Jovenes en Camino

Today I worked with Amber and a group from Tennessee and Oklahoma at Jovenes en Camino, or Children in The Way. Sounds better in Spanish. We got ready to pour cement to make a loading dock behind the kitchen. Some of you may remember another blog many moons ago from Jovenes. It's a Church sponsored boys' home for street kids/orphans that houses about 60 boys now. It is a wonderful ministry. I only wish we'd had more interaction with the boys today. That's one thing that tires me lately working with the groups is the lack of interaction with people. I had alot of that when I translated but we went through patients so quickly. I do miss being with my kids at the school.
Today the group barely got some rebar down and spent most of the day just preparing to lay cement. Please pray for the groups that are in Tegucigalpa right now, all together about 3, and more to come, especially in July. For their safety and growth as a group, and for the evangelistic efforts in all the different communities in the surrounding area. Pray for our house, we have about 14 visitors. We are happy to house them, but pray for good attitudes and all that.

Amber's truck/ police escort

Today we add one more item to the list of "What Amber's truck has been". It's been a hearse (another story, another day), an ambulance (also another day), and today we add "police car". Yes, that's right. We had a cuffed criminal with three policeman in the back of the truck for awhile today. To our work site we took armed police man because the area is known for its heavy gang activity. During the late afternoon, 2 gang members (?) snuck onto the group's bus to steal some backpacks. They were caught by our bus driver who was rightfully scared because gangs "tax" bus drivers at gun point. The driver quickly drove the bus down the hill and called the police. The police caught him, but since they came on the group's bus with us, they didn't have transport, so that left amber, tuh duh! , to drive them to the police station. the picture is of him and the cops in the back of the truck. Please pray for this young man. If the police does prove he's in a gang, he could be in jail for up to 15 years. Life never is boring here in Honduras.

A side story

So last night I take off my old sheets from my bed, all excited to put fresh new sheets on. mmm...one of my favorite things. I get down the new sheets from the closet and all of a sudden there are a ton of tiny black ants (?) on my arm, and then I notice all over the sheets. I'd already thrown the pillow cases onto the bed. When I lifted them up there were 100's of ants all over my pillows! eeewww...I get willy's jsut thinking about it! So I quickly gather up all my sheets and RUN out the door to shake them out outside. This whole time I'm screaming and causing all kind of rucus in the house. I HATE ants! They don't scare my or gross me out like roaches, I just hate them! really, why are they on earth? They don't eat bad bugs, do they? Anywho, I finally determined that ants must have laid eggs, or nests?, in the sheets outside on the clothesline, then it POPPED in the closet, because they weren't in the closet itself or on anything else, just in those sheets. I did sleep in them last night though so all is well. Maybe I'll have to start ironing my sheets now. eewww...

Unidad y Fuerza

That's the name of the pueblo we worked in today. It is the same church where Beto was working last Fall/Winter that I visited with him for a few months. The church has grown and a lot of work has been done on it. It was exciting to be there again.
The clinic went well today. We are learning as we go and today was probably our most organized day yet. Beto got to go with us today as his house is right on the way to the church. You see pictures here of the line outside. They put their name, birthdate, age, and symptoms on a card with a number and we go in order. You can also see Amber translating for one doctor, and another of kids waiting outside. This time we used poker chips of three colors: White to see the doctor, Red or Blue just to get vitamins and parasite medicine. Most everyone had a white chip, even though some had to wait three or more hours. Also in a picture with some kids and Beto, you see a tall man in back. He's the dr. I translated for. We had some heart-wrenching stories today. One elderly woman came in with her three grandchildren. She told us she gets really bad headaches, and then went through the usual questions. We found out she gets these headaches from carrying heavy jugs of water on her head. After I asked if she had somone to help her, she started crying. I put my arm around her. She said she was alone in taking care of the kids and is trying so hard to provide for her family. She sells tortillas to survive. She was so tiny and works so hard all by herself. If I could help her carry water everyday and that's all I did, I feel my time would be well spent. We saw many people like her today and I feel they need spiritual counseling/comfort more than anything. I think a lot of people take the "white chip" and wait so long just to get that personal attention, even if just for five minutes.
We mostly handed out parasite meds and vitamins. The vitamins last a year but I feel the parasite meds won't last long because the people continue to drink the water that gives them the parasite. Please pray for everyone we saw today. Beto thoroughly enjoyed being there, talking with the patients outside as they waited about Jesus. You can see us in front of the church too. Praise God for another "good-kind-of-tired" day!

