Honduras trip with GRUMC team September 2012 Day 5

September 12, 2012

Today, the plan was to be awake by 6am so we could be dressed, packed and ready for breakfast at 7am.  I didn't have an alarm with me so I asked one of the other women on the team to make sure that we were up by 6am.  Little did I know that I wouldn't have to worry about sleeping in!  Jessica woke up at 5:20am to go take a shower in the bath house.  When she got back from the shower, she turned on the lights in the cabin.  She was ready to go.  I was not ready to get up yet.  I am not a morning person!  I asked Gaby why she was up so early.  I told Gaby that most teenagers in the States would not get up earlier than they needed to.  Gaby said that Jessica was excited to go see the waterfall today.  Wow!  That puts everything in perspective.  These girls are excited to see all that they can while they are away from the children's home. 

We had cocoa crispies and Honduran bananas for breakfast.  I usually don't eat bananas but I thought I probably should or I would be hungry quickly.  I told Becky that I would try the banana and she said that she would eat the rest if I didn't like it.  I took one bite and told her that I was going to eat the whole thing.  The banana was so sweet and fresh.  This is Kate and Becky serving breakfast.

Then we loaded the bus for the waterfall.  It was about an hour or more away from the retreat center.  We passed a large lake along the way.  It was gorgeous.  The girls kept telling me to take more pictures of the scenery.  We couldn't soak it in fast enough.  At the waterfall, Kate spoke on peer pressure and she reiterated that sex is for marriage.  Kate shared some of her testimony with the girls.  It was powerful!

 

The beautiful waterfall.

God even gave us a rainbow!

 

Kate speaking and Waleska translating

Then we went down the path to get sprayed by the waterfall.  It was beautiful!  There was even a gorgeous rainbow!  I took some pictures.  Then, the girls walked back up to swim in the river.  I took pictures there also.  Kate and Pastor Abner swam with the girls.  Kate said that they found some shells in the river.  They named them purity shells.  They promised one another to wait until marriage to have sex with the purity shells.

Then we got back in the bus to head back to the children's home.  By now we were about 4 1/2 hours away from home.  These are pictures of the lake we drove by on the way back to the GSCH.

We stopped for lunch on the way home.  We had a few more girls get sick on the bus again.  When we finally pulled up to the entrance of the children's home it sounded like something fell out of the bottom of the bus.  The driver looked at it and then Julie said get your suitcase and walk the rest of the way home.  We were all glad that if the bus had to break down, it was at the entrance to the children's home.  Thank you, God, for watching over all of us!

Honduras trip with GRUMC team September 2012 Day 4

September 11, 2012

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!

 

Honduras trip with GRUMC team September 2012 Day 3

September 10, 2012

Today we had banana pancakes, bacon, pineapple and watermelon for breakfast.  Blanca is our cook.  The food is wonderful!  We then went to the school on the GSCH property for the Dia del Nino (Day of the child) celebration.  It is a big celebration that they hold once a year.

Each team member was assigned a teacher to work with for the morning.  I worked with Miss Melissa, the third grade teacher.  Her assistant that day was Daniela.  Daniela is in high school and she speaks very good English.  I was able to use her as my interpreter that morning.  Daniela is very responsible and sweet.

Me, Daniela, and Miss Melissa

Our third grade class was paired up with the second grade class.  Their teacher was Miss Karen.  Esther was her teenage helper for the morning and Rich was the team member assigned to her class.  We played games outside in the school yard against the second grade class.  They played a relay race game, tug of war, a spelling game, bean game, ball game, and coin game.  The kids had a great time!

 

The view from the school yard.

 

Alisa

 

Daniela

The second and third grade classes.

Then, we went back to their classroom for Name Bingo and Guess Who.  After that we ate pizza and cake that was brought in from Tegucigalpa.  Then, Melissa and Daniela helped the children with the pinata.  They had so much fun with the pinata.  Miss Melissa kept raising the pinata up and down with a rope while each child was blindfolded.  It took longer to break the pinata that way and it gave all of the kids a chance to get a turn.  The kids screamed and laughed alot!

 

Playing Bingo

Playing Guess Who

When the kids left for the day, I swept Miss Melissa and Miss Karen's classrooms.  Daniela held the dust pan for me and we got the chance to talk.  Daniela said that Miss Melissa drives to the school from Tegucigalpa everyday.  She has been teaching for eight years.  I could tell that she truly loves her students.  She gave out lots of smiles and hugs.

Daniela said that her own dream is to come to the U.S.A. to study.  She would like to be a dentist one day.  I think that she would do great in the states.  She did a wonderful job translating for me all morning.  She taught me about their culture and helped me get to know the kids better.  She asked me about my family.

I wrote in my journal:
This trip has been amazing so far.  I have learned so much about the people here.  I have gotten the opportunity to go deeper with many people.  That is such a blessing.  I believe that God is teaching me to be a servant and a listener.  I am blessed with the opportunity to be here.  I pray that I will learn all that God wants to teach me on this trip.

Please be with Joe, Abby, Ellie, Nathan, and Sarah.  I love them and I miss them.  I know that I am here because this is where God wants me to be.  He has given me peace.  I am open to be God's hands and feet.  Thank you for using me God!

This afternoon, Julie, Becky, Alisson (Pastor Abner's wife), Waleska, Kate, Pastor Abner and I planned the four talks and the games for our retreat on Tuesday and Wednesday with the girls in casitas 3 and 5.  It was a great planning session.

After dinner, I was able to sit and talk with Waleska and Alisson for awhile.  We were able to share our life stories with one another.  It was a special time for all of us.

While we were getting ready for bed, Kate blessed Blanca (our wonderful cook and friend) with and arm and hand massage.  At the same time, Becky prayed over Blanca.  It was such a sweet scene to watch.  They were blessing and serving Blanca.

Meanwhile, I went to find Alisson.  She and Abner live in another part of the casona.  I found her cleaning her home before we left for the retreat in the morning.  I felt God tell me to serve her by helping her.  It took some convincing, but she finally allowed me to sweep her home and Waleska to mop her home.  We all worked together and talked together.  The time flew by and she was grateful.  God has been showing me that the people that are here on the front lines of these ministies need to be served and encouraged just like the children.  They work hard everday.  They get tired.  We are here to love, support and encourage them.

 

Julie and Alisson