Alfombras

Well, I lied, even though I didn´t know I was lying at the time, but I didn´t know things would be open, like this internet cafe, today, saturday, that´s been playing the same song over and over for the last 30 minutes. Anywho, here are pictures of the lunch Beto made for Amber and I the other day(the fish were ¨caught¨by us in the deli at the store).
The other fotos are of sawdust ¨carpets¨downtown, colored and designed for Easter week. Our friend Leslie is in the foto with Amber. Sort of like the Rose Parade but without real flowers or floats, or a lot of people, but we did see one camara man. They are amazing in person.

El Jardin

Well, i thought i´d not be able to blog for awhile but there´s an internet cafe open today, last day open till Monday. These are ¨before¨pics of our garden. See the banana tree in the corner? I´ll be sure to send more pics when we get it done.
Today Beto came over and fixed fried, whole fish for Amber and I for lunch, and salad. mmm...he´s a better cook than I´ll ever be. Pics of that to come next week, hopefully...

Otra vez, Feliz Pascua! Again, happy Easter! And God bless you with the peace and joy of new life in Him each day!

Afterthought to an Afterthought...

After writing my “afterthought” blog the other day, I realized something else…that those things I thought should make me happy didn’t because only Jesus can fill us with joy. But the ironic thing I thought of later is that in the past, I thought some things would complete me… like not being “single” anymore. I realized that we as human beings never really know what we want. We may think we do, but when we’re single, for example, we think “if only…” then we’d be happy. And when we’re not single anymore, we think “man, if only I were single again.” Hello? Now not that I’m unhappy with my current situation in life. I am happy, but it was a reminder that God alone has perfect wisdom and knows what’s best for us, and has perfect timing. We can trust in Him, He is faithful.

Semana de descansa...Week of R and R

During this week off, Beto and I took a day trip, well, really just about a “1.5-hour trip” to the local huge famous Catholic Cathedral. I can see it from my bedroom window and is actually closer than it seems. It only took about 15 minutes to get there by taxi, but we spent about an hour there and then took a taxi back downtown to visit some church members. It’s huge and beautiful. The pictures don’t do it justice. Some pictures are views of the city from outside the cathedral, the front view of the older cathedral (there are two churches right next to each other). Others are views inside the bigger, newer one.

Yesterday we walked a lot! We went downtown, my least favorite place. It’s hot, crowded, dirty, loud, and known for bag thefts. We bought some material for Beto to paint on. He went to art school and loves to paint. He’s going to paint some pictures for our living room and do some work for the church. WE bought some other supplies for him to make his own canvas frames, ate lunch at Mickey Dee’s, went to visit the Basilica, then visited some members of the church for about an hour. It was a good, yet very tiring, day.

Two days ago Beto came over. Amber and I had some youth group kids from her church over that had spent the night. I went out to water our “banana tree” (that doesn’t have any bananas…yet) and 2 hours later Beto and the boys had cut all the weeds, prepared the soil, and moved the cement mixer that we’re “babysitting” off the dirt and out of the way. Today we’re going to load up on flowers to plant and make a beautiful little garden. I’m so excited! I’ll be sure to send pictures when it’s all done. I should have taken “before” pictures because even without the flowers right now it looks 100 % better than it did before. I got the idea the other night as I looked out the window while doing dishes. The view isn’t great. It’s of our huge black metal gate and amber’s truck, and this patch of dirt and weeds we have. I thought, if we have some flowers there it would make a huge difference.

This will probably be my last blog for at least 4 days because everything’s going to shut down tomorrow for Holy week, until next Monday. Happy Easter everybody!!!

Semana de descansa...Week of R and R

During this week off, Beto and I took a day trip, well, really just about a “1.5-hour trip” to the local huge famous Catholic Cathedral. I can see it from my bedroom window and is actually closer than it seems. It only took about 15 minutes to get there by taxi, but we spent about an hour there and then took a taxi back downtown to visit some church members. It’s huge and beautiful. The pictures don’t do it justice. Some pictures are views of the city from outside the cathedral, the front view of the older cathedral (there are two churches right next to each other). Others are views inside the bigger, newer one.

Yesterday we walked a lot! We went downtown, my least favorite place. It’s hot, crowded, dirty, loud, and known for bag thefts. We bought some material for Beto to paint on. He went to art school and loves to paint. He’s going to paint some pictures for our living room and do some work for the church. WE bought some other supplies for him to make his own canvas frames, ate lunch at Mickey Dee’s, went to visit the Basilica, then visited some members of the church for about an hour. It was a good, yet very tiring, day.

