Holy Week & Good Friday Thoughts

It's been a busy week (again). I've been working with a group from Brentwood, TN all week, and they just headed back this afternoon. We spent Saturday (see my previous post) and Sunday at JEC working on our future store to house all our new merch and playing with our boys. Monday and Tuesday were building days in Tegus, and then Wednesday was visiting the public hospital, girls orphanage, and the dump. Yesterday we spent all day WAY UP in the mountains learning about how coffee is grown, picked, and the process of making it what we use to drink. I had never seen coffee beans right off the plant before, and it was an awesome experience to translate for the plantation owner and learn first hand all about the process.

Today I headed back to Jovenes to organize, take inventory of donated items, and play catch up from the past week. While sorting through all our amazing gifts for both the boys and employees, I started thinking about how, here in Honduras, the country really shuts down for Holy Week.

I'm not used to that in the states, I guess, but its pretty weird here when all stores, banks and schools shut down from Wednesday until the next week. I think this was what pushed me to start thinking about why exactly everyone does this - and my thoughts honestly turned to tears.

I think it has taken me 24 years to honestly understand (as best as humans can) what this week is meant to be celebrated for. As I was praying over my breakfast this morning, it really hit me that so many years ago on this day (or so we think) a man chose to die for me, my family, my friends, and these boys at Jovenes en Camino. Even though we didn't exist at that point, God knew about us, and He knew my heart before it even existed. He chose to suffer just so I would have a chance to truly know Him...

*mouth opens* 

*dumbfounded look on face*

Can you just take one second to try and grasp the beauty of a love like that? The humility, patience, and above all, forgiveness it takes to act on that kind of love and HOPE for humanity... is indescribable.

My personal journey here in Honduras has not been an easy one. I have definitely struggled with not giving up on man-kind at some points. Disappointment and deception are something we have learned to be pretty good at as humans. Yet after all the times we have disappointed and deceived Jesus, He continues to love us, believe in us, and encourage us to seek an intimate relationship with Him.

I don't think there is anything more beautiful than that. 

So, at 9:49 PM on this Good Friday, I am reminded and blessed to live another day where I try to honor God in everything I do. Thank you, Jesus for giving me this opportunity to serve your people in Honduras. Thank you for teaching me about your unfailing love. Thank you for never giving up on me. Thank you for thinking of me when you were nailed up on that cross. I pray I never forget the sacrifice you made... just so you could know me intimately. I'm so humbled by the selflessness of Your love.

Let the Countdown Begin!

Nelson and Obed reveal our 10 year logo

This morning was an AMAZING start to our countdown to our 10th year anniversary. What an incredible day. It was basically a small slice of my personal heaven. My parents finally saw Jovenes with their own eyes, the board of directors and some great family friends showed up, and all these awesome people were gathered together in Zamorano to simply love on and show their support to our ministry.

Mom and Dad finally meet Gustavo

I am planning on writing a more detailed blog (including LOTS) of pictures, but this is your sneak peek! Thank you, God for such an INCREDIBLE day. You are so, so good to us.

March!

Busy, busy, busy, busy, busy March!

This month starts one of our busiest months here at JEC. We have spring break groups who come, play with the boys, and sometimes help us with projects around campus.

One of my best friends, Kathleen, and Cristian, who her family sponsors

HOWEVER, this March is much different than most. This year, on March 23rd, we will be kicking off the countdown to our 10th anniversary. We celebrated our 9th on February 26th, so we're going to have a full year of events counting down to our big, 10th anniversary of Jovenes en Camino.

So, it's time to celebrate! Several boys from the green house (our oldest) have been here almost for a decade, and their lives are absolutely 100% changed for the better. Jovenes en Camino has seen its ups and downs, because in any place where people seek Jesus, the devil works his hardest to destroy the hearts of those who yearn for Him. Please pray for us this year counting down to our 10th anniversary and our guests traveling down for our kick-off on the 23rd. We will be joined by our entire board of directors, friends, and people who want to love and support these boys and this home.  It's going to be a great month!

On a personal note, my parents are coming a week from today! It'll be the first time EVER on Honduras soil, so pray for their trip and their experience too. Can't wait for my family to finally see my life here. 

Sorry (as always) for the absence. I've been trying to get my body and energy back to 100% since our busy, busy, beach weekend. Looks like I caught some nasty virus, so as I'm on the final stretch of getting better, my sweet pup is getting over a nasty rash, and my car is also recovering from its latest trip to the shop.

Currently we've been working hard in the bilingual school as second semester started back in January. With spring break right around the corner (and spring break groups who come to visit at JEC), we're neck deep in multiplication, charts, ABC's (for our newest boy), and pen pals. So today I'm going to talk about what each of our 7 boys are currently working on at the bilingual school.

Nelson is the oldest (above), and Antony is the youngest (below), so I'll start with them. Nelson is in his final year at Alison Bixby Stone, and he's literally smarter than I am. I'm not being silly - I'm being honest. He's currently learning the basics of social media, e-mail, and how to work with computers. The school we are hoping (and praying) to send him to next year, Del Campo International School, uses iPads for their lessons in class, so its great Nelson is getting a good base now to prepare him for the big transfer to "high school" (here starts at 7th grade). Of course, he's Facebook crazy right now - already addicted - and I hate that, but it is good for him to learn. The picture was taken last year at a mother's day luncheon where we won a Twix bar for winning a game of bilingual bingo.

