Feliz Cumpleanos a mi!

It's true...my "Golden Birthday" was on Monday...I turned 27 (gasp!) on the 27th. My 4th graders had a "surprise" party for me (they talked about it in spanish right in front of me and thought I didn't understand). They were so funny. They asked what class we had aftre lunch because they wanted to prepare during lunch and have the party afterwards. They kicked me out of the classroom at lunch, then one of them came downstairs to tell me that one of hte others "needed to talk to me". When I arrived in the classroom, they'd decorated with pink "Quincenera" balloons (they say I look 15). They could've opened their own pulperia (small store run from someone's house) with all the candy, chips, gum, etc. they brought. One girl and her mom made the traditional "tres leches" cake complete with cherries on top, with Pepsi and popcorn to boot! In the picture they are playing "don't let the balloon touch the floor" game. I had as much fun watching them as they did playing, though I did play a little.

After school Beto took me to lunch. We had a lot of fun, and after lunch we got coffee...mmmm. That's the pretty plate he bought me.

Later Amber took me out for a nice Italian dinner and talked on her cell phone the whole time! sheesh! No, not really.

Anyway, it was a really nice day even though I missed being with my family. I gotta give props to my sister Glenda and her family and my parents (woop woop!) who called me, which was really nice. Thanks to everyone too who tried to call and couldn't get through, and who sent me cards and such. Love you mucho!

Tuesday

Boy what a day. First of all, the high schoolers had another morning of finals today. I had a break and was calculating their grades. Suddenly I felt like a dead horse and they were the vultures, wanting to know their grades, and their friends' too.
At lunch, I had playground duty. One boy got a softball knocked to his teeth and fell to the ground for a good 15 seconds holding his mouth, but not crying. They were playing soccer with a softball. Here, Soccer ,er, futbol, is life and the only acceptable game, so where there's a ball, any kind, there's a way...to play futbol. I went to him and he was bleeding a bit, so I told him to go rinse out his mouth. Like a true boy, he said, "nah, nah, no es necesario, no necesario." Bueno...a few minutes later he scored a goal.
Later, during the last two hours of school, usually my 4th grade goes to swimming for P.E. Today, the bus was late getting back with the other classes because there was a robbery and killing near the pool and the street was blocked and traffic was horrible. My kids were of course so upset and they were supposed to do work but that was near impossible, especially since they were in such a bad mood. They ended up not getting to go at all. The bus returned at the last minute of the school day. My kids are so funny though. They were singing old, well, from the 90's, rock songs, and with their accents it was real cute.
It's so hot here, and we need rain or even a breeze! People burn lot's of their trash here, so the air is just filthy and smoky.
Until later...

Pictures!

Here are some pictures from the drama on sunday. Not really in order, but hopefully you can figure it out.



yea, blogger works! i found a great internet cafe near the school. new discovery
this picture is a view of part of our walk to the first church beto preached at last sunday. downhill, uphill, around the bend,etc. Lot's of stairs. i felt like I was at Lecturship! Except we rewarded ourselves with McDonald's except pie and coffee afterwards.

b.l.j.

My book club crashed and burned, but I remember I wanted to put some quotes here from Blue Like Jazz…the book reads like a great blog, minus fotos…

“A beggar’s kingdom is better than a proud man’s delusion.”

“Believing in God is as much like falling in love as it is like making a decision. Love is both something that happens to you and something you decide.”

All of chapter 11…my favorite. If you don’t want to read the whole book, read chapter 11. Borrow it or something. It starts out as “LOL” funny and ends up very deep.

“We learn that we are loveable or unlovable from other people. That’s why God tells us so many times to love each other.”

“If it’s wrong for me to receive love, then it’s also wrong for me to give it because by giving it I’m causing somebody else to receive it, which I had presupposed was the wrong thing to do.”

“What metaphors do we use when we think of relationships? We value, invest in them; relationships could be bankrupt. People are priceless. All economic metaphor. The problem with Christian culture is we think of love as a commodity. We use it like money. Here is something very simple about relationships. Nobody will listen to you unless they sense that you like them.”

“More and more, grace didn’t seem like the think I as looking for. It was too easy. I wanted to feel as thought I earned my forgiveness, as though God and I were buddies doing favors for each other.” Can I get an “Amen!”?

If I can’t accept God’s love, I can’t love Him in return and I can’t obey Him. Self-discipline won’t ever make us feel righteous or clean; accepting God’s love will. THE ABILITY TO ACCEPT GOD’S UNCONDITIONAL GRACE AND FEROCIOUS LOVE IS ALL THE FUEL WE NEED O OBEY HIM IN RETURN.”

