Sharing Jesus and learning yet, another language.

Well hello again everyone and welcome back to this public internet page where I share my life. I want to take a minute to share with everyone how great, tiring, and refreshing last week was and how this week is getting off to a quick start.

It’s really amazing how mysterious everything is in my house. Just like almost all of the other STEPpers, I never know when the others shower or when they eat. I know they shower daily as this tends to be a very clean culture in that aspect and obviously I know they eat, but I just never know when this is happening and like the other STEPpers, I eat alone or with one other person, never with a female or with the family. I guess I can begin to guess that with that kind of consistency, this is a cultural thing. What made me think of this is that last week when our water was shut off, I was given a key and told to go to the house up the hill behind our house to use the restroom. I never even knew this house existed and then came to find out that it was a one room house with a bathroom where Kenia, my older host sister sleeps. I didn’t know whether to find it mysterious or unobservant of me that I thought she slept in our house at night when she actually never did. This explains why I see her in the back way sometimes early in the morning. I guess I don’t feel too unobservant as this is not an uncommon type discovery among my group in respect to our various families. This does explain why I sometimes hear her coming in the back door early in the morning.

I said that last week was busy and refreshing at the same time and now I will hope to explain that. It was busy because Mike Holland came and had plenty for us to do and lots of work to be done, but it was relaxing because Mike came to share with us and revitalize us for the months ahead. Mike brought Andy’s pastor, Isaac Flag, and Isaac’s son, Liam, along for the trip. They came in Monday and we were able to enjoy the afternoon with them and catch them up on our experiences thus far. Tuesday morning we started classes on evangelism with Mike followed by a time of sharing from Isaac (this would be the morning schedule through Friday). Tuesday afternoon, just a day after our classes had started, we hit the streets in a section of town close to the church and tried to do door to door evangelism in this language we have yet to understand. Don’t worry like I did at first, Mike is incredibly experienced in this area and we didn’t go throwing Bible’s in peoples faces. We have a survey of ten questions over spiritual matters we asked to the people that responded to our knocks. The questions were over subjects like the effectiveness of prayer or the relativity of the Bible today and topics of that nature. We also asked if people had experienced or believe a miracle had occurred in there lives. I love this approach because it was a very subtle and non-abrasive way to get to questions nine and ten which we leaned on for the evangelistic aspect. Question nine was about whether they would like information on a small group for worship and prayer close to their house. We had a very positive (I would guess close to 70% yes) response on this questions. Question ten was if they had anything we could pray over for the person or their family. We had an excellent response to this as well and were invited into many people’s homes to pray with and over them. Over the next four days our team, which was split into four teams with some locals helping as well, went back to the good contacts with information and booklets trying to develop relationships and looking for opportunities to share the Gospel. The results are still coming in as we are still pursuing the contacts we have made, but the results from the first week were very encouraging. We had three people come to service at church on Wednesday, two guys come to a Thursday night church sports even we organized, one young boy came to a small group meeting on Saturday, three people come to church on Sunday, and two people accept Christ last week. That is just last weeks fruit and doesn’t include all the people that are thinking about this new plan for there lives and the six phone numbers that my group alone got. I am excited to continue developing relationships and I think we understand the importance of follow up. Mike compared people that preach Jesus, help others accept Him, then leave and not develop a relationship with that person to working through a pregnancy, going to the hospital, having a baby, and leaving it. It was great week, I learned a lot, and I am confident my group will be responsible for the most important part of these people walk in the Lord, those first few months.

I also learned another language this week; I learn the language of the streets. I have told Rachel I could help her with driving but wanted to practice in a little more tranquil traffic and without people since the van is very different (diesel stick shift) and the traffic here is crazy. Well, that's not exactly how it worked as I had Mike as my teacher – he just had me hop in and learn in the traffic with people along. I ended up driving almost exclusively this week. This included driving in rush hour, way up into the outskirts of town to a small village and a trip Sunday night down South to a city called Nacaome to visit a church plant with Mike and Isaac. This last trip was about three and half hour round trip which included the adventure of driving back through the mountains in the dark on roads where it’s non uncommon to find cars without lights – this wasn’t a problem as I grew up dodging Amish buggies. Nonetheless, after driving a full van for almost the entire week and making a trip through the mountains, my confidence has been boosted and I am glad to be in the role of driver if needed.

