The Lord Will Provide.

It is a well-known fact amongst our team that The Lord will provide for our trip. He will show us the right families to help, He will enable us to translate the Bible Studies into Spanish, He will equip us physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and financially to go. He will provide.

Our first test has been placed amongst us: fundraising. Although a challenge, fundraising for this trip is also exciting as we get to spread the Word of Jesus while we do it, and not only gather monetary support, but prayer support as well.  The $1,300 we are to raise for this trip is a challenge in and of itself. When plane tickets sky-rocket and are way over what we budgeted, it requires us to raise an additional $150 that we were not expecting. But instead of getting down about the new challenge, we remind ourselves that the Lord will provide. We have no doubts that we are to be in Honduras, and therefore, we take comfort in the truth that Our God will fulfill what we need.

Our trip is less than two months away: CRAZY. There is so much that needs to be done! As we start checking things off our to-do list, we get a bit more excited about what God will do through us in Honduras!

Studyin' Spanish

Yes, I have picked up an extra "subject" to "study" for the remainder of this semester! My goal is to be a lot more comfortable with some of the high frequency words in the Spanish vocabulary by the time I land in Honduras in January! My favorite thing last year was getting to play with the kids and talk with the families, and I was so thankful that translators were there to help us when we were stuck and couldn't figure out a way to make the words we did know in Spanish work for what we were trying to say. This year, I'm determined to have a better basis of Spanish when we go, so that I can communicate more on my own! So stoked!

Honduras 2012 VIDEO!

It's been 10 months since my first trip to Honduras, and just this past week the wonderful videographer at camp put together a video to describe just a tiny-portion of what our trip consisted of. I thought I would share with all of you guys so that you too can see a glimpse into what this week held for us in Honduras.

Isaiah 6:8

"Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”" -Isaiah 6:8

"Y oí la voz del Señor que decía: ¿A quién enviaré, y quién irá por nosotros? Entonces respondí: Heme aquí; envíame a mí." -Isaías 6:8

So ready and excited to be a servant that God is sending out in January! Until then, I will continue to serve Him here in College Station through the daily parts of life!

"All I Am"

One of my friends tweeted a lyric to the song "All I Am" by Phil Wickham today and I got curious. So, obviously, I went and youtubed the song to listen to it.

LOVE. The song applied directly to missions and related beautifully to my upcoming trip to Honduras. Here are the full lyrics:

"Take these hands

I know they're empty
But with You they can
Be used for beauty
In Your perfect Plan
All I am is Yours

Take these feet
I know they stumble
But You use the weak
You use the humble
So, please use me
All I am is Yours

I give You all my life
I'm letting it go
A living sacrifice
No longer my own
All I am is Yours
All I am is Yours

Take this heart
Set it on fire
Shine it in the dark
I wanna tell the world
Of who You are
All I am is Yours

I give You all my life
I'm letting it go
I live in sacrifice

No longer my own
All I am is Yours
All I am is Yours

I give You everything
To You I belong
Every beat of my heart
The breath in my lungs
All I am is Yours
All I am is Yours

I lift my hands up
God I surrender
All that I am
For Your glory, Your honor, Your faith
I lift my hands up
God I surrender to You

I give You all my life
I'm letting it go
I live in sacrifice
No longer my own
All I am is Yours
All I am is Yours

I give You everything
To You I belong
Every beat of my heart
The breath in my lungs
All I am is Yours
All I am is Yours" 

All we are is God's. That is our purpose here on this Earth, to shine for Him and to bring His Name the glory. We may only have empty hands and stumbling feet, but God uses those to His glory. When we surrender He uses our weaknesses, our strengths, our breath, and our life to bring others to Him. We just have to give Him all that we are!

Popular Words

A while back Aunt Amy sent me a web-site that was pretty neat. The only issue was, she emailed the website to me in July, and I went on a no-email-reading-party from middle of May until about now -- I only read the emails that were from A&M or marked high priority. Probably a bad idea now that I have 248 unread emails... but eh, whatever!

