So, I have been here in Honduras for over 3 weeks now. It feels like I’ve been here longer, but at the same time I can barely believe I’ve already been here 3 weeks! It’s so strange.
I’m not sure what I was expecting when I came here, but for some reason I thought that the kids would all be so sweet and thankful for all the volunteers that come to help them, but it’s not like that at all. I mean, there are the few kids who really do appreciate us, but there are also the kids that are not appreciative at all. I could name off a few of them right now… haha, yes, the ones who know how to raise my blood pressure real quick! Ha.
Last week, and the beginning of this week, I had been struggling with homesickness… it wasn’t fully until today that I started really realizing why I’m here… I’m not here to do miracles (although that would be cool) but to be a witness… and that’s all. I want to wash dishes the way that Jesus washed dishes. I want to play with the kids the way Jesus did… I want to show the kids that I am here to search for the good. It is always easier to see all of the negative things around me, but today I found joy in helping the kids in the kitchen, even though it wasn’t my “assigned” duty. And the kids knew that… it had been a long day, but it was so much fun hanging out with the kids, slipping around on the wet floor, drying dishes, and singing together. Only one of the boys thanked me for my help, but that one thank you was worth it all. I realized that I can complain all I want about things that happened throughout my day, but what will that accomplish? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I am slowing feeling more and more at home here… my Spanish still needs work, but the more I am just myself around the kids, the more I feel comfortable around them and at home. I am slowing picking up on more vocabulary words, but I’m hoping to quicken the language learning process soon… I’m so ready to be able to talk to these kids!
So, I mentioned earlier that last week was pretty tough for me as far as homesickness goes… but, on top of that I was sick too, and had been for most of the 3 weeks I’ve been here. I am almost completely well now. My mom was able to send some health remedies my way… THANKS MOM!! :) Since I was sick, it was easy for me to get discouraged as well… today Hannah shared a beautiful Bible verse with me that really made me start thinking.... 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” Wow, and amen! Right when I’m ready to feel sorry for myself about having to get up at 5:30 a.m. or having to try to send a few kids off to school who refuse too… it’s most than that! It’s WAY more than that… I hope and pray that in some way I can make a difference in the lives around me. I may not see the repercussions of my actions now, or I may not even know until Heaven. It’s not about me knowing now. It’s about me being a vessel for Christ, and letting Him use me in the lives of others, even if all I’m doing is supervising chores while I’m here, or helping out in the kitchen every once in awhile when I don’t have to… I was ready to come home, but now I’m excited for these next 6 months to come because I know God has big plans for me… and that is SO exciting!
I am so thankful, and grateful for all of your prayers and support. I am blessed to have you all as friends. :)
Oh, and thank you to those of you who were a part of sending my care package from Southern! It was so nice to get mail!! Also, I loved the paper that was signed by my supporting friends from Southern! Thank you guys! It brightened up my day!!
Much love,
Laurel
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Events at the Hogar
Hello friends and family! I have been in Honduras for about 2 full weeks now. My Spanish is not near where it should be yet, but it is slowing coming along. I am learning that a lot of the time words are not needed to communicate with these children. Hugs, laughter, and quality time spent with them say so much more than any words could to them.
To back track just a bit, when I first got here it was so hard to be myself around the kids because I was, yes, worried about what they would think of me, silly as it may seem. All of the volunteers have assigned seating in the cafeteria, and I was assigned the table with the teenage girls…talk about attitudes! I never thought that the girls would warm up to me. One girl in particular was giving me extra attitude, but even though I couldn’t really talk to her in Spanish I tried my best to show her that I care about her… a week and a half in and no change on her part. She was still giving me attitude even when I would ask her a simple question. Last Friday night at vespers, to my surprise, she came and sat next to me. I didn’t think much of it because some of her friends were sitting near by as well. Half way through the vespers service she put her arm around me!! Not just on the back of my chair, but around me. I almost started crying. I had been praying so much that I would be able to show these kids love, and I was getting so discouraged… but that just made me so happy to know that something inside of her changed and she was able to see that I really do care about her. All of the children here, young and old(er) have been abused in some way, shape, or form. Most of the older girls have been sexually abused, and have had to have tough attitudes to try to protect themselves. I have to keep that in mind when they don’t warm up to me right away… it has gotten way better with the girls at my table. I am here for a reason, and if that reason is just to smile and laugh with these girls, that’s enough for me. They are all so precious.
