HELP HONDURAS

I recieved this email from Lisa Closner this morning regarding the children's village in Honduras.

Dear friends,I spoke with Mary Frenter [President of Worldwide Heart to Heart Ministries] earlier this evening and found out that we have fallen short this month with funds for WWH2H. Apparently, the container cost $800 more that anticipated to get it released from the port in Honduras, vehicle registrations were due this month which was $1500 and donations are down due to the economy. At this point, all the children are fed and the Honduran employees at the Village have been paid. The Serranos [Amy, Oscar, Rachel and Sarah, WWH2H Honduran National Directors] on the other hand tend to give everything they have to care for the needs of the orphanage. Due to the shortfall, they chose to take only a portion of the money they usually get each month. In a phone conversation with Oscar tonight, Mary found out that they (the Serranos) only have peanut butter and rice left in their house until the end of the month. It's hard for me to see this family who gives so much of their time and resources to care for unwanted children to not be able to feed their own. I know many of you would want to help out so I am sending this to you so you can be aware of the situation. If you are able to help financially, please send your gifts to WWH2H, PO Box 372, Carson, WA 98610. If you are not able to help at this time will you please pray with us that God would meet the needs of the Children's Village and the Serranos over the next months.

-Lisa

These kids need our help! Oscar and Amy are the full time parents of over 90 children at this village in addition to caring for thier own two biological daughters, Rachel and Sarah. If you are able to, please help this family in this stressful financial time! God will provide all of our needs!!!
I will be visiting my favorite kids this February, please keep us all in your prayers!

The WORST.

Welp, the hype and bustle I anticipated around my online documentary of my Honduran travels has been halted! Not only was there little to no internet access available to me in the country, I am no longer in that country struggling to obtain it. June 28th left Honduras in a political mess involving but not limited to the eviction of the country's president and major airports closing. With no stable political leader in power, and the talk of uprising, my family and loved ones thought it best to get me out of Honduras while there were still airplanes taking off. With my mind set on spending the next four weeks of life teaching english to the village, the surprise shift in plans came as a bit of a shock and I was forced to part with my new friends without much mental preparation at all.

While at the airport, I sat pouting, wishing I was still fumbling over my spanish with a swarm of my favorite girls singing High School Musical and trying desperately not to get lice, but was interrupted in thought by the couple sitting across from me. They were discussing with American's around me about their one day experience in Honduras. They had come down to work at a clinic the night before, and had been immediately sent home the very next day because hotels in the area were not allowing any Americans at all to stay in their rooms. I quickly pulled out my headphones, booming with Spanish music to keep my mood immersed in Honduran culture and bitter about leaving, and listened to the couple inform the surrounding passengers that the president of Honduras and the president of Venezuela were in cahoots, and this meant very bad news for Americans and those housing Americans. This brought me a combination of relief and worry. Worry about the Americans that were still in the country and their possible risk, but relieved that I was no longer posing a threat to the people I have come to love so much.

So I got on my plane, feeling like I finally had a reason to leave, and listened to my Spanish music until my ipod finally died. Some of the perks of coming back included seeing AARON!!, not having ants crawling in my hair and in my clothes and through my shoes, not being bitten by every bug imaginable, and not sweating so profusely that pounds a day were shed. However, as every day passes, I find myself somehow missing the heat, missing the extended family of ants setting up camp in the corner of my room and above all MISSING THE VILLAGE and all people who inhabit it. I miss Leslie and Miriam, two brilliant and beautiful girls who stayed my my side, singing songs, and correcting my spanish. I miss tiny hands and feet, climbing up my soggy clothes trying to steal a hug. I miss crying toddlers, smiling Zulema, gold walls, long hugs, "eres todo poderoso", singing any and all 90's worship songs, pickled mangoes, big brown eyes, chicken pox, a little boy who affectionately called me "feya" every time I wouldn't play with him, hot rain showers, and new friends. I miss Honduras.

Today I am back in my other favorite city, readjusting and finding my way; praying for every one of these kids and their safety, and digging a small tunnel underground back to Tegulcigalpita. There are so many things Honduras needs prayer for. THE KIDS's safety, education, health, hearts, the political restoration of the country, the basic needs of the village, the workers (Reyna, Zulema, Gary, and Silvia) and the children in the state run orphanage who need angels protecting them everyday.