Driving back from Nacaome, I learned an important lesson. I generally only carry a copy of my passport around the city but take the actual thing when I leave the city. I wasn’t able to get it as we left on Sunday and we got stopped at a check stop on the way back into town. I had a copy which helped, but the border police held us up for about ten minutes. I am so glad we had Mike along to talk, though I really thought I was going to have to wait until Mike could get my passport and return (which only would have been about thirty minutes), but they ended up letting us pass. They tried to play the political lines that our country (USA) wouldn’t stand for a person not having there real documents, but then were reminded that our country also gives time to retrieve the passport and turn it in to the appropriate authorities. Needless to say, not only will this be a lesson for the whole group as we may have been a little bit too lax on the situation, but it is also a good story to tag onto the adventures we have found here.

One last note, this is the first Superbowl I can remember missing (which is a shocker since I could have easily watched it here), but after much thought and stress, I just couldn’t pass up an opportunity to spend almost four hours in a van with two men of God that I trust very much. Especially at this point in my life, I can use all the advice I can get from God’s people as I seek out His plan for the next steps in my life.

As for this week, we are working with a dental brigade and after only one day of work, I can promise my next post will have some very interesting content. Thanks for reading this and for your continuous prayers.

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".

Welcome to Honduras, where Coca Cola flows like water, fireworks crack for any and all occasions, and tires pop at the snap of a finger.

Hello everyone and thanks for checking this out again. While I understand that for many people they simply don’t have the time to read this and keep up to date (to be honest, I would probably be one of those people), I really appreciate those of you that do and it provides a great comfort to know that many people are praying for me and thinking of me. I love getting the brief responses and I appreciate that you understand that I may not be able to reply to all of them as I wish I could. In fact, those of you that I have been in touch with more personally, I hope that can continue but I will be having less and less time online as classes are coming to an end and we are going to have different schedules.

That aside, let me tell you a little bit about a beautiful pueblo on Honduras named “Esquias”. My host family is from Esquias and I had the opportunity to join my host brother and two friends for a trip out of Tegucigalpa. I experienced a very different and perhaps much more traditional culture. The best way I can think to describe the experience is just to go in chronological order and share the sights I saw. This blog may be a little longer than usual, but I will try to keep it responsible in length.

The journey obviously began in Tegucigalpa, the city I have learned to call home. I asked my brother when I needed to be ready in the morning and understood earlier than 6am, so being the good little STEPper I try to be I was up, packed, showered and ready to go at 5:45am – and then I realized I was the only one up. You may think this is because of the whole “Latino time” thing where everything starts late and time really isn’t important, but that would be inaccurate as I have not found that to be true at all. It may be a fact of life in other parts of the country, but for city folk and specifically this congregation (who has an ex military leader as pastor – and that may be why) time is followed almost to a tee. What actually happened that morning was that Lemuel (my host brother) had planned to wash the car, check the engine, repair a flat spare tire, and dig out all sorts of things from a shed in the back I never knew existed. After a long morning of getting things ready, we fueled up and finally hit the road at 9:34am (yea, I checked just so I could blog accurately).

The beginning and middle of the trip was relatively uneventful as four of us (the other two in the car were Victor, the brother of Lemuel’s girlfriend, and Cesar, a friend from the church) made our way through the mountains to Esquias. After about two and a half hours we were very close to the pueblo “mileage wise”, but still had another hour to go “road wise” – trust me, there’s a big difference. We entered this road that appeared to me as I imagine the surface of the moon. The old Toyota Tercel we were in was a real trooper and wove the mountains roads with precision, shuttered over the craters and rocks, and forded the bridges with ease (the water was only over about three inches). In all reality, it wasn’t that dramatic, just impossible to sleep. We stopped four times in that hour to cool the engine and refill the leaking fluid compartments. Finally, we made it to a paved road and found the quaint little town for which we were searching.

