from the stand at the corner, taxi to the mall...... but then........ we finally broke down and made the big purchase we've been dreaming about for so long......... A MICROWAVE!!! HEYYO! And isn't she a beauty?!

Welcome to Kinder C

2008-09-01T17:22:00.000-07:00

okay guys I'm 2-for-2 on the Monday update thing. We'll see how well I keep this up.

School last week was crazy, with Monday cancelled because of the strike, this is how the week went: Tuesday: half day, Wednesday: full day, Thursday: half day, Friday: full day. And because it was the first week, we hadn't started with any actual lessons, but were instead teaching the kids how to line up in a straight line, how to flush the toilet, how to raise their hands, how to use glue without making a huge mess etc. But if you know me at all, you know I need more structure than that. I have a hard time when I don't have specific things I'm supposed to be teaching. Plus, the kid I mentioned in the last post has turned out to be quite a handful indeed. So all that said, last week was not the greatest.

The weekend was fun, though! Bertha, who lives upstairs from us took me and my roommates grocery shopping on Saturday, which is always fun (except when you check out and see that you are spending 1,900L!!) Then I stayed home in the afternoon getting some work done and catching up on some phone calls. Then Anna, Corrie and I went out to La Creperia for dinner, a cute little crepe cafe, which was delicious as usual. Sunday, I went to church downtown and then met up with the roomies and Bertha for lunch before coming back home to a somewhat productive, very rainy afternoon.

Today was so much better as far as school goes! We were having actual classes and the kids had real work to do, which was great. Plus, they had Bible, Music and Library today which meant that I finally got some free time during the day... yay!

Ok, I promised pictures, so let me give you a few of the kiddos...

first day of school... false

2008-08-25T18:25:00.000-07:00

so one of my goals this school year is to update this thing at least once a week (i'm trying out mondays for now), so that you all can keep up with the fun and exciting things that are going on down here. one of my other goals, however, is to be a better teacher and more organized, so if the first goal conflicts with the second, please have some grace and know that it is only for the sake of my students that i forsake this blog updating thing.

that being said, let me give you a rundown of what has happened so far.
Sat 16th: arrived in Tegucigalpa, met new roommate, Corrie, and had dinner with all of the new North American teachers
Sunday: church downtown and lunch at a school administrator's house
Monday-Thursday: workshops and classroom preparation
Friday: Open House - got to meet the parents of 13 of my 20 new students
Saturday: started unpacking my suitcases (yes, one week later)
Sunday: church, lunch at the mall with the roommates and Bertha
Today:FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL.... but it was cancelled, due to a strike in the city. Ahh the life of living in the capital city of a third world country! So in lieu of school we went to campus for a few hours to finish up some last minute details in the classroom. And the best part, we finally got internet in our house. Sadly the girl with the router has not arrived yet, so the 4 of us are taking turns plugging our computers into the modem to use it. But hey it's way better than nothing.

Tomorrow will be the real first day of school. I have 20 students this year as opposed to 24 that I had last year. I also have one year of experience under my belt which I'm looking forward to employing. Please pray for me though. I have gotten several warnings about one specific student in my class who has been known to be a troublemaker in the past. So hopefully I will be able to start the year off right and we can work together and be on the same page this year.

Ok, i have to go finish up my bulletin board that I'm working on and then get to bed. Big day tomorrow. I promise the next post will have pictures.

long time...

2008-07-05T17:06:00.000-07:00

dustin' off the old blogger. been a long time since i wrote on here. guess school just got so busy i kinda forgot about this thing. plus, i didn't know anyone read it so i felt like i was wasting my time. now that i know some people are checking, maybe i'll be better at keeping it updated. we'll see. summer is under way. cleaning the sisters' apartment and catching some rays.

one foggy morning

2008-01-09T19:56:00.000-08:00

Walked out the door to go to school this morning. "Whoa, it's foggy," i mentioned to my roommate as if she couldn't tell. It wasn't incredibly foggy, it was just the first time it had been foggy that I remember since being here in Tegus. Now, being from Arroyo Grande, CA... i know fog. People from Colorado know snow,people from Seattle know rain, but if there is one type of weather I'd say I'm fairly familiar with, it's fog. I remember chilly mornings at CCS, I hardly can think of one that began with sunshine. I remember fog so thick you couldn't see more than 7 feet in front of you. I remember Jared accidentally getting off the freeway because the fog was so dense he didn't notice the road turned. Fog can be a nuisance, but you live with it. Oh, and keep in mind, the fog this morning was nothing compared to these experiences.

