My Story

The 23rd celebrated my 10th month here in Honduras. I can’t believe in 2 months I would have been here for a year (with two trips home over that past year)! It has been a journey I could never have imagined. I figured in honor of this time, I would share my story with those who may not have heard how God led me to this place and to these people.

To move through the boring stuff quickly, I moved to Nashville in 2000, and this meant new school, new church, new home, and new friends. As a dramatic 12 year old, I thought my life was ruined. I can clearly see now it was the best for my entire family. I believe it made us all become better people, and now we call Nashville our home proudly.

Anyway - as I mentioned, I started a new church. We had some friends who attended a church in Brentwood called Harpeth Hills, and so we tried it out. Needless to say, we never left. Here we are 12 years later, and I could not be more blessed to have a church family like this one. The majority of my best friends go to this church, and we are still best friends today. I believe with all my heart God put me in this church so I could be in that youth group and learn to develop my own relationship with Jesus. I cannot begin to say how much I appreciate my youth ministers, teachers, and friends for encouraging me to get to know Jesus in my own way, and not just the way I “should”.

Three years after moving I found myself starting high school, and one of my girlfriends (who attended my school and was a friend in the youth group) really encouraged me to go on a mission trip to Honduras. She said her sister had gone the past 2 years, and we should really try and raise the money to go. I had never been out of the country, only flown on a plane twice, and didn’t even know where to locate Honduras on a map. I was in my first year of spanish in high school, and pretty much only knew how to ask where the bathroom was.

Either way I felt God moving me towards this decision, so I committed to go. I set out working, babysitting, and doing anything I could to make/save money to go. The trip was about $1000 at the time, and I didn’t send one letter asking for money. This was something I wanted, and I wanted to work for it. Looking back this made me appreciate the trip so much more, because it wasn’t something I was given, but something I worked hard to be able to do and enjoyed that much more. The time came, I packed my bag wearily - not having a clue what to bring- and set off at 5 in the morning to Central America.

I still remember the smell the first time I got off that plane. This was of course after the moment when I thought I was going to die on the runway (one of the shortest landing strips in the world). The airport at this time was two rooms, no air conditioner, and practically all outside. It had one rotating luggage claim, and the floors were dirt. But what most set in and will never leave my memory were the hundreds of people waiting outside the only exit begging. Being a freshman in a private high school, I had never seen ANYTHING like this. The people looked... dirty. I didn’t understand how even the babies looked dirty, with unbrushed hair, and clothes with visible holes in them. I stood there, mouth ajar, with my initialed LL Bean backpack just looking at these women and children. Here I was, with my portable CD player, big, chunky camera, and other items all shoved in my backpack - and these items were probably worth more than these people had in their entire home.

Fast forward to the end of the trip, and I was a wreck. Life as I knew it had been turned upside down. On that one trip, I met my best, best friend for the first time, I saw things with my eyes I had only seen on National Geographic, and I made a decision that would impact my entire life. At the time I didn’t know it would, but I decided to study spanish... and I mean really study spanish. I went home, and from that moment forward, all I thought about for my next 3 years of school was to be better at spanish and save my money for this annual summer trip to Honduras.

Fast forward again to December my senior year of college, and I had been on a total of 10 trips to Honduras. I started going at Christmas time, spring break, and any other chance I could afford it. I went on that trip in December 2010 thinking it would be my last. At the time I was getting ready to graduate college, preparing my resume, and even having phone interviews for job positions/internships in Argentina and Chile. While I had done nothing less than fall in love with Honduras and its people, as a business major, I didn’t see much of a future working in Honduras. I had prayed about it, but decided I should really take advantage of this last trip and enjoy it for what it was worth.

After many tears and feelings of “unsettled business”, I went back home to Nashville “depressed” as me and my friends always joked (how we felt after coming back to our lives so richly blessed). Well as many always say, God truly finds a way to show you His plans in His own time, and that’s exactly what He did for me that Christmas. By January I had somehow managed to make around enough money through Christmas gifts, overnight babysitting, housesitting, etc - and so I decided to talk to my mentor about getting a trip together. A few days later I purchased a round trip ticket to Honduras for spring break.

Without writing a novel about that spring break, it really put a lot into perspective. God opened a lot of doors, and He helped me line up my future. Here I am today, almost one year in Honduras, and my life has been thoroughly, utterly, and perfectly changed. I can never, ever give proper thanks to those who have helped me along the way, but I do want you all to know you have played a huge part in my life. From my parents and youth ministers to my friends and those who hired me, I have you to owe for leading, encouraging, and allowing me to this dream of mine - to live my life serving others. For that, I am forever in your debt.

All I ask now is that you pray for my life here. Pray that I can somehow, in however small the way, show people Jesus.

Photo Update

"if you're brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting, and set out on a truth seeking journey, and you are prepared to face and forgive some very difficult realities about yourself, then the truth will not be withheld from you" -eat, pray, love

Hands and Feet

This may sound like a typical missionary cliche, but I am so immensely blessed by living here in this country, working with this team, and having 55 little brothers. I am also incredibly blessed by the support we receive here at Jovenes by our brothers and sisters from home. Compared to most centers like ours, we receive MUCH more help from the US, including financial gifts, physical gifts, and just being present.

As any young child or adult, the boys can easily get carried away by gifts or “material things”, especially since most of them grew up without. But from what I’ve observed by being here almost 1 year is that what matters most to them is that one simply “shows up”. I recently wrote an e-mail to some friends who came down to visit, and my biggest point in the e-mail was that they are heroes to these boys because they showed up. A lot of the parents of these boys (those who are still alive) have failed to do simply that - be present in the lives of their children.

Some, unfortunately, have no option. They simply cannot make enough money to sustain their children, and they have taken what they believe is a better life for their son. Another unfortunate matter is that this parent is few and far between in the case of our boys. Every Saturday parents are encouraged to come visit and spend the day with their boy(s). The usual few families come, but its not more than 3 or 4 on a good day.

So now maybe you can see why simply being present in these boys’ lives is extremely important. I mean, isn’t that what Jesus does in our lives? He shows up. Every day. He’s there for us. He is the only one who will never ever let us down. And why is that? Because he is “omnipresent”. He is always there for you. That is the beauty of one’s relationship with God. We can ignore him for days on end, and when we “need him”, he’s still there- just waiting for us to come home. This is why we love visitors here at JEC. The boys love to feel loved. They want to feel wanted. With almost 20 boys in each house, that sometimes becomes difficult. We want the best for them, but sometimes we cannot fulfill that constant need for attention which all children have. So when one of you comes to visit these boys, you are just that - Jesus. For one moment, one hour, or one day, you become Jesus to them. You sit with them. You share a snack with them. Perhaps you don’t have a single clue what they said, but you are THERE. That is what matters. Just like Jesus, you show up.

So thank you. Thank you to all our visitors for being here. We love you, we cherish you, and we can’t wait to see you again someday.