We met friends and family of Lemuel’s before finding his dad and heading to the place we were staying. The place was fairly new and was reasonably big, but was bare as it is a house that teachers rent out when they come to work at the school. Regardless, it was a welcomed sight and I set my stuff down on the single bed I would be sharing with Victor for the next three nights. Though I wanted to sleep (given my wake up time that day), we headed off to play soccer for the afternoon.

I have found that here, things are freely borrowed (generally with asking or by telling) and I was immediately asked for my tennis shoes when it became apparent that I wasn’t going to play soccer (Victor has plenty of better shoes for soccer, but had left them where we were staying). Reluctant to give up my shoes to another’s sweaty feet and not knowing how to continue to refuse the insistent demands for my shoes, I gave in and played the sports I still have yet to appreciate. We didn’t actually play a game as the field was being cut and lined, but we kicked around and played other variations for a few hours.

After soccer we headed up to the “feria” which is just a fair for the town. It is a celebration of a saint of the city. The week of the fair is the weekend before, the week, and the weekend after the birthday of the saint. I don’t know much else about this tradition or why each city and pueblo has a saint, but I do know it is a Catholic tradition here and much of the Latin Americans are Catholic (I believe I heard 97% of Honduras proclaims to be Catholic). The fair was just a bunch of games and food that night and we returned reasonably early by their standards (about 12am) to head to bed. Don’t worry, I will tell you plenty about the fair if you are curious, just keep reading.

The next morning we left around 9am to watch soccer in the morning. Esquias has many teams and they participate in leagues with other pueblos and cities. Many of the people gather to watch the games that go all day Saturday and Sunday. We watched and went as we pleased which was fine with me. After lunch we headed on about a half hour hike through the country side to the river where we swam in a great little swimming hole. I had no idea swimming was such a challenge for some people as I have generally assumed my friends swim. Thinking about why many people here can’t swim, I have to believe that this culture doesn’t have the availability of pools as many countries and there is only one lake in all of Honduras which limits activities in the water. I was asked repeatedly if I could swim and I did not understand while it would be an issue as I grew up swimming and don’t remember not being able to swim. I have to admit, it was kind of fun watching my friends struggle to swim (not that they were in any danger) after they laughed freely at how I play soccer. During this, we also started doing the typical boyish-guy things and started competitions with throwing rocks. I told my STEP team that this was great savior of dignity for me after playing soccer and being humbled. At least here they could see I was good at something since they don’t play any of the sports I enjoy, think are worthwhile, and am good at.

I would like to add a cultural note here. First of all, Coca Cola is very popular here. I drink a lot of water and I had to stock up when I found it in the pueblo because all I could ever find was Coke. It was all we had with meals, snacks, for a snack, always (don’t worry healthnuts, I’m one too and definitely controlled my intake and prayed about it even when I literally could not find water in a store). But as we finished swimming we sat on a big pile of rocks close to the swimming hole and opened the coke one of the guys had bought. We had paper cups as well and each enjoyed a very refreshing drink. When the coke was gone, they casually put the cap on the bottle and gave it a good Honduran heave into this river – that means it barely made it. The cups followed, all except mine which made it back to the pueblo and in a trashcan. Here, you can’t help but find trash everywhere. If there isn’t a trash can within reach, and I bet even when there is, trash hits the street. If you’re in a car, it goes out the window. In the beautiful outdoors, apparently the river is the prime location (there was plenty of chip bags and other cups along the bank so it fit right in). I simply don’t understand the mindset of this (not that I have never littered, but never as a habit or really even remember), but it is interesting to see how little things are cared for as this attitude is reflected on much else. Even the verb usage in the language implies a non acceptance of responsibility as my teacher was sharing with me today (she claims it infects the culture) – if you have questions, ask about that in person as I don’t know how to explain it that well in writing. I just thought this was interesting especially since the guys I was with would be the last people I would expect this from, but walking down the street and putting trash in someone else’s pickup bed is no problem for them. I promise this is one cultural aspect I will not accept.

