Mission Retreat

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15: 5

This is one of the verses we focused on last week at our first retreat for mission team members and families. It was part 2 of our (successful, I think) plan to start the year by renewing relationships with God and with each other. I’ve said it before, but what a blessing it is to work for an organization that understands the importance of investing in the spiritual lives of its team members, as well as the unity of the team itself.

Jason Bybee, a minister from my home church, came down to share the lessons with us. Unfortunately, Matt Moore got sick and wasn’t able to be here, but we appreciate all of the prayers and preparation he put into the retreat with Jason. Jason is a great speaker, and God really used him to touch our hearts and share a message.

We had the opportunity to listen to the word of God together, eat, play, and laugh together; God really worked in those few days! (Teaching Central Americans how to play corn hole and nerts is obviously a recipe for success). We were reminded of the importance of staying connected to God and being unified with one another. The newer, stronger attitudes of respect that everyone has for each other have not lessened since we returned. What a loving, fun, and ridiculous group of people that we have working together! I'm thankful to know them, and I will always remember the lessons they're teaching me. 

Bonding Day!

I am fortunate to work with an organization that values it's team members, our spiritual well-being, and our overall sanity. Things stay busy here, and we are so blessed that God is constantly providing us with work and opportunities! With that being said, we all know how easy it is to let other aspects of life slide when we get caught up in a busy schedule. Relationships with co-workers is definitely one of those things, and unfortunately, our spiritual lives and quiet time tend to be on that list as well. For that reason, the "powers that be" at Mission UpReach decided that we would do a two-part kind of "renewal" with our team members. Part 1: the ladies of the mission (including volunteers--like me, paid employees--like the DESEO team, and spouses of the male employees) took the time to go to San Pedro Sula for a day of relaxation. The men went white water rafting (which made me slightly jealous). Part 2: we are having a retreat next week, when Jason Bybee and Matt Moore will come and do the speaking/translating that they do so well. I can't say enough what a unique blessing it is to work for an organization that recognizes and emphasizes the importance of staying close to each other, but mostly staying close to God!

 

We, the ladies, left last Monday to go to San Pedro Sula for one night. We got manicures and pedicures, ate a couple of good meals, swam, and stayed at a nice hotel. We even got to sleep in! It was great.

The gringas obviously really enjoyed it (who doesn't enjoy a pedicure every now and again), but the best part was spending time with and watching the Honduran ladies. Most of them had their first manicure/pedicure ever (one described her pedicurist as an assassin, so she may or may not have enjoyed having all of her years of callouses scrubbed away...). We ate at Chilis (poor things went almost TWO WHOLE DAYS without tortillas!), we got in the pool (discovered most of them can't swim), and we had a blast talking and laughing a LOT (at least every time one of the Honduran ladies tried to use a room key or the elevator) . They are hilarious, and I’m so glad that I got to spend that time just getting to know them.. They were all just excited to go a day without washing dishes.

We had a really great time, and we are all looking forward to the retreat. I can't wait to see what God does with those days of worshiping Him and studying His word together!

If she ever notices this picture she will kill me, but it's a risk I'm willing to take.

This was not a staged moment.

QUICK everybody find the only shade in all of San Pedro Sula and GET OUT OF THE SUN!

Pine Tree Brigade

Last week we had our first medical brigade of the year with the Pine Tree group from Longview, Texas.  We went to Las Sandias for four days, and treated almost 1,000 patients! I believe the final count was 989. The Pine Tree group is an incredible group to work with. They work hard (it doesn't hurt that they need basically no help running the brigade-they're old pros by now!), love the Lord, and always serve with a smile the whole time they’re here. 

Pine Tree was the first group that I was here to help with last year when I was here to "visit," so it was fun to see many of them again. It marked the beginning of a very different year from last year. Last year everything and everyone was new, which was great, but it is going to be fun to see people return, as well as getting to know the new ones! 

I love medical brigades. It’s such a blessing to work in these small, poor communities. No matter how many times I participate, every brigade is a new and different experience. This time, after making sure everyone had the supplies they needed and were all set up, I translated and even filled in for sick group members by taking vital signs, etc. for a couple of days. It is a lot of fun for me to move around and work with different people during the week! I have THE BEST job.

I still pray that God is working through the mission, our short-term groups, and through me every day. I love being here and working every day, but brigades are such a fun, special way to serve hundreds of people face to face and show them the love that God has for them. I’m thankful for these opportunities that God provides to do just that!

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.