Redirection - Big News

God has a way of redirecting our lives, and sometimes its when we least expect it. So it is with a heavy heart I tell you all I am finishing up my time here in Honduras at the end of the year. I will be heading back to the states around December 15th.

I have no idea what is next, but I have faith in God's plan and where He is leading me.

God has such an incredibly beautiful way of surprising us with His plans, but it is usually so much better than we can imagine.

For example, I would have never imagined living in Honduras for almost four years and watching these boys grow up, and at the same time seeing myself mature in the process. I have learned more in the past few years than I could have ever hoped for, and I know this experience has changed the way I view life, people, and myself.

God has blessed me enormously through my Jovenes en Camino family, and I pray that I have done some good and made a difference here as well.

All there is left to do is ask for your prayers for the upcoming months. The transition for me will be sad and very difficult. I feel as if this is a second home for me. I have made a life here - I have a house, a dog, bills, a car, friends and a family. Right now I simply cannot imagine not seeing these boys' faces each and every day. It has become something that motivates me and encourages me to work hard for both them and for God. I have said it time and time again, I feel so blessed to be so young and have worked in a place where I am passionate about the mission. I know many people wait a long time to do that, so thank you, Lord, for that blessing.

Please pray for the boys, their future, and their understanding of my leaving. I would never want them to think it is because I don't want to be with them, continue to watch them grow and mature, or hug them as much as possible. I selfishly hope and pray they don't forget about me.

I find peace in knowing God is in this place and constantly working on their hearts.
I find peace in knowing this change is part of God's plan for me.
I find peace knowing I will return to live close to my loved ones and watch my nephew grow up.
While in many ways I am struggling to see the big picture, I find peace in knowing and trusting God.

Thank you so much for all your support over the past three and a half years. I have seen and experienced so many beautiful things, and I would never have been able to do this without the financial support of my church and many friends I have met along the way. Thank you for your love for the boys, especially those who don't know them and simply love them because I do. That means so much to me.

Thank you, Lord, for this incredible journey.

Grace

Sometimes when I go awhile without posting, its usually because things are going really well, or I'm really busy. This time its both. I'm currently home in Nashville awaiting the arrival of my first nephew. My parents are going to be grandparents and my brother a dad - all for the first time. It's a major milestone for us. I am so grateful to be able to come home and share this time with my family.

Another huge blessing for my soul is spending time worshipping at my home church. I owe a lot to God for placing my family and me in such a loving church. The people who love me there support me, pray for me, and encourage me.

In Sunday's sermon our preacher Chris mentioned how the upcoming series will be on grace. Mainly on how we would react as people if we truly believed in grace.

I have messed up many times, but through those mistakes I've witnessed grace. It is such a beautiful concept, but it is also extremely confusing. I think as a human and a sinner, it's almost impossible for me to understand God's grace, but we can always try.

Therefore I believe if I truly believed in grace, I would never worry. We spend so much time as humans worrying. Worrying about our jobs, our future, our love lives, etc. And God clearly tells us His grace is free and it is undeserved. If I truly believed in grace, I would walk this earth content with what each day held and never wish for more.

Being a type-A personality myself, I love to plan and dream of the future. I don't have a five year plan or know what/where I want to be in a few years, but I would be lying if I said I don't constantly think about "what's next" in my life. This leads to worrying, and it gets me no where.

In a culture (Honduras) where people teach more about being proud and strong rather than humble, it is so difficult to teach this concept to these boys. I cannot count how many times I tell them humility is my favorite quality in a person. It's a foreign idea to them, but its a quality I see so clearly in Jesus and His followers. It's a quality that I so deeply want to see daily in myself.

So that's my answer to Chris' question this week.

If I truly believed in grace (and if I fully understood it), I would spend my days worrying less about my earthly troubles and focusing more on my heavenly future. 

I think that's a good goal for the rest of this year, right? 

Thank you, Lord, for your grace. You are so good to us.

2 6 Y E A R S O L D

Well I did it. I have completely finished 25 years of life. I can't believe how quickly time flew by this year - just another reason to cherish what each day brings. 

last year's celebration - birthday twin, Dudley Chancey

After celebrating another milestone in my life - 3 years in Honduras - I would say I have been tremendously blessed the past 25 years. I have lived a quarter of a century, and this life has already been more than I could ever imagine or desire. 

this time last year

Since graduating college I have had lots of time to reflect and look back at how I have done things. I think everyone feels there are things you would have done differently, but I am happy to say I have no regrets. Mistakes have been made, but I have grown from them. Challenges have been many, but God was with me every step of the way. 

Being away from my family has made me appreciate and love them more. Living in a different culture has made me appreciate how lucky I was to grow up the way I did. And having been surrounded by people who love me my entire life has only made me want to love others more. 

So here’s to 26! I think it will be an amazing year....

It’s true what they say - life only gets better with age.  

25 things I loved in my 25th year

•  Being able to tell people I was a quarter of a century old
•  Forgetting that I was 25 and telling people I was 24
•  Feeling good about being halfway to 50
•  Getting to go home several times
•  Seeing my brother get married

•  My parents coming to visit me in Honduras
•  Spending NYE at Jovenes
•  Making new friendships in Honduras
•  Traveling to Roatan for Thanksgiving (it rained all trip, but was still great!)
•  Seeing the Mayan Ruins in Copan

Copan Ruins 

•  Spending time with Harpeth Hills in Honduras
•  Going to several Honduran soccer games 
•  Getting to see Nelson finish his first year of high school with all A’s and B’s

Getting ready from 8th grade!

