¨Vacation¨

First we took a boat like this from Guate. to Belize

Then we took the Hokey Pokey during the beatiful sunset.

We enjoyed the beach all to ourselves, took a long walk in which Beto found Goliath´s walking stick, and just relaxed in the beauty of it all.


Well, ok. Where do I begin? Beto and I just got back from a one week trip to Guatemala and Belize, but it wasn´t really a vacation. Now that I´m not working in the school where they took care of my passport for me, I have to leave the country every 3 months to a country that doesn´t border Honduras. Beto and I were going to go to the closest place, Belize, but Beto´s passport had expired, so last Thursday we left first for Guatemala and stayed with his family for 6 days. He ended up getting his driver´s license also for that future car we´re praying to God for. We took first the 4am bus 3 hours north and from there took a nicer bus, with a BATHROOM!, the 10 hour trip to Guatemala.

We had a good time in Guate and I ws happy that we got to eat at Taco Bell once! And they even had the USC football game on the TV!

I was supposed to technically leave the country Saturday but we had to wait for Beto´s license to get published Tuesday, and Tusday was the last possible day for me to leavet the country but we left WEdnesday at 4am and left the country without getting penalized. We took a 5 hour bus trip to the coast to Puerto Barrios. Luckily that bus stopped half way to go to the bathroom too!

The boat from Puerto Barrios to Punta Gorda, Belize was just a little 12 passenger one with a canopy and was really really jumpy and scary, and after one hour we made it. Then we took a school bus converted to passenger bus about 3 hours north to Independence , Belize. We waited 45 min. for the ¨water taxi¨, the Hokey Pokey, and took that on much smoother waters only 10 min. to Placentia, Belize where we stayed two nights.

This town was pretty dead as it isn´t tourist season right now. I think we were one of three people in the whole hotel and most of the restaurants were closed. We were getting low on cash but had budgeted just enough to be able to return directly to Honduras on a nicer bigger boat.

When we went to buy the tickets for this boat that only leaves on Friday´s at 9am, we were told that because of bad weather it wouldn´t be going. Great! We couldn´t return the way we came because of time and because the boat ride was so awful. And we couldn´t stay and wait another week for next Friday´s boat because of work and lack of money. So the only thing we could do was fly out, and we had to do it Friday even though I was supposed to stay in Belize three days and we only stayed about 1.5.

We went outside to talk about what we were going to do and were feeling prettty stressed when a local man came by and cut down some coconuts from the palm tree in front of us and gave one to Beto(I don´t like). That was a gift from God. And of course Beto was able to talk with him about God.

Through God´s provision we were able to fly out in a little 12 passenger propeller plane 1 hour into San Pedro Sula, only 3 hours from our house. Of course there were even more unexpected expenses like having to pay an Ënvironmental Conservation Fee¨, mandatory only for non-Belizan residents.

It had been a really stressful trip, one we don´t ever want to do again, and when we reached Honduran soil I really wanted to kiss the ground! But instead we had lunch and madeit home yesterday, so happy to see our doggies!

Thank you so much for your prayers because we were able to travel safely and I was able to cross back into Honduras without being fined for not staying 3full days in Belize. Beto and I now have 90 day VISA´s. In this time we are both going to try to begin the process of getting our Honduran residencies so we don´t have to leave the country again. Please keep us in your prayers about that.

If you haven´t received one of our update letters through snail mail or email and would like to sponsor us in our ministry here in Honduras, please leave me a comment o email me at

laura.speaks@yahoo.com

and we would be glad to send you the information. We are still in need of about $18,000 for our first year of ministry and cannot ¨officially¨ begin until all our funds are in, although we are already working here as missionaries, but right now as ¨tent maker missionaries¨. That is fine, we enjoy it, but we would like to be able to be full time for a least one year with World Gospel Mission.
Thanks!
Many blessins to you all.