June 30
Today was a wonderful day here in Honduras. I spent most of the day with Hilda and Yolanda, two workers here at the hospital. My day began helping Hilda clean our apartment. I was thinking we would do a quick sweep, maybe some mopping and be done. Well, Hilda is a serious cleaner. We moved all the furniture, cleaned out all the drawers, wiped down everything, took the screens out of the windows and cleaned them.... I finished thinking, wow, I've never really cleaned our house in the states. Yet it was a wonderful time. I'm so thankful for Hilda's willingness to teach me the language. I also loved hearing her sing praise songs as she was scrubbing the toilets.
The rest of the day I helped her and Yolanda in the kitchen. When it came time to prep for dinner I was put in charge of cutting the vegetables. Too bad I was swiftly demoted to drying the dishes and putting them away because I sliced my finger open. Hilda's exact words: "I think it would be better if you worked over here and I don't want to have to tell Jason that you cut your hand off." It was pretty funny as she had also witnessed me ramming myself and a ladder into a wall earlier in the day leaving a lovely bruise on my leg. What can you do.
My afternoon was relaxing. Hilda sent me back to the apartment to take a siesta before cooking dinner. She sent me with a blanket that had just come out of the dryer. So there I was laying on the couch, wrapped up in a warm blanket, listening to the rain and thunder, while reading a book. The book I was reading was talking about relishing in God's majesty and thinking about His power in creation. For instance, all the galaxies or how there are so many different types of laughter. It was the perfect environment to reflect about how big and great our God is. I just laid there in awe and again was so thankful for the peacefulness of Honduras.
You may be wondering why there is little mention of Jason. He was on his own adventures in Tegucigalpa to get visas and pick up a woman who the ministry will be sending to Iowa for heart valve replacement. You can be praying for this situation as they were unable to get her out of the hospital in Tegucigalpa today.
July 03
Jason and I have been focusing on doing things to help Sandy take a break. For Jason, that means he has been fighting with the internet for the past few days. I'm still unsure who is going to win this battle.
I've been floating from place to place. Tuesday morning I worked with one of the Day Care classes. It is difficult to understand 2 and 3 year olds in English, so you can imagine my state of mind with these little ones. At one point, the teacher, Rosario, told the kids that the room was now "My house" and left me with the kids for maybe 10 minutes ... I mean really what could possibly go wrong in such a short amount of time. Well the second Rosario was out of site one of the boys calls one of the girls a very bad word. I'm instantly shocked, but the other kids pointing at him and yelling "bad word" quickly brought me back to reality. It was very much like the scene at the end of Kindergarten Cop where all the kids are screaming "Stranger, Stranger, Stranger!!!" (for those of you that know this movie) So I proceed to explain to this little one why he was in trouble, that we don't use that word, and he is going to have to go in time out for 5 minutes. This turns into me holding him in time out why he screams his head off. I mean I wanted to cry with him. We have since mended our relationship and he doesn't run away from me anymore.
On a high note, I got to be a part of these little ones praying a couple of times. The first time, prior to breakfast, they repeated after their teacher, but at lunch she had each one say an individual prayer. It was so sweet to hear their little voices praying with such sincerity.
Our Monday ended with story time with Sandy. He had us all rolling in laughter. I would re-tell a story, but it just wouldn't be the same without Sandyisms.
Yesterday, I went on a wild adventure with Hilda to go grocery shopping in downtown Guaimaca. It is always an experience being the giant woman every where you go. I get this funny feeling that I should be grunting around people. Anyways, the best stop we had was for mangos. Hilda taught me how you pick out a good one and we bought several. I ran out to the truck to drop them off and came running back up to into the shop and nearly ran into some people moving a fruit cart. For some reason I lost control of my body and went fumbling about trying to get out of their way, but every way I opted to move I just got more in the way. Eventually the cart was successfully moved to the street and I reentered the shop to the welcome of much laughter which was clearly not with me, but at me. What can you do ... I was just proud that I stayed on my feet and didn't end up planting my face in the street!
The rest of the day I spent working on some organization things for the Day Care. I will be continuing that task today. Jason spoke this morning at the devotional for the hospital staff. He continually makes me very proud and I just love seeing our God use him and the joy that explodes from Jason when he is down here.
While things have felt pretty random for me as far as floating from place to place God has blessed me with the opportunity to have many conversations with several women down here. Yesterday I sat in the hospital with a woman that had just had a baby boy the night before and we just got to talk for about 30 minutes. These conversations are very precious to me.
