Our plans now... and they are... yet to be discovered.

Isaiah 41:13 (NIV)
“For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.”

Hello friends, I really don’t have a lot of history to write as I wrote the most recent team blog which covered last weekend’s activities – if you didn’t get to see it go to: www.step0708.blogspot.com or just use the links I have in my blog to find the page; it has more pictures and a few videos as well.

The big deal last week was that it was our last week of Spanish classes (ending on the 25^th). While I know I have come very far, there is still so much to learn (a lifetime of material) and I will continue having “Spanish class” daily just by living here in Tegucigalpa, not to the mention the studying I plan to do when I have the time.

We begin our formal ministry time this week though I can’t tell you what that will look like. Mike Holland, Mobilization Coordinator for BICWM, is coming on Monday the 28^th and we will be discussing evangelism with him. We are very excited to be meeting with Mike and look forward to seeing our “STEP dad”.

Rachel’s parents are here this week as well and we all look forward to getting to know them better. On the note of families visiting, I found out that my mother and sister are planning to visit in late March. I was and am extremely delighted about this and hope the next two months of waiting don’t seem like an eternity, I’m sure they won’t with all we have planned (at least with all we hear we have planned).

I will make a note in this blog of what we have planned as I find it out. As for now, I know that we are planning to work with dentists that come to Tegucigalpa to help. We will be assisting with translation (we have a specific kind of vocabulary we need to be learning for this, English and Spanish) and I hope to get to help with some of the procedures like some groups in the past have. We also have a week of Vacation Bible School planned. We each planned a day which includes a story, craft, game, and Bible memory verse and songs (pretty much all the basics to a VBS day, though I am still pushing for another essential in my book: snack time). We hope to be able to plan times to use the full week or part of the week, but also have it ready to mobilize unexpectedly while on the road. We are also going to be doing some specific outreach and evangelism for the BIC church, though I don’t know what that looks like yet or where specifically, I just know I have the resources in Spanish and my homework now is to familiarize myself with the materials we are using.

Thanks for reading this and enjoy the pictures below. If you wish to be added to my prayer list (or if you want to come visit me too J), please email that request to me at: joshua.hershberger@gmail.com

Also, please check out the new links on my blog site as well as our team blog site; they include updates for some of the groups we trained with at HDC.

Isaiah 43:2 and Isaiah 41:13 (see above) have been very comforting through the last two months. I hope they can encourage you and strengthen you in your difficulties and insecurities in life; reading and indulging in the Word has done wonders for me. I may have even posted Isaiah 43:2 before and I may post it in the future, I think it may be my favorite.

Isaiah 43:2 (NIV)
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”

Here's a somewhat shocking picture of me if you know me, I actually have found some good friends with the kids here because they tend to be the most understanding of my lack of ability when it comes to speaking. The first picture is me and Karen Hess's brother (my nephew if you figure it out by host families) setting off fireworks on the new years. The second is Andrea's little brother and me playing with some excellent plastic animals, yea, I had fun fighting the tiger and bear.



So, don't judge me too much (like the two people in this photo), but this shirt is a big practical joke between all the teams we trained with at HDC. I'll explain more later, but I can't tell too much as other teams may be reading my blog.


In La Ceiba last weekend trying to keep up with my dental hygiene.


My cozy sleeping spot on the way home, I wish I would have found that spot earlier.


Boldly patrolling the sea representing, "THE Ohio State University".