Baptismo

Ariel, AkA "Cachete", meaning "dimples" in spanish, and Arnold were baptized last night. Ariel's friend Evan who's visiting baptized them. They are in Amber's "youth group" and it was a very special, happy night.
Please pray for these two as they continue to grow in their faith.

Building a house

Today there wasn't a clinic. We ran out of medicine yesterday at the clinic but there was more back where the group is staying, so today some people stayed back sorting medicine to use tomorrow. I went with the majority of the group to help finish up some houses they've started this week in the same village as the clinic. I hammered a couple hundred nails. It wasn't bad. These houses will go to different families of the Church of Christ in that village of Moa Loa.
At noon, Amber, a youth group boy of hers name Ariel, and I went to the airport to pick up one of her friends. He's going to stay with us. He's been here before and is great friends with most of Amber's youth group. He's going to baptize Ariel tonight. It is a very exciting and long-awaited night. Please pray for the new life Ariel will now have and for all of the kids she works with. She does an amazing job and we pray they all grow in the Lord to serve Him their whole lives.

Here you see four pictures of the clinic i've been working at the last two days, and one picture of the soccer game i talked about in the previous blog.
You'll probaby figure out which picture is which. One is of the inside of the clinic. The tall man in the white shirt is a med student, super nice, and I helped translate for him.
another is of the outside with people waiting. Theres also another of people waiting inside the church building. I can't imagine waiting for my doctor like that. Some people waiting alllll day today and we ran out of a lot of medicine, and they only had an ear infection, or something simple that if it were us we would've bought over the counter, and they waiting all day.
The final picture is a view from the clinic of the village and some of the group members playing with the kids who live there. It's so green and beautiful because we just started the rainy season. The people we've seen are very poor, surviving day to day on about one dollar a day.
Today we saw about 150 people. I'm exhausted, but the good kind that brings a smile to your face when you think about why you're so tired. One lady that sticks out to me is one who probably has melanoma. We don't have any way to treat her and she doens't have any money or transport to go to the hospital. The doctor said if it really is melanoma she has six months to live. aaahhh...so frustrating! We saw a lot of chilren, so precious and beautiful. Something happens in your heart and changes your life after a day like today. Gracias a Dios!

Futbol and Translating

Well, I know what G. E. is talking about with frustrations with blogger. I can't put pictures on it but i think it's more of a problem with my computer than with blogger.
The last few days have been good. Last Thursday was my official last day at my job at the school. yes! Amber and I have 5 people now staying with us, some for another week, some till August. They are here as med students getting experienced, spanish majors getting lots of practice, and all are here to serve God. It's been fun and very busy. Ambers "youth group" was here a lot last week hanging out with us all and they went to a local field to play futbol. If any of you are soccer fans you know that the world cup is happening right now in Germany, and of course here it's HUGE!...GINORMOUS! The boys had a ton of fun playing against "the gringos". Unfortunately, the gringos won.

Today I had my first day without an official job. I went with Amber and some people in our house and we accompanied a group that's here from Florida (represent!) for aweek on a short term mission trip. They brought a doctor and we set up a clinic in a little village close to the city and I translated for a few hours. I really enjoyed it! This si the type of thing I hope to be doing all summer and maybe beyond. The groups are a lot of fun and a change of pace, very nice to be with. We saw all sorts of people today, from 5 month ols to 70 or 80 year olds. Most people had simple symptoms such as a cold, others had serious problems they've had for years, like something like terrets, something that sounds like heart disease and maybe a slight heart attack, and a man who really stuck out in my mind, he has major pain in his right leg, from his lower back down to his foot. He has been a bus driver for 15 years and his shift is usually from 5am till 8pm, and he gets a little break every 2 hours to stretch. It was sad that we couldn't help them how they really needed. we could only give the bus driver man aspirin, for instance. We were able to give a lot of vitamins to people which will help a lot.
Please pray for this village, called Mona Loa, and for this group that we'll be with this week.
blessings! and hopefully I'll be able to put more pictures up later.