As for me, I am waiting for the politics to die down and hoping to return in August with Aaron and team. I will be moving to California at the end of the month to embark on a new journey. In this season of life I am uncertain, unplanned, and unafraid. I will be moving with my very best friends to try and learn what living together in community in a new season looks like, and I am in love with putting my faith in someone worthy of my trust. The next few weeks will tell if the politics of Honduras will allow me to safely enter the country, if not, hopefully it won't take me too long to tunnel my way down.

Finally- the world wide web!

I have extrememly limited internet access!!! And i have no time to update!! But in short, I am safe, healthy, happy, and so in love with the community and every single child here. My spanish is improving daily and I am truly getting my fill of rice and beans. This country is so beautiful and full of wonderful, giving, loving people. The village is an incredible place for the kids! They are happy and healthy (except for an outbreak of chicken pox) and God is protecting them everyday. I start english classes on Monday so pray that the teaching goes well!!! When i have more time, I will update more!!

leaving monday.

Thanks to a heaping load of Starbucks drip coffee and Aarons 20lb laptop computer, I barely just finished over 40 pages of paper writing, two 20 minute presentations, a written final, and a piano proficiency test. In three days. But now, officially, I have finished my undergraduate degree and am wasting no time. On Monday I will be flying from Portland International Airport to Tegulcigalpita, Honduras, a small city on the northern side of the country. I will be staying and volunteering at the Children's Village outside of the city. It is going to be an extremely abrasive transition from living in a small apartment with my girlfriends in college to living in "the girl's house" in the Village, speaking only spanish, and trying to learn the ropes. I'm not really sure what my time there is going to look like, but I figure, graduating from college is all a lesson in trusting and taking risks. So this is my attempt to take a risk to love. To see the world through a different set of lenses, to offer myself and my gift to be used in any way, shape, or form, and to take a step into a new setting with new people, and love as much as I can.

Every day for the past few weeks, any time I have had a spare moment to myself (which hasnt been often) I have thought, how in the world did I end up going to a place I have never been before, with people I dont know, for six weeks? I guess the same way I ended up going to Kitale, Kenya for eight weeks two years ago...prayer. Last summer, I opened a new bank account specifically for adventures, and I began depositing money from my summer earnings. Then I made my first mistake. I prayed that God would use the money to send me to a new place. Around Christmas time, I was spending the holiday with the Closner family and began translating Christmas cards that kids from the orphanage had written to Meegan, Allison and Natalie. I dont speak that much Spanish, but I speak enough to translate Christmas cards. We all sat around laughing and talking about the Village, and day dreaming about the next time the family would be able to go again, and then they invited me to tag along for their summer trip with their school. Now, the thing about inviting me on a trip is that I WILL GO. I will go anywhere if I am invited. My trip to Kenya started with an invitation similar to this, Person: "hey, I'm going to Kenya, wanna come (ha, ha)?". Me: (serious)" yes. when?"

And thats how it happens. Plain and simple. So I checked my account that I had been depositing money into, and I had enough to go. Unfortunately, the Closners were only going to 10 days, so I asked how long I was allowed to stay. And they said how would till the end of July sound? And I bought a ticket. Sorry Dad.

So now I am leaving on Monday. I haven't had a chance really to think hard on what my emotions really are about leaving. It all has happened so fast. My year has been amazing, and suddenly, we just all hit the brakes at the same time, and graduation is on Sunday. Since I leave the very next day, I wont have very much time to think about how sad I am to leave the most influential people in my life behind. Something I know confidently however, is that the people that matter in my life will be around when I get back and for years to come. And my boyfriend Aaron is going to meet me at the Village halfway through July, so that will be AMAZING. Until then I will be showing the girls in the house a picture of "mi guapo novio" and wishing he was walking by my side in my adventure story.

So, I will be writing as much as I can to update you on my travels, funny stories, if I get lice or not (that is my one fear) and how much I miss home! I will also be writing to update my dad that I am safe so that he can sleep at night. So thanks for reading my very first blog, and sorry about all of the typos. They won't stop, I am a horrible speller.

love.