Honduras! What. A. Month. And it’s only been a week. People ask me a lot about what life is like.. So, here is a mini look into the past week. 🙂 I’ve loved every second of my time here, and I can’t wait to see what our last 2 weeks have in store–Pastor Rony told us it was a surprise, so I’ll let y’all know about that when I know. 🙂
So, Honduras is BEAUTIFUL! We’re surrounded by plenty of hills and mountains. We found out we’re about an hour from the beach, but I’m totally cool with not going because…
In case your were wondering, Honduras is HOT… Insanely hot… Like, sweat 16+ hours in a day, hot! On the bright side, after a couple of days you kind of get used to it…the sweating, not the heat. 😉
The town gets water from the mountain every other day, and there are random blackouts throughout the week. I’ve never seen such a beautiful sky as I did the night the lights were out…
Cold showers are AMAZING!! Never thought I’d say that, but there is something about not having the luxury of air condition to cool you down that makes you love cold showers!! For me, anyway..
I was so bummed coming into this month because I had already managed to wear a hole in the bottom of my favorite pair of shoes! It’s only been 2 months..haha Anyway… I found a PAYLESS SHOESOURCE in the middle of a mall in the middle of freakin’ NOWHERE, Honduras. Thank you SO much, God!
Rainy season OFFICIALLY begins today, the 15th. However, it decided to put on a little show for us on our 2nd and 3rd nights here (3/6 & 3/7)… That’s when we found out our ceiling has holes in it! I woke up Thursday morning around 5:00 to water dripping on my leg and feeling cold–yay! I moved closer to Claire to get out from under the hole in the ceiling and attempted to go back to sleep. A few minutes later, I get woken up to Kat yelling, “Girls! Girls, GET UP! This whole place is flooded!” We get up to find a nice little river flowing from the kitchen area to mine and Sara’s bed in our “room”, getting some of our packs wet along the way. I grab my stuff and throw it in a corner that is dry, shake as much water out of my Bible and journal as I can, lay my wet clothes out to begin drying, and move over to Claire’s bed since mine continues to soak up the river.. That was the 2nd night. The 3rd night, we moved into the main area of the church since that didn’t seem to get as wet during the previous night. It poured down again, and although there was a river flowing through our original sleeping area, it didn’t reach anyone!! 🙂 Kat had an insect infestation under her bed as all of the bugs were searching for dry ground. Needless to say, we now all sleep in the main area–in between random holes in the ceiling, of course–to avoid all of that. 😉
God showed Kat something pretty cool with our experience with the holes in the roof… So, God is trying to work in different areas of our lives, and right now that looks like rain. It’s funny how we don’t notice the holes in the roof until it rains….just like how it’s funny that we don’t notice these areas in our lives until God begins to work in it–rain in it.. Then I began to think about how after the rain, we look for the holes in the roof so we don’t have that happen again. We notice the holes because the sun is shining light into them… Much like after we get through a tough spot, we look around for where it could be and all we see is God’s light–his strength–shining through it.
Monday (3/9) was our off day! Between the heat, the lack of sleep from the flooding, and expectations not being met (on both sides)–our off day was VERY needed!! We were given the opportunity to get out of town and go to the mall in Progreso. My day consisted of searching for more shorts (not successful with this one, but totally cool because I am the proud owner of a new pair of size 12 sandals from Honduras!), drinking frozen coffee, enjoying Pizza Hut for lunch, AND getting to go to the movies to see McFarland–for UNDER $2 & it was in ENGLISH! That movie had so many scenes that portrayed our lives for the past few months!
MINISTRY has been good! Thurs/Fri (3/5-3/6) were our arrival/orientation days, with discipleship classes on Friday night. Saturday was a day of outreach/evangelism in the community. Sunday morning was kids’ church, so we helped prepare food and led the time with the kids. Sunday evening was the general meeting–we introduced ourselves to the church and sat in the service. After we got back from Progreso on Monday, our team played soccer against some of the ladies in the church–WE WON, 3-1! I was sick at the time so I didn’t get to play, but I had a great time sitting and talking with Pastor Rony and his wife! Tuesday was a day of painting the outside of the church white and blue, and teaching English classes in the evening. Wednesday, we spent time with kids who are in the church’s feeding program, walked to a nearby high school and presented a drama and the salvation message, and had church service later that evening. Thursday we invited people to small groups, that we attended that evening. Friday was a day of painting part of the inside of the church! We were supposed to have discipleship class that evening but the town’s power was out, so we enjoyed time sitting outside with Pastor Rony and his wife and looking at the stars. Yesterday was a day of painting more of the church, visiting families whose children participate in the church’s feeding program, and leading the monthly youth night.
We were told this coming week would be full of childrens’ ministry, which I am very excited about!
Sorry if all of that is out of order–my life and thought process this month seem to be nothing short of random and spontaneous, so y’all get it honest. 🙂 Thank y’all SO much for your prayers and support!
With love,
Ash
