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 :)