Day Of Rest?

In Honduras Sunday is a day for family time. Therefore we also were blessed with a day of "rest". However I know I did not get all that much rest and I know many others are the same way.

For a few people the day began at 6:15 at the bottom of the mountain, meeting up with Mark to run 5 miles up the mountain to the Mission House. I was not one of these people, I would have been lucky to run 1/2 a mile up the mountain, let alone 5!

Most of the team was up for breakfast and then we had church at about 8:00. Brian spoke this morning about giving all control over to God.

After church we loaded up in the buses to go shopping at Mi Esperanza. For those of you who do not know what Mi Esperanza is here is some background: Mi Esperanza is a program that began to help teach the women of Honduras skilks to enable them to make a better living on their own. You can read many stories about the organization and look/purchas their products at www.thewomenofmyhope.org

After everyone finished their shopping we went to the mall for lunch and then to the Jesus statue to walk around for a while. The Jesus statue is one of my favorite places in Honduras because it is so beautiful there!

We finally made it back to the Mission House around 3:30. That is when the work began. We broke up into 3 teams, a VBS team, gatorade team(getting bottles ready to hand out later thisbweek) , and organization team. I was on the VBS team. We decided to do some skits on Paul. We also found some crafts to go with our skits, one is a boat and the other is a pair of glasses. While the actors worked on the skit I helped a few people make a boat to use in the shipwreck skit.

Tomorrow we are gonna be in 3 teams, a house build, a team to go to the orphange, and a team going to Moaloah to help with the daycare that was destroyed in the floods a few weeks ago.

The Wise Man Built His House Upon The Rock

We all have heard the childrens song The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock, a song relating to creating a sttong foundation with Christ so that in times of trial you do not crumble. Creating this fondation takes faith, hard work, perserverence, and much more.

Today the teams broke up into 2 house build groups. One group was the West Hills teen group who had raised the funds to build this house. I was on the other group.

We arrived to our site st Santa Ana, also known as "the land ofnthe rocks" and quickly got to work digging the holes for the 4 corner poles. On the final post hole we ran into some difficulty, a huge bolder was spack dab in the center of where our pole needed to go. Because of thisnthe task of digging the postholes became much more difficult. It ended up taking an hour and a hakf to two hours for us to get through that rock and begin the real buildingnif the house.

After we made it throughnthe bolder the house went up fairly quickly. The team did an amazing job sharing tasks since we had such a large buikd crew (normally the crews atre about 12-15 people, we had about 30). After we finished the housenwe went i side wuth the fsmily and said a word of prayer over the family. This is always one of my favorite parts because I am humbled by their gratitude for building the house.

Please Post

Our first day of work is finished! But, welcome to Honduras our plans did not go exactly as planned today. We were suppose to go to Hospital Escuala, to the peace monument for lunch, and then to the blind school. Well, it is hard to go to the blind school when they are on vacation, so hopefully we will be able to do that next Friday. Instead today we visited the hospital in the morning,  went to lunch, and then went back to the hospital for a second visiting session.

When we arrived at the hospital Jenna, one of our translators, became a mini movie star. A few news cameras were at the hospital and asked Jenna some questions about why we are in Honduras.

After the news cameras left we were able to break up into our 3 teams to visit different areas of the hospital. We had one group go to the materinity wing. This  group handed out bags filled with food, a baby outfit, and hygene products to the new mothers. Also a quick shout out to Walmart for helping to make this possible and donating all the bags.

My group went to the second floor during the morning visit. I spent the majority of my two hours playing with a little boy named Malcom. He is 8 years old and hs been in the hospital 6 days due to stomach problems. The smile on this childs face was amazing, he just lit up the room. We spent our time coloring (this child is an expert colorer), playing with cars, semi talking, and playing with this little frog hop toy. I wish that each of you could have been there to see the joy on Malcoms face while we were playing, the pictures do not do it any justice!

At about noon we went to the peace monument for lunch. For those of you who do not know much about Honduras they have been in 1 war during their existance. This war was with El Salvador, and as the story goes the war began over a soccer game, lasted 3 days, and then simply ended. Both countries have different views as to who "won" this war. Any way the peace monument was put up after the war.

After a quick group photo it was back to the hospital. My group again went to the second floor, but a different section. This time I spent my time with a boy named Junior. Junior is 12 and had a broken bone in his leg, if I understood him right it was from playing soccer. He was such a smart boy, we talked amost the entire time, going back and forth saying words in spanih and english. At one point he started reading my shirt in English, I was blown away! My friend Josh then got out a Spanish/English Bible and we spent some time reading in the book of Psalms together.

I also was blessed to play with a 4 year old boy named Jesse for about 10 minutes. He was adorable and had a smile and laugh that would just melt the heart of anyone he meets!

Jeremy spoke again at devo tonight. He again was talking about the Power of One. Tonight he did a little bit of backtracking to the beginninging of the book of Ephiesians. He spoke on how we have the ability to be connected to this awesome power of God. We have the ability to have this power because of the ONE hope that Christ gave us by coming to this Earth and giving His life for our many sins. We need to look at ourselves and remember that we are part of the body of Christ and we have the access to this awesome power of God, all we have to do is follow Him during this life He has blessed us with.

The Power Of One

All these months, saving, preparing, and now it is finally here! Angel and I woke up this morning at about 2:00am, I think I had anout an hour of sleep, and were off to meet up with the rest of our team. Around 3:30 we began our drive to the DC airport. By 8:30 we were at the airport and the line waiting began, it took till about 10:00 to get our luggage checked in, then we got in line for security and by 11:07 we were on our plan to El Salvador. After landing in El Salvado we had about a 30 minute flight to Honduras.

