Jen in Honduras- August Newsletter

                                                                               

 August Newsletter

Short term teams!

Well I arrived in Honduras! And within an hour of me arriving 2 short-term teams from the states did as well. The past 3 weeks have been filled with 6 (YES 6!) short-term teams. The first week I was here there were 2 dentists visiting so we hosted clinic 2 days in the community of La Fe and 2 days in the community of Armenia Bonito. I spent the week translating for the dentists and when it was slow playing with kids who were hanging around.

Dental Clinic in the community of La Fe

 

The second week we had a brigade of medical students so again we hosted clinic 4 days that week in La Fe and Armenia Bonito. I translated, helped to do patient intake, and of course played with the kids J I also got to know one of the girls who lives at Puerta de Esperanza the house for young single moms. Carolina helped us with clinic all week. She is 19 and has a 10 month old baby boy named William. They are both precious and Carolina loves to help and to serve others.

 

Hanging out with kids during a break from clinic in La Fe

This past week (our last week of hosting teams for the summer) was a “normal” week (which simply means we had no dentist or doctors). I was able to go to Kid’s Club (something similar to Good News Club or VBS) in both La Fe and Armenia Bonito. I was blown away by how much the kids are learning and understanding about Christ and the gospel.

My long lost daughter in the community of Armenia Bonito (who knew?)

 

Prayer Requests:

·         Pray for my financial needs. I am currently at 83% of my support so I am lacking about $250 per month.

·         Pray for wisdom and guidance as I try to figure out now that short term teams are gone what exactly my ministry here will look like.

Kid's Clubs, Taxis, and HUGE rocks, oh my

Yesterday I got to go to Kid's Club (something kind of like Good News Club or VBS) for the first time. And I didn't get to go to just one but to 2! In the morning I went to the community of La Fe to their weekly Kid's Club hosted by some of my teammates. A visiting short term team had prepared and had songs, a story, games, and crafts! The kids loved it! The team did awesome and I would say that I helped but really I just held a super cute baby the entire time.

me and Dixiana at Kid's Club in La Fe

kids enjoying thier visors and balloons in La Fe

Dixiana and her little brother (aka the baby I held all of Kid's Club instead of helping:)

Then in the afternoon I went to the community of Armenia Bonita about 30 minutes away to the other weekly Kid's Club hosted by a different one of my teammates. This one wasn't hosted by a short-term team so it was more of a routine and the kids at the end recited the answer to the catechism question for the week. The question was (and I'm paraphrasing because it was in Spanish) "Why did God give us the Bible?" I was completely blown away when not once but twice kids who were maybe 4 or 5 came up and repeated the entire answer without any help or prompting! It was incredible! These kids every week are not only hearing the gospel but are memorizing scripture and important foundational gospel truths!

Then today it was a new adventure. I have been spending a lot of time with one of the girls, C, from Puerta de Esperanza, the home for single moms and their babies. Today C needed to go to the bank to pay her college tuition, Shannon was busy with the teams and couldn’t drive her C was going to have to take a taxi. She doesn’t like taking the taxi by herself so I went along. So C, her 10 month old W, and I get into the taxi in front of where I live. (Keep in mind I have only left where I live with team members in their cars up until this point) As we drive off I ask, “Do you know how to get back here because I have no idea?” To which she replies, “I think so, we’ll see.” (She sounds really confident right!) So we get to bank and both realize that neither of us has as much cash as we thought we did. We spend several minutes checking all the pockets of our bags and are still about $.25 short. So the taxi driver realizes what is wrong and is getting a little upset. Finally, luckily (or guess more by God’s provision), C finds more money in the bottom of her bag, so we pay. We go to the bank everything is great. (We intentionally took the baby even though we could have easily left him with someone because here being old, pregnant or holding a small child means you don’t wait in line.) We go back outside get in a taxi and tell the driver “La Isle” which is the neighborhood/community we live in. We come into La Isle and he asks where to. (There are no such things as addresses here and the streets don’t have street signs with names. So you tell people, 200 meters north of this store, or close to this ball field, or next to the 2 story white house.) C responds “I don’t know exact directions but I tell you when I see it.” He was not loving that answer and after driving for a few minutes threatened to put us out right there. Again by God’s provision, because I definitely have no idea how we finally made our way back, we saw a street we both recognized and were able to direct him. So between the adventure of that this morning and the adventure of going to a local river with some kids in Armenia Bonita and jumping off a HUGE, REALLY HIGH rock(I’m terrible with estimating size or distance, so I have no idea how high it really was) this afternoon I’m trying to figure out what to do next J

As a side note, I am still at about 83% of my support so if you would like to give or no some one who would.....

