Hospital Service Project

Last night, instead of our normal youth group gathering, the teens participated in their first service project. The youth group has grown quite a lot recently, and the teens have been requesting to do more together than the normal Saturday devotionals, so yesterday began the planned service projects. 

First stop: my favorite place, the hospital. 

We set up a table in the inner courtyard of the hospital, and the teens served soup and coffee to family members who would be sitting outside for most of the night. 

They talked with people, prayed with patients and family members, and I never heard a single complaint. They were all excited, and served with smiles on their faces for about 3 hours. Those of us who volunteer with the youth group were proud and excited to see how much they love to serve.

Here in Honduras, it's getting to be "winter-time," which means it will be raining more than not. Today, for example, it's 68 degrees, but it does seem to feel a bit cooler than that, and Hondurans tend to think if you don't wear a jacket you will catch a cold and die. With that being said, many of the people our teens served last night said that a warm bowl of soup and cup of coffee lifted their spirits, as some of them huddled up to share blankets with people who were previously strangers. 

Sidenote: this is why I say sarcastically, "My favorite place." Loose needles, syringes, etc.  on the ground in the courtyard of the hospital.

Grace's Birthday!

Well, I am sad that I’m not in the U.S. for this semi-momentous occasion (let’s be honest, it’s all downhill from here:); Little Miller (aka Grace, for anyone that doesn't know) is turning 22! I’m celebrating with you from Honduras. I love you, miss you, and can’t wait until we’re reunited(LESS THAN A MONTH)! Here’s to GracesFaces, and having one of the funniest people I know as a sister.

Diva Pants.

  

Sorry, G, about the random assortment of pictures.

Overdue Update

The last several weeks have been busy, as always, but pretty uneventful--in a good way. I worked at the hospital in Gracias, once again delivering babies, once again with God probably laughing about how often I do things I said I would never do. I’ve been working to get my office/our pharmacy organized with Stacy’s help. She is an organizing genius, and has created a nifty little map of where I have all of our meds and supplies. There have been a monton of appointments with patients, and I have had a handful of meetings to plan for next brigade season and to keep the team updated on the current standings of the conditions of the patients whose cases we are overseeing.

I FINALLY moved into the safe house, which is named Dulce Refugio, for future references (means “Sweet Refuge”). Yes, I was in the Waldron’s house for 4 months… Which is sort of a productivity fail on my part, but I like to think that busy brigade season and the times that I have stayed with Laura while her parents have been gone were big parts of it…. Also, there were a lot of maintenance issues. Technically, my bathroom door still doesn’t close, which is interesting since it’s outside. (Excuses, I know.) Anyway, I’m glad to finally be out of the nomad phase, which has been the theme of my life for the last 10 months.

Oh, Laura and I both came back from San Manuel with lice. That was an actual nightmare. Oh well, I made it 24 years without ever having lice, so I suppose that's a pretty good run. We knew while we were sitting at that health fair with children leaning all over us that it was going to happen, so at least we were at a health fair doing something helpful (and being the first gringos they had ever seen in person), and at least we had to deal with it together. Here's to hoping it's a long time before we have to deal with that again..Woof.

Lice treatment twins.. Womp Womp.

In other news, two of my favorite people, Josue Santamaria and Angie Rivas got married! They are such a great couple, and they have set a great example of a Godly relationship for me and for the girls and guys here (to whom they spend so much time ministering). 

Poor Alejandro, in a sea of women.. At a bachelorette party..
All men would feel this way, little man.

We had a surprise bachelorette party for Angie, which was hilarious.  I love hanging out with the Hondureñas in laid-back settings like that, and it’s always funny to see their competitive natures come out through games, etc. I’m thankful that my Spanish has gotten to the point that I can understand the majority of what is being said, and can joke around now.. Thank God, literally.

Their wedding was the first I have attended outside of the U.S. It was very different. It was great fun, Angie looked beautiful, and the food was muy rico. Laura was a bridesmaid, and at 15 she is well on her way to taking over my job as a professional bridesmaid when I am ready to retire. :) Weddings in Honduras are much longer than weddings in the U.S. They can be so long, the wedding party and the bride and groom sit down. They sign the paperwork during the ceremony, and there is usually a sermon as well. 

With Angie after her wedding.  

That’s really all that has happened that is worthy of a blog post. The next couple of weeks are filled with appointments, meetings, planning for next year’s brigades, and assessments of patients’ cases. God is good; life is good; I can’t complain!