day 8 of 19: from Honduras to Haiti

On Thursdays at Loma de Luz, there is a gathering of all of the missionaries for some singing, sometimes preaching or story-sharing and lots of prayer. Tonight we had the privilege of hearing Dr. Don Rumbaugh's stories from being in Haiti for the last 17 days. He just arrived back in Honduras last night. He is one of the physicians at the hospital/clinic here and left for awhile to help people in greater need. It was great to hear about his experience there. It continues to shock and overwhelm me when I hear and see the devastation in Haiti. I am once again asking myself, "What is my response?" "What should I do to help?" I am still thinking and praying and meditating on that. We have given money and have prayed. What else? I know there is more to be done.

I know it is Jesus's heart to help the poor, feed the hungry and cloth the naked. I want to share in that love and do the same.

day 7 of 19: glasses

Ever wonder what happened to your old eye glasses that you donated to the Lions’ Club? They might be in Honduras. I went through and cataloged 41 pair of glasses today. The clinic is in the transition phases of putting all of their glasses into a computerized searching system. So when a patient needs glasses, you can just enter the prescription (after it is determined) into the computer system and it displays the possible options. The sad thing is that it may take your glasses 20-40 years to arrive and get used in another country. Next time I come, I may bring my old glasses with me to donate so they will actually have a few modern pair of glasses from the last 20 years.

day 6 of 19: ate with the bugs

We had mac-n-cheese and hot dogs for dinner. Nothing adventurous tonight unless you intentionally chose to eat food sprinkled with bugs. The bugs were swarming us at dinner. Some may think that if a bug flies in your food or drink, then stop eating or drinking it but here, that is a normal occurrence. We just pick out the bug and keep going. There is a boundary for me beyond that. When there are too many bugs too keep up with, it is time to stop eating. That is what happened tonight.

day 5 of 19: heat has hit

This is the weather that I remember about Honduras. It is in the low 80's and so hot and humid you just want to lay around. Kim tried to get the boys to go outside this morning and they refused. That might have been because she was doing a really good job of entertaining them. Jaden has been loving being in nature constantly. Even when we are "indoors," the windows are open and usually the door(s) are open and fans are blowing. It doesn't ever really feel like you are indoors but you are protected from the rain.

It is so humid here that you just never dry out. Everything feels sticky and sweaty all the time. We are taking lots of showers but I am about to give up because you only feel clean for about 5 minutes. Might just cut back to one shower a day.

We have done some more adventuring.
Went to La Quinta Beach near the hospital (yesterday).
Went to Christie's Beach and explored the enchanted forest there. The trees looked like the Ents from Lord of the Rings. Like they could just get up and walk away any moment. They have wide trunk-like feet and are massively tall.
Hiked from staff housing (our home) to the water towers up the hill. Quite a climb for 2 short-legged people but we made it. We even let both boys climb the water tower. That scared me a little but we all survived and no one was injured.

I got to help in the clinic/hospital today. I helped Nancy and a few others put away all of the medical supplies we brought down. I really enjoyed it and had fun trying to communicate in Spanish. I really need to take some classes. Bryan admitted his first patient to the hospital and saw some other sick people in the clinic. We had dinner with the Fields. There was great food and great conversation.

day 3 of 19: feeling the sun

It was rainy and cold on Thursday when we arrived (70 deg F). Today was quite the contrast with sunny, hot and humid. We hung-out with a bunch of other gringos (white people) at the Lis Lis River and its sandy banks. We had a great potluck and one of the guys grilled. There were lots of little kids around for the boys to play with.

The downside is that we all (5 of us) got a little sunburned. We didn't burn once when we were here in 2008 and this was our first day outside and we burnt. We will definitely be more careful from now on.

There were a bunch of missionary families at the river. One truck got stuck crossing the river (normal practice here without bridges) and they almost lost the vehicle to water damage but they took apart things and cleaned and dried it and it is now running. Quite a miracle.

day 2 of 19: in our new home

I can't believe how at home I am feeling here and we have only been here for 5 or so hours. This is such a change in feelings from a year a half ago. Then I felt alone and unsure and dirty and disgusted. Things are cleaner and better kept in our new house in the Staff Housing building. We have a new bathroom which is beautiful compared to what we had before. There is no mold on the shower curtain and in every bathroom crevice. The shared kitchen is clean and quite gecko-free. There is not food and random stuff sitting all over. It is picked up and clean. You wouldn't think cleanliness would be such a big deal but it truly can make a person feel comfortable.

We were also invited over for dinner with 4 other families. We visited with some old friends and made some new friends. It was a great time with great food. We felt like family and very welcomed here. Last time here we were left alone the first couple days. Now we already have plans for tomorrow to head to a river and waterfall area with a bunch of other people here.

I am looking forward to new friends and sharing lots of stories.