Also, within the first week and a half I got really sick. I had a fever of 100.3, and had no energy… luckily at that time I hadn’t been assigned my responsibilities yet, so I was able to sleep a lot and take it easy. My fever broke last week, but I am not completely well yet. I have a head cold now, so please pray that I can recover fully soon. I thought that I would be working at the daycare here, or teaching, but I will not be doing either of those two things. Instead the staff here decided that they would like me to help around the Hogar with things here and there. My daily schedule goes like this… wake up at 5 a.m. every morning, fix breakfast, go to devotional, eat breakfast, then when the kids get back from school I, along with another volunteer, supervise the kids while they do their chores… then later on I help the 1st graders with their homework, then supervise the pool, then more chores, and then dinner. My day starts at 5 a.m. and ends around 6-6:30 p.m. Yesterday was my first day with my new schedule, and it was tiring, but I am up for the challenge. I wish I could get well soon so I could have more energy though.
I keep remembering things that happened. Sorry if this blog is really scattered… ha. Last week the kids were told that they had to clear a whole field by the end of the week, and they started last Sunday and were finished by Tuesday or Wednesday. It was a big field too! The staff saw how hard they worked and decided that they would reward them with a trip to a water park! We went last Thursday and had to leave at 5 a.m. for the water park because it was about 3 hours away. We went to a beach and then the water park for the rest of the day. It was so much fun! There were several pools with slides at the park, but only one of the pools were open the day we went. There was one big slide and no lifeguards anywhere! It was amazing to see all the dangerous ways the kids thought of going down the slide. One kid stood up and surfed the whole way down the slide, which I thought was extremely scary, but impressive. Ha. I didn’t get to dangerous with my slide experience… the worst was when I went down backwards in a train with about 4 other people. I think that was the most dangerous… ha. It was a lot of fun though.
On a more serious note… the old president made it back across the boarder yesterday, after being kidnapped and taken out of the country by force. All of this is causing rioting in big cities, and causing the current president to get a little uncomfortable. I don’t know the whole story, but I know that the old president wanted to be re-elected, whish is not an option here at all, and they have already tried to kill him off a couple times already… so, the president in office now issued a country-wide curfew from 4 p.m. to 7 a.m. I have heard that that is his way of keeping the rioting to a minimum. The kids do not have school today, and they might not have school all week depending on how things go. We don’t know how long the curfew is going to last for, but I hope not long because I do not get done with my days here at the Hogar until after 6 p.m. So, it’s going to be interesting for awhile… if worst comes to worst we will have to go home early. I pray that things will not get out of hand, and that no wars start… I would really like to stay here and work with these kids for my full term… please pray for Honduras and all of the political situations right now. I don’t know what to expect, or what’s going to come of all this… but I know that God will protect us no matter what.
Thank you all for your prayers. I miss you all very much!