Sandy was finally able to get Sandra from the hospital in Tegucigalpa. It looks like she will be flying to Iowa this Saturday!!! Pray for her travels as she is nervous about this trip. We just pray that everything goes smoothly.
We love you all dearly. Thank you for your continual prayers. We feel so blessed. Thank you also for your continual words of encouragement. Well, sorry about the novel ... who knew so much could happen in two days.
July 05
Today was another adventurous day in Honduras. My early morning was wonderful. I got to spend a few hours reading, studying, praying, journaling ... just enjoying time with the Lord. It was like scene in a movie ... the light breeze blowing through the windows lightly tickling the curtains, the morning sun casting shadows on the floor, the music from next door flowing into the house ... just wonderful. The music playing was like a spanish version of Frank Sinatra. It was the kind of music where I wish Jason would have been around to spin and dip me.
Anyways, lets leave my dream world. The rest of the morning consisted of working with the kids and working on some updates for the website. Jason and I had a blast taking new pics of all the kids ... they are just so sweet. Then we just spent some time playing with them. They have this great new swing set, slide and see saw that the kids love. At one point Jason was on one side of the see saw and there were 4 other boys on the other ... they thought it was so funny.
Then the afternoon came and it all went down hill for me.
A storm was coming in swiftly so we ran over to the neighbor's house to help them get all their clothes off the clothes line before it started raining on them. As we came back to our place, I realized Jason's shoes were still outside drying from an incident he had with some water a few days earlier. Being a kind and sweet wife I wanted to get his shoes in before they got wet again. I picked them up, glanced down at them and to my surprise there were two little eyes staring back up at me. Well that sure isn't normal, so of course the shoes go flying in the air and I go screaming in the other direction. When I get a safe distance away I look back to see this massive frog waddling out of the shoe. Jason's response (with a little laughter): "Did you just make that frog pee in my shoe?"
Well this evening we (Jason, Me, Domingo -one of the ministry's pastors, Jessica - an american pharmacy student, and Juan the pastor of the church where we are showing the movie) went off to a church in the mountains to show the movie End of the Spear. Because it is raining season, the roads are pretty rough with lots of pot holes and lots of water. Jason was driving well, but it was still a little crazy. In my attempt to be funny I leaned over to this pastor to tell him that Jason is crazy, but what do I say: "Estoy loco." Translation: I am a crazy man. Joke's on me. He sure thought it was funny (not in the way I wanted it to be), but I guess minus the man part I was obviously speaking the truth.
Well, we made it safely, but that is when I found myself standing face to face with "The Toilet of Doom." So this is one of those Third World Country experiences that you just want to block out of your mind. There I am in the little toilet shack armed with my handy tissues preparing for the squat. For some reason the space and the toilet was just awkward for me and I couldn't devise a successful plan that didn't involve my underwear to close to the toilet or the ground for personal comfort. My answer ... pull the underwear to the side and pee around the problem. Well I didn't fully commit to the squat (bad idea), so I peed on my own underwear. "You have got to be kidding me!" (welcome to my immediate thought) I mean there is really nothing else to do at that point but laugh and then leave the shack in shame. So for all you you that have had a bathroom mishap in another country ... this one is for you.
Welp, what else can I say. It's time to get to bed before something catastrophic occurs. Isn't life such the adventure ... Indiana Jones has nothing on me :)
Until my next psychotic adventure,
Jenn and Jason (who's only role in this email was to force me tell about the toilet of doom)
July 08
I can't believe that it is already Tuesday of week 2 ... the time as flown by. Jo Ann made it back to Guaimaca yesterday bringing with her a sassier Sandy. :) I look forward to getting to know her a little bit in the next few days.
On Saturday, Jason and I experienced the results of miscommunication. Isaura, a friend of Jason's and the ministry, owns an ice-cream shop in downtown Guaimaca. When we visited her last week she said that she had a gift for Sandy that she wanted us to come pick it up at her house on the weekend. So before we head out to pick up this gift, Hilda invited me back into the kitchen to help make some chicken tacos. She had no faith in me to allow me to handle a knife, but the chicken tacos were wonderful and probably one of my favorite meals. Therefore we go to Isaura's feeling very full.
We find it strange when we arrive at Isaura's house and there is a table cloth laid out and she sits us down at the kitchen table. Well, we had apparently misunderstood that she was cooking us lunch as well. As she heads off to the kitchen to get the food, Jason and I pep talk ourselves to prepare to clean our plates no matter how stuffed we feel. The food was good and she brought out quite the spread, but there were moments when I thought food was going to begin popping out of my ears.
