Arriving in KC

Well, after a full afternoon of driving, people-meeting, and moving in, I am settled in a beautiful home in Grandview, MO, a suburb to the south of Kansas City. It was a long day, so I'll fill you in on the details of my schedule and other details later. But I just wanted to thank you all for the encouragement you've given me already -- through your kind words and prayers, and the notes many of you sent along with your donations. I read those notes just now, I and claim the promises many of you declared over me:
"God will use your talents and gifts in a mighty way. You will shine brightly for God in this dark world."
"'Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers...'"
"May God's faithful presence be your hope and joy."
Amen! These are the prayers and promises I declare over my summer. Thank you for reminding me of these truths.
Tomorrow is a day of silence where we can let go of distractions and begin to focus on our summers here. Prayers for stillness and patience of heart are appreciated! (It's hard to be quiet for a whole day!) I'll have lots of prayer time this summer, so please let me know how I can be lifting you up!

It's what the Lord has done in me...

It's after 11, and I have to get up before 4, but I can never sleep before moves like this one. Besides, I want to give you some final thoughts from Nicaragua =)

When I came to Nicaragua, I was really wondering down in my heart what I would really be able to give. I had never worked with special education, therapy, or horses, and my Spanish skills were really untried. Was it possible that I would just be a burden to my hosts? This was a big fear of mine, and it mirrored a lie that has long been growing in my heart -- that to be loved, I must gain the approval of others by showing them how valuable I am. This is really a sucky lie to live by. It has the power to (and often does) turn you into an insecure people-pleaser.  Of course, I know that this is a lie, but it is still rooted in my heart and I've been praying the past few months that God would uproot this lie and grow me in the truth that I am enough in Him, based solely on the fact that He loves me.

While here in Nicaragua, God has been answering my prayers. It's not that I've had any huge spiritual highs or had some grand epiphany. It's more that I've finally know in my heart the truth that I've known in my head - that I am valuable and loved because God first loved me. The Spirit has shown me this truth through the love of His people here -- at Tesoros, at church, and especially in my family here. Before they knew me, they loved me, and before I had a chance to prove anything, they cared for me. This love, freely given, has been healing for my soul. It's not that those at home don't love me in with God's love this way. It's just that God had to take me to strangers to show me that His love can't be earned, and that I can relax into the arms that hold me.

What a blessed truth! I pray that you all rest quietly and confidently with our Savior.

There is so much more that I want to share with you all, but it will have to wait. For now, good night and God bless.

Psalm 131

A song of ascents. Of David.

My heart is not proud, O Lord,

my eyes are not haughty;

I do not concern myself with great matters

or things to wonderful for me.

But I have stilled and quieted my soul;

like a weaned child with its mother,

like a weaned child is my soul within me. 

O Israel, put you hope in the Lord, 

both now and forevermore. 

Honduran Vistas

Our trip began at 6:30am Sunday morning (it was almost a 12 hour drive one way). Five of us piled into Michelle's SUV, and we left Managua for Comayagua, Honduras. We crossed the border very easily (later we found out it also illegally) around 10, and one of the first differences we noticed about Honduras was that roads signs were a lot more common here. 

Honduras is so beautiful! The whole drive was through green mountains like these. 

After Tegucigalpa, we hit construction traffic. We were expecting it, so it wasn't too much of a bummer. Another surprise in Honduras were the pine forests that covered the mountains. Sometimes I felt like I was in Colorado, not Central America!

There aren't many rules on the roads in Central America. Probably because of this, there are a lot of monuments like this one that line the roads in memory of someone killed in an accident. 

Our hotel was very comfortable. This is the view of Comayagua from the doorway of our room on the second floor. 

On Monday night, we had dinner at a little restaurant beside this church in the Parque Central. With me beside the fountain is Jennifer, who has worked at Tesoros since it began and came along to see how a different school worked with special needs kids. 

The purpose of our trip was to come to CasAyuda (House of Help). Michelle was asked by a special needs school in the states to act as liason with CasAyuda. While here, she planned to observe classes, answer teachers' questions, and give feedback on what she saw.

Here is the school. On the near right is the dormitory (some kids travel so far to come here, they have to stay the whole week), a painting workshop, and a bakery. The building on the far right houses the classrooms for children with cognitive impairments, and across the courtyard on the left are classrooms for deaf students and the cafeteria. 

Some of the deaf students in the court for recess. 

This is the preschool room where I spent most of my time. The kids are divided by mental capability, not by age, so the kids in preschool were anywhere from 3 to 19 years old. There was almost no organization in this room, and the kids were crazy! None of us could imagine working here every day. 

Classes end at 12 every day, but after lunch, there are vocational classes for the deaf kids. We looked in on their painting class one day and were blown away by their talent! Apparently, a lot of them have natural talent that only needs encouragement. This paintings are given to volunteers as thank-yous, and sometimes sold to support the school and the children themselves.

Besides painting, the students also work with pottery, a printing press (I think that's what it's called -- something arty like that), and help in the bakery.