Antony just started this semester in kindergarten, and he turned 6 a week after he was accepted into the school. A space opened up, so we grabbed the opportunity and ran with it. The bilingual school rarely has space available, since each grade (nursing-6th) only has 1 class per grade (max 18 students per class). Of course he cried the first few days, since the other kids have spent 5 months listening to the teacher (who is Colombian, yet speaks awesome English) talk and give instructions in english. So after a few weeks, he knows the basics - "hello, teacher", "how are you", "eat", "sit", "go".. you get the idea. We're working at home on singing and learning the ABC song... so sweet :)

Cristian - always gets respect awards at school for great behavior

Daniel - who clearly is enthusiastic about being on cross-guard duty.

Luis Fernando... who's insane and never sits still (but I love him  so much)

Norman (the monster) who is practically fluent in english and in 3rd grade

The four boys we have in 3rd grade are all about math right now. Lots of graphs, times tables, division, and word problems (duh duh duh). Some are really catching on, and others are not. We're working very  hard to memorize, study, and in the mean time keep studying spanish, reading in both languages each day, and working on calligraphy. Needless to say, 3rd grade has our hands full to the max right now.

Jose Alexander... the one in the sunglasses (haha!)

Jose Alexander is the last boy we have in Alison, and he's in second grade. Jose struggles a bit more than the average joe because of the amount of malnutrition he suffered when he was a newborn. Although memorization of numbers, letters and other basic elements of english (and even spanish) are challenging for Jose, he speaks and understands the language extremely well for someone in second grade. So we make sure to speak in english at home to practice, always working on writing our numbers and letters as often as possible. We are also working on words like "big, bigger, biggest", "small, smaller, smallest" and matching the word with the pictures of different things. *I'm sure there is some proper or more professional way to say this, but remember I studied international business in college... so that's the best everyone's going to get.* This picture was taken over a year ago, but it's so Jose.. so I had to include it.

With that update on these sweethearts, the one last detail would be we are always looking for donations for these boys' educations. Two have scholarships at the actual school, two have full time sponsors for their educations, and then the rest are paid from purely from donations made by people like you. Since Antony is new, we are looking for donors to pay for the spring semester. For such an amazing education, this school is very affordable for a private, bilingual education. The monthly cost to attend is roughly $220 with a one time enrollment fee of $248. If you or anyone you know would like to help, please contact me! The education these boys are receiving is changing their lives!!

Hope everyone had a special Valentine's day. The boys here had a school-wide party, so our contribution was coke, chocolate and brownies (per the boys' requests). Everyone went home with full bellies and happy hearts. The previous picture is outside my bedroom at my house. My mom sent a few valentine's goodies via Lindy, who came down for our annual beach trip.  It made me feel a little bit more love down here in Honduras.

Hasta la playa, neña!

A week ago today we packed up two, school-size buses, three of our work vehicles, and Jovenes en Camino headed south. 

An annual beach trip was something our director, Ronald Millon, wanted to make a priority at the beginning of each year. Not only is it special for the boys, but we also extend the invite to all employees and their families. This being said, we also let the families know the trip is in no way luxurious. We sleep on a concrete floor inside a hot church in Choluteca, where even the night temperatures are over 80 degrees. Plus you sleep inside along with 120 people, so you can imagine the body heat generated. 

Therefore not everyone always comes, but most decided they wanted to bare the heat this year. We headed out on Friday midday and returned Sunday afternoon. Luckily a church in Choluteca (about an hour away from the beach) always opens their doors for us to sleep and use their bathrooms/other facilities to call home for that weekend. 

This year I drove my car along with my 4 friends who visited, Scat, Richy, Lindy (Wendy), and Cassie. We packed up fans, sleeping bags, and snacks for the road trip we had ahead of us. The boys followed behind on the big, blue JEC bus, and we arrived just as dusk was settling in Choluteca.

After a church in Barrio Brazil led a devotional, they fed us dinner and each of the boys got a “welcome cupcake”. We set up camp, played soccer, and got ready for the busy day ahead of us on Saturday.

This year we decided to join Ronald and his family on the “terrace”. This means we slept outside under the stars on the second level where only the roof has been poured - no walls, no sides, etc. My mom would’ve died. No one slept close to the edge, and luckily being hot was not one of my concerns. The night wind kept us chilly, so my beach towel and twin air mattress were my best friends. *Picture credit to my friend, Cassie.

Saturday (early) we got up, watched the boys bath in the river behind the church and got ready for the short hour drive to Cedeño. The water was chilly early morning with lots of wind, so again, we lucked out since the south in Honduras is known for extremely hot and humid days. After helping the boys get sunscreen-ed up (yes, Hondurans still wear sunscreen) we hit the water. Here people swim in clothes (shorts, tshirt) as a cultural thing. Even though it felt weird, I didn’t have to worry about burning this time! 