“Accepting God’s free love and kindness is the thing Satan doesn’t want us to do. If we hear a voice saying we are failures, we’re losers, we’ll never amount to anything, that’ Satan trying to convince the Bride that the Groom doesn’t love her. That’s NOT the voice of God. GOD WOOS US WITH KINDNESS. HE CHANGES OUR CHARACTER WITH THE PASSION OF HIS LOVE.”

“And wonder is that feeling we get when we let go of our silly answers our mapped out rules that we want God to follow. I don’t think there is any better worship than wonder.”

Just buy the book. The poor guy would really appreciate your honest purchase. Read the book and you’ll understand why.

2 sermon Sunday...

Stay tuned for fotos...blogger being difficult...

Boy, what an eventful weekend. Saturday, I worked at the school from about 8-11 in the morning, finishing up typing final exams and tutoring one second grader in reading. He had just finished karate class and was very ancy. I had to take the “swivel chair on wheels” away from him pretty much right away.
Sunday, Beto was invited to preach at another church in the city, so we met at the local mall at 8 and then first went to meet our friends who go to the church because we didn’t know where it was. We waited about an hour in the very hot sun until finally we got on the bus or we would’ve been very late to church. As we were sitting down I see our friends walking towards the bus. They’d been waiting for us around the corner, more or less, for about 30 minutes. We rode the buss about 15 minutes, and then had to walk about 20 minutes to the church. Let’s just say Beto and I would’ve never found it on our own! Never! I got a good picture of the hill we walked up, but the picture of the actual church didn’t come out for some reason.
I took an antihistamine (sp?) this morning before I left the house. I’ve been having allergy problems from the weather changes here. I felt great until Beto got up to preach, and then I literally couldn’t keep my eyes open. I actually got up in the middle of church and asked his friend if there were any beds in the kids’ classrooms. The medicine hit me all at once. I felt so bad, but it was all I could do to just sit up! Later I told Beto why I looked like I was sleeping during his sermon. Later, at our church, I was able to take a nap on a pew since we got there early, so I didn’t’ have trouble staying awake there.
After he preached about fathers, (today is Father’s Day here), we skipped out so we could make it to our church on time. He preached there today too about the spiritual gifts, roles of ministers, and that we all are ministers in the church.
Afterwards, the youth group did an act about the leper healed by Jesus who Jesus tells to present himself to the priest. It went really well. He wrote and directed it, and played a part in it.
After church, as we were walking, we caught a great shot of the new presidential flag of Honduras. Our new president was just sworn in in January. We actually had a day off for the inauguration, and I heard rumors that Castro, yes, from Cuba, was going to come because apparently he’s buddy buddy with our new president, Mel. But I don’t think he made it. Encouraging that they are friends though, eh?
Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Pray this week for all the students taking their 3rd quarter final exams. Only one quarter left!
Finally, please continue to pray for the next step God wants us to take this summer after my job is done. There are opportunities out there for mission work in churches of Christ. I will keep you updated.
Love you all! Bendiciones a todos!

Godly people doing unGodly things

Catchy title. One main quote that stood out to me from the book...

¨Anything God does, Satan attempts to counterfeit. ..one of Satan´s chief objectives is to make the clean FEEL unclean. Satan can´t MAKE the Bride DO anything, so he does everything he can to GET to her. HE TRIES TO CORRUPT THOUGHTS TO MANIPULATE FEELINGS.¨

I recommend this book for anyone, Godly or not, doing unGodly things or not.

Dinner with friends

Here´s Andrew, Lesley, Sammy, me, and Amber at Andrew´s and Lesley´s last week for pizza and snicker´s ice cream treats! mmm... My favorite part was playing with Sammy, Sorry guys. Andrew and Lesley work in the same community as Amber, just around the corner. It is nice to have friends from the States. Those three are from the same part of the country, very close neighbors. Anyways, thanks Andrew and Lesley! And congrats on making the blog!