A reporter who wants to help the school with publicity came and interviewed Michelle on camera! We forgot to watch the news to see if we made it on...

Michelle, Jennifer, and Kate (a friend of Michelle's who is also a teacher) pose with all the teachers from the school. 

Krista is a volunteer at another school near Managua. She came along with us in order to fulfill her life-long dream of visiting Honduras. It was really great to have her with us -- she was always excited about something!

Who knew they had lion's clubs in Central America? 

Here's the church again. Some of the teachers took us site-seeing after class on Wednesday, so we got a closer look. 

Here we are going up the staircase to the clock tower of the Church. 

This clock is the oldest working clock in all of Central America, and possibly the world! It was built in 1450, at the latest (they think it might have been built in 1100) and was brought to Honduras in the 1600s. We got to see it strike the quarter hour -- very cool =)

Here is the view from the bell tower. Comayagua was once the capital of Honduras, and I think the guide said that the building you see here was one of the government buildings from that time period.

Another view of Comayagua and the mountains that surround it. In general, Honduras was much cleaner than Nicaragua, which makes sense as Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere (after Hati) and minimum wage in Honduras is twice that of Nicaragua.

A woman prays in the chapel inside the church.

Kate checks out the sweet peek-hole on the door of the Archaeological Museum.  

Here is an example of the native dress of the people that once lived in the area that is now Comayagua. The man in the blue is Mario. He studied engineering, but now works at the school with the deaf students. He acted as our tour guide for the day.  

The bell tower of the church from the streets of Comayagua

Next we went to the Atolera Joselyn, which is a little restaurant that only serves things made from corn. Atol is actually a sweet drink made from cooking corn mush and milk. Here are some of what we had -- tamales and fritas, both made from sweet corn dough and topped with sweet cream. Yummy!

On the way there and back, we went through Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. Teguc (as the locals call it) is sprawled among the mountains and the scenery there is very pretty. 

A look at Teguc -- street level. There are more western stores and restaurants in Teguc, than in Managua, and the traffic wasn't quite as crazy either. 

Finally we arrived in Nicaragua once again! This is a picture of the mountainous north country, where many Nicaraguans farm. 

All in all, it was a great trip. I learned a lot from listening to Kate and Michelle discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the classrooms at CasAyuda, and I loved encountering another part of God's creation. In your prayers this week, please remember the students and staff at CasAyuda. The teachers have a love for the kids, but sometimes lack the knowledge to teach them effectively. Pray that God would give them the perseverance to continue to learn. Also, CasAyuda has had to cut jobs recently, and the really need all the help they can get. They get lots of funding from the states, but the money is rarely given towards salaries. Pray that donors would realize that good teachers are more important than buildings and would be moved to give in a way that allows CasAyuda to hire the help they need. 

Hot Showers = Acclimation

This morning, I took my first hot shower in almost four weeks. Of the four showers in our house, only one has hot water. It's the farthest from my room, and for the first three weeks, I was too hot to even contemplate making the trip. But as I've gotten used to the weather here, the cold water has gotten progressively colder each morning. So today I took that hot shower... and it felt good =)

As you can maybe guess, life here has settled into a routine. As with the weather, I've grown accustomed to my schedule and the people that I interact with. Michelle picks me up every morning at 7:45 to go to Tesoros. I am there all day, doing whatever I can find to do. I listen as the staff tease each other and smile and laugh when the tease me too. Then at 4:30 I mount the bus with the children and staff. Don German, the bus driver, drops me off at the end of my street with Claudia, a bright beautiful girl of 17 who has cerebral palsy. I walk Claudia home before going home myself. At night, I play games with my brothers, watch TV, read the Bible to Nana, talk with Mama, and work on the computer. Sleeping by 10 and then up again for another day.

Still, life is sweet as I continue to develop relationships with my family, the staff at Tesoros, and with friends at church. Areika, a girl my age from church, has invited me to spend the day with her on Saturday. Really, the invitation was a gift from the Father! During all of church Sunday night, I was on the verge of tears, because I wanted so badly to communicate clearly with those around me, but found my Spanish very limiting. I was praying and praying for peace and growth. Then after the service, Areika, who is studying to be an English teacher, asked me to spend the day with her. She said she wasn't sure if she should ask or not, because she is usually shy. But her offer of friendship was exactly what I needed then -- and it came with a chance to practice Spanish with someone who can correct me in English! What a blessing and relief. Please pray for our time together -- that we would be honest and humble, and would share Christ's love.

On Sunday, I leave with Michelle for Honduras! Michelle has been asked to visit some special needs schools there on behalf of their sponsoring organization in the states. We'll be gone for five days -- two of those days will be for travel. Please keep us in your prayers for safe, stress-free travel, and loving fellowship.

I have some prayer requests for you all:

Many of the staff, including Michelle, have been sick, or have sick family members. Please pray for healing and peace.