Our big treat on Saturday is a local fisherman always prepares fried fish (the whole thing, eyes and all, baby), banana chips, and repollo (salad). The boys go crazy over this, so we all sit under the tiki huts with our feet in the sand and fill our bellies. 

After lunch I had helped orchestrate the best surprise ever for my best friend, Sarah Catherine. Her boyfriend and I had been in communication since New Years to discuss how he would pull off the surprise engagement of the century. 

Needless to say, she was surprised and everything went as planned. She and I met while in Honduras, so it only seemed fitting to help her beau pull it all off in her favorite place in the world. 

Saturday night we headed back to Choluteca, celebrated Scat and Richy’s engagement at KFC, and then watched the boys play soccer until late. Sunday morning early meant church, and then it was back to reality.

My friends headed home on Monday, then we all decided to get sick in different ways. Today is my first full day back at work, so thank goodness we’re all getting back in the groove of things. 

The boys had an amazing trip and all came back exhausted before starting the new school year (public school boys) on Monday. Needless to say no one wanted to get up Monday at 5:30 in the morning. 
Here's a picture of the boys all ready to walk to school at 6 AM. 

Excited, right???

New Year, New Look

Well as you may notice, I've updated my blog. A new year called for a few new changes.

I've put up some great new pics (only two for now) from the amazing John Hillin. He was here shooting a promotional video that's going to be premiered this March, so check out his other stuff in the meantime.

Also I've added a few new pages you can see at the top. All the informational stuff, such as About, My Story, How to Help, Donate, etc.

My personal favorite, because pictures truly do say volumes more than I could possibly write on here, is my gallery page. This has a personal link to my photobucket account where you can browse 1000s of photos from my time here in Honduras.

So in honor of a new blog and new year, I am hoping to do a better job about blogging. It will be difficult during our busiest season (March-August), but its one of my new year's resolutions to be better.

And lastly - please take a look that you can SUBSCRIBE to my updates. PLEASE DO THIS. This avoids me emailing you a big chain email just to say, "Hey... what's up? I updated my blog. Alright, cya".

So please take a gander to the left side of the blog on the home page, enter your e-mail, and click "subscribe"! It's that easy, and I would really appreciate it!

For today, this is all. Thank you all for your sweet words of encouragement. It helps drive me everyday to remember why I'm doing what I'm doing!

Christmas, New Years, and Everything Else

Well apologies for my absence, but as the holiday season is for everyone, its been an extremely busy few months both at JEC and in my life!

Starting a two weeks ago, we had the blessing of sharing a sweet moment from the local bilingual school, Alison Bixby. They have been so supportive and patient to our 6 boys we have enrolled there, and we cannot be more grateful for their time and hearts for Jovenes.

For the past several years the faculty gives out one or two names a piece to each student at the Alison, and they in turn bring a gift for the assigned boy at JEC. Usually the boys at JEC only get one magi box to open for Christmas, and this has been an extra special day (when they come to turn in the gifts) for us at JEC. The boys sit and wait as a teacher or student from ABSS calls our their name, and then all 56 open their presents at the same time.

Thank you so much everyone from ABSS. We are so grateful for your constant help and love for JEC.

We received Christmas blessing #2 one day last week when a group of first year medical students from VCOMM showed up in a big, yellow bus with endless gifts and Christmas fun. They shared the first part of the day splitting up in groups, teaching boys about healthy habits, and giving check ups. After providing lunch for all our employees and boys, we broke pinatas, had a water balloon fight, and passed out a Christmas gift to each boy. Every single boy received a backpack filled with special treats such as a watch, a soccer ball, and school supplies for the 2013 school year.

The smiles on the boys faces at the end of that day were just too priceless. To say they were spoiled would be an understatement. We are so grateful for all of those who bless our boys at Christmas time.

The rest of the activities included an employee Christmas dinner, the Alison Bixby Christmas program, and a fun game of secret santa between the staff.

Another blessing was a kindergarten service project from St. Paul Christian School in Nashville. The kindergarten children had all collected items from flip flops, toothbrushes, school supplies, and books to send down to give the boys another present to open on Christmas Eve (tradition in Honduras). It has been a blessing putting these bags together and seeing the anticipation in the boys eyes as we placed them under the Christmas trees in each house. Its a special treat to have more than 1 present to open this year, and we are so grateful to all the kids and parents who helped participate in this special project.

Last but not least, my friend, Marcos, is finally almost able to move into his new house. The final touches are being added, and I had the joy of running Christmas errands this past week with him to buy a new bed for each of his two kids and other fun outings. God is so good, and He has shown His unending love for His faithful servant, Marcos.

Thank you, everyone, for all for your support this year. I can't thank you all enough for your kind words, donations to the boys, and prayers. I was lucky enough to spend Christmas and New Years with my family, and now I'm back at Jovenes working and back in the swing of things. This week we are working on filming a promotional video for JEC, so look forward to that in the spring!

Please pray for me as I start 2013 back in Honduras and seeing what the year holds for me here.