3'day weekend

Happy Tuesday to all!
I had a day off yesterday, courtesy of our director, because Saturday we were at a school Bike a thon all day. That was a lot of fun. we held it at one of the student´s house who lives in Valle de Angeles, a mountainous area about 45 minutes out of the city. He drives a long way every day to go to school. Their property is beautiful, with so many trees, a picnic area, a basketball court, a gym, and a jacuzzi. Their actual house didnt seem all that big from the outside but they have a lot of open land. Only a handful of students brought their bikes. The rest of us went on a short walk around, then played family competetion games and had a wonderful catered lunch of tacos and ¨gringa¨s...yes, it´s actually the name of a food. They are like quessadillas, sort of. Sorry I don´t have any fotos. I took my camera...without batteriws! aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!
So yesterday, since Beto and I both had a day off, we decided to try to go get his VISA to come with me to the States in May to visit. The adventure went something like this...

we met at 9am at the mall nearest my house. I walked, he took the bus. From there, we walked for about 20 minutes until we found out that the Guatemalan embassy was up a hill, so we took a taxi, and boy am i glad we did! there, they said we needed to go to the U.S. embassy. Seems obvious now, but we´d never done this before and asked advice from others who´d never done it either.
we arrive at the U.S. embassy in a taxi. By this time it´s about 10 o clock and there´s a long line outside. The rest of the day went a little something like this...

(to a man in line outside) ¨what´s this line for?¨ (something we don´t need)
(to the guard at the door) ¨we´re here to get his (point to Beto) VISA...blah blah blah, yaddy yaddy yaddy, explain the sitch...I showed my passport, and VOILA! we´re in! The guard told us to go to a certain window.
(at that window) ¨Yes, we´re here to ...¨
(she says) oh, you need to go into that room there
(in that room, there are about 100 people sitting in chairs, waiting for who knows what, and there areen´t any signs that help us, nor a sign displaying numbers, or any numbers to take.
(in another room for North Americanas) öoh, look, Beto. I see white people!¨
(that lady there says) oh, you need to into that other room (where we just were) and read the wall with the information
After reading the wall, we decided to wait until 11 to talk to someone at window 4, like the info says.
(at 11am, window 4) ÿes, I´m here to...¨ She says, ¨Go to window 1¨
(at window 1) ÿes, we´re here to ...¨ He says, ¨Go to window 6¨
Now, in front of window 6, which is closed, there´s a long line of people that hadn´t been there ALL MORNING! So we get in to wait. After about 5 minutes, a guard approaches us...
¨what are you doing in this line? where are your papers?¨
¨Yes, we´re here to...¨and I show him the info paper I had
ÿou just need to call this number between 3 and 5. No one can help you with that today here. Theý´re too busy with all these other people. I´ll go get you the extension of the number.¨
He returns in 10 minutes. Basically, we could´ve called the embassy and gotten the info number and skipped the trip to the embassy entirely.
Now usually in a situation like this, I get very frustrated and try to stir things up to get my way, make things happen, because we need a VISA! but I even surprised myself. we did pray a lot before our visit. I am a bit disappointed, however, in our country´s way of doing things. with my passport, i can just show up at the airport and i recieve my VISA when i arrive in Honduras. why can´t it be that way for people going to the States? The paper even says that after paying for the VISA and plane ticket, that in your final destination in the States, if the officers there don´t want to recieve you, they can reject your VISA! WOW!
After that we walked about 30 minutes more until I was to tired and we took a 10 minute taxi ride to eat Arroz chino...mmmm...
At 3.30 I called the embassy and she said that all the info i need is on the paper i already had. So now we have to go to the bank, get an appointment at the embassy and pay for it there, then pray God and the embassy find favor on us.
Please pray for this process over the next few weeks, that Beto will be able to join me on my visit to meet my family. we will be together for the first time in about 4 years, and it may be the last time for another 4 years.
To conclude, last night as I was about to use the phone, I noticed a reddish worm on the floor that blended in the color of the floor. As I moved closer I noticed it has antenae and about a hundred legs, so I went to get the Raid, but it started to move and I thought it´ll be long gone by the time I get back, so I took drastic measures and had to kill it with my flip flop. I´m not sure who took more of a beating, the centipede-scorpioin thingy, or my flip flop. seeing that the flip flop is still alive to tell about it, I´d vote for him.
May you have no fear of critters in your abode.

Another Crazy day in LA...and I'm not even there!