That evening we returned to the fair and I got to see a lot of traditional Honduran dances performed and experience the culture that way. Lemuel really does love his heritage and took the opportunities to tell me the names of all of the dances and information about everything, much of which I cannot remember the names for or describe for you. But I certainly can describe one tradition I learned to love. After the dancing on stage was completed, I was standing around with a friend. Suddenly people started screaming and running all about. I was thoroughly confused as there was a mix of surprise, glee, and genuine fear. I really didn’t know whether to worry or not and had no clue what was going on, but either way I ran to the side of the park where the festivities we located. Then I heard fireworks and turned to see a man with two boards on either side of his body meeting at the about his head to form a upside down letter “v”. On front was another board across the two forming a “v” with a bull’s head painted on it. On the board were fireworks of every kind including Roman Candles that were shooting fireballs into the crowd. Apparently this is a tradition named, “Toro Fuego” which latterly translates to “Bull Fire”. People (mainly kids) would chase this man around and dodge the fireworks that were coming off all sides. He would strategically aim at groups and just run around like a manic. I thought it was awesome because as soon at the fireworks ran out (this had gone on for at least 3 minutes) the kids swarmed him and “caught him” – unfortunately, they just let him go and nothing more followed.

After this the activities were over for the day and people either went home or to the restaurants in the area that had bands playing. Many of the young kids went to a building that they called the “disco” for a dance and club like experience. We got home late that night and bed was very welcome.

The next day, I will spare you the details, because minus swimming the in the river, it was the same. We slept in a little more (which is welcomed because I get up at 6am daily here) and then proceeded to do much of the same as the day before. There was an activity called “Palo Ensebado” in which a tree (this one about 25-30 feet tall) is stripped of bark with machetes and stood up in the middle of the street. Money (this year valued at about $100) is placed at the top. First one to get to the top gets it. It’s not as chaotic as you may expect but I didn’t stay until the end as we needed to leave for dinner. Basically, anyone can try to climb, but most boys try. They role in the dirt and rub it on themselves as a chalk for grip. Some kids stuffed there pockets with dirt to refresh their grip halfway up. They would climb and step on each other and do all sorts of things to try to make it first.

That night I got to see a man eat 11 raw eggs shell and all for the entertainment of the city. I heard the next night he was planning to eat a live frog then later a snake. Apparently the pueblo he comes from is know for things such as drinking cows blood, eating raw eggs shell and all, frogs, and yes, seriously, dogs.

That night Lemuel and I went to bed early for the trip the next morning. I was glad we did because in the morning, I experienced my third flat tire in Honduras thus far. But the change was quick and we stopped to have the tired repaired shortly after – never go too far without a spare. We made it home safely and I welcomed the sight of my group along with English!!

Based on the above, it may seems that my experience was totally perfect and I was happy all the time, but that is why I need to add this, because that would be a horrible misconception. Upon arrival, everything was new and I was the shy kid that none of you know. The first night drug on like I didn’t think was possible. I realized in my lonesomeness that I missed my family like I haven’t in a long time. Through the last four and a half years I have spent a majority of my time away either at college or at my home in Indianapolis. But I was able to talk to my family whenever I wanted. They know as well as I do that we didn’t talk much at times because we were busy and we just didn’t take the time. But I am learning what a comfort it is to be able to communicate at any time. We didn’t take advantage of it, but I know now that just having the option that I don’t possess now was a blessing and comfort. I hope this gets my point across because I really am at a loss for how to describe it well.

When it was time to leave Esquias, Victor told me he did not want to go and asked me if I felt the same. I told him I was honestly ready to get out and go home to Teguz and he asked why. I explained to him the difficulty of not being able to understand much of what was going on and though I can communicate much better now, it takes so much effort it’s just not the free conversation about the silly things in life and the little details that help a person enjoy a conversation. I think he understood, but I will continue to believe that until a person actually experiences this, they won’t fully comprehend the difficulties involved; just like everyone experiences differently in life. I can’t fully understand the difficulties of others because I haven’t experienced the same things just like they don’t know my feelings perfectly.

