How much stuff can I fit in one post and still keep your attention?

It’s hard to believe we are coming home on so soon. We arrive on Friday the 25^th of April in Baltimore, MD at 10:49pm EST. From there we will travel to Harrisburg, PA for two weeks of debriefing. We finish on May 10^th. Yea, it’s done that fast.

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been able to update you. In those two weeks we did a lot and I want to touch briefly on a few highlights.

On the 9^th (all of these days are in April of course) I spent the day in meetings with several North Americans and some small shop owners here in Honduras. I was working with a ministry here called “Genesis” in a very poor part of the city. The men I was traveling with were partners in an organization called “Partner’s Worldwide”. They give micro-loans to small businesses here in Honduras and other developing countries in hopes to teach and encourage small business. I was able to learn some about the program, meet some Christian business man that use these loans to share the Gospel, and provide help in translation between the partners and some of the business owners. This organization is doing great things and I have to plans to learn more and explore possible future options with them.

The next day we left in the afternoon with the local BICWM missionary, Nate Burt, to visit two church plants outside the city. We traveled to Nacaome (about two hours out of the city) first and spent a portion of the afternoon inviting locals for a service and kids program we had planned. We made balloon animals (a random skill I have picked up, though I only know a dog, butterfly, and giraffe) for some kids and soon had a small army of children following us. We ended up having twenty-two kids at the service and were able to provide contacts for the ministry team in Nacaome to work with. We left the following morning for Catacamas (six hours from Nacaome but on the other side of Teguz) and arrived in time to spent time with the young pastor from that church. We spent that evening as well as the following afternoon inviting locals to a service and gathering contact information for the pastor. We had a good service the next night and were able to give the pastor a number of contacts (address and phone numbers) of people we had talked to about the church that showed interest. It was this trip that showed me the importance of encouraging an overloaded pastor with a visit. Even if we hadn’t gathered contacts for him, this trip would have been well worth it for the health of this church.

Sunday the 13^th, we had a family picnic and we able to share with laughter and tears a little about our experience here. After lunch, I shared with all the host families that I feel I have many families and while I am excited to go back home and see my first family, I will soon be leaving all my Honduran families and another close family called the STEP team. This was tough to say and think about, but I am glad to have been able to share it and tell the families what they have meant in my life. We finished up with games and a good time of fellowship that I believe will help bring closure to this experience.

The following week (14^th to the 18^th) we spent time working at a school for children from the dump called AFE (I have talked about this before in my blogs). We were able to help in the classroom and sorting a lot of clothes that had been sent. While we were sorting we had children and parents from the dump going through the clothes and setting aside what they could use. It was nice to be able to see them benefit while working along side them as well as being able to play with the children (they seemed to like being tossed into the piles of clothes).

On Friday the 18^th, we made a trip up into the dump to deliver about 200 meals and coffee. This was an adventure and God’s presence was particularly noted. I drove with the team up into the dump and parked in the middle of where a lot of these homeless people were looking for recyclables and things to eat. As we exited the van a wave of people surrounded us. We opened the back and as the girls handed out the food and coffee to the children first, women second, and men third, Andy and I stood on each side of the van blocking the reaching and pushing men from the food bin and the girls. Though no fights broke out, there was a lot of pushing and at one point we had to push the crowd back and enter the van ready to leave until they realized that they wouldn’t get food if they didn’t quite. I remember one man in particular of was extremely high on the yellow glue they inhale (a cheap high to pawn off hunger). He was drooling and repeating hitting and pushing me, though the hits were very dull due to his weak body and completely wasted mind. He was easy to push back, but knowing the savage nature of the crowd, it was easy to imagine a situation that could have been much worst. As we ran out of food, we quickly shut the back of the van with the girls in the hatch, and Andy and I got up front and left as quickly, but as reasonably as we could. I am thankful to the Lord for the protection he granted us and it was one experience I am not soon to forget.

With all of that behind us, we spent this most recent weekend at an intense spiritual retreat called, “Pacto con Dios” (Pact with God). We saw lives transformed, worshiped the Lord in dance in some very lively manners to say the least, and saw the Holy Spirit manifested very powerfully. This retreat was powerful but I feel God has had me on a spiritual retreat for the last 8 months and sometimes I just don’t have too many emotions to give or show! All in all, I am thrilled to have gone and jumped in as much as possible, but more thrilled to be done. One part I want to say thanks for was a package they handed out that contained dozens of letters from both Hondurans and some you back home. This was a time of reflection and enjoying good memories. Thanks to each of you that took time to write a letter of encouragement, you may never know how much that encouraged me.