I’m sitting here at my computer watching LIVE KTLA on cable about the kidnapping suspect on the 710 FWY. Ah, home sweet home. In a way it’s really great to be watching the story, but at the same time, does it have to be this kind of news? Long Beach, 710 FWY. I mean, I get made fun of enough here being the only Californian. My trailmix addiction doesn’t help.
This robot they’re using is so interesting. Anywho, hello everyone. I feel a little bit more conneted to you all in LA now, although in a weird way. Wow, look at all those SWAT vehicles. They’re trying to talk to the suspect with a phone from the robot, and they can see him through a camera. They had to shut down both sides of the FWY for this idiot. Boy, do I miss home! Ah but it’s kinda cool to see such a familiar place. When I lived in Watts, that was my ‘hood.
I certainly can’t say I’m surprised that this is happening.
“Maybe this guy doesn’t play by the rules because he has tinted windows and that’s illegal in California.”, says the newscaster. DER! You think?! How ‘bout the fact that he’s a kidnapping suspect and hasn’t cooperated with the SWAT team all day! That might be the first clue that he doesn’t play by the rules. “And is there pressure for the SWAT team to hurry and wrap things up?” Does she have to ask that? I mean, isnt’ that obvious? Gosh, I sure do miss intelligent news stories by people who be talkin’ the enlgish.
Sorry. I started out just “excited” to see a story from home, but now it’s become a little cynical. But I’m sure some of you will agree with me. Ray, were you stuck on the 710 when this happened? Hope not.
You know what gets me? You know on CNN, there’s the headlines that move across the bottom of the screen. Well, stories of entire villages in danger of being wiped out by disease are just an example that apparently aren’t as important as this suspect in CA. This is world healine news, on CNN! And everyone is having to hear about this mess! Ay ay ay!

Another Crazy day in LA...and I'm not even there!

I’m sitting here at my computer watching LIVE KTLA on cable about the kidnapping suspect on the 710 FWY. Ah, home sweet home. In a way it’s really great to be watching the story, but at the same time, does it have to be this kind of news? Long Beach, 710 FWY. I mean, I get made fun of enough here being the only Californian. My trailmix addiction doesn’t help.
This robot they’re using is so interesting. Anywho, hello everyone. I feel a little bit more conneted to you all in LA now, although in a weird way. Wow, look at all those SWAT vehicles. They’re trying to talk to the suspect with a phone from the robot, and they can see him through a camera. They had to shut down both sides of the FWY for this idiot. Boy, do I miss home! Ah but it’s kinda cool to see such a familiar place. When I lived in Watts, that was my ‘hood.
I certainly can’t say I’m surprised that this is happening.
“Maybe this guy doesn’t play by the rules because he has tinted windows and that’s illegal in California.”, says the newscaster. DER! You think?! How ‘bout the fact that he’s a kidnapping suspect and hasn’t cooperated with the SWAT team all day! That might be the first clue that he doesn’t play by the rules. “And is there pressure for the SWAT team to hurry and wrap things up?” Does she have to ask that? I mean, isnt’ that obvious? Gosh, I sure do miss intelligent news stories by people who be talkin’ the enlgish.
Sorry. I started out just “excited” to see a story from home, but now it’s become a little cynical. But I’m sure some of you will agree with me. Ray, were you stuck on the 710 when this happened? Hope not.
You know what gets me? You know on CNN, there’s the headlines that move across the bottom of the screen. Well, stories of entire villages in danger of being wiped out by disease are just an example that apparently aren’t as important as this suspect in CA. This is world healine news, on CNN! And everyone is having to hear about this mess! Ay ay ay!

4th Grade

Just another normal day in 4th grade. During some "downtime", but they actually look like this all the time, especially Dereck *right*, and he brought that stick to school to play baseball.

Rachel won 2nd in all of Honduras at the spelling Bee for Bilingual Schools, and she's my student! Of course,I can't take any credit, but I'm very very proud of her.

what´ssssssssssss hhhappen´???

just some recent pictures of happenings lately. Beto in serious mode and in crazy latino mode. The latter seems to happen much more often. He led singing in church on Sunday and did a very good job.

yesterday we hung out in the local mall and saw this lovely pruned bush on the way as he walked me home. it was a lot funnier in person when he´d jump up from behind like a kid trying to get a glimps into a toy store.

This has been a good week so far. Last saturday I came home around 6 to find Amber reading outside , and it was getting pretty dark. There was no electricity, for whatever reason, so what else did we do but go to the mall, of course! we couldn´t even see each other the house was so dark so there wasn´t anything to do there. we just went to eat. we wanted to see a movie but were too late for the early show, and the late show is too late for us , well, for me really. i´m an old lady.

This week has gone well at school. I may be adding a few more jobs into my schedule. Another teacher where I´m working now knew of an opportunity for good english speakers to teach english to adults at night, Monday through Thursday, and possibly saturday afternoons. i´m thinking about it still because it is very time consuming, along with teaching english on friday afternoons and tutoring at the school on saturday mornings.

Tonight Amber and I are invited to our gringo'missionary friends´house for dinner. how exciting! Hopefully I´ll have pictures of that along with more from my wonderful 4th graders.

Love you and have a wonderful day!