So, I get to school and my assistant comes into the classroom. "I've never seen it like this before!" she says. "The fog?" I ask. "Yeah, this is crazy. I thought school would be cancelled... I couldn't even find the school!" I thought to myself, if this weather warrants a cancelling of school, I would have finished High School having attended maybe once a week, if that.

......another example of the difference between home and here.......

oh, and then this afternoon for lunch I was eating apples and peanut butter. my students thought that was the craziest/nastiest thing ever. they all gathered around my desk to watch. Oh the things that so deeply affect a five-year-old!

after the break

2008-01-06T12:21:00.000-08:00

So I went home for Christmas. It was nice, busy though. And here I am, back in Tegus, dealing with a lot of different feelings. I can't even put most of them into words, and when I tried, I just started crying... hmm. I have a feeling i'm just going to bury them, cause it's easier than dealing with them. I've never been very good at talking about my feelings, so why should I start now, right? God, give me wisdom. Help me in my weakness.

hormiguote

2007-11-04T17:56:00.000-08:00

not only do we have the smallest ants you have ever seen that tend to show up in mass quantitles, we also have the occasional monstrous thing reminiscent of the early 90's favorite: Honey, I Shrunk the Kids!

double click on the pic for the full effect

Keepin' it Rural

2007-09-16T08:26:00.000-07:00

So I realized something last weekend… Tegucigalpa is not the reason I love Honduras. I mean, some things about it are nice, like running water, electricity (except of course right now while i’m writing this), grocery stores, pizza hut, and paved roads. But this city is not the place I fell in love with. It was the rural towns, where everyone knows everyone else and there is no fear in walking down the street at night with nothing to light the way but the lights that God put in the heavens. It was El Naranjo, El Diptamo, Ochoa, and Arriba. It was the faces of kids who walk around selling donuts and oranges for 1-2 lempiras just so their family can survive. It was the taste of a charamusca on a hot dry day, and the hope for some shade and a nice breeze. It was being in a third-world country and really feeling like it. This city is just not Honduras to me. There is so much more – so much better in my opinion.

Last weekend Megan, Allie, Betsy and I took a little trip to Gracias, Lempira. We got to drive through the rural of the rural. My heart felt so at home. I wished I could be out there all the time. And it was even more beautiful than I remembered, because I’ve always come in the dry season, and this time everything was so green. I loved it. But of course we had to come back to the big city… to the smog and the noise and the people – lots of people, everywhere. I’m still trying to get used to it.

felix

2007-09-04T13:18:00.000-07:00

... 2:15pm September 4th.
it has finally started raining.
felix is on his way.
excited to see what the next couple days will bring.
i've never been in a hurricane before.

All around the mulberry bush...

2007-09-02T11:06:00.000-07:00

...the monkey chased the weasel. That's the tune that just came blaring through my front windows as the ice cream truck made a five-point turn to head out of our cul-de-sac. So this is Honduras. I look out the front door and see the sky, smiling a beautiful shade of blue. A more brilliant blue than you would ever see in Southern California. And it is dappled with the typical Cumulonimbus clouds that make it a breathtaking sight every time. (the picture doesn't do it justice)

I can faintly hear the sound of the neighborhood kids, while the dogs have taken a brief cessation from their barking. The unusually cool Honduran afternoon is beckoning me to come outside, yet here i sit. The weekend is rapidly coming to a close, and I have so much to do to prepare for class tomorrow. Lesson plans to fix, a sore throat to tend to, and enough curriculum to read to keep me busy for days. Thankfully I can take "make cookies" off my list as I just finished the third batch of those delicious pieces of heaven that I have made in the past week. I am seriously their biggest walking advertisement right now. And here I am writing on my blog. I better get back to work, so that I will be able to go to the soccer game this afternoon at the big stadium downtown. It should be exciting, I've never been to a professional soccer game, so it will be fun. Please keep my health and my sanity in your prayers if you don't mind. I really don't want to be sick for the second week of school!

pray for passion

2007-07-24T11:13:00.000-07:00

well, i spend all my free time shopping/planning/packing for my upcoming journey to Honduras, but something is missing. I've been so caught up in getting ready that i haven't had time to get excited. does that make sense? i don't feel terribly passionate about what i am going to do. i'm just praying for God to change that... and quickly. when I went to Honduras in April, that trip was my life. I lived and breathed that trip. Nothing made me more excited than planning and praying and preparing and even doing the tedious logistical things for it. i'm praying that God will give me passion like that for this trip. please pray with me.

waiting

2007-06-20T12:48:00.001-07:00

well, i'm not in honduras yet, so it would be silly of me to begin posting on here prematurely. check back later for actual updates.