Let's get spiritual

Ever have a very unspiritual day, or week, or year?
These last two weeks back at school has been...an adventure. It only took 2 days to raise my stress level back up to where it was before I went on vacation at home. It was great to see my kids again at school, and that's where the greatness begins and ends. This week was "recuperations" for the students who didn't pass certain classes. They leave at 12 and from then till 3 we teachers make recuperation tests, fill out countless forests of legal paperwork and other fun things.
The other day I sat on my couch thinking how unspiritual I have become, which would mean in the past I have been spiritual, which could constitute pride, which cancels out any spirituality I may have thought I had. Are you following me, cuz this would be very difficult to translate into Spanish it's hard enought to read in english. and i was thinking that I had a year full of frustration, arguments and ill feelings (to put it politely) toward my boss, and wondering why I didn't get out when I had the chance. I've felt like a prisoner there this week.
So I sat on my couch at home the other day thinking all of this, and how really what makes me worthy of Jesus' love for me? What if I had had a "spiritual" year, or what I would define as that? I'd feel pretty good about myself, closer to God. Not to say that I wouldn't have sinned, but I would have been pretty pompous about it I think. Now God has drawn me closer to Him and this has allowed me to see just a glimpse of His grace, which is sufficient.

GOSH!

Our best Napoleon Dynamite impressions. (Well, Pedro and Napoleon i guess)

He, Amber and I watched it in Spanish with english subtitles awhile back and to my surprise Beto liked it too! That was when I really knew he was the one for me!

Have a great Summer, never change!

The last day of school today! Here are some OK shots of some students today. We partied like it was 2099 until 11, then went home early.



Diego didn't want his picture taken...sweetest 8th grader.
Oscar, hilarious 8th grader, and Allan, Diego's 9th grade brother, also sweet
Sary y yo, she's in 5th grade and adorable. She saaaaved us at the Mother's Day performance when one of my students couldn't make it.
My top three students, Raquel, Dereck, and Xavier. It was difficult to get Dereck to take a picture until I handed him his award. He's a little intoxicated with excitement.
Bladimir and I, a 7th grader. super smart, respectful, and a joy to be around.
My 4th grade posse. After I took this, I asked Brandon (yellow shirt), what was wrong. He almost started to cry and said, "I'm really going to miss everybody". I will greatly miss them too!
In the classroom. The other teacher looking person is Miss Marcela who was a Godsend and subbed for me while I was in the States. She ended up subbing this week in 1st grade and we get along great and all the kids love her.
And finally, outside on the "front porch" more or less, receiving awards.

Back to School!

My first day back after being in the States, my fourth graders had a Welcome Back surprise party for me! It was really a surprise this time. They'd blown up balloons the Friday before! They can get so organized to bring food, but not homework. Anywho, here are some pictures. Mira! Pizza with hotdogs! mmm...oh, and p.s. In the last foto I'm not trying to do the fake model stare, I was starting to get a little annoyed because a student was taking the picture with my camera and playing around taking too long, but it came out great, thanks to him.

B

Mas fotos de Laguna

Amy and Dave...aaa...
Great friends and cousins, Lindsay, Shelby, and Mary (and they all end in "y", I just noticed that...cool)
The family that Crocs together stays together!
Sarah, Erin, and Nicole...too much fun in one place!


"Just the girls...and just the boys"
Kevin, such a beach babe.

Fotos de Laguna

Toby working on his "do". Acacia playing in the water.
"The Speaks" always laughing at something.



Toby and Kevin looking a little mad,er, tired. Geoff's mom, sister, and neices.

Geoff's parents, Dortha and Jerry.
Uh, Charles, you got sumin there.





The Robles...que guapos!!