Laura

¨Good thing you´re pretty¨...some would say

This morning I blog just after the fact, but will post it whenever I get the chance.
This morning is Saturday, March 04, 2006, 7:29am. Hmmm…7:29. I should be waking up right about now. But somehow I accidentally set my alarm clock an hour ahead last night. It was about midnight at the time. I thought it was funny when, after I set my alarm for 7:20am, my clock read 1:01 am. But I was too tired(and dumb) to think that one doesn’t come after 11:59 on a clock.

So that leads to this morning. Enter alarm ringing at 7,er,6:20am. Gosh, I feel a little groggy. Why is it that when I have the opportunity to sleep in, I just “get up” at 6:30 (the REAL 6:30), BUT when I can’t sleep in I feel like I could’ve slept till nine.

Oh well. I got ready and entered the kitchen at 6:56 to make coffee. I even looked at the clock and when I saw the time, I thought, “Oh, good, it’s not as late as I thought.” This morning I’m meeting Beto at 8:30, so I need to leave the house at 8:15. Still, however, I’m thinking, I have a good 15 minutes to eat breakfast.

A few minutes later, I’m sitting in the living room talking with amber. I’m STARING at the clock on the VCR and FINALLY realize, it reads 7:15. Wait. 7:15? SEVEN fifteen???
? What the…?

“Amber, it’s only 7:15?”

(laughter by her) “Yup.”

“Wait. I have a whole hour till I have to leave?”

“Yea. I thought it was weird when you where going to leave an hour early to go get a taxi.”

(laughter by me) “Oh my word! You mean I have another hour till I have to leave?!”

“Yup. I thought it was funny when I told you I just automatically got up at 6:45, and you groaned, ‘oh, I’m sorry’. I’d only been up for 5 minutes at that point.”

“Yea. True.” (more laughter)

Comments are ok, but please be nice. And have a nice day. However early you may have gotten up.

TGIF

Well, it's Friday. I usually don't blog unless I have something really interesting to say, but after just reading Greg's blog, I'm inspired to use my break at school for something productive.
this week went by super fast. On Tuesday in Fourth grade I started class with prayer and the Bible verse, then told them to get out their reading books. "No, Miss! It's Wednesday! We have art!"
"Noooooooooooo", I said, "wait. Really? It's wednesday? Wow! Ok, I need to go, then." And off I went, gaining a whole day in a little less than 5 seconds. That was a nice treat.
Friday's are pretty easy going at school. Lot's of tests. And i take the school bus to Baxter in the afternoon where I teach a private english class from 4-6pm for about 4-5 married students It's pretty low-key and keeps me in touch with my friends there. They are so eager to learn and it's a lot different than teaching 4th, 7th, 8th, or 9th, because they asked ME to teach it. They really want to be there and are paying for it themselves, so they want to invest.

Problems at school...well, where do I begin? or do I even try to start? Maybe I should just write about the good things going on. Well, I love my students and am going to miss them after the year's over in June. Only about 3 more months to go. Amazing! I like that it's close to home and my schedule is very manageable. About the problems, let's jsut say I've had a couple "jerk days" with my director, as Greg blogged about recently, but honestly, I've been debating the last few days whether i truly have reason to apologize. She teaches the preschooler's to chant "SHAME ON YOU!" when one of them does something "bad". I know how that may sound, that I'm debating about saying sorry, but I feel like my words were true to her and that I can't just sit back and watch injustice be done to students and teachers. I know i need to say sorry, however, for some actions. It's so hard though when the other party is for sure at fault too, but I am reminded in my conscience that God doens't say to seek restitution if the person deserves it, or if you've been wronged too. Dang, that's a tough one!

let's just say I can't wait till June arrives, though I will miss my students a lot. I am praying now about future opportunities. This summer I plan to work with the U.S. groups that come down on short term mission trips, translating and helping build houses or whatever they need help with.

A couple days ago Beto informed me that his pastor where he's working was heading to the States and asked for my "curriculum" to present to a church, I don't know where exactly, to see if they could sponsor us. So depending on how that goes, I may be working here in Tegucigalpa at a Church of Christ downtown with women and the youth alongside Beto come this summer, for about a year or so. And I'll be able to stay in our house with Amber.

It's good to know there are other doors opening and to feel God's presence. Even when I feel lonely, depressed, frustrated, something comes through reminding me that GOD REALLY DOES LISTEN! Why is that always a revelation for me?

Now I am thinking of a ton of things to blog, but I should've written more often. I will try to make more of an effort to blog more, because little uninteresting things can be turned into good blogs.

Happy reading. Have a great weekend! and thanks for all your prayers and thoughts. Love and blessings to you all!