Back to the States!

Friends at the airport before we boarded the plane for the states:














We are back in the states! It is kind of strange to be back, but I am glad to be here and start thinking about what is next. The last couple of weeks in Honduras were busy and full of different emotions. Our last night in Honduras was spent with about 50 friends from the church and then had the task of packing our bags!

As I reflect on the time in Honduras, I am so thankful for God's presence, help and faithfulness. It has been a stretching time with different opportunities and challenges, but every time, God came through and helped me along the way and I want to make sure I give Him the praise!

As we boarded the plane in Teguz, a whole new phase began and what all that will look like on into the future, I do not know. However, here are a few light-hearted funny stories about transition.

*We are flying and I went to the restroom in the airplane but the guy in there did not lock the door. After opening the door (thankfully he was done) I was completely shocked and said "Perdon" and then realized what I said and corrected it by saying "I am sorry."

*We are in Huston, Texas going through security again after going through customs. Josh had to leave to go do something for security and the worker asked whose bag he had. I responded and said something to the effect, "esta conmigo." He looked at me weird and then I realized what I said and corrected it and said, "it is Josh's who is with me."

*We got to HDC (Harrisburg Discipleship Center) at 3:00 AM. When we got up to go to breakfast, the other teams were all there waiting for us. This is the first time that we saw them in 5 months and I was confused on how to greet them, so I did the Honduran thing and gave everyone a hug. It seemed really awkward as everyone was waiting for us to get done hugging everyone.

Nacaome and Catacamas

Last week, we had an awesome opportunity to go to Nacaome and Catacamas with Nathan Bert who is the BICWM missionary here in Honduras. We visited the church in Nacaome and invited people to attend the service that night. We as a team did a little VBS program for the kids and it was a blast! We had about 20 kids and they were amazing and easy to share with.















We then went to Catacamas where there is no church established yet. Filadelfo is the pastor and right now there is only one family in a cell group. We went to help the pastor by doing a spiritual survey and inviting families to a special service. On Saturday, the team had most of the service and used our dramas, puppets and some shared their testimony. It was very encouraging to the pastor to see 4 new families at the service and to have a bunch of new contacts to follow-up on.

Nathan gave us a report on the church in Julticalpa where we did evangelism in February. The church grew from about 10 people to 40 or 50. Some of the people who left the chruch before are now back! This was such an encouraging report and it is a reminder to me that God can use us in our feeble attempts!















On Sunday, we had a host family picnic. This was a lot of fun to have the families together and play group games and just show and express our appreciation for them!

Missionary Retreat and Manuelito

It has been a couple of weeks since I have updated my blog. The week of Easter, we as a team went to the Latin Missionary Retreat with Brethren in Christ World Missions. This was a great week of Spiritual refreshment and relaxation. It was fun to be able to hang out for a couple of days with missionaries and get to know them better, especially after working in the office for five years. In the afternoons, we were able to get some exercise and play ultimate Frisbee!

People at the Missioanry Retreat


Hanging out on our porch


Ultimate Frisbee




Last week, I spend the week at Manuelito which is an orphanage, school and church. This particular orphanage is a transition house and then when the children mature a little, then they move to the other orphanage that is a couple hours away but within the same organization. I worked with the three babies and helped the nanny with whatever she needed. She had a really big week as the other nanny was on vacation so she was with the children for 24 hours and for 7 days straight.

Below are some pictures of the children. They are precious!!!

The Micah Project

The Micah project is a house for boys who came off the streets to live. The project is to provide a structured, safe place to live and help them be able to survive in life that is not a life on the streets. The Micah House provides education for a High School degree, opportunities for the boys to go to university and they here about Jesus.

Last week, I had the privilege to help at this house and it was neat to hear some of the different stories of the boys. Pedro came to the Micah House five years ago, after living on one of the worse streets. He was in and out of orphanages as well until he got connected to the Micah House. He decided that he really wanted to change and was ready to work to make the change. He is now a year or two away from his High School degree and is doing great!

Tuesday afternoon of last week, we headed out to the streets to hand out food. They go out about three times a week to the same place to meet with as many as the same people as possible to build relationships. Dan, who is on staff at the Micah Project built a relationship with Daniel. He and his mom (maybe other siblings as well) live on the same street that Pedro came from. Daniel has a great heart and his was invited to live at the Micah Project. However, when his Mom was approached about it, she refused to have her son move. Apparently, she was high on drugs so her mind was not all there. It was disappointing to hear Dan tell this story after I met Daniel, because I know the drastic difference his life would be if he would move to the Micah House. The staff are praying that one day he would be able to live there. As Pedro says, "It is a privilege to live at the Micah house."