Being that this is my last blog before I return, I would like to give a quick update on my “feelings and thoughts” about leaving. –I have many good relationships here and will definitely miss some people and the friendships and lifestyle I have adapted too, but that being said, I am ready to leave. I am excited to return home and see what God has next for me. Thursday night and Friday will be a time of sadness and tough goodbye’s, but also a time a joy and excitement for a very impacting part of my life coming to a close!

Thanks for looking at this and sorry I had to pack so much information into one post, but that how my life has been lately, packed – and speaking of packing, I need to get started on that.

Also, you may recall me telling the story about Tony. If not feel free to check the April 22 post on our team blog. I would also love if you could take the time to read a blog the Micah House posted about Tony. Click here and scroll down to the April 4^th post called, “Tony’s Triumph”.

The kids program in Nacaome.

A time of prayer for the church in Nacaome and for the traveling we had ahead of us.

Early in the morning we went up to a lookout to pray for the city of Catacamas and pray by name for each of our contacts we had made the night before.

Part of a drama we performed during out service at Catacamas.


I took a horse ride with my host nephew during the family picnic.


My host brother and I celebrating a victory during the games.


Sorting clothes at AFE with many kids rummaging through for things to wear (as well as helping out).

The Micah House and a trip with Tony.

Last week (M-F being March 31^st to April 4^th) went quickly – seriously, I’m not just trying to be cliché. On Wednesday, my mother and sister returned to the states. I had the neat opportunity to be at a park when their plane took off from the other side of the city – it went directly overhead as it ascended steeply into the clouds over the mountain where the park is located. It was weird to know that I had family inside that specific aircraft headed to another county. Oh well, it was great to have them here and I think (and bet they agree) that eight days was just about perfect. We kept a full schedule, both with my work and the constant traveling we did to eat and fellowship at the homes of five different Honduran families. My head nearly exploded as I needed to constantly translate, but thankfully it is still intact and those days were a wonderful boost to my confidence in my ability to converse in this language.

Last week I worked with the Micah Project (I believe founded on the verse Micah 6:8). The MP is a home for troubled teen boys. They accept boys that desire a change in their current lifestyle to a life of hope and brotherhood. They pull these boys from the streets and from families who can’t handle the drug addicted and seemingly futureless kids.

This project was great to work with because while having new kids that are fairly fresh from the streets, they also have contacts with kids that have successfully moved on and have some older boys in the home whom are getting ready to participate in programs such as YWAM (Youth With A Mission) and attend US universities. It was neat to see how many of these guys have made a full circle. I was able to help tutor some girls that stop in for help (but don’t live there) in math and sociology, as well as teach English classes for some of the older boys. I also got to play basketball with the guys in the afternoon and through that time I developed some great relationships with several of the young men.

Thursday evening, my team was able to bring Tony (the boy Karen Wilson and I have been tutoring) to the “Micah House” to see some of his old friends. Tony said he couldn’t remember the last time he went to the city and many people from the local neighborhoods were shocked to see him traveling (Tony is paralyzed and has very limited use of his hands). It was such a blessing to see him in a state of complete joy and fulfillment. Karen said the next day in her class with him, they didn’t do too much in the way of bookwork because he just kept talking about that precious night. This is a situation in which the goal was to bless him, and we were blessed as well, in a way I can’t express.

That was last week in a nutshell. If you wish to know more about the Micah Project – ask! It’s the type of ministry I would love it tell you about in person and it is a dynamic enough ministry that I really can’t explain its impact in this blog.

Thanks for keeping up with my life, at least the little I can share on this page. I look forward to seeing many of you when I return. I fly back into Baltimore on the 25^th of April and finish my debriefing in Harrisburg, PA on the 10^th of May.

Click here to visit the Micah Project's website.

A Week of "Meaningful Oxymorons".

The oxymorons of my week:

- I was in the dumps all week, yet was happy at the same time.
- This past week was absolutely splendid, busy, tiring and relaxing all at the same time.
- It was a week of glorious complications.

