Today Becky, Julie, Alisson, Kate, Waleska, Pastor Abner and I went to a retreat center in Siguatepeque, Honduras with the teenage girls from casitas #3 and #5. We left right after breakfast. We took the mission bus on the 3 1/2 hour trip. We stopped to eat our packed lunches along the way. I sat with Yolany on the bus. Alisson had the girls singing for awhile. It amazed me that many girls stood up with their heads by the windows for most of the trip. The scenery was amazing between the mountains and the valleys! Julie said that the kids rarely get to leave the home. This was a treat for many of them. The bus trip was a very bumpy. The roads are not kept up very well. A handful of girls got sick along the way.
Pastor Abner took this picture before we left for the retreat center.
Roadside stand
There is fresh fruit everywhere!
The view from the bus.
We stopped to eat our packed lunches.
Milagro and Daniela looking out the window most of the trip. Many of the girls were as interested in what we were seeing as I was.
When we got to the retreat center, we took our luggage to our cabins. We had six cabins of girls with 5-6 girls in each cabin. I was assigned cabin #5 with Gaby, Jessica, Suladis, Helen, and Alisa. Thankfully, Gaby speaks pretty good English so she was my translator. We started by playing some games. I had brought a bunch of olympic team games to play in Honduras. I got the game ideas from my friend, Rebecca. We played an oreo stacking game and a shoe scramble game. The girls enjoyed laughing and cheering each other on.
The meeting room at the retreat center.
The cabins
Oreo stacking game
Shoe scramble game
Pastor Abner wanted to take the girls on this special trip to talk about the important topic of sexual purity from God's perspective. He wanted them to remember this special time. Allison and Becky spoke during the first two talks on sexual purity that afternoon. Alisson used a visual of two people having sex by gluing two pieces of colored paper together. Then she finished her talk. During Becky's talk, she tried to pull the pieces of paper apart. When she finally got the papers apart, there were remnants of the other piece of paper on each one. Her takeaway was that sex is not just physical like the world tells us. Sex is also mental, emotional, and spiritual. She said that when you have sex, you will always be connected to the other person in some way for the rest of your life. That is why God created sex and intimacy for marriage.
Becky used another great visual in her talk. She spoke about all of us receiving gifts on our wedding day from the people who love us. She was holding a gift bag as she was speaking. She said that in her gift bag was the gift that God wants to give us on our wedding day because He loves us. In the gift bag was a piece of paper with the word "SEX" written on it. It was a great visual for the girls to remember that her main point was that God created sex for marriage.
We ate dinner which consisted of a tortilla, refried beans, and cheese. Then we played more games that included spaghetti weights and an M&M straw game. Yolany and I paired up for the spaghetti weights game. Then Alisson gave another talk, played some music videos, and showed a moving video. It was captivating. Waleska, our translator and friend, sat near us during the talks when she wasn't interpreting for the speaker so she could tell us what was being said.
The girls that I fell in love with in Honduras!
We all really bonded on this trip!
The view from our cabins of the city below.
Our meeting room
Me and Yolany playing spaghetti weights.
Alisa, Daniela, Kate, Gaby, and Tania
We had a bonfire later that night. Alisson talked a little more and then she asked us to pray together in our cabin small groups around the bonfire. We went around the circle and each of the girls in my cabin shared their prayer requests while Gaby translated them for me. Then I prayed for all of us as we held hands. It was a very special time together.
The wonderful girls in my cabin!
Gaby, Jessica, Me, Alisa, Suladis, and Helen
When we got back to our cabins and were ready for bed, Gaby told me that the girls wanted me to read the bible to them before we went to bed. I was surprised. I had been in youth ministry for many years before my children were born and I don't remember being asked to read the Bible before bed. I asked them what they wanted me to read but they didn't have a preference. I took out my Bible that I have been reading through the Bible with to flip through. I underline and make notes in it sometimes, so I was looking for a passage to read. I don't know why, but God led me to Titus 3. Paul wrote this letter to Titus and followers of Jesus. Gaby read it for me in Spanish out of her Bible and then we discussed it. The girls had some great questions. We ended our discussion with the fact that because Jesus is our Savior, we need to get to know Him better by reading through His Word (the Bible) and praying. That is how we will learn how to love and obey Him. God is teaching me through these girls. They each have a different story, but the most important thing is that they know Jesus as their personal Savior! Sometimes, it is hard for these girls to trust other people because they have been hurt by people that they loved. That makes it hard for them to believe that God would love them right where they are. I love it when the girls will smile BIG for my camera. When they smile, it makes me think that they understand they are beautiful because they are God's child! They shine from the inside out!
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