I Wake Up to Singing in the Shower

But really...the boys sing in the shower every morning. It is funny and precious all at the same time and such a joyful way for us to be woken up.  This weekend has been yet another learning experience for Laura and I.  We were told by Ronald when we first arrived at Jovenes that the weekends are often the more difficult days for the boys.  Saturdays are the days when family members are allowed to come visit the boys.  Ronald also takes some of the boys into the city to spend the day with family.  But you can see where this would be difficult for the boys who don't have family anymore or who don't know who their family is.  After several hours it was already obvious to Laura and I that the staff tried their very hardest to make Saturday's very fun for the boys!

Swatting beatles...the nightly activity when it doesn't rain

The massacre 

So, first thing on the agenda...swimming with Casa Rosada!  Looking back on this time, we feel like this was when the boys really started opening up to us.  We started to see individual personalities form.  Like Johan and how he was constantly saying, "Mirame, mirame, mirame!" He wanted us to see all of his tricks; and Noé acting like he didn't want to be thrown in the pool but at the same time he was slowly taking off his shoes and emptying his pockets; and Fernando wanting to talk to us so bad that he quoted the only Bible verse he knew in English.

Another thing was noticed was how...normal the boys are.  If you can just get past the language barrier, you realize that people in other cultures are really no different than us.  They laugh the same, the joke the same, their pains are the same, and they want to feel special just like we do.  So often we focus all our preparation on how different things are going to be when really our focus should be on how to communicate those things that are the same.  And once you can understand this concept, it is so much easier to understand and connect with the boys.

Me and one of my new favorite 11 year olds, Pancho!

Today, we were blessed to be able to sleep in...till 7:30.  Just like in the US the weekends are a little more laid back.  Every month, a different house is in charge of the worship service.  And...surprise, this month is Casa Rosada's turn!  We walked downstairs to 55 little boys all dressed up in their "Sunday best".  The service was very formal, with lots of practice from the boys the night before.  It was such a blessing to hear all the boys singing their hearts out and participating in worship.  The rest of the afternoon was spent playing sports.  Laura played soccer while I played several games of "burro" (horse), and a two-on-two game of basketball.  I haven't played that hard in a long time.  Needless to say, we need more exercise.

We are trying very hard to be polite when it comes to eating the food, but tonight it was...rough.  The menu consisted of hot-dogs (made from a mystery meat), onions and cabbage with some sort of sauce drizzled on top.  Possibly the worst thing we have had so far.  It made me miss beans (and I don't even like beans)!  So, obviously, we are still adjusting to the food situation here.  After dinner we watched a 2 hour show called, "Pequeñas Gigantes", some kind of game-show that mixes singing, dancing, relays, and little babies.  The boys loved it and we found ourselves cheering right along with them (especially for "pequeño gordito" as the boys liked to call him).

Watching Peqeñas Gigantes

We had a great weekend, and we are ready to start a new week.  We are walking the boys to school in the morning and we are really looking forward to it, even though that means we have to be up and ready by 6:30.  Hope this weekend brought as many blessings to you as it did to us.  We love hearing from you and staying updated on what is going on at home.  We love and miss you all!

Hannah and LauraBeth  

Cold Showers, Warm Hearts

Where do we even start???  Sorry for the long wait on the blog, but as the saying goes we are now on Honduran Time J  This works great for my schedule of always being late.  Here I am actually on time.  Needless to say, this blog will be very long.  The last of our trip was successful, obviously.  Getting through customs went smoother than we anticipated.  And right as we walked out the door, Ronald and his family were standing right at the exit calling our names!  They greeted us with hugs, smiling faces, and English which was a huge blessing.  To spare you from some of the less interesting details, we did a little bit of shopping and had some final “American” food before heading out to Jovenes en Camino in Zamarano – about 40 minutes from Tegucigalpa (1 ½ with the traffic which they have every day). 

This is the view from our window, can you believe it??

The drive to Zamarano was just as beautiful as we had remembered.   The colors here in Honduras are so vivid, especially all the different shades of green.  By the time we got to Jovenes en Camino, we had been awake for 14 hours.  But this did not stop us from being so very excited to get our first glimpse of the campus and meet all the staff.  After meeting most of the staff we both realized that learning, remembering, and pronouncing names was going to be one of our most challenging tasks as interns.    Walking up to the dorms, we noticed all the boys standing around anticipating our arrival.  After being here almost 4 days, we realized that when they first saw us they were shy (just like little boys are sometimes) but this morning we have already heard them singing in the shower, cracking jokes, messing around with each other and talking a hundred miles a minute!  One of the funniest comments that has been made so far was when Baýron couldn’t get us to understand what he was saying he said, “Aye Gringas!” (such an endearing term, I know). 

