Hello! I’ve written to y’all about things happening in my heart and mind since we left Nicaragua (Nov. 4), but not so much about what we are doing or where we are living (Choloma, Honduras). So! Here is a bit about life lately…
Host
Our hosts this month are phenomenal. This month, Kintsugi is doing a home stay with Pastor Gregorio and his family in Choloma, Honduras. They picked us up from the bus station with a sign to welcome us, and our hearts were already so excited to be invited into this family! They cook for us, play with us, pray with us, and they are so, so patient with our Spanish. We have gotten to celebrate birthdays together, show each other holiday traditions, learn to cook from one another, and it is delightful. They care for us and love us well, and we are immensely blessed by them.
Ministry
Ministry this month is super cool for a few reasons. First, we are working with a pre-school that is supported by Compassion International, so we get to witness the fruits of sponsorships that so many of us had only seen one side of. In these classes, we get to teach and sing and play and make new classroom decorations. We were all quite overwhelmed by the amount of kiddos (and their volume) when we first arrived. Truthfully, it’s still a bit overwhelming at times, but we get to practice different classroom management techniques and show persistent love to these kiddos, and it is wonderful. We also partner with His Hands for Honduras by spending some mornings singing and playing and acting out Bible stories at a feeding program. Another part of our ministry is home visits to “los ancianos” or the older members of the community. During these visits, we talk with the women, share stories, drink coffee, and sometimes learn how to make food from them (tortillas, pupusas, tamales, etc.). We have also been able to do a few extra “events” like a princess Beauty for Ashes events for the girlies, a picnic when we walked to a hilltop and invited kiddos along the way, and a teaching workshop for the pre-school teachers. Friends, this community has stolen our hearts, and I have fallen more in love with this country than I had ever expected. Wow, God is incredible.
Awakening
We had an Awakening over Thanksgiving weekend! That means we got to spend a few days with other squads who are on different routes and at different points of their races (we had month 2, month 4, and end of month 11). We spent time learning from each other, worshiping together, exploring together, resting together, etc. We had a few days with normal beds and hot showers. Reid and Ana Mason – a phenomenal, fun, wise, and humble married couple who works for Adventures in Missions – came and talk to us about the importance of ownership and bringing the icky, hidden parts of ourselves into the light to be redeemed. We spent time evangelizing to the beautiful and kind people of Valle de Angeles, Honduras. Also, one of the other teams on my squad took the time to reach out to our loved ones for little messages to give us on Thanksgiving. Whoa, my heart. Unshakeable, y’all are rockstars. I literally fell to the ground when I opened a little envelope with an unexpected note from Trevor that evening. Awakening was filling, healing, fun, hard, and Holy Spirit-led. It was good.
Adventure
Adventures this month include visiting an old fortress, relaxing at a beach, having a Harry Potter marathon before going to see Fantastic Beasts 2, and exploring some Mayan ruins (maybe…this last one hasn’t happened yet). Yay yay yay for adventures of all sorts!
Praises and prayer requests
Communities that embrace new people as family
Quality time with teamies and everything that entails – laughter, cuddles, vulnerability, tears, confrontation, growth
Loved ones all around the world
Leadership that pours into us and fights for our growth
An amazing first leg of the race that has been so far beyond what I ever asked or imagined
*drumroll please*
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I’M FULLY FUNDED!* Y’all, I squealed and spun and jumped around in a coffee shop when I found out, I AM SO EXCITED. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you for coming alongside me for this adventure – for all the ways you are allowing God to use you and for all the ways you are allowing God to use the race in your lives. I am praising our God for his sovereignty and kindness and incredible provision and the way he invites us into his plan when he doesn’t actually need us a single bit, he just loves to do things with us. He is so darn good!
Please join me as I pray into this next part of the race:
Travel mercies as we head into a 50+ hour travel “day” to Malawi!
Team changes! Pray for unity, patience, and grace as we leave our current teams and join our next ones
Continent change! We are heading to Africa in a week! I have started to feel a bit anxious to leave a culture and language that is familiar to me – please pray for peace and gratitude for whatever comes our way
Also, while Father has constantly shown his goodness to me in affirming that I am where he wants me to be, I still find myself homesick quite often – peace and joy and Father’s comfort in my heart and in the hearts of loved ones who are far away
That’s all I’ve got for now! Thanks so much, loved ones!
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If you still wish to donate, you can help me raise personal funds for the remainder of the race through PayPal ([email protected])! ALSO, I have a couple teamies who are still fundraising and would be immensely grateful for your support! These women are strong, kind, compassionate, creative, and brave. They are humble in their pursuit of growth to look more like Jesus. They are gentle in how they call us higher. They are beautiful – outwardly and inwardly. They live missionally, they press into hard things, and they make my life more full. They are such blessings to everyone around them, and I have learned so much about the character of God through these women. Here are the links to their blogs:
