Sappy Thanksgiving Post

Yesterday was my first Thanksgiving to spend here in Honduras. While I was sad to miss out on time with my family, I am so thankful that I was able to spend a really great day with our group of gringos.

Donna and Stacy cooked us a very delicious, Americanized feast, and we spent the day sitting around, talking, playing games, and eating way too much.

I've spent some time reflecting on things that I’m thankful for, and on some of the differences in my life now compared to thanksgivings past. There are obviously a lot of differences. I miss my parents and my sister as well as the rest of our family, and get slightly jealous when I hear about their time together. I miss my friends. I miss the holiday atmosphere, and Christmas lights, and other even more insignificant things.

There is much to miss, but it’s impossible to forget all of the reasons that I am more than content.

There are so many things to be joyful about and thankful for! I have a group of gringos that have truly become family. I have a very unique job that I love, that has taught me to count my blessings. I live in a house full of girls that have become a whole other kind of family.. A family that is exhausting, is teaching me how to love during very difficult times, and that has returned that love and patience to me. I have coworkers that, not only can I now understand them when they speak, but have become great friends with comforting presences in a foreign place.. And this foreign place has become a place where I feel at home.

God is good. His mercies are new every morning! He has blessed me more than I can put into words, and I am truly thankful.

I am thankful for the never-ending love and support from friends and family, without which I could not be doing anything that I am doing now. I don't communicate this enough, but every message, kind word, and cent that is sent to me is a blessing and means more than you know! So thank you all, happy thanksgiving, and don’t trample anyone on this Black Friday!

Metamorphosis

This past weekend we loaded up and took 30-ish of our youth group on a fall retreat. The theme was "metamorphosis," and we focused on the life changes and growth that should come with becoming a Christian.

The speaker did a great job, and I would say the whole retreat was a success! (Other than the fact that they didn't wear shoes during one of the dinamicas where they were running around the whole campus... That was a lapse in judgement. I think I cleaned more foot wounds in those two days than I have in the past 3 years combined... New rule: shoes ALWAYS) >>>

We had 8 baptisms, glory to God! I'm generally proud to see them interact with each other and hear their commentary, and this weekend was no exception. Other than the ever-so-seldom "IF I SEE YOU THROW THAT AT HIM ONE MORE TIME YOU DON'T EVEN WANT TO KNOW..," I'm extremely proud of how well they supported and encouraged each other throughout the retreat.

Hearing their testimonies, sharing with them and occasionally offering a word of advice when they ask for it (as best I can) softens my heart and changes me just as much as they are changed during weekends such as these.

We did a thing that Jon called "cardboard testimonies." (I'm pretty sure this is "a thing" so I may be the only one that hadn't heard of it and it may have a different English translation?..) The depth and feeling in their testimonies really touched me. Many of them have been through things that I can't even imagine, and watching them address some of their issues and express the way it has led them to trust and know God taught me some things de nuevo about what it means to trust and love God in EVERY phase of life. How amazing that God is using them to teach me probably more than He is using me with them!

Maybe this part is just me, but I doubt it.. There is something about chaperoning that makes me feel incredibly old. While occasionally telling someone to pay attention, just wait to go to the bathroom, do not throw that, I wonder to myself, "When did I become such an adult?" By the end of those 3 days I was feeling the kind of exhaustion that turns into either delusional laughter or that thing where I don't realize someone has been talking to me for the past 3 minutes..(or maybe that one time that Stacy caught a picture of me examining someone's foot wound while eating a cookie..Don't worry I wasn't touching).. but I must say, things like helping with retreats has to be one of the best reasons to feel that way.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." 2 Cor. 5:17

You know there had to be piñatas. 

(Yes, plural)

*Continuing my plot to bring a love for piñatas back to the states with me*