Since none of that makes a bit of sense (hence the name, oxymoron), let me explain.
I spent this past week working for a school called “AFE”. That stands for Amor, Fe, Esperanza (Love, Faith, Hope). This school is very special in that it has changed the lives of many children more than your average school. Day after day, family that live close travel to the city dump and work collecting recyclables and search for things to eat. The children of these families are born into this life and know nothing else. They don’t have opportunities for educations, which in my opinion makes it that much harder to escape this life. Without something to look forward to and without an understanding of another type of life, this becomes the normal and these kids grow up (many become alcoholics and thieves) and then have kids and bring more children into this community for the process to start over. AFE is a school that is for these children. I don’t know the details of how a child gets accepted into the school and who can attend, but I do know that the kids can bathe, eat, and are able to live and play with a sense of dignity they have never known. Along with the education these children receive, they receive good sound influence and have the love of Christ and His story explained to them daily. This fits my view of missions perfectly in that we can’t just give a beggar a Bible and leave him hungry and dirty.

The work we did this week (I say we as I worked with my mother and sister and a group from Minnesota) was to help construct a third building that will eventually serve as a high school. It was exciting to see all that has been completed by the dedicated workers and from the many North American groups that have come to help almost every week.

The combination of splendid, busy, tiring and relaxing was because of the following:

- Splendid because my mother and sister came on Tuesday and I was able to share a significant part of my life that I could never explain in words and photos no matter how hard I try.
- Busy because I had to think about where three people were and try to coordinate our schedule with that of the STEP program, AFE, all the families that wanted us to come visit, and my personal desires to spend time and show my family the things I wanted them to see.
- Tiring because of the above and the physical labor of building a structure made only of cement, block, and rebar – all while trying to dodge the hot Honduran sun (truthfully, we had nice about 80 degree F weather to work in two of the days).
- And relaxing because of the time I got to spend just talking and catching up with the most important ladies in my life.

The glorious complications in my life were just the stresses of all of the above coming together, yet the fact that I wouldn’t have wanted it to be any different.
During my week with my mother and sister we were able to eat with several local families, they were able to visit all four of the ministries in our current rotation, we were able to share in fellowship with work groups from both St. Louis and Minneapolis, which helped them keep their sanity I think (due to language barriers with the locals), and they were able to see much of the city and catch a glimpse of our experience here.

I’ll end with a big thank you to my father who allowed his girls to come spend a week with me, and thank you to those who encouraged and helped them make the trip , and a thanks to the STEP team for spending time sharing and getting to know my family (though I hope and know that my mom and sis were blessings to ALL of us).

This week I am working at a boys home that I am sure to have many stories from in the next week. Pray that I can be a model of Jesus in their lives and pray for the safe return of my mother and sister on Wednesday the 2nd of April.



Me and my favorite girls in front of "Iglesia de Dolores" (Church of Pain)


My sis and I cleaning up at the work site at AFE.

We took a trip through the dump to hand out water to the workers and the people searching for recyclables.

Andy, Aroni (would be a host-nephew if you figure it out, though he lives in another house), and me. My sitting dangerously close to the edge may remind you of a team photo the first week in Tegucigalpa - sorry those of you who scolded me, I guess I just won't learn till I fall ;-)

Latin America Missionary Retreat during Semana Santa (Holy Week)

Greetings from sunny Honduras; the same place that has successfully turned me the color of a cooked lobster in only one days time. I received that laying block and mixing concrete on Monday the 23rd, but that experience will have to wait a week as I want to take this time to share a little about the Latin American Missionary Retreat that took place from the 14th to the 19th of this month.
After a day of working on the 14th, we headed up into the mountains to a little tourist town called Ville de Angeles (Valley of Angels). We spent the next five days with the BICWM missionaries of Latin America in a time of refreshment themed, “More Like Jesus – a Lifestyle not a Program”. Joining the full-time missionaries and us were Marshall Poe (Regional Administrator for BICWM), Matt Lewis (a pastor from Wisconsin), and the Whitt's (the Resource family from Matt’s church).
Just as an FYI bit, the missionaries in attendance were:

The Cassel family serving in Mexico
The Main family serving in Columbia also working in Venezuela
The Bert family serving in Honduras
The Thrush family serving in from Nicaragua working with MCC (Mennonite Central Committee)
The Moyer family serving in Columbia