Anyways, Amy sent me this really cool website that is very similar to Wordle, except it can link from blogs and other websites. How neat!? So of course I go on and put in my normal blog, and am in love at what my most used words are and how just from that it pretty much describes me. Camp, water polo, God, Cho-Yeh, and friends were easily among the most used words. I then got interested and put in my Hondruas blog. This was the outcome! I absolutely ADORE that "Sara" is one of the most used words. I still miss that girl EVERY day, and this summer I was able to tell her story to each of my cabins. Excited to know that in 6 months I'll be back down where this journey began - Santa Elena, Honduras!

And The Total Is....

This summer at Cho-Yeh we allowed campers to donate extra money from their Trading Post accounts to our Honduras mission trip fund in order to help us pay for the houses that we will be building. After 10 weeks of camp, Cho-Yeh campers pulled together over $8,000 for Honduras!!

We are also having a huge garage sale at camp and selling all of the unclaimed Lost and Found items from this summer (there is SO MUCH STUFF!), and those proceeds will also go towards Honduras!

I am so excited to see how the Lord is working ALREADY! This time last year, we didn't even know about Honduras, and now we have already begun raising money as a camp! So super stoked!

Round 2!

It is OFFICIAL! I have put down my deposit and I will be heading back to Honduras in January on a mission trip with Camp Cho-Yeh. I am so excited, and although this is still 6 months away, I am super stoked at this chance to go back down. I was SO impacted last winter when I went, and I know that it will be an incredible experience again.

This is still a ways off, but I will be using this blog again as a way to document this journey from start to finish! As I asked last year, please keep this trip in your prayers from the get-go!

HONDURAS- Round TWO!

Getting the Campers Involved

It's time to start thinking about Honduras again! I know, it's only July and the trip is in January, isn't it kinda early? NOPE! The fundraising has already begun! This summer, every week the campers are told about Honduras and are able to contribute to the efforts by donating a couple dollars out of the Trading Post Accounts their parents have set up for them to use to buy snacks and stuff for the week. So far, we have raised over $3000. A single house costs $2000 to build, so we have already raised the money for one family's house! WHOOP!

In the next couple of weeks I will be able to sign back up and pay my deposit to journey down to Honduras again in January and I am SO excited! I was blessed so greatly by this trip last year, and I am excited to have the chance to go down there again!

Please keep this trip, the fundraising, and all of those who are interested and thinking about going in your prayers! Prayer turned out to be SUCH a huge part of the trip last year, and I know it will be crucial again this year!

The little piece of precious that stole my heart -- Sara

Throughout my week in Honduras, there was one little girl that has absolutely captured and stolen my heart -- Sara.

Sara is an orphan that I got the pleasure of loving this week. Listen to these 2 stories, and you will understand exactly why she made an impact on my life in the way she did.

On Tuesday (our first day at the orphanage) I was playing with bubbles with the 4 years and younger group of kids. All of the kids were interacting with each other and loving the bubbles and attention except this one girl. She was kinda sitting off to the side by herself. She looked to be about 2 and a half, and after saying "hola" and sitting next to this sweet child, she allowed me to pick her up and walk around with her while playing with the other kids. After a few minutes you could tell she was getting sleepy and her eyes were getting heavy, and before I knew it she was asleep in my arms. I sat down and was holding her close, and was watching all of the other kids smile and laugh. A lady who works at the orphanage came up to me and whispered in my ear "This is only the second time in Sara's entire life that she has fallen asleep in somebody's arms". Hello waterworks. I got super emotional just holding this little one, and was overcome with the thought that it could have easily been any of us who were in her shoes. I held Sara even closer and tighter than before, and was super sad when it was time for her to eat dinner and time for us to get back on the bus. I reluctantly gave her a big hug and a kiss on the forehead with a promise that I would be back on Thursday to play with her.