•  Being able to be home for our first annual JEC Fiesta 5k
•  Seeing the green houseparents’ dream finally come true with a new house of their own
•  Becoming a grandma (when poppy had puppies)
•  Getting a new car (one that doesn’t break down every month!)

• Going to the beach for holy week with friends in Nicaragua
• Spending time with several members of the missions committee at Harpeth Hills
• Having Lindy, Scat, Emily and Richy come visit in Honduras
• Seeing some of the boys at JEC wear some of my grandma’s old work jeans (she only wore men’s Levi’s

•  Experiencing the world cup in Honduras
•  Luckily being home for three days and seeing a friend get engaged!
•  Watching God bring sweet, new boys to Jovenes en Camino

And finally, #25 - Living another year healthy, loved, and so blessed 

God is so good. 

Summertime at Jovenes

Well now that summer is technically halfway over, I am well due a blog post about our busiest season. The past few years we have been so blessed to have more and more groups added to our list of annual visitors. It's refreshing to see people come back year after year who continually are blown away by our boys, our staff, and our campus.

poppy and I love futbol

Thus far we have received 13 groups since the last day in May, and during July we are expecting at least that many again. In the first week in June our four summer interns arrived, who coincidentally are all girls from Nashville, TN. These girls are here for June and July and mainly help with summer groups, working with our bilingual boys who are on summer break, and being extra hands when needed.

our interns most photogenic moment

The rainy season has also officially begun here. This means it is hot in the day, then the afternoon usually involves an intense downpour. Our roads get destroyed here during these months (June-September), meaning we drive at 5 mph to avoid ruining our NEW CARS (I'm still on cloud nine, y'all).

Bayron just taking a casual nap

This is one of my favorite, and busiest, times of year. Summer is full of both new and old faces, both of which are heartwarming to see. I love watching first time visitors fall in love with the boys, and it's nice to see encouraging faces who support our mission here enough to come back year after year.

Besides this being our busy season, we've been fully engulfed in the world cup. As most people know, soccer is everything here. Honduras making it to the world cup was EPIC, and even though we are already out - we cheered our hearts out for those three games. The boys are now mostly rooting for Brazil, Germany, and Holland.

learning about drip irrigation from Healing Hands Int'l

I personally was blessed getting to host two weekends of teenagers from my own youth group, Harpeth Hills. It was so nice to have people here who have watched me grow up in that same youth group and know they love and care for me and my mission here. We celebrated our June birthdays together, played some "chubby bunny", and obviously there was a lot of soccer.

hanging with Lenny girl - representing Harpeth Hills at JEC

I am looking forward to the month of July (my birthday month!), all our summer groups, the world cup finals, and my trip home in August to meet my new nephew (due August 29th!).

My how this boy has grown!

Thank you all for all your prayers and support! It's already been an amazing summer here again at Jovenes.

We're Still Here

Because of no internet in our Jovenes office and the start to our busiest season, I've been MIA. I know and I apologize. For now, forgive me while I post (what I think is) the cutest video ever.

Busy and Blessings

We are very, VERY happy. Thank you to everyone who made this blessing possible. God is so good to us. 

A Dream Come True

When I first moved to Jovenes, I lived in the green house with the oldest boys for a year. Obviously I had a lot of changes and things to get used to in the first few months. One was sharing a bathroom/kitchen with the couple who were here at the time. They were very reserved, and sometimes I felt like a nuisance.

Santos and Maria's new home

Then soon after God sent two angels to Jovenes en Camino. Santos and Maria had been serving Jovenes as substitute houseparents for several years when the full time houseparents had two weekends off a month. God then opened a window and allowed them to come work here full time.

I remember one of the first things I came to appreciate and love about this couple was their contagious spirit. They are both so welcoming, humble, and outgoing. They instantly made me feel at home with them, as if I was part of their own family.

Chad and Ronald turning over the house

I remember after dinner one night we were having one of our long, nightly talks, and Maria mentioned that they did not have a home of their own. They had rented a house before moving to live full time at JEC, so on the weekends they had off they usually had to stay with friends or rent a hotel. The point of this time is to relax and rejuvenate since their job is so taxing. And in my opinion, being a guest in someone else's home or a hotel is not always so relaxing in a family of four.

Genesis and Sara (Maria and Santos' daughters)

Fast forward to this week (about two years later), and God's grace is so prevalent. Yesterday our executive director stateside, Chad Hedgepath, turned in the keys to a brand new house here in the valley. Chad and Ronald planned, fundraised, and brought down a group of 10 men from Heritage Church in Franklin, TN to construct the house. Maria and Santos saved for years to buy their own plot of land, and as soon as that was purchased things got moving.

Hermitage COC group turning over the keys to Santos

The boys in the green house also played a large part in helping prepare the land, construction, and a lot of manual labor. Other Jovenes en Camino employees also helped in many ways - such as the cooks preparing food daily to send over to all those working hard in this hot sun. I think this made yesterday so special, because we had all played a part in helping Santos and Maria's family. We all felt the pride and joy of this house being finished. We were able to see their dream come to life.

Part of the Jovenes en Camino family with Santos and Maria

I think Santos said it best when he said, "God is so good, even though I am not. He has worked through others, through the boys, and through us. For that I am grateful for His grace."

This is one of my favorite things about Jovenes. We are one, big family. We help each other out when times get rough. We know we can't live this life alone, so we lean on each other. I'm so grateful to be 25 and have experienced such an incredible story of grace, selflessness, and love.

Thank you, Lord. You are so good to us.