Pizza and Ice Cream Sunday Dinner

Last Sunday Beto and I invited over some friends for his homemade pizza and Bob and Kathy brought mango ice cream, also home made (you can see Bob there mixing it by hand). It was a lot of fun and we thank God for the good friends He´s given us here. In the middle of dinner the lights went out but everybody stayed and talked. Prasie God for good friends and good times!

2nd weekend at the orphanage

Last weekend was our second weekend to go up to the orphanage. We love it up there! Beto got to play soccer with the directors´son and some of the girls from the home. Because it´s in the mountains and there´s not a lot of electricity outside, the girls turn in at about 8. Beto and I stay in a one room side part of their clinic which isn´t in use right now. It is nice for us, like a little get away. It´s really quiet up there and cold, so we have time to read, relax, drink tea, and sleep early and wake up a little late.
As you can see, Beto is quite popular with the little ladies. He´s got his own personal fan club up there. There are some pictures of the girls leading singing and of the church. It´s a small church that meets at another orphanage about a 5 minute bus ride down the mountain. We will be going again this coming weekend. The church has about 50 people, half of those are the kids. The older girls from the home teach the Bible classes. They are mostly mountain people, really poor and humble, a joy to talk to and get to know. Please pray for Beto as he preaches and for us as we minister and decide if this is where God will have us in the future.

Your parents only speak ENGLISH???

Today in class we were learning about how to write commas in the greeting and closing of a letter. As an example, I wrote a 2 sentence letter to my mom, of course in English, because that´s the class. That got my students´curiosity flowing and one asked me, ¨Miss, your mom speaks english??¨ ¨Yes!¨, I said, önly english¨. ¨She doesn´t know spanish?¨, they asked. ¨No, only English.¨ this resulted in very wide eyes and opened mouths, and stunned silence. Änd your dad, miss? Does he speak Spanish?¨ ¨No, only English.¨ ¨He doesn´t speak SPANISH??!!¨ ¨No, only English. He´s gringo too.¨THen they began 20 questions. Do you have any brothers? Do they speak english? ÿES, i HAVE three sisters.¨ ¨Three?! Wow, miss! And they don´t know spanish?!¨ ¨No,¨i said, ¨they are gringa, just like me.¨ (confused looks)
So, miss (with a look of like, ¨let me get this straight¨) You´re the only person in your family who speaks spanish? ¨Yes, only me¨. I think I heard a pin drop.

It was so funny I made a mental note right then and there to write about it. I also promised them i´d bring fotos of my family to class tomorrow so they can believe it.

It reminded me, though these kids are so very intelligent, their world is still so small and finite. They think that their families are the norm and since their parents speak only spanish then my parents do too. I never thought of it that way. It really made my day.

Missionaries to Kentucky

Yesterday we had to say good-bye to our dear friends Pastor Ulises, his wife Doris, and their children David and Cecia. They were my english students for about 5 months and I came to love them a lot. They are a really dynamic, humble, sweet, and fun family. There we are in their empty house after selling nearly everything they own. They are with World Gospel Mission and are being sent to work with Hispanic ministries in Kentucky. Please pray for them. They leave May 20 and are planning on staying indefinataly. And please pray for the church here where Ulises pastored for 12 years, they have yet to find a new preacher.

Preaching at the Orphanage

Awhile back we visited a girls home about 15 minutes up in the mountains *we're in the mts. but this is REALLY in the mts!* and became drawn to the ministry. We made friends with the directors and recently they invited Beto to preach. We went up Sat. afternoon and spent that part of the day with the girls, getting to know them a little. They have three houses each with a house mom, a cafeteria and many other things, including a trampoline *the girls wore me out!* and some pigs, chickens, rabbit, and dogs. Sunday morning Beto preached about Who controls our thoughts using Jonah as his base example. Please pray for this ministry as they are experiencing some serious illnesses onsite and changes within the ministry.

Open House!