A picture of the Micah Boys from their website.

Week at AFE

I spent the last week at AFE, which when translated is Love, Faith and Hope. This is a school for children who live at the city dump or whose parents work there. It was a great week for connecting with children, helping teach the kindergarten class, and just loving the chldren. The first day I was there, I was asked to read the children a book. It was in English so I had to translate on the spot and for the words that I did not know, I asked the other teacher who knows English or made my own twist to the story! I wonder what the story sounded like to the children!

I was able to connect with the children and had a lot of fun doing it. I had fun teaching some of the older girls the chorus to Jesus Loves Me in English. I played their games with them and sometimes it was interesting because I did not understand the rules. We just laughed and had fun.

Below is a picture of me helping in class.

Travels and seeing God work!

After much travel, it is great to be home in Teguz! We had relaxing time in Costa Rica for our vacation and renewed our visas as well. After spending four days n Costa Rica we headed back to Honduras and stopped by a BIC church in Nicaragua. But we had a "fun" time with public transportation. We were at the hotel waiting for our charter bus to take to Nicaragua. After trying to get to the bus schedule every possible way, we still had no information on the schedule. So Rachel told us to watch and if we see it, RUN! You guessed it, I saw the bus so I took off running to stop the bus. Thankfully there was a stop light close by and it was red. I felt very stupid running down the street after a bus and thankfully, the driver opened the door and I asked if 6 people could get on as we had tickets. Unfortunately it was full, but an agent got off the bus and helped us find a connection, which was a huge blessing. So after waiting 5 hours, we finally were on our way. To this day, I am not sure where that boldness came from. For those of you who know me well, can you picture that!



This is the bus I ran after.

We were in Nicaragua for only a day, but we saw God's hand at work during our time there. It was a privilege to get to know Pastor German and also spend the evening and night with host families. I was able to connect with Martha who is 20 and is a new believer. I felt that in that short time we were together we developed a friendship and with the Lord's help, I believe I was able to encourage Martha in her walk with the Lord. Please pray with me that she will stay strong and grow closer to the Lord.




Martha and I on the back of the pickup going to the bus station to leave for Honduras.

When we left Nicaragua, (another saga with public transportation), I ended up sitting by a man named Carlos. He grew up in Florida but was visiting family in Nicaragua. We began talking and he speaks English so we talked about what we were doing in Nicaragua and Honduras. He was very open to talk about God and faith. During the 45 minute ride to the Honduran border, I heard about his conversion story, his short walk with Christ and his desire to start fresh. We talked about sin, grace, perseverance, accountability, forgiveness and so much more. I know that the Holy Spirit was helping me in this conversation because once again, I am not sure where the words came from because it was not the typical me. I could sense that Carlos was serious about our conversation so I asked if he wanted to pray and ask the Lord for a fresh start. He said yes and we prayed and recommitted his life to Christ. Carlos said that God was up to something because he did not want to take the trip he was doing that day and then to meet our group, have our conversation and pray! I am just so thankful for that day and truly believe that it was not me, but the Holy Spirit and the prayers of the team as I was having that conversation.



A volcano we saw along the way!




Beautiful scenery as we drove 3.5 hours out of the city. The BIC church in Trojes was 1.5 hours on a dirt curvey road. The picture not do justice!

Week with the dentist team

I was going to add a bunch of pictures, but you can see them on the team blog. Check it out at www.step0708.blogspot.com.

It was a great opportunity to work with the dental team who are so passionate about what they do. It was so evident that they wanted to help as many people as possible but at the same time, they realized they could not do everything. Any help they could give, was more than any of these people would have gotten otherwise.

It was a great week to be able to connect with kids and love them. My heart when out to some of the patients and sometimes I did not have words to encourage them through the pain, so I just took my mask off and gave them a smile and that was my "words" of encouragement.

The next 10 days or so we will be doing a lot of traveling. Tomorrow morning we are heading out to Juticalpa for 3 days. Then we are home for one day and then head out to Nicaragua to visit BIC churches and help with any services or anything else they want us to do, then on to Costa Rica to renew our visas, and then back to Teguz after stopping at more churches in Nicaragua. Please pray for us that we will be the hands and feet of Jesus as we share his love. Pray for travel safety and strength as it will be very busy.