Snapshots, Imprints, and Lessons Learned

Here is a collection of pictures to give you an idea as to the many happenings in my life as of late. Enjoy, comment, and question:)

These are a few pictures from our service project at the orphanage, Sociedad Amigos de los Niños.

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These are pictures from the students who translated for the mission group from Dallas, Texas. We were in an orphanage and also a public school... a first for many of my students.

The mission group had an outreach event one evening and I was able to get a group of students to go and help translate and fellowship. They were expecting about 50 local teenagers and what they got was somewhere around 150! God is so very, very good! One of my students was able to share her testimony with this group, many of whom are caught in various struggles and looking for HOPE.

We played games and hung out... it was amazing to see privileged Americans, privileged Hondurans, and underprivileged Hondurans all hanging out and having fun together!

BAGOPE RETREAT!

The theme for Bagope (the Baptist camp about 4 hours from our school) this year was "school on hill" ... taken from Matthew 5. We blasted our theme song, "In the Light" by DC Talk and encouraged one another to be lights for Christ in the most dark places.

We played games!

This is my team - the awesome PURPLE POIGNANT PLATYPI!

And we had a game show - PRICE IS RIGHT - where I was Barb Barker (80s style I guess!).


Then we heard the message about how one light can shine in the darkness (and it's rough), but many lights can bring hope and healing to the darkest of places. We wrote a drama and some of the students helped act it out to the song, "Go Light Your World." At the end the students were invited to the front to light their candles to symbolize the light in their hearts. Many stayed after and prayed, hugged, cried, and just loved on one another in our most vulnerable states.

This is the group of us - loving, living, and shining. Now, pray our lights won't burn out!

A Poem for Monday

Today we return to our school hallways after a craze-filled weekend at the Student Spiritual Retreat at Lago de Yojoa. I don't know how I am functioning, but praise God I got through my first class this morning and now I'm on to counseling and grading.

I wrote this poem awhile back and I wanted to share it here. Right now it's especially poignant after returning from such a spiritually climactic and emotional experience ... deception comes at us in all sorts of sneaky ways.

DECEPTION
at first small and simple,
a careless mistake
committed in ignorance
not a habit to make

but slowly, without warning
our habits do form
and gradually we justify
without intention, we conform

like a bothersome creature
heavy on our backs
it grows only bigger
takes us from the narrow path

neither ignorance now
nor mistake can it pass
we’re stuck wondering how
it happened so fast

with great attention
and certain, steady care
we’re drawn to His side
to find solace there

with not one mention
of our frivolous retreat
we're wrapped deep in His arms
with love on repeat

Please pray for Christina, as she is on a mission trip to Florida with her high school students! Pray that the group would grow in grace, Truth, and shine as lights for Christ!

not to us, but to Your name

So, the past two days have been a blur of blessing - absolutely none of which can be attributed to my own hand. I can truly say that God has orchestrated these events to reflect His glory alone. I don't know how to keep the story short, but I also don't know how to keep my eyes open right now, so I have a bit of a dilemma.

I will do my best at a summary version and add some photos to help you visualize. Okay, so there's this group from a Christian high school in Dallas, Texas that has been praying for seven years that they would have a connection with our students at Pinares. They come here every year on a mission trip to work at the orphanages and do service projects in the area outside of Tegucigalpa. One of their teachers/leaders is a former Pinares student and has a strong passion to reach the most apathetic of our students by getting them out and doing service.

Well, on Friday I received a note in my box and started fielding questions from students who received a letter saying they were going to translate this week and I was the advisor/sponsor for the trips. I had no idea. I mean I really knew nothing about any of it until Monday mid-morning. Random doesn't even quite describe how absurd and persistent the events were.

After much chaos, I packed 12 tenth graders into a van with myself and a driver and off we went. And praise the LORD for the way HE works, prepares, coordinates, guides, reflects, and moves! The same story today with eleventh graders. They got back on the bus and said, "Miss, I've never been in a public school before. All my years in Honduras and I've never been in a public school. We should do this more often!" (And I'm going HELLO! yes!) We talked all the way home about visions for really capturing the fire they felt on the streets today.

One part of the 'translating' that my students did was for street evangelism... and that's a whole other story for other days. But, wow. God is so so good!

Okay, here are some pictures!

What I've been up to

Maybe I should name the post "When I've been up 'till" instead, but that's pretty big news!

Bedtime since moving down here (actually since graduating from college) has been on a steady downhill roll until this week. We have the student retreat coming up this weekend and we are really feeling the opposition pressing in heavy. It's been hard to recruit students and convince them it's something worthwhile.

It's so rough trying to make things cool, you know? High schoolers are just obsessed with making sure things are 'cool,' even down here. But, we are praying and hoping that the Lord will bless us with a group that wants to be real. Forget cool. That's what I say.

And that's how we ended up with this outrageous video to promote the weekend.

Seek me with all your heart

In my devotions this morning, I was reading about Zacchaeus... you know that "wee little man" you sang about as a child? I tried to separate the Sunday school image and focus on what the Lord is saying through His Son's actions.

I stumbled on this verse in Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 29:13 says, "You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart."

You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

Sorry, I've been repeating it in my mind all day and I really think the repetition is finding a solid, steady groove in my soul. I am taking such comfort in the knowledge that God's promises are never empty - so when he says I will find him, I believe it!

But, what's holding my heart in conviction today is the last part of that verse. You will seek and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

Tonight I'm exhausting, but remembering the same promise God gave me at the beginning of the day, "Seek me with your whole heart, child and you will not be disappointed! I am here!"

Zaccheaus found. Jesus saw into his heart that he was desperate for even the sight of Him... and the Son did not disappoint.

Honduran Horizon (late for February!)

I'm late. I hate making excuses and apologies for this ... so I'm going to skip it.

This month has been an absolute craziness. Sometimes I can't believe I've been here seven months already and other times I am frustrated that it seems I'm only at the beginning. Regardless, I am learning and growing and living. I think that's pretty important - the living part.

I'm trying to do a good amount of living without letting other things get in the way, like disappointment and Debbie Downers. Have you ever looked around and noticed how many things try to steal your joy?

That's been in a lot of my counseling sessions lately, "Are you going to let that steal your joy?" I guess it's good to repeat because I remind myself at the same time!

Well, I hope you enjoy this edition of Honduran Horizon. As always, just click on this image or this link and then click on February 2009. Let me know what you think! Hopefully it was worth waiting for!

orfanato

Some things about this random life I lead give me inexplicable joy.

This trip to Amigos de Niños on Saturday was one of those things. Here are some pictures - I hope you share in my joy as well! This week, when I have more time, I'll have to give greater detail to the craziest Honduran day yet!

Don't worry - there are more pictures to come!