Two days ago Beto came over. Amber and I had some youth group kids from her church over that had spent the night. I went out to water our “banana tree” (that doesn’t have any bananas…yet) and 2 hours later Beto and the boys had cut all the weeds, prepared the soil, and moved the cement mixer that we’re “babysitting” off the dirt and out of the way. Today we’re going to load up on flowers to plant and make a beautiful little garden. I’m so excited! I’ll be sure to send pictures when it’s all done. I should have taken “before” pictures because even without the flowers right now it looks 100 % better than it did before. I got the idea the other night as I looked out the window while doing dishes. The view isn’t great. It’s of our huge black metal gate and amber’s truck, and this patch of dirt and weeds we have. I thought, if we have some flowers there it would make a huge difference.

This will probably be my last blog for at least 4 days because everything’s going to shut down tomorrow for Holy week, until next Monday. Happy Easter everybody!!!

Feliz Semana Santa!

Semana Santa is Holy Week, or Spring Break, meaning a week off from school! yippee! Today we left school early after partying in the morning. here are my kids having an egg hunt and having tons of fun in the classroom. Xavier, the small boy with black hair, did the chalkboard drawing, and all the kids pitched in with food. Two girls didn´t come which is why you only see four kids in some fotos.
About Beto maybe not being able to come...we have to go to Guatemala but didn´t think we´d be able to go. Well, last night Beto says he´s going Monday, so pray there´ll be a miracle and we can get his VISA. See, from others who´ve done this before it was suggested that we have a letter from the CA senator inviting Beto to go to the states, which we don´t have. They also said it takes about three months to process, and we don´t have that kind of time. Also, usually you have to go to the bank, pay for an appointment at the embassy, then go to your appointment. We only have a few days, so I plan on using my begging skills that have seemed to work at the banks lately. Pray God´s will be done. I still want to try to get his VISA even though it seems hopeless at this point. Thanks for all your encouragement!

THANK YOU!

Hey Everyone! Thanks so much for all your comments and encouragement. aaahhh...i feel the love.
I don´t have too much time to write right now..just a few updates. Next week is Semana Santa! Spring Break! This week wasn´t too bad. The director even brought us donuts and coffee for our meeting on Tuesday. Tomorrow we have food and games and go home early. I don´t have any plans but to relax and hang out with Beto and Amber. woo hoo!

I will be in LA next month for about 3 to 4 weeks, then return for the last week of school. At least that´s my plan now. Unfortunately, looks unlikely for Beto to come this time, but antoher time soon, maybe December.

I already have a new missionary job lined up that I´ll start in June, working with the church Beto´s worknig with now. A man from Tenn. knows the preacher here and God pretty much dropped this opportunity into my lap. That´s not a general occurance and I´m so grateful for this opportunity. I´ll be teaching English everyday in the church building using the Bible, the curriculum is already wirtten and we already have the books. I´ll be teaching 3 2-hour classes at a beginner´s level, each level lasting 2 months, so this ¨trial run¨will last until this december. On Friday´s I´ll teach a 3 hour class in the men´s prison and in the afternoon we´ll minister in the women´s prison, but I won´t teach them English. I´m realy excited to be able to work at the same place as Beto and already have a sponsor whom I´ve not met. They are working for us on getting support for Beto too so please pray about that. THese people are amazing and I´ll get to meet them in July.

Blessings, and pray for my parents as they are driving to CA from FL this week.

Afterthought

A few weeks ago i was feeling really down and depressed. I have a nice house, a wonderful boyfriend, a good paying job (for here), a great roomate, good food, and I was listening to one of my favorite CD´s. I read exciting books, watch entertaining T.V programs and movies, I live in a nice neighborhood and don´t have too many complaints about the church Beto and I attend. I have a comfy bed and enough clothes. But even though some of these things had made me happy in the past, nothing could cheer me up. I was being attacked, I could feel it, but at the time I didn´t care to try to get rid of my sadness. I thought, nothing of this world, not even really close friends, can always fulfill me the way Jesus can. it was like one of those ¨duh¨lighbulbs. And not even reading the Bible cheered me up. Not to say it´s not God´s Word and not powerful, but our joy doesn´t only come from the Bible, it comes from Jesus, from His Holy Spirit Himself. Only He can totally and completely fulfill us how we need.

FOCUS

Make sure if you have an accent, you say that word correctly. Yesterday in 8th History, I told them to copy the ¨REading Focus¨questions from their book. One student had an especially hard time saying the word ¨Focus¨right and we couldn´t help but laugh because he kept saying it wrong.

I asked some teachers if they´d be willing to sign a letter if I wrote it to the Minister of Education (M.O.E.) about the problems we´ve all had this year in the school, but they won´t. Disappointing, but I´m not going to write one now anyways. I was thinking of pulling a ¨North Country¨one on the director, but I won´t.