P.s. Sorry I can’t update this more… I don’t have wireless internet like I thought I would here… wish I could write you all individually, but when I do get internet in the library I only get one hour at a time, and they don’t like us using the internet very often. :( I love you all very much, and know that you are all in my thoughts and prayers…
To back track just a bit, when I first got here it was so hard to be myself around the kids because I was, yes, worried about what they would think of me, silly as it may seem. All of the volunteers have assigned seating in the cafeteria, and I was assigned the table with the teenage girls…talk about attitudes! I never thought that the girls would warm up to me. One girl in particular was giving me extra attitude, but even though I couldn’t really talk to her in Spanish I tried my best to show her that I care about her… a week and a half in and no change on her part. She was still giving me attitude even when I would ask her a simple question. Last Friday night at vespers, to my surprise, she came and sat next to me. I didn’t think much of it because some of her friends were sitting near by as well. Half way through the vespers service she put her arm around me!! Not just on the back of my chair, but around me. I almost started crying. I had been praying so much that I would be able to show these kids love, and I was getting so discouraged… but that just made me so happy to know that something inside of her changed and she was able to see that I really do care about her. All of the children here, young and old(er) have been abused in some way, shape, or form. Most of the older girls have been sexually abused, and have had to have tough attitudes to try to protect themselves. I have to keep that in mind when they don’t warm up to me right away… it has gotten way better with the girls at my table. I am here for a reason, and if that reason is just to smile and laugh with these girls, that’s enough for me. They are all so precious.
Also, within the first week and a half I got really sick. I had a fever of 100.3, and had no energy… luckily at that time I hadn’t been assigned my responsibilities yet, so I was able to sleep a lot and take it easy. My fever broke last week, but I am not completely well yet. I have a head cold now, so please pray that I can recover fully soon. I thought that I would be working at the daycare here, or teaching, but I will not be doing either of those two things. Instead the staff here decided that they would like me to help around the Hogar with things here and there. My daily schedule goes like this… wake up at 5 a.m. every morning, fix breakfast, go to devotional, eat breakfast, then when the kids get back from school I, along with another volunteer, supervise the kids while they do their chores… then later on I help the 1st graders with their homework, then supervise the pool, then more chores, and then dinner. My day starts at 5 a.m. and ends around 6-6:30 p.m. Yesterday was my first day with my new schedule, and it was tiring, but I am up for the challenge. I wish I could get well soon so I could have more energy though.
I keep remembering things that happened. Sorry if this blog is really scattered… ha. Last week the kids were told that they had to clear a whole field by the end of the week, and they started last Sunday and were finished by Tuesday or Wednesday. It was a big field too! The staff saw how hard they worked and decided that they would reward them with a trip to a water park! We went last Thursday and had to leave at 5 a.m. for the water park because it was about 3 hours away. We went to a beach and then the water park for the rest of the day. It was so much fun! There were several pools with slides at the park, but only one of the pools were open the day we went. There was one big slide and no lifeguards anywhere! It was amazing to see all the dangerous ways the kids thought of going down the slide. One kid stood up and surfed the whole way down the slide, which I thought was extremely scary, but impressive. Ha. I didn’t get to dangerous with my slide experience… the worst was when I went down backwards in a train with about 4 other people. I think that was the most dangerous… ha. It was a lot of fun though.
On a more serious note… the old president made it back across the boarder yesterday, after being kidnapped and taken out of the country by force. All of this is causing rioting in big cities, and causing the current president to get a little uncomfortable. I don’t know the whole story, but I know that the old president wanted to be re-elected, whish is not an option here at all, and they have already tried to kill him off a couple times already… so, the president in office now issued a country-wide curfew from 4 p.m. to 7 a.m. I have heard that that is his way of keeping the rioting to a minimum. The kids do not have school today, and they might not have school all week depending on how things go. We don’t know how long the curfew is going to last for, but I hope not long because I do not get done with my days here at the Hogar until after 6 p.m. So, it’s going to be interesting for awhile… if worst comes to worst we will have to go home early. I pray that things will not get out of hand, and that no wars start… I would really like to stay here and work with these kids for my full term… please pray for Honduras and all of the political situations right now. I don’t know what to expect, or what’s going to come of all this… but I know that God will protect us no matter what.
Thank you all for your prayers. I miss you all very much!
P.s. Sorry I can’t update this more… I don’t have wireless internet like I thought I would here… wish I could write you all individually, but when I do get internet in the library I only get one hour at a time, and they don’t like us using the internet very often. :( I love you all very much, and know that you are all in my thoughts and prayers…
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
The one week mark...