While in Esquias I learned a lot about one of the many cultures in Honduras, I learned more about the language I am working so hard to understand, and I learned to know my friends better while realizing again how much I love my family in Ohio. But most importantly, I continued to learn how to trust God in all situations (as cliché as that may sound) and just give Him my suffering and strife and accept His joy because He’s the only one that truly knows how I feel and the emotions I have racing about my body.

Thanks for reading this story and my personal thoughts and opinions, I hope it was educational and entertaining and will provide each of you encouragement to push through the crazy things life throws at us daily.

I should have more next week but we’ll see as I noted the computer time is much more limited. On Friday we leave with a group of youth to go to La Ceiba and will return on Sunday. That’s about all I know as this was a last minute trip we just got finalized on Wednesday the 16^th. All I know is that it’s about a seven to eight hour trip each way and your prayer will be much appreciated as we will be traveling at night, at least on Friday.

Blessings to each of you and may you continue to seek the Lord in every situation you encounter in life, good or bad, trivial or of great importance – He cares.

Me (obviously) trying to keep cool on the way home.


A shot out the front window that is oh so clean - that's Lemuel driving.


Us at the "llantera" getting the spare ready for the next potential problem - the Lemuel pointing and Victor in the A-shorts and sweater, they would hate this pic as they are usually well dressed individuals, by we were on the road so who cares!

Beautiful picture a river, I don't know the name of it. When Hurricane Mitch hit in 1998, water was 15-20 feet about the bridge I was on taking the photo!!


Video of “Palo Ensebado”

Video of "Toro Fuego"

Another Week Past, Welcome to 2008

Hey everyone, I just wanted to quickly check in and let you all know that we successfully brought in the new year in Teguz. I am quickly finding that most big days and exciting times here involve a lot of fireworks and the burning of things. I believe I alluded to that in my last post concerning Christmas and I will second my comment. New Year's eve here also involves eating a substantial amount of food, much like Christmas Eve. I ate three dinners on the 31st which all involved chicken, rice, beans, tortilla's, salad with red beets, and nacatamale's (rice, beans, chicken with a soggy bread wrap - needless to say I wasn't that into it because of the soggy bread).

Speaking of food, this week I had an experience that was encouraging in regards to my adaptation to this culture. I was sitting in Spanish class and was getting very hungry. When I'm hungry I generally have a certain craving or a desire for a certain food; I realized that at the moment I would have been most content with anything in a tortilla. Then I realized that I really wanted some beans in my tortilla and wouldn't mind having chicken and rice accompanying. That night for dinner I saw that what was served was the same as my first meal here in Honduras. The great thing was that I really enjoyed dinner this time and I remember that my first night, that was not my opinion at all. It was really a very nice feeling that I am beginning to appreciate and enjoy the food here (except the nacatamale's of course).

Another exciting part of my experience here has been developing a relationship with my brother Lemuel (24). This last week or two has been great as we have finally gotten real comfortable with each other. We have a card game he taught me, but I didn't know the loser was supposed to get slapped by the winner. He just told me that this week and so we have gotten to a point where we can freely slap each others arm with force as the game requires or slug each other in the shoulder as a brother would as a way to say hi. We got to spend some time working together on "our" house early one morning together as a wind storm removed part of our roof and we went searching for it. We found it close by on a neighbors roof (it was a section of tin about 4 ft X 15 ft) and drug it back to our house. Little things like that and talking about movies we like and feeling free to beat up on each other are really helping me feel a part of the family.

As I have been in contact with people, a frequent question continues to be my adaptation to the language. Based on my unreasonable expectations that I had entering the country, I am doing very poorly in the language. But given what I know now about the difficulties of understanding a new language, I am very pleased with my progress and look forward to learning much more. I can generally get my point across to those I am trying to communicate with, but understanding is very difficult. I actually find it much easier to speak Spanish to my STEP group because they understand my gringo accent as they have it too. Nonetheless, I enjoy trying to have conversations with those I meet on a bus and with my taxi drivers as well as developing relationships with those I have met in the church.

