Oh, the characters… (part 1)

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!

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.

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...

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...

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...

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.

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.