We were very blessed to have the chance to get to know each family and I especially enjoyed making the acquaintance with Mike Cassel (whose 10 year old son taught me a substantial amount on the guitar for only a few days worth of lessons).
We spent each morning in a session lead by Matt Lewis and then headed into a small group discussion which I really enjoyed. We then would spend the afternoon relaxing in our rooms, swimming in the incredibly cold pool (that’s why we only went swimming once), walking about Ville de Angeles, or playing pick up games of Ultimate Frisbee.
In a nutshell, we enjoyed the time with our fellow North Americans. We were able to share funny stories as well as things from our hearts, spend time together in refreshment both spiritual and physically, and each of us got to spend time seeking what the Lord holds next in our lives – or how He simply wants us to get to know Him a little better.

The group before church on Sunday

Nathan Burt, Matt Lewis, and I pouncing on the candy that fell from the piñata used to celebrate Rachel Bowman and Christina Main’s birthdays. I got a lot of candy, but only ate one piece – I promise.


Us at a local park playing one of my favorite sports – Ultimate Frisbee!!

PS - My mom and my sister arrived today (Tuesday) safely and we anticipate experiencing many goods things together over the next eight days. In fact, my mom just edited this blog here in Rachel's house (she's hopes she did a good job ;-)

My week at CEDER.

For information on this, I refer you to www.step0708.blogspot.com. I wrote the blog this week for the team and it was focused on my week of minsitry. Enjoy!

A week with a few kids and a Honduran that has been to IWU!?

This was our first week as a team starting our rotation of ministries. The first place I was at was at “Proyecto Manuelito” (Project Manuelito) which is a project from the church “Amor & Vida” (Love & Life). The tagline is, “Un proyecto de… ‘Amor y Vida’. Para los ninos de Honduras” (A project of... “Love and Life”). For the boys and girls of Honduras. You can find more at: www.proyectomanuelito.org

I also started another role that will continue for the next five ministry weeks (I say ministry weeks because we have a few other things planned in which we will not be working with the various organizations.) On Tuesday’s and Thursday’s I go a little bit outside the city in the mornings to help tutor and work with a young man named Tony. Tony is 20 years old and has been confined to a wheel chair for the last two years after a diving accident broke his neck and he cannot use his legs. His arms have limited motion and while his hands can be moved, he has very little to no control of his fingers. I don’t know the details of the accident but hope to continue to get to know him well enough that he is willing to share with me sometime. Basically, my schedule this week was in conjunction with Karen Wilson as she is helping with Tony as well. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I will be spending my entire day at the organization in our rotation that week. Karen will then come in the afternoon and we will be able to work together with what each place needs. On Tuesday and Thursday I will begin my day with Tony, then after lunch I will join Karen at the worksite.

First, I tell a little about “Proyecto Manuelito”. This program is meant for street kids and is a way to rescue kids while they are still young. The place I was working with here in Tegucigalpa is called a transition house. The kids that are new and fresh off the streets spend one year at the house before leaving for the main facility several hours away. The main facility houses eighteen kids right now and they learn to care for animals and manage a farm while they are there. It’s really neat to hear about and I am hoping to go next Friday with a group. At this house in Tegucigalpa they get plugged in to school, have a person there to help them with their homework, feed them, play with them, and encourage them in a relationship with Christ. This transition house has eight children now: three brothers - ages 9, and twins that are 13, two older boys that are back from the other facility to study, and three babies - ages 2, 2, and 3. It’s amazing to hear the story of the older ones and what they came from when seeing how far along they are now. The brothers are close and love to fight. They need a lot of attention and soak up every minute of it as they have experienced some very traumatic things in life that I need to keep confidential. As for the babies, we had fun walking through the park chasing pigeons and feeding them rice one day – I bet I had just as much fun and we ended up catching and petting one. The only bad thing, a two year old peed on me to make my week complete.

I worked with Jorge (George) who is 21 years old and pretty much runs the life of the kids. He is the one who plays with them, brings in volunteers to work, helps them with homework, eats with them, and sleeps in the same dorm room as them. He also works with the other staff there to get legal custody of the children. He was fun to work with and believe it or not, he knows some people I knew from Indiana Wesleyan University. In fact, he has been to my college. He saw a shirt I was wearing and told me he went there, I figured he was mistaken but he described it and said he went with his dad he spoke for World Gospel Mission and he was definitely there as he brought up several names I recognized! Crazy, huh?