My next update should include some information about life outside the city as my current plans with my host family are to go about three hours outside the city to a village in which my host brothers father lives and my host brother was raised. Thanks for your time in reading this and thank you for all your prayers! Also, I have signed up for Skype, so if you so desire to add me as a contact you may - just search my Skype name of "jhersh85".


I somehow don't have a picture of myself with my host family, but this is one of Karen's H's pictures - this way you can at least see my family. The lady to the left in the red shirt is Kenia, she is a host sister of mine. Beside her is Lemuel, my 24 year old host brother who plays drums for the church (I don't know much about drumming, but based on the opinions of others that know about that stuff, he is extremely talented) and is studying in college to become a dentist. Beside him going to your right is Walter; he is Karen Hess's host father who works as a traveling electrician. In the back with the hat on is Aroni (Lemuel's nephew), he is 17 and lives closeby (though I don't know with whom as I believe his father works in Maryland, US as a dentist). I spend a lot of time with Lemuel and Aroni every evening. The lady in the black shirt is Karen's host mother, Audely. She is a sister to Lemuel. The child she is holding is her own, Sofia (8 months). Karen is quite obviously the white girl in the red shirt. In the front row from left to right is Flor (17 year old niece of Lemuel that lives in our house with us, I think her mother lives in Maryland, US as well). In the rocking chair is my host mother and she is holding Diego (Walter and Audely's son) who is 6 years old and attends a bilingual school (English and Spanish). And I am standing behind the camera pushing the button. Hope you enjoy seeing those I live with here.

A few days out of Teguz and a very Merry Christmas to all!

Thanks to everyone for being patient for this next update. I have been so busy with travel that all communication has been very difficult recently. Here is a brief rundown of some of my recent travels:

Monday (17th) - We left for Copan (Ancient ruins of an indigenous group of Honduras - the Mayans). This was a long van ride that ended up being 12 hours long with stops - this included a stop at a beautiful waterfall.

Tuesday (18th) - We spent the day learning about and touring the ruins, in the evening we travel about 3 hours to San Pedro Sula.

Wednesday (19th) - We toured one of Dole's banana growing farms and then traveled back to Tegucigalpa (another 6 to 8 hours) with a stop and tour of a cave.

Thursday (20th) - We had Spanish and culture class as we normally do on weekdays. As well as much sleep recovery and a lot of laundry.

Friday (21st) - Andy and I left with our host brothers (Carlos and Lemuel) and a friend (Mike) to go to the island of Roatan (part of Honduras) where Mike's family lives. We stayed there until the 24th and then made the 2 hour boat ride and 8 hour bus ride home. One of the beautiful things about living with host families is that when they leave for a vacation, we go with them, so Andy and I had two days on the island (the other two were spent traveling) which was relaxing, although Mike tried to show us the whole island in two days which kept us very busy and less like tourist on the beach!

Christmas has past and for me it was not terribly dramatic or anything like I had expected. My family, save my host brother Lemuel, does not really celebrate Christmas much (I haven’t figured out why yet) so after I ate with my brother and gave some gifts to my family on Christmas Eve, I ventured out with Lemuel to make stops at random houses. I gave the gifts on Christmas Eve because most families here open their gifts at midnight when the day changes to Christmas. Tradition here is to continually eat on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, but when the clocks strikes 12:00am and it is Christmas, there are fireworks all about the city. There are usually small firework shows leading up to Christmas but at midnight Christmas Eve, people set off personal fireworks in the street. I was absolutely shocked at how little attention was paid to safety and how few precautions exist. Fireworks would go on roofs, in bushes, and some kids (they looked to be about 8 or 9) started a newspaper fire on their porch. I guess it’s not uncommon for people to get hurt and for problems to arise, but like all traditions it won't be broken any time soon. My host brother is a fairly cautious person so don’t worry, I was never in harms way as far as I know.