Old sins die hard

Yesterday was a frustrating day. There is no other way to put it. I was reminded time and time again how inadequate my Spanish was. I was hot, frustrated, and in a bad mood- and this made me in a worse mood because even in the moment when it was happening I saw my sin in it. BUT it was good because God is teaching me that his grace is sufficient and is continually challenging my need to be a perfectionist(old sins die hard). He reminded me that he will provide for my needs as he always has. So all of that being said pray for me. Yesterday I saw the first glimpse of culture shock that I've had since arriving in Honduras. Pray for my Spanish definitely but more importantly for my walk with the Lord and that I would look to him in my weaknesses.

Ice cream

So yesterday I decided I really wanted some ice cream so I went to this little restaurant/coffee place. I asked in clear Spanish, we know how great my Spanish is :), if they had ice cream. The guy replies yes, what kind do you want. I pause waiting on him to list some flavors, which he never does, so I say vanilla. He then proceeds to tell me about 3 different frozen coffee drinks that have vanilla in them. So I give him a funny look and ask again if he has ice cream. He returns the funny look and kinda laughs and says no (now people I joke about my Spanish because it isn't the greatest but I KNOW I said ice cream the first time). I end up with a frozen french vanilla something and it was awesome. So while I did not get ice cream yesterday I did find an awesome place to get frozen coffee (which is important because you surely won't be drinking the hot stuff here).

I made it to Honduras!!

So I have been in Honduras for 4 days now and I am loving it! Right now we have 2 short term teams a few of which are dentist who are holding a free dental clinic in 2 of the communities. I spent the last 2 days in the community of La Fe helping to translate for the dentist and also for some of the other short term team members. Can I just say that my Spanish is better and worse than I thought it was! Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised when someone asks me how to say something and I know! Other times I have no idea how to say the simplest things and end up spending several minutes talking around the word I don't know. Hence, "entiende" (Understand?) is part of my daily vocabulary. This morning some of the short term team held Kid's Club with the children in La Fe and they made the salvation bracelets with the colored beads. Later I saw a few of the kids with them on and was asking them about the different colors and what they stood for. It was amazing how well the kids understood! One little girl I was talking to knew all the colors and more than just telling me what they stood for she was explaining each one in detail and was able to answer questions when I asked her! This afternoon dental clinic was super slow so I read with my 2 new friends Naomi and Allison and then later got to meet their mother. The people in this community are super grateful and happy just to have us there to play with their kids.
Pray for the next 3 weeks. We have the last of the short term teams for the summer (6 in all) so we are super busy. Pray for endurance and strength, especially for my teammates who are 2 months into having short term teams.
Pray that would continue to adjust well to Honduras and for my Spanish.
Pray that dental clinic the next 2 days in the other community of Armenia Bonita would go well and that we would have lots of patients.
Pray for my support. I am still not at 100%.
If you would like to give online go here: https://donations.mtw.org/donate/default.aspx

Bittersweet

So today was my last full day in Costa Rica. Hard to believe I fly out in the morning! It is really cool to look back and see God's faithfulness over the past 2 months. Before leaving the states my time in Costa Rica was what I was most worried about. I was anxious about living with a Costa Rican family, about not knowing anyone here, and about learning the language. God continually teaches me that he will provide all my needs and I have no reason to be anxious. There have definitely been moments of struggle here but the past few weeks especially I have grown closer to people and I'm not going to lie it was hard to say goodbye and is hard even to type this now. All day I have been dreading our graduation program we had earlier and knowing that I would have to leave these people behind. Some one asked me at graduation if I was excited to get to Honduras and I answered honestly and said no (you can do that with real friends). Then I got home and there was an email with the schedule for the next few weeks. Immediately God used that to remind me why I am here and to get me even more excited than I was when I first left home. So now I am excited and ready to be in Honduras TOMORROW!!
Pray for my transition to Honduras and continually for my Spanish!