I am beginning to feel superfluous at Tesoros. They are very well staffed, and my only really job is encourager and helper. My get-things-done attitude is having a hard time accepting that this is a worthwhile occupation. Pray that I would be plugged into the love of God, that I could serve out of this power.

On of the teenage students at Tesoros, Rebecca, is mentally handicapped and her family sees her as a curse. This daughter of God has been denied love and left to fend for herself at home. At this point, her primary caregiver says that only God has stopped her from killing Rebecca. The staff at Tesoros is aware of the situation, but there is really nothing they can do. At this point, the only other place for Rebecca to go is to the mental asylum, which not a good place to be either. Please pray that a new situation could be found for her --where she will be loved and cared for.

Bon Appetit!

Some of the Tuesday morning crowd at Tesoros gets ready for the presentation by the physical therapy students.

After a lot of encouragement, Jenny, one of the Tesoros staff, takes a mighty swing!

Here are some of the boys making cookies! Timo, the one grating the lime, speaks English very well, and I work with him on reading and telling time. 

Here Dona Patricia helps the kids roll out the dough for their cookies. Yummy!

Doña Patricia's Sugar Cookies

Makes 24 cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups flour

2 eggs

3/4 cups of oil

1 cup sugar

Zest of one lime

2 teaspoons of baking powder

1 tablespoon vanilla

1/4 tablespoon of salt

Raisins

Process:

Preheat the oven to 400 deg. F

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs. Add the oil, eggs, lime zest, and vanilla to the dry ingredients and mix well. Then add sugar and eggs.

Add more flour as necessary for a doughy consistency (we had to add up to a cup of flour).

Knead the dough so that it sticks together for rolling.

Roll out the dough to 1/2 thick and use cookie-cutters to cut out cookies.

Put on a greased cookie sheet and a raisin to the center of each.

Cook for 15-20 min, til the bottoms begin to brown. (Cook time will largely depend on how thick your cookies are, so watch them closely!)

Stupid Things I've said in Spanish: Part One

1) We were in a fancy hotel for a graduation ceremony. Mama and I were looking for the ladies room, and we could only find the men's. I said, "Mama, esto es para los caballos." I meant to say "caballeros" which means gentlemen, but instead, with my host brother and his friends standing nearby, I told her this bathroom was for horses.

2) Tonight after church, I wanted to wish a nice young man named Omar goodnight by saying "Adios Omar!" Instead I switched the vowels and said, "Adios Amor!" Which means "Goodbye my love!" and is the phrase the muchista men say to compliment women in the streets. Oops...

They say it your birthday/graduation/last day here.... We're gonna have a good time!

It has been quite the week here in my little corner of Nicaragua! Either I arrived in the height of the party season, or there really are parties ALL THE TIME here. I'm starting to think it's the latter. In my two weeks at Tesoros de Dios, we have had 5 parties and six pinatas. This past week, a group of physical therapy students finished the practicum they had been doing at Tesoros, and they had a party with three pinatas for the kids and the moms (pics to follow). Wednesday was a fun day because all the special education students got to make cookies (recipe to follow). Then on Thursday, a missions team from a Texas church came down. We had about 10min warning of their arrival, and it was amazing how quickly the Tesoros staff came up with stuff for them to do for the morning! Before they left, the team gave blankets to each mom (apparently, it does get cold in Nicaragua) and prayed over them through an interpreter. It was a blessing =) Friday was a another party at work for the birthday of Michelle, our director. Later that night my family went to a graduation service, which was a very fancy affair at a big hotel in Managua. Then, last night we went to a quincinera up at the church in Crucero. A quincinera is a celebration for a girl's 15th birthday, and it is a big deal in Latin American countries. This was the first I'd been to, and it was great (again, pics to follow).

All the partying is fun -- and really necessary with the hard life many Nicaraguans lead -- but it by far the best part is the people! The staff of eight ladies at Tesoros have been so welcoming! I feel as though I belong there. They love to tease and tease to love, so our days are full of laughing =) I also went with Papa and Ruben, my host brother, to youth worship last night; it was one of the biggest blessings of my time here! After the quincinera, we sat in a circle outside under the stars, and sang and prayed together. Even though I didn't understand all that was happening, and my oh-so-white skin shone in the starlight, it was obvious that we were coming before the same God as broken but hopeful members of His body -- how humbling is the unity of believers! And then there is my family here in Nicaragua, who have all but adopted me. I don't know how I'll leave them. But! In Christ, goodbye is never forever.

Prayer Requests:
Nana's ankle -- Nana, who lives with the family and takes care of them, fell a while back and broke her leg in three places. She is out of both the cast and brace, but her ankle is constantly swollen because she stands all day long. Please prayer for relief and healing for her.
Youth at church -- there is a strong youth presence and participation at the family's church. Please prayer that these young people would continue to realize Christ's work in every part of their lives. Especially pray for the men, as they struggle to live differently than the machista (macho) culture they've grown up in, which is cowardly and objectifies women.
Perseverance -- that I would continue the hard work of speaking Spanish, and would continue to live joyfully through the Spirit.