I have to admit, I had thought there would be more focus on the Christmas story and the true meaning of Christmas that seems so forgotten in our culture, but it seems even less focus is here (according to what I saw). Since I didn’t have a traditional Christmas, I had to rely on my teammate’s experiences. Most people said they ate at midnight with extended family then opened gifts, everyone at the same time as fast as possible, and then everyone left abruptly. I hope I can be a part of that sometime just to see the difference from what I am used to generally. In my real family, we always open gifts slowly and take our time so it is obviously very different than what I think is normal. The manger scenes here are very different as well. All the traditional components are there, but then they add everything else they have. For example, its not uncommon to see the shepherds, wise men, Jesus, Mary, Joseph, angels, and animals in a manger scene with Buzz Light-year and a GI Joe present along with a stuffed bunny (or any other toy or figurine they may have laying around). As Rachel said, “Everyone was at the birth of Jesus.”

I was able to read most of the Christmas story myself and reflect upon it personally which was a great personal experience and had a new meaning this year as I spent Christmas away from my family for the first time. On Christmas day, the team got together and did our little gift exchange, ate traditional U.S. Christmas food, and had a good time of reflection together. Rachel did a great job planning all and the girls made marvelous cookies while Andy and I were in Roatan.

A brief update on the team (for more information you can visit our team blog at www.step0708.blogspot.com). We are continuing to settle in and adjust to the lifestyles and families we are part of now. The biggest frustration I think we have is we feel somewhat idle. We study the language and culture a lot and definitely have very full schedules, but we don’t feel like we are “serving” per say. I think that we are all looking forward to language and culture study coming to an end because we are getting antsy to help out and continue to learn from persons in the church. That will be here soon enough so we are just clinging to the fact that we are where we are for a purpose and that we need to continue to focus on our current responsibilities. I’m sure our time to give back will come soon enough, but for now we will continue to learn and absorb as much as possible. My goal here is to learn about another culture, give where needed and when needed, and develop a closer walk with the Lord.

Since they say that a picture says a thousand words, I figure I will add about 11,000 more words to this blog. I hope you enjoy them and I will try to keep pictures coming!

This is the Dole banana factory we toured - yea, I know, that's a lot of bananas! But at least you can see that they clean them real well.

I’m staring down one of my favorite foods in Honduras, a wonderful fruit called "Licha" (pronounced, Leecha).

This is the STEP team at the ruins listening attentively to our excellent tour guide who was partially Mayan. I think Andy’s getting ready to wipe his face as it was pretty warm.

This is the team along with the two nationals that went with us (Angela and Jairo).

We stopped to eat by the only lake in Honduras. I like this picture as it has the rustic feel of clothes on the line with the lake and mountains in the background. The fish they served was fresh from the lake we ate beside.

This is the story of the trip, we had to change two flats during the journey (same tire) and make stops each time at a “llantera” to get the old tire patched – I think it’s up to eight patches in total. This only delayed us a little as Andy and I were able to manage the changes efficiently.

Here are few pictures from Roatan. There is a beautiful sunset and another picture of me in a locals boat with the sunset in the backgroup. The other picture is of me and Lemuel (my host brother) and Carlos (Andy's host brother) in the Carribean Sea at West Bay - and yes, the sea is as clear as the commercials and pamphlets show.

Things are starting to get settled in... I think!

I've been living with a host family for just over a week now and things are settling down and I am getting used to the routine. I generally get up at 6:30a. By get up I mean physically get out of bed and not wake up; my family mom starts stirring and often sings or plays loud music at 4:30a or shortly thereafter and there's a rooster that frequently gets midnight mixed up with sunrise. But after getting out of bed it's time to take a shower. It's very important to shower at least once a day here, if not twice. I tried to skip a morning once and it was like I had committed a crime - I wasn't dirty at all buts that's the culture here - very clean and very hygienic. A shower is either in a shower much like you would imagine, but only with cold water, or on mornings that water is not running to the shower (which has been the case for 6 days now), I fill a 5 gallon bucket from a hose or cistern and use a large dish to pour water over me. I actually prefer this way because I can either control the cold on me or if my family has warmed water on the stove, I can have a lukewarm shower.