Needless to say we took a few laps around the corn field when got back to try to lessen the "I'm about to bust" feeling. Yet, it was a such a blessing to have her take the time to cook for us and talk with us. We are so blessed in that we got 2 meals for lunch when there are so many families in this area that are struggling to have any food at all.
Sunday was a wonderful day. Jason woke up with a funny feeling he was going to be asked to preach, and about 5 minutes before church started Roberto asked him to. Isn't God good to speak to us!! As usual I love watching Jason preach and seeing the Lord use Him in this way. It is a neat experience of being really proud of him and also just praising God because it is His message and His words. At the end of the service when the invitation was given, Maribel Menbraño gave her life to the Lord!! Praise the Lord!! It was neat to see this mom come forward with her kids that we had been playing with at the daycare all week. What a blessing to know that these kids now have a mom who knows the Lord and can teach them His ways.
Finally story for the day:
Yesterday I was pushing some of the kids on the swing set when suddenly the back of my leg started to burn. I turned around to see the dirty guinea fowl ... it had attacked me. I stared at it in shock until it started to run at me. Then I proceeded to run around the swing set screaming as the stupid bird chased me up the slide. One of the little boys tried chasing it away, but he was so small the bird just rammed him and pushed him over. That turned me into a scared, but angry mama. Jason came to the rescue and chased the bird off, by pelting it with a block of wood. I didn't feel bad at all. Dirty birds!
Our day ended by going up to the rock quarry and looking down the mountain at God's beautiful creation and then eating dinner on the prayer tower watching the sunset. Wonderful!!
July 12
Well I just can't believe that this is our final night in beautiful Honduras. These two weeks have just flown by.Well I just can’t believe that this is our final night in beautiful Honduras. These two weeks have just flown by.
Yesterday I had the most incredible and terrifying experience … I watched a woman giving birth! I was on my way to breakfast when Dr. Estrada (the head Dr. at the hospital) calls over the radio (“El Parto”) that a woman is in labor, so Jessica (pharmacy student) and I run to go and watch.
When we entered the room, Dr Estrada placed us right in view of all the action. While it was not quite time, he was able to show us the top of the baby’s head. I’m thinking … “uh, that’s a pretty small space for a HEAD.”
The mom is clearly in pain (no epidurals here), she is beginning to push, Dr. Estrada is cheering her on, Jessica is smiling, and I am suddenly aware that it is extremely hot in the room. Then I realize I’m sweating, my skin is clammy, suddenly I don’t feel so good, and oh my, I’m about to pass out … So I end up in the next room with my head between my knees trying to regain my composure.
I heard Dr. Estrada say “it’s time” so I made it back in the room to actually see the baby’s birth. While this was extremely traumatic, it was followed by the most beautiful noise: the baby’s first cry! It was amazing to hear and see the mother’s joyous face as Dr. Estrada told her it was a girl. (so I did get a little teary-eyed at this point)
I survived.
So I thought. Then it was time to get the placenta. I won’t go into details except to say that there was some splatter-action that occurred and needless to say I resumed my position in the next room with my head between my knees.
For the rest of the day, everyone was asking: “So, do you still want to have kids?”
I visited the mom and her little girl later in the day and it was clearly evident that the pain was totally worth having that precious little life in her arms, with those beautiful eyes looking up at her. Of course I still want to have kids and I was quickly reminded of the beautiful verses in Psalm 139. God is so AMAZING!!! But while I’m glad I got to experience this moment, I wish to never see a birth from that angle again.
Later in the afternoon Roberto took us up into the mountains to show us some of the new areas where churches are being planted. It was a rough ride for me, but so beautiful! I was again just blown away by God’s creation and how God is working among the Hondurans. Before we left the top, I decided I should take some Dramamine. So I popped two pills. Shortly after, Roberto took us to a flower garden that you can walk through. I really felt like I was in the jungle and words just couldn’t describe how beautiful some of the flowers were. But after we left I can tell you nothing because the medicine knocked me out. I mean it really wasn’t until the end of dinner when I felt like I could move my lips again. Note to self: one pill is enough.
Well, today we got to spend some more good time with Sandy and Jo Ann. They carry so much wisdom about this ministry … it is just really good to talk and laugh with them.
We also got to briefly experience a group coming in from Alabama. It was really neat to feel their excitement about the trip and the expectation for God to work.
I could go on and on, but our time as come to an end. It was hard for us to leave in March, but it feels much harder this time. Jason and I truly love Honduras, its people, and how God is moving here. We can’t wait until the Lord allows us to return.
Thank you for all your prayers, encouraging words, and sharing in this trip with us. Each one of you are a special part of our lives. Until next time . . .
Well, again we love you all and are so thankful for your prayers.