Wednesday and Thursday morning I could not get her sweet little face out of my head!! Finally on Thursday afternoon we were back at the orphanage, and as soon as I could get out of that truck I was on the lookout for my little Sara. It didn't take long for me to see her, and she recognized me immediately (I was kinda worried because she was so tired when I had held her the first time). She started running (the cute little 2 year old run/waddle) and about halfway to me she faceplanted. I was expecting waterworks, but nope! She stood right up and ran into my arms. I picked her up and spun her around laughing and tickling her until we were both too dizzy and out of breath from laughing so hard. The same lady who came up to me on Tuesday came back up to me in somewhat of a hurry. She questioned me "Did Sara run at you?" I explained that she had kinda fallen, but she was okay, and you would not believe what she told me: "Sara's legs are bowed and her feet are bent outwards. She has never taken a step in her life and the doctor's said she wouldn't be able to until she gets leg-braces". WHAT? This girl who had never walked in her life had RAN into my arms. I held Sara close as I began to cry. I didn't understand what had happened, but all I knew was this was one special little girl. I spent the next 4 hours with Sara attached to me. She would walk if I held her hands and held her upright, and she loved to be held and cuddled with. Sara loves playing games and squishy dodgeballs. Fruit snacks are her favorite, and she gets impatient when having to sit still too long. She loves music and dancing. She likes to be tickled and loves giggling. She is like me in the aspect that she will laugh so much that she will forget to breathe! I would hold her and then put her upside down, and she enjoyed getting to touch the ground with her hands.

Sara stole my heart this week. She is so precious and full of life. Sara taught me a lot about happiness and love this week, this is one little girl I will NEVER forget! I cannot wait to go back next year and get to hold her in my arms again! Until then, please be praying for little Sara, a long with all of the other precious kids in the orphanage. I miss them all, especially my Sara, SO much!!

"We are going under that?" - Honduras Mission Trip Day 6

FRIDAY - Day 6 (January 13th)

Today is the last day in Honduras :(. We woke up and had a delicious AMERICAN breakfast of cereal (except we didn't trust the milk... it had chunks all in it...). We had our devotional and then packed up and loaded the trucks/buses to leave CEI. While waiting for our driver we got to play our last games of Gaga Ball in Honduras. We are all excited to see if Gaga ball still exists when we come back next year!

We took about a half hour bus ride to a natural park (called some long name that I can't pronounce or even take a stab at spelling) where we took a zip line tour. It consisted of 10 zip lines. The first 8 weren't all that exciting, they were only 20 feet off the ground and you couldn't see much. The 9th one you could see the streams that fed into a HUGE waterfall. Then on the very last one we got to zipline over the 120 foot waterfall. To the right was the top of the waterfall, and it was rushing right next to you! Absolutely breathtaking!

After the zip lines, we ditched our harnesses and went on a "cave tour". Essentially, we went hiking UNDERNEATH the waterfall. The water was beating down on our heads as we journeyed beneath it's beauty. We got to go into some natural "caves" underneath the waterfall to take refuge from the water (it comes down HARD!). After hiking through the waterfall, we got to go cliff jumping! We all leaped off of a 60 foot rock and plunged into the pools of water that are caused from the waterfall runoffs. It was such a thrill! It's funny because ziplines and cliff jumping aren't things that I would typically be super excited about doing, but it was a BLAST! (It probably helped because my second family was surrounding me and we were doing it together). It was amazing!

We then ate lunch at the park where we had fried chicken and french fries. YUM!!!

We had a fairly long bus ride to San Pedro Sula where we went to a native market. It was SO crowded, and essentially isles and isles of the same basic thing. It was still kinda fun to haggle with the Honduran market-people! I ended up buying a "Jesus fish" as we call them in the states with the words "Jesus es mi mejor amigo" on the bottom (Jesus is my best friend).

After the market we went to a VERY nice Bed and Breakfast where we are staying for tonight. For dinner we had some delicious marinated chicken, mashed potatoes, rice, and rolls! For the first time all week we have hot water for showers, and an actual bed. There is also wifi here so we are able to communicate with friends and family back in the states. The game plan for tonight is just hanging out and reflecting on the week.

We leave tomorrow to head back to the states. It's been an amazing week and I KNOW it is going to take me some time to reflect on everything I have learned! It is an experience I know I will never forget. I have definitely fell in love with a nation this week and it's beautiful people -- I know I am going to miss it!!

"This is unreal!" - Honduras Mission Trip Day 5

THURSDAY - Day 5 (January 12th)

We woke up to a breakfast of toast, eggs, beans, and.... yep, you guessed it! Peanut Butter Crackers as a substitute! We had our devotional and then loaded into the trucks to head to the worksite.

We stopped at the house that I was apart of building first to dedicate the house to the family. Seeing everybody together was so special, and the family was SO thankful. It was very hard to leave and say goodbyes to that sweet family.

