Year one comes to a close...

Sorry, I forgot about May!

So, it is now June 8, 2011, and in one week (on June 15th) I will have been in Honduras for one whole year. In some ways it went fast, and in some ways it went slow! But either way, it was wonderful- difficult, challenging, tiring, but wonderful=) Some thoughts...

HONDURAS LESSONS LEARNED (in no particular order)

1. It is not as easy as it sounds. Whenever I used to say, "I am going to go to Honduras and teach English for a couple years and help at the Hogar", it sounded so simple. But, I had not considered the trials of teaching, the heavy schedule, the emotional situations that I would encounter, or the cultural differences that would make everything just a little more difficult. I think that if it were not for the Lord constantly reminding me that He has compassion on us even when we are ridiculous, I would have lost my patience a long time ago. But in our weaknesses Christ was gracious to forgive, thus, we move forward in his strength!!

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." 2Corinthians 12:9-10

2. It is easy to be a talker and not a doer, even on the mission field. Sometimes I have lists upon lists and talk after talk of how things need to change or how someone else needs to learn something or how we need to teach this or that. And it gets so frustrating, especially when I do nothing about it. I have learned that you cannot expect people to understand overnight, and you cannot ever expect them to understand if you don't talk to them. We must communicate and teach and live lives that help people understand, not just make lists of all the areas where we are struggling.

3. I have a long way to go to be competitive at soccer here. I don't think that requires an explanation... I probably have a long way to go to be competitive at soccer back home, too.

4. Mangos are the best fruit ever, but their peel contains an oil that is in the poison ivy family. Thus, if you are allergic to poison ivy, not a good idea to eat mangos. But, if you just can't resist, have someone who is not allergic to mangos put them in chlorine water for 15 minutes, and peel them, and you are good to go! (Thanks Ashley...don't know what I will do without you next year!!)

5. God is good, and He provides just what we need, when we need it, so that we can proclaim His glory and work for the good of His people! There are so many examples of this, but the most recent is this: my parents needed to buy a very expensive medicine for one of their babies, who has a weak respiratory system. They were able to buy last month's medicine because they ended up with extra money in their budget. They weren't sure about this month's, but yesterday, one of my friends and fellow teachers from school gave them $100 from her dad's Sabbath school class! How amazing is our God?! We worry and stress and plan and plan, but really, we just need to have faith in God our Provider.

"See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dress like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is cast into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?" Matthew 6:28-30

Catch up...

Favorite Moment of the Week: Today Ashley and I were at the Hogar helping the kindergarten kids learn how to read (which can be frustrating no matter where you are!). So, it is hot and we are tired and we are trying to figure out what each group of kids needs to practice, when we hear a loud "Haappy BEARTHDAY to joooo!" We both turn to see 3-year old Roberto sitting in a desk, wearing some crazy-big zebra print sunglasses, "reading" a book with a birthday party picture on the page. Precious.



I am not really sure what to write about today... so much has happened since the last time I wrote! October, seriously? But, I made a New Year's Resolution to "blog" more often, and considering as it is January 21 and I am just now writing my first blog post of the year, we all see how well that is going!

Thanksgiving was great...a Honduras classic, if you will. Just as we started to serve the meal to a room full of 35 people, the electricity went off! I will forever remember Thanksgiving 2010 as the year I ate my turkey and potatoes in the dark, with a spoon (ran out of forks), from a bowl (ran out of plates), sweating like crazy (no lights=no fans), holding a crying baby (she didn't like the dark). BUT, it was an awesome time... we shared about the history of Thanksgiving, why we celebrate it, and everyone went around and said what they were thankful for. That tradition became more meaningful to me this year... I feel like when I said "I am thankful for my family, for my job, for the opportunity to be here", I really meant it.

Christmas and New Years were really fun, too. The BCM group from Western Kentucky University was here for New Years, and we all enjoyed the "midnight" fireworks (midnight is in quotes because it is really like 24 hours of fireworks!). We went back to school on January 3rd, and God has blessed me with new patience and endurance. I am really enjoying teaching, and I feel like I am starting to get a hang of it.

Favorite Bible verse at the moment is Psalm 121:1-2... (In Spanish, because it says mountains... in English it just says hills, but here we have mountains, so I like the mountain part...)

A las montanas levanto mis ojos.
De donde ha de venir mi ayuda?
Mi ayuda vendra del Senor,
Creador del cielo y la tierra.

When I get up in the morning and look out my window, the mountains in the distance are just beautiful. I love thinking of this verse because I remember that God will help me, sustain me, through each day. I give thanks knowing that He will walk with me in each step, in each class, in each difficult situation that presents itself.