Here are some pictures from Open HOuse. Those are my coworkers who teach other classes in First Grade, the door of my room and some work we put up around on the walls. It all looked really nice and we had a pretty good turnout. the highlight was when a parent told us he coudl see the kids work hard in class and he congratulated us as teachers. That makes up for all the negative comments we usually hear from others. I´m just happy there´s only 3 weeks till summer break!

Public Baths

Monday we had off for Mother´s Day and we were going to go visit Miguel. He had boiling coffee accidentally spilled on him about a week before and they were keeping him in the house to heal and not get it dirty. But he came! We were so excited! The burn area does look pretty bad but it is getting better daily. It was on the left side of his head, his ear and a little on his cheek. They didn´t take him to the Dr. but at this point about all I could do was put some Neosporin on it and tell him to keep it real clean (very difficult with dirt roads). We already had plans to go on a picnic to the near by swimming pool so we all took a walk. It´s really pretty, recently renovated with waterfalls, walkways, picnic tables, and huge brightly painted jugs of water and other figures. On our way home Mateo decided he´s big enough now to walk himself, and then Beto decided to throw him in the fountain for a ¨bath¨. That´s when I pushed Beto in too. Let´s just say by the end of the day we were all wet. We´d not gone swimming becuase the water was really dirty, but we were wet from the fountain or water bottles by the end of the day.
Please pray for Miguel and our role in his life.

Beto´s trip to El Salvador

The first picture is of a vulture eating an old animal carcas. I just had to share it. I think it used to be a dog and it was left by the side of the road near our apartments many many moons ago, like maybe before Christmas. Then one day some nice man came and burried it there. Well, a couple of weeks ago some animals dug it up again and the yet another person had the great idea to fling it over the fence, and since then no one´s had the guts (no pun intended) to touch it. But there must have been some kind of goodies left on it becuase there´s the bird.

On a much better note, Beto took a weekend trip to El Salvador last weekend with some good friends from church. They went to help our former pastor finally pack up the last of his things to make his move with his family to Mexico. I did´t want to go becuase the driver scares me he´s so crazy and I knew I would get sick. They could´ve bought those big fish for only $3 a head but I guess they didn´t trust them. Appetizing huh? One of the brothers in the picture is planning to raise funds thise next two years to move to Afghanistan with his wife to be missionaries. his sister is one of my english students here in our sister church. I just found this out last week just before Beto went to see them. It´s wonderful to meet so many people here who have a heart for missions. Now there is a powerful mission minded movement in all of latin america and these countries are sending out thousands of latinos to other countries such as Afghanistan where they don´t stand out as much as we white people do. Pray for the harvest and that God would continue to send out workers into it!

surprise!

here are just a couple pictures of the surprise party we threw for my good friend Jessy. She thought she was coming for her English class and she wasn´t very excited about it because we were both tired, but she was glad she came after all. i praise God for answering my prayers for great friends like her!

Earth Day field trip

Here are just afew picutres from our Earth Day all school field trip. I love the one of Jeyson in the tree. It was pretty hot for all of us mountain people, and humid, and we sought shade and liquids at everyturn. Jeyson is a special boy dear to my heart. He came in new to the school this year behind most of the kids in english. At the beginning he had a private tutor most nights for about an hour or two and is now beyond most of the others in his english level. He lives with his grandmother and uncle because all I know is that his mother is living inthe States. This is such a common sad story with children not only in our school but in all of Honduras. Many people leave all behind, including their families, to go to the states to pursue the American Dream, make a lot of money and send a lot of it back to their loved ones here. That is why a lot of our students are in our school. They can afford it becuase they have a steady ïncome¨from the States, but I know the kids would much rather have their parents with them and be in a public school than have thier parents gone just so they could have more money. Jeyson is a really smart, sweet kid and he´s one of many. Please pray for us as we minister to them and for them that they will grow to know Christ as their one and only sufficient Saviour.