On a side note, the 5 hour drive with 2 stops went quite well. We loaded up on groceries for the next two weeks and got some lunch and ice cream. It is hot here and very humid but not quite as unbearable as it is in July and August. I am much preferring the weather here this time of year.

we arrived!

We made it to Honduras without any problems. We left our house bright and early this morning at 4am and arrived in San Pedro Sula at 3pm. Our 10 checked bags of medical supplies, 5 stowed carry-ons and 3 backpacks all made it safely with us. That is quite a miracle in itself. We did almost walk off with someone else's bag but that was quickly corrected. It is about 70 degrees and rainy. We are hoping for sun tomorrow.

It is great to finally be here! Thanks to God for our safe arrival and helping us out all along the way. Thanks for all the prayers.

We have a nice hotel to stay in tonight and then will make the 5 hour drive to Balfate tomorrow.

Best memory of the day: seeing Jaden and Clay run through the Miami airport pretending to be planes with their wing-arms spread out. Luckily they didn't take any people out.

prayer matters (leaving for Honduras in 4 days)

I have been feeling the need to be praying more lately and it is probably because I feel there is more to pray about. Honduras, our safety, my kids, family stuff, job stuff, possibly moving and on and on.

We are praying for our safety in Honduras and for God to be with us while we are there. We are praying for the missionaries, the Hondurans, to see God work through His people and for flexibility.

We leave in 4 days. There will be 5 of us going: Bryan, Jaden, Clay, Kim (Bryan's sister) and myself. We are taking 9 large bags/suitcases of medical supplies with lots of needed equipment. We are packing minimally and are very excited to be going.

We are praying and ask that you will pray for us too.

I have setup a really cool prayer calendar. We really value and appreciate your prayers while we are in Honduras and as we prepare to go there. We would love to know that someone is praying for us every day we are in Honduras so we are asking you to sign-up for a day to pray.

I know that many of you will try to remember us daily or weekly or as often as you think of us but we would also appreciate you to focus on one day to remember us and the country of Honduras in prayer.

The prayer calendar website has instructions on the top of it for what you need to do and there is a list of things to pray for on the bottom of the website. You can read all about our lives and what we will be experiencing on the blog.

Here is the website:
http://www.my.calendars.net/honduraspray

Thanks for your prayers! We know that God hears us when we pray!

my grandma is 90!

My grandma Alma is a special lady, especially to me. Some say that we are a lot alike in our personalities. I would like to believe I have a few softer edges but appreciate the comparison. She is a strong woman who has served Jesus well throughout her life. We celebrated her 90th birthday on Saturday. She will be 90 on February 17th. God has blessed her with a long life and a large family that loves her. Yesterday was a great day with lots of family. The best part of the day was hearing my grandma laugh, especially from the card my brothers and uncle picked out for me to give to my grandma. I just told them to grab me a card, any card at Walmart. They enjoyed my lack of clarity and chose the card in the picture. Definitely worth the laugh!

meal group retreat

We have an awesome Meal Group through our church, Upper Room Community. It is our small group of couples that meets weekly on Wednesday nights. Right now we have 3 other great couples that we love hanging out with and doing as much of life together as possible.

We spent the weekend together in one house. We shared meals together. Shared stories. Shared playtime in the snow. Shared in communion, confession and prayer. We shared Christ's love with each other. This is what the true Church of Jesus followers should look like. I love those people and they love my family!

so, I should be in bed...

but Bryan is working late (till midnight) and I am enjoying the fact that I don't work tomorrow. I haven't blogged in almost a week and wish that I had something to say. There are probably too many things to say because I haven't taken time to write about them but here is what is on my mind now.

Bryan and I are enjoying a time of marital bliss, well, almost. We are just really enjoying each other. I am a highly critical person so this is very difficult and unusual for me. We did go to a marriage conference (Song of Solomon) last weekend which helped. And we did have a retreat (Afton House Inn) without the kids last week and I'm sure that helped too. But more than both of those things, I think we are settling into our marriage and enjoying it more than ever.

I heard on Saturday at the conference that couples settle in to really like each other between years 9 and 14. I feel like we hit that point. We are married 11 1/2 years and we are there. I finally feel like I am over trying to change Bryan and make him into what I wish. I really like him, respect him, admire him and love him. Whenever older couples would tell me that the key in marriage is to stop trying to change your spouse and truly accept them. I would think to myself that I am not trying to change him. I just want him to be better and he has to change himself. I now realize that there is a difference in wishing for a better version of someone and just liking who they already are. I like Bryan. That is not to say that he is without flaw; no one is. He is Bryan and he is mine. I love him and can't wait to feel more comfortable with him over the additional years to come.

We started implementing a new rule in our house. No more computers after we put the boys to bed. We only do things together. Talk about our day, read together or work on whatever we want...together. It has been great and we both look forward to it every night.