Sorry if you just got 3 emails in a row about new blog updates. I only get internet once a week and I have a lot to share with ya! 😉
So… hopefully you read my last post that explained the story of the place where we are serving this month. Now I'd like to share with you what it looks like to live here…and all the crazy stuff we are doing in the name of showing people God's love:
Because we are up in the mountains the weather is pretty mild. It's like 70's and sunny- mostly beautiful weather. Cool in the evenings and rain showers in the afternoons (kinda like home! 🙂
The set up is a lot like the ministry I worked at in Costa Rica, Arbol de Vida, the past two summers with Christ Fellowship. But no, we are not staying at a cool bungalow with wifi, A/C, hot springs, and water slides…but still, the language, the skyline, the people, the grocery stores, the way of life- it's all kind of familiar to me. Haven't had to much trouble with my stomach (like a lot of my squad mates have), so I am guessing my insides find this all a bit familiar, too. So for the all familiarity, I am very grateful 🙂
Like I shared before, my whole squad is here together, which is atypical for World Race procedures (evidently Tony requested it this way years ago and Adventures in Missions went with it. Go Tony! Breaking the mold 😉 So we sleep in three different areas around the property: 2 groups are huddled in 'camp sites' outside and then one group is actually camping indoors! And I am in that group. There is this big open room, adjacent to the kitchen and common area where we eat and have meetings, and that is where we have all of our tents and hammocks and gear all set up. Why tents indoors, you ask? Well, we leave the windows and doors open for some breeze, so tents would keep the bugs out, but also it's for privacy so we can change our clothes and just have some alone time. I LOVE my tent, by the way. Thank you SO much to everyone who signed it!! My squad mates keep referring to it as the tent with graffiti on it 😉 I LOVE it. Every time I am in there I read the messages all over the walls, roof, doors, and floor. And it really does feel like I brought my friends and family with me! I love it. Thank you, again, to everyone who took the time to write me some love and encouragement –in my 'bedroom' for the year (I actually called it my bedroom the other day, haha).
We are all in our teams of 7, even in the big group, so we take turns cleaning and cooking (the family here buys the food and supplies), but we all switch up cooking and cleaning up, and cleaning the bathrooms and the common area, etc. There is a schedule for what meals are each day, a schedule for washing clothes, a schedule for showering, a work schedule, a time for everything 😉 Tony & his family have it down to a science since they have been hosting World Race Squads for a few years now — and they typically have squads here 8 months out of the year! So they have had to get us organized to stay sane. One thing is for sure, I bet they're never lonely!
Our work schedule is:
Mon- Wed: working on the property, rejuvenating it — and it turn rejuvenating the family who lives here. We are painting the common areas, painting Tony & Nydia's living room, planting gardens, and basically beautifying the property. My team was working in landscaping the front yard. It was quite the sight: all these girls with pick axes, rakes, and hoes (giggle. That joke has not gotten old yet, lol) all working in the yard together – blasting music on the iPod speakers. All the trucks that go by honk, we wave, and keep working. All our bodies are still sore, but the yard looks great!
Thurs: we go to HINFA, which is kind of like a Dept of Children & Families. We spend the afternoon working with girls who have been taken in off the streets. Yesterday was our first visit there and I loved it! When we got there it came to my attention that we had planned out what we were going to do (music, sharing of testimonies, then stations with different activities for the girls), but no one had taken charge as the emcee. Naturally, I jumped into that role! 🙂 I checked with all the Team Leaders to make sure it was OK that I take charge and everyone seemed OK with it (mostly b/c none of them knew what the plan was), so I went ahead and rallied up all the Spanish speakers in the group, paired them up as translators with the people who were sharing their stories, commissioned someone to do the welcome, someone to do the closing, and positioned all the translators and speakers alongside the stage in case anyone got stuck on a word we could help each other out. It went SO great! The activity stations were the most fun; we had a station for hair braiding & hair wraps, nail painting, bracelet and necklace making, and some colored chalk for drawing on the sidewalks. I walked around the place like a Summer Camp Director, sending girls to the stations they were looking for, translating, making the girls share beads with one another (you would have thought beads were a currency!), and overall — I came alive! I had SO much fun, and my squad mates kept telling me how glad to have my help and it felt so good to use my talents 🙂 In fact, it brought me back to Launch in Washington DC when one of my teammates, Brandi, told me during 'Feedback' (that we do at the end of each day to encourage each other and give one another 'constructive advice) – when Brandi told me that she was glad we were going to Central America, because I would have the opportunity to 'come alive' and use my talents sooner than later. It came true! And you know what, Brandi doesn't even remember saying that! God totally spoke through her. It was what we call "prophecy" and it was right on. I am alive!
Fri: As I write this blog post, we are at the Mall in Tegucigalpa and we just came from our first friday of "Street Ministry". We were basically playing the the streets in the name of Jesus — it was epic! We held "Honk if you love Jesus" posters ('Pita Si Amas Jesus! -in spanish, of course), signs that said "Jesus Loves You", "Free Forgiveness", handed out candies with bible verses, we had signs that said "Free Hugs" and gave them out ;), and we prayed for a few homeless people and their kids. It was a mob scene! Cars honking, people dodging traffic, we earned the attention of BOTH the newspaper and the local news– they wanted to know WHY these crazy gringos were mobbing the mall intersection — and what did we tell em? All in the name of showing people God's love in a tangible way! 😉
Saturdays: We will go to Los Pinos- one of the poorest areas in Honduras where the boys who live here are from. I am looking forward to this, because it will be the roughest things we will have witnessed yet and we'll really get a clearer picture of the progress these boys have made the different this ministry has made in their lives.
Sundays: Sundays are free days and Sunday nights we do church. This past Sunday, Ariel, a teenage boy who lives here at the ministry gave the message at 'church' (all of us gathered together in the common room. His message was titled 'Los Vencedores' (The Conquerors) and he talked about how we are all conquerors in Christ. Ariel is training to be a Pastor one day and this was his first sermon! We were so blessed to be his first congregation. It was powerful!
I put 'church' in quotations because we are learning to shake off all the trappings of traditional church and religion. Church is anywhere where believers are gathered and coming before God as one body. We do church here every day! And religion – well, we are kind of abandoning religion in the sense that most of the world understands it. Religion the way most of us view it is bogged down with man made traditions and rules. Like James says in the Bible, "True religion is this: caring for orphans & widows in their distress." And that, my friend, is exactly what we intend to do, in the most non-traditional way I can think of. All in the name of LOVE!
And Month 1 Continues!