Last Saturday I got up early and walked to the nearest mall to cash my check and pay some bills at the bank. I got there at 8.30 hoping it would open at 9 but it opens at 10. So luckily the internet cafe was open so I spent some time in there. At 9.30 I went back to the bank and was the first person in line. i waited there 30 minutes. When I got to the counter she told me they didn´t have any money and I had to wait another hour. Hello? What is this place called that I´m in? rrrrrrrrriiiight, a BANK! Banks have money right? Noooo, not until the other people in line pay their bills. hmmm...dumb concept if you ask me, but they didn´t ask, so I left, very frustrated. i wanted to say, but i´ve already waited over an hour! I had to leave to go to parent conferences about report cards.
Yesterday Beto and I ran (in a taxi) to the immigration office to take care of my VISA. It´s the three month mark but I got an extension for one month. From there we went to the bank where we stood in line over 45minutes to pay. When I got to the counter she said they only accepted VISA, not Master Card. I said, ¨I have to pay this today or they are going to make me leave the country and I can´t do that.¨ She says, snobbily, I might add, Lo siento pero no hay nada que puedo hacer para ayudarle.¨She didn´t even try to help! I said, ¨Can´t I just go to the ATM, take out money and come back?¨ ¨No¨, she said, ¨the guard can´t let you back in¨ ¨But I´ve already waited about an hour! It´s not impossible, I go, get money, and come back.¨ She starts to help someone else. I look at the guy next to her with ¨help me!¨eyes but he ignores me. Finally she says to go ask the guard. I cry to the guard and he tells me to go talk to the boss. The boss, an intelligent and reasonable man, said I could go take out cash and give it to the guard who can pass it to someone who can process it and I don´t have to enter. There, wasn´t that easy? So we got it done. But sometimes, this country...banks have unconvenient hours and rules! I guess now I know...I´m still learning. But you know there´s some things about culture that you´re not supposed to say are wrong or bad, just different. Well, not this. Banks are wrong and bad and I don´t like em here!
Happy banking everyone!

Troubles

I think my troubles might cheer you up, i mean my interpretation of them.
So last week when I was handed my paycheck she´d taken out money again because i missed 2.5 hours in March.Those hours were actually before school time. School starts at 7.50 and we have to be there at 7.30. well I wasn´t there by 7.30 some days so she docked me for it b-c ¨we have to be punctual¨, she says, this woman who leaves school a lot during the day for ¨school business¨.
So i got mad and asked why we have to be there at 7.30. She says to do planning and lessons and such. I said, I do my work, you always tell me I have such great plans and I use my free hours to do my planning and am always done with everything on time, so what does it matter? plus some days i stay till 4.30 to tutor or other things and she doesnt pay me extra for that!here´s the kicker... she says other teachers ask about me, like how come I come late, like I´m getting away with something and they aren´t. HELLO???? Are we like,in 3rd grade again? öh, that´s not fair! she gets to come late and i don´t!¨So today I was there at 7.29 and guess what the ëarly¨peple were doing? Talking amongst themselves,and reading the paper. They hadn´t even gone up to their classrooms to do anything! So i guess she´s paying them for that! I can read the paper at home. She´s all about rules. And do I ever complain about others not being early or even there at all? No! Why not? BECAUSE I DON´T CARE!!! They´re adults, they can do what they want. That´s their responsability and decision. OK. Have a great day!

Snakes, Iguanas, and Turtles...OH MY!!!

Friday the school got to go to a reptile place. There was an aritcle about the place this week in the English paper ¨Hondurasthisweek.com¨

The kids had a great time. Only five in the picture because one didn´t get to go for taking report card grades out of my desk when she thought the german teacher wouldn´t see.

ANywho, pray for me please. I´m having a lot of stress and problems with the same person I´ve written about before and though I love my kids, I´m very tempted to quit at the end of this month and go to LA for an extended visit before starting my new job in the church where Beto´s working. If Beto doesn´t get his Visa. I hope he does but it would just mean a two week stay instead of longer. I don´t want to quit but have so much stress and frustration. I know I´m not the only one on the planet with that. Pray for us. Thanks!

Baptism

Last Thursday we came to church early and there was a sister and her mother already there. Her mother wanted to be baptized but since the brother was with the ¨Herald of Truth¨ brothers getting them settled in, Beto got to baptize her! It was a great experience. This is the baptistry outside the church. Beto´s kind of camouflage with the wall. Can you find him?

Family conference

There are 3 ¨brothers¨here from Herald of Truth in Abilene. One is fluent in Spanish and gave a seminar for church leader couples on family and how to raise kids. There was a great turnout and I saw a lot of friends I hadn´t seen in awhile. Afterwards, the youth of our church put on a play, sort of a modern ¨prodigal son¨that Beto wrote and directed. He didn´t know the conference was about children and parents so it was neat that it tied directly in with the theme. I couldn´t get a good picture of him but he played a good part of the busy father who doesn´t have time for his family, thus leading his son to run away, but eventually return. It was very well recieved. Please continue to pray he can come to the States with me. We´re going to have to go to Guatemala this weekend to get it there.

Ronald´s got nothin on me!

I´m just so proud I had to show you. Possibly the best burger I´ve ever had...or made, well, in a very long time. I made the fries too. Maybe I´ve found my calling...

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!