We then road an hour in the back of a truck to a new site named Conchias. The road trip was unbelievable! The views were breathtaking, and multiple times we made the truck driver stop so we could take in the immense beauty of the mountains. It was unreal!

The truck eventually stopped, and we were all kinda confused. We saw the huge stack of lumber that was intended to be used for this new house that we had taken on building, but we didn't see the foundation that we were supposed to be building on top of. When we asked where it was, we were told to look up the mountain... Yep! 1/4 of a mile straight uphill! The trucks couldn't make it up there, and there was no power up there to cut the wood, so we had to carry all of the wood up the mountain. After finally getting it all up there, we were able to get all of the sides up for the house, so that the next group would only have to worry about the roof.

We made sandwiches there before heading off to the orphanage. It was another sweet day filled with playing with the precious children. (As I mentioned before, a little girl by the name of Sara STOLE my heart, but she is getting a blog post to herself). It was so hard to leave the orphanage and say goodbye to those beautiful and loving children!

We went back to CEI to shower and have dinner before we headed to another church service. We were told dinner was hamburgers, so naturally we all got VERY excited. We quickly realized that it was "seasoned" and baked with relish and cream inside, so it wasn't as good as we were all hoping for. Not to worry, there was plenty of peanut butter crackers going around!

At church tonight there was lots of singing, and Garret (Cho-Yeh's summer camp director) was asked to preach on the spot. The family we built our house for was at church so it was special to get to sing and praise Our King with them! It was neat to sing songs declaring the same praise to the same King in two different languages. That is something I don't think I will EVER forget! Absolutely beautiful.

We spent tonight talking about our days, looking at pictures, and then going through all of the clothes we bought and making an enormous pile of clothes to donate to families and children here in Honduras.

Today was an absolutely beautiful day, and it seems unreal that we only have one more full day left in this gorgeous nation!

"Open The Window!!!" - Honduras Mission Trip Day 4

WEDNESDAY - Day 4 (January 11th)

Today we woke up to a typical breakfast of beans and eggs (aka -- CRACKERS!). After devotional we went to the worksite where we got to paint the house that we had finished yesterday. We painted it a bright blue, the shade that I absolutely love! Painting the house was an interesting experience because we didn't have any ladders, so we used homemade ladders (kinda sketch, but they never broke!), and created our own "ladders" by stacking benches, cinderblocks, and wood to give us the boosts we needed. The kids of the family were so helpful in holding paint for us, or just being somebody to talk with as we painted. They also LOVED to paint, and were great at painting the lower parts that would've required us to squat or bend over for long periods of time. When we were finished, the house looked GREAT!

Back at CEI we had a lunch of tilapia (fish), rice and vegetables. We had a BUNCH of kids show up for day camp, and I spun a jump rope for a group of about 15 girls for most of the time. We would teach them the old songs that we used to jump rope to when we were younger which was a hit! Moises (one guy who works at CEI and only speaks Spanish) helped 10 children accept Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior! SO exciting!

After the kids left, we ran through showers and dinner (spam and beans -- YUCK!) in order to make it to a church service in a village 45 minutes away. The church service was so much fun, and it was neat to see how the kids were such an integral part of the service. They weren't told to shush, or be quiet, and there was never anything separate for them in order to allow the parents "real worship". They were being kids and worshipping God in the process -- so sweet! Before we left we were hugged by every single person in the church. It was so genuine and FUN!

Throughout the past few days, the bus rides for me have always been interesting. I never felt all too great when I would finally get off the bus, and tonight when we fit 32 people on one bus in the dark, it was no exception. About 30 minutes into the bus ride, I could tell I wasn't going to make it another 15 minutes. I ended up having to stick my head out the window to get enough air on me, and still felt miserable. By the time we got to camp I ditched the bus and just sat there for a good half hour before I felt okay enough to walk down to the cabin and roll into bed. It was miserable!

Except for getting bus-sick, today was a GREAT day! Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

"Howdy Y'all! Gig'em Ags!" - Honduras Mission Trip Day 3

TUESDAY - Day 3 (January 10th)

Today we woke up to an "American" breakfast that was really yummy! Pancakes with peanut butter, mmmmm delicious! We also had watermelon and eggs too. After we had time for a personal devotional, we headed off to the job site.

