Fotografias of the Mission Trip.

Faviola and the pick axe:

Building a house:

Eric being a true Honduran: manual labor with a half buttoned dress shirt, and his cowboy hat hanging on a tree.

There was no ladder, so Jon just held Angel while he worked... Totally normal:

Borderline chaotic excitement regarding a photoshoot with Ronald McD, although you wouldn't know based on their facial expressions in the pictures. I have about 20 pictures that are more or less the same, just with different combinations of teens:

Our teens (Jessica, specifically) loving on some babies at the orphanage:

Playing some futbol at the orphanage:

The guys gave break dance lessons for a couple of hours at the orphanage. They were so great with the kids!

This is Jon: about to be crushed, Immediately after giving a speech about gringos needing personal space. Hilarious:

This is the more tame side of the extremely vast dump. Note the birds and cows. Next time you start to complain about something not going your way, think about the fact that people live here, work here, and children PLAY here, and say a prayer of thanks. I wish I could transport the smell via photo. Actually, I don't, because it was BAD. 

There will be more photos on my facebook page very soon.

Honduran Mission Trip

We had the opportunity this week to take our teens from our church here in Santa Rosa on a mission trip to Ojojona, Honduras. It was a great success! We had a blast, they worked SO hard, and I was so proud to watch them grow in their spirituality and relationships with one another.

We spent one day doing some labor for their mission houses; one day we built a house. Wednesday we went to the dump, which was one of the most wretched, smelly places I have been. People live and work there, pulling plastic and recyclable materials out to trade for money. That afternoon we went to play with kids at an orphanage. Thursday we went out to evangelize, and that afternoon we went into Tegucigalpa to see a movie, and have dinner at a restaurant called Carnitas, that is inside a ballpark. It was really neat to watch them help their people, especially when most of them come from very poor situations themselves. They have incredible hearts, and I was so proud to watch them work and get to know them better.

I’ve been on a couple of mission trips to Honduras before, but with Gringos. There were very notable differences in traveling with groups of gringos and this trip with some sweet, young Hondurans. I wanted to tweet them, but since I was without Internet, thought I would blog about it instead.

#ViajeCatracho

1.     No translators.

2.     Their culture shock was because most of them left Santa Rosa for the first time, made it to the capital city, and went to the biggest mall they’ve ever seen.

3.     We spent 20 wide-eyed minutes in Wal-Mart, the most amazing grocery store they’ve ever seen.

4.     We stayed in a place previously described by gringos as “rustic,” but was the nicest place some of them have ever stayed.

5.     Not only did we completely build a house in 1 day, one of our teens has been a carpenter for three years, and was therefore quite a lot of help.

6.     The house that we built was nicer than some of their houses at home.

7.     One of our teens had shoes with soles that were basically worn completely through, and one of the other teens gave him his own shoes in the middle of the night, so that no one knew who it was.

8.     The cooks are used to cooking for gringos, so it’s Honduran versions of Americanized food. We gringos thought it was different, AND the Hondurans thought it was weird.

9.     When the bus driver let some random street venders on the bus in between red lights, the Gringos were the only ones that thought it was unusual.

10. The kids’ testimonies and life experiences in general.

11. At Wendy’s most of them ordered chicken on the bone, which they have in Honduras.

I will post pictures in a day or two.. The internet is too slow to add them today.

Picture Post

I'm still in the US, really enjoying time with my family and friends. I'm blessed to be surrounded by so many incredible people! I've done some talking at church and my old high school's Spanish club, meeting with some doctors, and catching up with friends and donors. It's really been great!

In the meantime, I don't have much to post so I'm going to post some pictures that I don't think ever made the blog. 

Enjoy. Sorry I'm boring these days.

Most grande game of pato pato ganzo (duck duck goose) I've ever seen! With some basketball on the side.. During the summer with one of our short term groups.

Awesome picture of an x-ray reading in a window in the El Porvenir clinic. Neither the nurse, Pati, nor I are technically qualified to do that. Just a normal day in my life.

Family Thanksgiving!

Serving with our teens at the hospital in Santa Rosa! They were so excited and did an awesome job.

Psalm 19, "The skies are telling the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands."

Update about nothing, really.

I haven't been blogging at all and am sure my devoted followers are heartbroken (sarcasm) so I will write a quick little update.

Katie and our very interesting guide at the Mayan Ruins

My last couple of weeks in Honduras were great but super busy. Between preparing for two months out of the country with my patients and the house, packing, etc. there was obviously a lot happening.

The week before I left, my friend, Katie Meek, visited. She is a good friend, former roommate, and she's a nurse as well. It was so much fun to have her there! It was incredibly encouraging, since she is a great encourager by nature, but also because it was uplifting to have an old friend there with me to see what I do, AND understand what I see from the medical standpoint.

Now I'm back in the states, and it has been great to see everyone! I'm so blessed that I was able to spend Thanksgiving with my family, to spend time with my best friend (Becky) before her (and Drew's) wedding, and that I'm getting to stay through Christmas!

Thanksgiving with the family:) And Milo, the cat.

The love, support and encouragement I have received from everyone has been humbling and overwhelming, so thank you for that! I certainly had no shortage of blessings to talk about at Thanksgiving this year.

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!