One more thing... we have started a Bible study with the older girls at the Hogar. Our theme is "Why?" We had each girl ask a why question about life, about God, about the Bible; and we are going through each week trying to answer them with scripture. We have met twice so far. Pray that is would go well and that the girls would gain a thirst for scripture.

Tidbits, to suffice for my lack of blogging=)

As I type this, Ashley and I are sitting at Dunkin Donuts working on school stuff. It is eerily similar to evenings at Panera or Barnes & Noble or Spencer’s during university, except this time I am grading and not studying. Things are very different on this end of the education world—my respect for teachers has increased exponentially in the last two months. Planning lessons, writing quizzes, determining how to grade those quizzes, wanting so bad for all of your students to understand everything, but having to accept that not all students are willing to do their share in order to do well… it’s a tough job! But teaching vale la pena (meaning, it’s worth it!).

It has been entirely too long since my last blog post. Here we are. I thought I would share a few tidbits of life here. Some are entertaining, others are more like prayer requests.

~Tidbit Number One~ I teach a dance class at the Hogar on Wednesdays, and I have now taught absolutely every dance that I know to these girls. They keep asking me for a new one, so, on our day-off from school last week, I spent about three hours in my room watching “High School Musical Dance Along” on YouTube in order to learn the dance to We’re All in This Together! (Unfortunately I don’t remember all of it from my BCM days, haha).

~Tidbit Number Two~ Last night we went to a wedding reception, and Vanessa, one of the girls from Misericordia, who has Down’s Syndrome, was a bridesmaid. She looked like a princess! Half-way through the reception, I saw her standing outside, arms crossed, looking very angry. I asked her what was wrong and she just shook her head. One of the staff from the Hogar told me, “Emily, she is jealous.” I said, “Jealous? Why?” The staff member motioned her head towards the window, and inside the reception, Vanessa’s groomsman partner (a teenage boy who also has a mental disability) was dancing with another girl. I looked at Vanessa and asked her if she wanted to dance with me. She grinned and nodded her head yes, so we went inside. Within two minutes Vanessa had left me, cut in on the other couple, and was dancing happily with her groomsman. PRECIOUS.

~Tidbit Number Three~ (Necessary background information: the mascot of Comayagua is the Burro, or Donkey. People from Comayagua are sometimes called “Little Donkeys”. YES.) At school on Thursday we had a Honduran Culture Night. All day at school, the students had been preparing and decorating and practicing. The last period of the day, as I was monitoring the chaos, the gate opened and a donkey was brought in and tied to a post in the courtyard. Random, I thought, but I was assured that it was part of the culture night. In the evening, the students came dressed in traditional clothing and each grade performed a traditional dance. We ate traditional food from all the different departments (or states) in Honduras. Unfortunately, we had quite the rain storm in the middle of the fiesta, and everything had to be moved inside. In between some of the dances, Ashley and I walked outside and the donkey was still there, this time tied to a soccer goal. Reading this it does not sound that funny… but it was a donkey, inside our school, supposed to be a representation of Honduran, and specifically, Comayaguan culture. And all it did was stand there tied to a soccer goal in the middle of a rainstorm. It was funny to me. And then I found five lempira.

~Tidbit Number Four~ (The serious one) Things have been … complex … lately. I have found myself really questioning what missions are supposed to be. What does it really mean to care for orphans and widows, or the poor? What if someone doesn’t want help? Or doesn’t believe that they need help, but we know they need help? Or what if they want so much help that they don’t want to do their part? Do we “give to all who ask of [us]” if it is just crippling that person? Is it mine to decide what is crippling someone and what is helping them? Should I believe any and every story of need? Where does our giving intersect with being good stewards? Another subject… How do we determine God’s will? I knew, my parents knew, Ashley knew, that we were supposed to “go”; that we were supposed to be here in Honduras. But what now? If I was “called” here for one thing, is it possible that God would change that thing now that I am here? How does His will for us progress? Or is it more that we are slow to understand His will and that he is gradually opening our eyes to see? Complex, right? Basically, how do we obey God in the gray areas of life?

I wish I had the answers to that mess of questions. All I have is this (the passage from church this morning): Habakkuk 3:17-19.

Though the fig tree does not budand there are no grapes on the vines,

though the olive crop failsand the fields produce no food,

though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,

yet I will rejoice in the Lord,

I will be joyful in God my Savior.

The Sovereign Lord is my strength;

he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,

he enables me to go on the heights.

I praise God for his word and how he speaks to us. For Habbakuk, (which, fun fact, in Spanish is pronounced "a-ba-COOOK"), everything was failing. When things are failing, when we are failing, it is easy to question our purpose. A farmer with no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls probably wonders why on earth God called him to be a farmer. And YET we rejoice in the Lord. He is still our Savior, he is still sovereign, and he is still our strength. =) =) =)