Day 2 consisted of meeting more people and continuing to learn all 55 of the boys’ names.  We got to meet with Ronald and he passionately told us what our main job is here: to love on the boys and become their family.  To love is our main job here, and what an exciting job that is!  We feel like God has equipped us with the means to do this because we have been taught what it means to love as a family.  Already, we feel like we have gained 55 more brothers!  We also got our first experience in the kitchen shredding cheese and cabbage.  It was great to get to meet and talk with the kitchen ladies but no air conditioning as they were deep frying tacos was definitely noted.  From the kitchen we quickly moved on to our next adventure: Allison school (a bilingual school that 6 of the boys attend).  We can tell that the school is doing its job because those 6 boys LOVE talking to us in English.  We could also tell that the security was doing its job because to get into the school, they took our passports (condense freaking out; we got them back).  The rest of the afternoon was spent getting to know the boys better by playing all sorts of games with them; like “One” (yes, that is English for Uno). 

3 of our new brothers: Gustavo, Fernando and Pancho!

Showers have been the most interesting experience so far.  They are cold, and I mean they are “take-your-breath-away cold.”  And then sometimes, the water just turns off for several minutes at a time.  But after taking 3 showers we have learned a little trick: if you turn the sink faucet on and then off, for some reason, the shower comes back on.  So, as you have probably figured out, this requires 2 people in the bathroom to keep the water coming.  In addition to the starting our morning with a cold shower, I decided it would be a great idea to spray bug spray in my eye, about 2 minutes before we were supposed to meet Ingrid (the boys’ tutor and the lady who is taking us to the market to buy 15 days-worth of food for 55 boys).  Don’t worry, I toughed it out and took Hannah’s eye drops with me, although I did look like I was crying the whole way there (so much for the make-up).  We didn’t realize before we left that going to the market was an all-day affair.  We were accompanied our “guards” Adonay and Emeleth from Casa Verde (the oldest boys’ house).  We learned a lot of conversation skills because this was the first time that the people we were with only spoke Spanish.  But I have to say that Hannah and I kept a pretty steady conversation going the whole time (even though understanding one phrase sometimes took 20 minutes).  Adonay, proving to be one of the most talkative boys we have ever met, constantly tried to get us to say yes to something we had already said no to 5 times.  Best quote of the day by Hannah, “Adonay, no comprendes NO!”  This got quite the approval from Ingrid with jumping up and down and laughter.  Needless to say the market did not quite meet the standards of Health and regulation from the US, but so far the food we have eaten has not made us sick.  They must be doing something right.  After a quick trip to the mall for pizza and a soda, which we welcomed readily, we made the trek back to Jovenes.  As we were walking back to the room, Fernando (one of the most precious boys you will ever meet), called out my name and asked me to help him with his homework.  This reminded me so much of Gavin.  This may not seem like a big deal, but here, it means that you are on your way to becoming family.  Ten pages later, we had finished all the English homework.  While I was helping with homework, Hannah was being interrogated by about 5 boys being led by Adonay, on how to ask a girl to marry you in English.  We decided this was probably not the best thing to teach them right now so she changed the subject and had him teach her how to make a bracelet. 

Fernando beating Hannah in arm wrestling!

Johan, Hector and Baýron after a long afternoon of swimming!

Ok, so we should probably wrap this up now.  Of course, we could write several more pages of details but right now we are missing breakfast and an open shower.  Hopefully we will get our internet cards sometime in the next day or so, and we will be able to post more frequently which means you won’t have to read a book each time we post.  So, on that note, “Hablamos luego!”

LauraBeth and Hannah

Gate D-34...Wait D-15

Well we are in Miami!  After a very early morning, coffee and hot chocolate were a necessity as soon as we passed through security.  Our first flight passed smoothly with only a few incidents including a few awkward conversations with strangers and obnoxious people. You know, the usual airport stuff.  Our flight attendant informed us of our next gate (D-34) so after a quick bathroom break (this will be a frequent occurrence) we made our way to our "gate" only to find out that our gate was really D-15 (on the other side of the airport).  Now we are waiting at our real gate and anticipating the next stage of our trip (the flight to Tegucigalpa).  After months of preparation we are sad to leave our friends, family and country behind but we have constantly been reminded by these people that God will be with us all summer.  This is an exciting part of our life that we may never get to experience again.  Instead of being sad we will try to make the most of the time we will spend in Honduras.  So in less than 3 hours, with God's help, we will safely be in Honduras and beginning our new adventure.

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are." - Theodore Roosevelt

"So let us seize and hold fast to the hope we cherish"

Well here we are less than 7 hours away from walking into the airport.  It is unbelievable how good God has been to us.  We have both just about conquered what we think we will be the most challenging part of the whole summer (packing).  I mean really...how do you pack for two months in another country?  To say the least, it has been a struggle and something that I have been putting off till the last possible minute.  Packing up was like the final weight that fell into my lap to set my nerves racing.  It really is true that Satan will continue to attack until the last possible second.  Tonight, mine and Laura's family had dinner together as an almost final goodbye (they will be taking us to the airport in the morning where we will have our official "sob fest").  I cannot believe the time is really here.  We have been so encouraged the whole way leading up to this, and I think I can speak for Laura as well, but these next few weeks will be when we need encouragement the most.  As soon as we can we will try to post an address to Jovenes so that we will be able to receive cards and letters.  There is just something about getting a hand written card from loved ones that can turn a bad day around.  We also ask that if you don't want to mess with sending a letter that you leave us your encouraging thoughts here on our blog.  There will be times when we will have down days but encouragement from loved ones back home would mean the world to us.

I really am excited.  It is with scattered emotions that I try to stay positive.  I think it is normal at this point to be nervous and scared.  But I also know that God is with us and if our goal is to do His work (not our own) then nothing Satan can do will stop us from achieving that goal.  I have a strong faith that God's will will be done this summer.  He has gotten us this far and I am very excited to see what He does.

So after 11 months of planning, stressing, scheduling, fundraising, packing, and saying goodbye, we are finally ready to leave our comfort zone behind to a place where we will be out of our bubble and looking forward to God's plan for the next two months of our life.  Thank you to EVERYONE who has said a prayer for us, helped us out financially, and encouraged us through smiles and hugs.  We literally (for lack of a better word) could not have gotten this far without you.  Each and every one of you will be a huge part of God's mission to the boys and Jovenes and we cannot wait to share with you all of the exciting stories and pictures.

It is with our love that we part this country.  Please stay in touch by reading and commenting on our blog!

"Guide me in your truth and teach me..."

6 DAYS!!!  Hannah and I cannot believe that we are almost there.  Our flight leaves out next Wednesday somewhere around 6:00 am.  We have just started one of the hardest things we have done so far... packing.  The question to ask, "What do you pack to go live in another country for 2 months?"  Thankfully Goodwill came through again and provided both of us with some great capris and shirts. Thanks to Lydia for providing a great packing list, we are off to the store to make our last minute purchases to check things off.

Please continue to pray for both of us as reality is finally setting in.  We are going to be gone for 2 months.  2 months from family and friends.  2 months from things that are familiar.  2 months from our own beds.  But the truth is this is going to be 2 months of growth with God, leaning on him and each other, and loving on some pretty amazing boys.  God has hand his hand in this whole process, and we are SO EXCITED to see what he has in store for this trip!

"God is good all the time, all the time God is good"

Well, I can hardly believe we are leaving in 20 days!  Things are starting to come together very nicely.  Last night we had nearly 200 people at peak of the week for our fundraising dinner. After a bit of frustration getting the meal together we had a very delicious dinner of taco salad.  I think is was a great hit and we had just enough for everyone to get some food! God was definitely good to us last night. With his help and the amazing support of all of our friends and family, we raised $1,400 dollars for our trip.  This was way more than Laura and I every imagined we would get from this fundraiser. We are so grateful and humbled by the kindness of our Christian family.  At this point, we are over half way done with the money we need to raise.  Of course we will continue to pray and depend on God and his wonderful blessings.

The preparation for this trip has been humbling.  We have learned so much about ourselves already and we have not even gotten on the plane yet!  I am so excited but on the other side of things I am extremely nervous about the unknown.  But I believe this is one of the things God is trying to teach Laura and I. I think He is teaching us to rely completely on Him.  He will be our focus this summer and when things get tough we will turn to Him.

Continue to pray for us and for peace of mind.  We know this mission belongs to God, but it is hard to not worry when it seems that so many things could go wrong. We are very excited and cannot wait to see what God continues to teach us through this experience!

God Bless!

Taco Salad?...Yes Please!

Next big piece of information is (drum roll please!)...LauraBeth and I will be cooking a meal of taco salad on Wednesday night, May 9th at 6:00 pm in the Smyrna Church of Christ fellowship hall to raise money for our trip! We have had many lovely ladies volunteer to cook some fabulous desserts for us so you will not want to miss this! 100% of the proceeds will go into our mission fund and hopefully bring us one step closer to our exciting summer in Honduras. If you cannot come and would like to make a donation that would be more than welcome, just let us know. Thank you all for your prayer support. Every day that goes by, Laura and I have seen more and more signs and feel that this is what we were called to do. Everyday is a reminder that God is Good! Countdown...27 days!!!