Now a little bit about Tony though I should be able to say something each week. Tony lives with his family just outside of the city in the same place where we worked with the dental brigade (his house is literally two or three doors down from the clinic). Tony has a laptop and works to put all the questions and answers from his home school program in a Word document. Though this takes a while, sometimes a really long while, it is incredibly good therapy for him. While not being able to use fingers, he can move his arm and use his thumb to push the appropriate key. I am currently teaching English and Math while helping him work though an Art book. Karen is teaching Science and working through a Spanish book with him. Tony likes to talk in the downtime about soccer (I have talked to some other people and I guess he was a very, very good player before his accident) and drawing (which he also used to do and I hear still tries today and can do somewhat). I would love to be able to find and give the Joni Erickson Tada story to Tony so that he could be encouraged with that. He has plenty of time to read and it is good practice for him. Given the opportunities in Honduras for people of his level of disability, he is fairly far behind in school and we would love to help him how we can.

That was the week in review, this next week I will be working at C.E.D.E.R (I don’t know what it stands for) which is a home for older people from the street. There is a lot of care in this and most of the people have mental conditions including a Alzheimer’s. Pray that Karen and I can show patience and love to each one while being able to understand the stories they want to share. Also please pray that we can have ideas about what kind of activities to do with each of them.

Short catch up for all of you.

Last week seemed to just float by casually, yet rapidly as they are all beginning to do now. It’s hard to believe that in only three weeks I will be picking up my mother and sister at the airport here in Tegucigalpa for their eight day visit. I am looking forward to being able to show them around this city of 1.2 million and taking them along to the school in which I will be working with that week. But more or less, I’m just looking forward to hugging my mom and bugging my little sis.

As I mentioned, the week passed quickly in a casual manner, but I do have a few things I want to share. My mother sent my host family a calendar of beautiful Swiss pictures and since I have been forgetting it routinely at Rachel’s house (basically, STEP headquarters) and traveling a lot since I received it, I finally gave it to my family on Monday the 25^th of February. It worked out perfectly because Rachel had given our team some Swiss chocolate as a random thank you treat, so I could share that with the calendar for a little Swiss fellowship. What impressed me and just made me so happy was how absolutely delighted they were and in awe of the gorgeous scenery. My host mother has problems with her sight, but Lemuel was able to explain all the pictures one of the many times she looked through them, and though she really couldn’t see it well she was in absolute awe and very expressive about each picture. It was just a lot of fun to be able to share something as simple as a (promotional) calendar and be able to see such joy and excitement. It really touched my heart and I think it was a situation in which you just had to be there and have some background with my family here to really understand.

I thought I was done with classes when I graduated from IWU (Indiana Wesleyan University) but found myself in a chemistry and mathematics class at UNAH (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Honduras) on Tuesday the 26^th with Lemuel. Each member of our group did something separate that day mostly involving visiting school and colleges with host siblings or church friends. I went with Lemuel to just get a glimpse of his daily life. He had three classes that day and I had to miss the first class as he had a test, but it was interesting sitting through the other two classes and writing notes about the differences and similarities I saw between UNAH and IWU, my Alma Mater. To be honest, there really wasn’t a whole lot different. The teachers taught, the students scribbled down notes, and the guys tended to sit at the back. After, I enjoyed a nice lunch with Lemuel then caught a cab to the center of town to meet my group for the evening.

The other days, my group visited and acquainted ourselves with the ministries we will be working with over the rest of our time here. We have five ministries that are each a little different and will be rotating between them individually. This will give each of us experience in different areas of work and give each of us a chance to compare and contrast how different organizations work. This really fulfills our mission here as we would like to have a very broad set of experiences that even while short, teach us a variety of things and confirm personal strengths while exposing weaknesses.

I will do my best to outline each ministry as I work through them and provide appropriate pictures, which may be hard since we are working individually and I lack a camera.
Thanks for your time and effort to keep up with my life. I appreciate the comments and notes I get regularly. It’s nice to know I have such a supportive base back home and I look forward to returning and seeing you all!

A friend that I have been talking with about some options for my future after STEP (if you have any ideas feel free to pass them on) sent me this verse. I really appreciate it and am going to claim it for this stage in my life.

“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.” (Philippians 1:9-11 NIV)