After this I have breakfast which is either corn flakes or beans and tortillas. I actually had pancakes with mantequilla the other day which was a nice treat, but very different. I then leave and walk to a teammates house and then we walk to the local church. It’s about a 30 minutes walk for me total (15 by myself). At the church I have Spanish class for 4 hours with one 20 minute break, and then it’s off to lunch at Rachel's house (a 20 minute walk or 5 minute bus ride if we choose, but its fun to walk). We hop on the computers at her house briefly then spend time in culture study. Andy nicknamed the house "English Town" or "Pueblo de Ingles". In the evening we walk back to the church (close to where the Karen's and Andy live) where we split off and Andrea and I walk home. In total I walk about 1 hour 40 minutes a day so that's good exercise with my heavy bag of books at my side. The walk by myself is quite relaxing and I have begun to use it as a prayer time. If the last portion of my walk is too late, I try to get a cab home.

The house I live in is very different from that in which I am used to back home. The family keeps it clean (as do most people here) but being that it is fairly open to the air and older, it’s not uncommon to see critters run about - I actually just saw a mouse a few minutes ago. But like I said, the floors and furniture are very clean. Many things here are fairly progressive and I would venture to say, even with my limited knowledge, that in restaurants they are probably cleaner than in the States. Just one example: I was at a Burger King to watch a soccer game (there are TV's everywhere) and in the course of less than two hours they mopped the main floor four times. I guess if someone comes in and slips they don't have to worry about a law suit going through in court.

I will wrap this up by saying thanks to all those who have bee so faithful in prayer this last week. Without you and your cries to God on my behalf I don't know how I would have persevered. The first few days were overwhelmingly lonely and I learned to trust the Lord in a way I have never had to before. It has been hard but has been a blessing in disguise as I have never used so much Scripture to push through life. God's Word has never been so close to my heart and for the first time in a long time, I can't get enough of it when I have time to sit down and read.

In your free time, I encourage you to read Psalm 18 and just contemplate and ponder the power of the God we serve. It's a passionate chapter, but since it is long, I won't post it here. Here are some other things that have driven me to make it this week.

"Courage does not always roar. Sometimes it is a quiet voice at the end of the day saying, 'I will try again tomorrow.' "
- UNKNOWN -

This is my quote to persevere in the language. I have learned much for one week, but have so far to come. Sometimes I feel like I won't be able to speak well even in five months, but I will continue to press on daily. I have this passion to study all the time and I can honestly say, if I had spend this much time studying anything else with as much passion, I could have had two PhD’s by now!!

And my verse for these days:

Isaiah 43:1b-3a

"Fear not, for I have summoned you by name; you are mine. 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. For I am the Lord. Your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior..."

The team enjoying some beverages at, "El Centro".

We stopped by an orphanage up in the mountains. We visited some of children that Andrea had worked with back in January of this year.

Quick update!

Thank you so much for all your prayers, they have been so important to me these last few days. Since I wrote last we had a short, three day orientation that was very nice and I wish could have lasted longer. On Saturday I moved in with my host family and that was very new and required a lot of faith and will. It has been a tough transition for me. I normally can deal with change well, but it is different when you want to get to know people and you can't even say a complete sentence to them. That is why I am so excited to learn the language, but I have to be careful not to stress myself out over learning - I will take it little by little as fast as I can with God's help.
I can honestly say that I have never depended on the Lord like I am now. In the evening, even though I can sit with my family, He is my lifeline and I have really had some great personal worship times. As far as communicating goes, I did have a good time with my host brother, Lemuel, last night. He is going to school to be a dentist (he is 24) and has an English class in which he had a test in today. I helped him study for about two and a half hours last night and it really helped my Spanish. Lemuel does not speak English as he is a beginner in the language, but he is interested in learning and even more interested in helping me learning Spanish.
Like I said, time is crazy now and it's all I can do to not stress myself out to get an update out, but I promise to write more later. Thanks!

These are some guards (we had to ask permission to take their photo) - they are everywhere (concerts, guarding Pizza Hut, walking the streets, parks, McDonalds, etc.) and we just get used to them.


Here is a picture of my team in a mountain (one of the many) above the city. Karen is trying to fix her hair, but oh well.