Finally we are here and our work has begun! Upon arriving to the mission house we had a short orientation before getting our room assignments. (Colleen don't worry Angel is in my room. She is doing fine.) We had a little work to do this evening after dinner. We broke down food into bags that we will hand out to people later during the trip. The team is really doing an amazing job working together.

At devo tonight Jeremy spoke about the Power of One, our theme for the week. "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you are called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptizm, one God and Father of all, who is above all, through all, and in you all." Ephesians 4:4-6
this is our verse for the week and was the focus of the devo tonight. Jeremy talked about the fact that we have this ONE trip to make a difference, how we are ONE person on the trip who could make that ONE difference in someones life. He also talked about how there was ONE man, Christ Jesus who can and gave  his life on ONE cross to be the ONE way that we have an ability to goto the ONE eternity. He also challenged us to read this verse multiple times and to really dig into it and think about it. I would like to challenge those of you reading to do the same thing. I believe that this is a very powerful verse and one that I also need to spend some time thinking about.

Our tenitive plans for tomorrow include going to the Hospital and Blind School, I promise to have more pictures tomorrow!

Watch A Storm

One of my favorite things to do is to sit and watch a storm. It is an amazing reminder of how awesome my God is. It also helps me remember how blessed I am in my life because during this storm tonight I have a roof over my head, a warm bed to sleep in, and a hot cup of tea to drink sitting and watching this storm. So many people in this world do not have these things and I wish more then anything that I could share what I have with them.

Storms like this also help me when I grow weary in my faith. The past few days I've really been struggling with questions and uncertainty. Sitting outside watching this storm has really helped me in remembering to simply trust in my God because he is the same God who forgave David's failures, the same God who gave Ester strength, the same God who brought down the walls of Jericho, and He is the same God who gave his Son for me. There is no reason to ever fear or question anything, simply pray and put your faith in God because He knows what is best for you and he will guide you in the right path.

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understandings. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.

15 More Days!

Okay, so I know it has been quite a while since my last post but I promise I do have good reason for that! School was extremely busy with all of my student teaching and graduating! Which I am officially graduated and have my teaching certificate! I also am crazy busy looking for a teaching job for the fall, so please pray without ceasing that I can find something!

I also am very busy everyday watching my two bundles of joy (my nephews), who are quite a handful, even with help!

My trip is quickly approaching and I just want everyone to know that I am beyond grateful for everyone who   bought jewelry and donated to my trip.  I leave for my trip in 15 days! Please keep a look out at this blog for my posts. I will do my best to write and post pictures each night. However, with the wifi down there its very possible that will not happen! I will be updating as much as I can and I look forward to being able to share my trip with each of you!

God's In Control So Why Worry!

Okay I know it has been a long while since I last posted but my computer broke. (Kinda hard to keep up with a blog when you have no Internet access!) Any way, I am getting settled here at OVU and enjoying some of it. (It's not Faulkner but I'm growing more fond of it as I get to know more people.) I am again working at the good ol' DQ in Vienna, nothing new in that area of my life. I also have 2 other jobs! (Yea crazy college kid with 3 jobs and still being a full time student...yet still broke) I babysit for the church that I attend and it is so much fun! I love the kids that I am blessed to watch while their moms go to a bible study! And I also have a work study job for the EDU department at OVU.

I went home a few weekends ago and it was a pretty good time. I got to go to Idewild with my family for Church of Christ Day and hang out with my amazing 3 nephews! We also got free tickets to go another day because it started raining and the closed the park early (A win in my opinion because we got most a day and get to go another for free!). I also gave Bug his birthday present (His birthday was September 11) since I didn't get to go home for his party. He loved his train set!

Nolan and Kenny

I think they are having a good time =]

I got a little tired near the end. haha =]

He was holding on so tight to me! He got a little scared but loved it when he got off haha.

Emmett got a little tuckered out =]

The boys on a ride. =]

I have been working a lot on my jewelry! I go to my first festival in 2 weeks (CRAZY) and I want to make sure I have plenty made to sell that day! I really hope it goes well! Please be praying about that for me! Here are some of my newer things that I've been working on!

New bag I got to carry some of my already made stuff. 

Which hats and Christmas Trees!

Some new stuff I've been working on...sorry its not the best photo.

Cross Necklaces $3.00

I got my banner, business cards, some magnets, and a pen! (They were having a sell )

All filled up!

New Creations!

Now for my short little food for thought. I have been dealing with a lot of stress in my life lately. Its crazy how our lives can really weigh us down isn't it? We allow so many things in our lives tear us down and God is calling for us to just leave things go to Him because He will take care of our every need, if we allow Him.
               

Do Not Worry (Matthew 6:25-34)

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[a]?
²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

We were made in the likeness of God. He sent His Son to DIE for us because He loved us that much! We don't need to worry about anything in our lives because He will provide for us and I  have found He has always provided for me when I needed. He allows the lilies of the field to grow so beautifully and the bird of the sky always are provided for, so what about us? Did God send His Son to die for the lilies? The birds? No! He sent His Son to die for us because of our sins because He loves us that much! Put your worries into God's hands and allow him to take care of them. After all He will do a much better job dealing with them then we ever could wish to do ourselves. 

That's all for tonight!
XOX
Randi