It's happened. I have been here one week as of tonight.. it's been an eventful week, and I am pretty happy with how much Spanish I have learned in these past few days.
Today we went to a water park with the kids. It was great fun! We left the Hogar at 5:00 a.m. and got back around 9. It was a long day... but all of the kids were really good.
I wish I had more time to write tonight, but unfortunately it's already late and I need to get up early tomorrow. I should have internet tomorrow night, so I will try to write more then...
Love you all!
Today we went to a water park with the kids. It was great fun! We left the Hogar at 5:00 a.m. and got back around 9. It was a long day... but all of the kids were really good.
I wish I had more time to write tonight, but unfortunately it's already late and I need to get up early tomorrow. I should have internet tomorrow night, so I will try to write more then...
Love you all!
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
I'm here!!
Thanks to all of the prayers that I know went up for me today.. I made it here to the Hogar De Ninos safely.. I am exhausted.. but, I made it. God was with me the whole entire way, and put wonderful people next to me on my flights...
The kids are great. I will need to learn Spanish really REALLY quickly, but when I got here, they all ran to give me hugs, and gave me nothing but a warm welcome!
I will write more later, but I am so so tired right now..
Much love,
Laurel
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Accepted!
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! Today I received my acceptance letter saying that I am for sure going to Honduras!! If all goes as planned, I will be leaving sometime late next week! Please continue to pray about the flight/travel plans... this will be my first time traveling out of the country by myself. I'm a littler nervous to be honest, but I know God will help me through it.
Thanks again for the prayers!
<3
Friday, August 28, 2009
Change of plans..
For the past 4-5 months I've been planning on spending my SM (Student Missionary) year in Tanzania. However, the planning for the trip was not going as planned. Visas were a concern, and our call hadn't even been made for my friend and I to go there. I was really starting to wonder if I was ever really going to Africa. I decided to call the student missions director at school and ask her what to do next. Our planning to go was like hitting a brick wall. I called Gayle and told her my concerns about everything. I told her how much I just wanted to get out there and go somewhere! I told her that at this point I just wanted to be sent, even to a different location, if that was what God wanted me to do. When I mentioned going somewhere else, Gayle told me about the need in Honduras. She said that there was only two girls at the Hogar De Ninos ("place of the children") in Santa Barbara, Honduras. She told me that they were really short on staff and really need help there. I told Gayle that I would pray about it and call her back. We got off the phone, and I prayed about it all day. I emailed the two girls in Honduras hoping to hear something back from them. Evening rolled around, and no answers yet. I knelt down to say a prayer before going to bed... I prayed that God would close ever door for me to go to Honduras if it was NOT His will, but on the other hand, if He wanted me to go there that He would open every door with flying colors. I got up after praying and checked my email... I had already heard back from one of the girls in Honduras! As soon as I read her email to me I knew that God was telling me that He really wanted me to go there. It's really exciting to see how God works.. right when I was getting discouraged that everything was going wrong, God had a different plan, and this was just a lesson in trust for me. I am still waiting to get the new paperwork to fill out for Honduras, but it looks like that process will go pretty fast once papers are in hand. Hannah, one of the girls in Honduras, called me the other day and answered all of my questions and is really excited for my soon arrival. I found out that I will need to pick up on Spanish really quickly, because the kids do not know English, and the other staff prefer to speak in Spanish. I hope to be a quick learner.... ha.
I'm really excited to begin this new chapter of my life. It's going to be a great experience, and one that I will never forget. Please keep the planning for Honduras in your prayers. I would really appreciate it.
<3
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Here's the Havilah Village blogspot website. http://havilahvillage.blogspot.com/
Thought you all might like to keep up with their site as well as mine.
It looks like I will be leaving somewhere around the 26th of this month. Nothing for sure yet. Still looking for information about visas. I will keep you all updated.
Love,
Laurel
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