The kids at the site are SO helpful! They are always willing to grab a hammer and drive in some nails, or carry lumber, or hold nails for us, or climb onto the rafters of the roof to help pull up metal to nail in. I loved to compare this situation to what it would resemble in America. In the states, children would be told to stay out of the workers way and not be a bother. These children were in no way a bother, but rather so helpful! We toured the family's old house which is one foot away from their new house, and were shocked to see the one room "house" they were living in. The dad of the family was SO thankful and grateful, he started crying in gratitude and embraced each one of us in a huge hug. His family wasn't going to move into the new house until members from the church came out to bless the home. We finished the house today, and so had some time to just play with the kids. The children knew that we were trying hard to pick up Spanish, and so they wanted to learn some English too. And what happens when a bunch of Aggies are teaching kids English? They learn to say "Howdy y'all!" and "Gig'em Ags!" So cute!

We drove back to CEI and had a lunch of peanut butter sandwiches, chips, and bananas. SO yummy!

Today was the first day that we went to the orphanage in the afternoon. We were at a very nice private orphanage (in comparison to the state orphanages), that was opened three generations ago by an American family. The orphanage is now being run by the original founders granddaughter. They have children from a few weeks to 17 years old. One cool thing that they do is that they pay for their kids education through college (Education is free until 6th grade, then it costs the equivalent of $100 USD) on the condition that after graduation from university, they come back and work for the orphanage for 5 years. The system works really well, because then everybody who works at the orphanage has a genuine love for the kids and is very understanding and compassionate. The orphanage is very well kept, the children are well fed and look healthy, and they even have pet monkeys and dogs (unheard of in Honduras).

When we got there we got to play with the kids for the first bit. I was helping one girl go across the monkey bars when all of a sudden she started giggling and laughing uncontrollably. I looked up to see that a monkey was perched on the monkey bars where Rosa was hanging (or where I was holding her up), and the monkey had her ponytail in its mouth! I quickly pryed her hair out of the monkey's mouth (Rosa still laughing) and ran away from the monkey bars. Everybody from Cho-Yeh saw this happening, and quickly informed me that the monkey was eyeing me. I started walking further away from the monkey bars, and the monkey was watching me. All of a sudden the monkey jumped off the monkey bars (irony -- monkey... monkey bars...) and started chasing me. Literally. CHASING me around the playground!! Geeeesh.

We performed our Lifehouse Skit here too for the older children, and it went really well! At the end of the afternoon, I was playing with some of the 3 years and under children at the bubbles station, when I found this sweet little girl kinda sitting by herself. I picked her up and played with her a while. Her name was Sara and there will be an entire blog post devoted just to this little piece of sunshine that stole my heart!

After the orphanage we drove to a lake and watched the sun set behind the mountains. Beautiful!!

Dinner was chicken and mashed potatoes -- SCORE! I was able to eat safely all three meals today!

We then experienced another round of cold showers, devotionals and worship before quickly falling into our beds and fast asleep. What a gorgeous and fulfilling day in this country that is stealing my heart!!

"Laughter Is A Universal Language" - Honduras Mission Trip Day 2

MONDAY - Day 2 (January 9th)

We woke up early this morning to a 7AM breakfast of eggs, toast, tofu, goat cheese and cantaloupe. We had some time for a personal devotional before heading off to the worksite.

Our worksite was about a 15 minute truck ride away on the highway. And by truck ride, I mean standing up in the back of a truck down the highway. SO MUCH FUN! The family that I was working on a house for was a family of 12. Their neighbors had received a house by the same mission organization about a year prior, so their 14 children were also around. Luckily we had plenty of people there so we could rotate between working on the house and playing with the kids. After the first day we had the entire house framed, had 2 sides finished and had started on the roof!

We drove back to CEI (camp are staying at) for lunch which was the yummy beef thing, rice, french bread, and a banana. Absolutely delicious considering I was dreading this meal!

This afternoon we hosted a day camp at CEI for all of the village children. We had some trouble getting the kids to be able to come because so many were having to work in the coffee fields, but we ended up with around 60 kiddos. It was SO much fun! It was run essentially like Cho-Yeh runs in the summer, and we had a blast getting to love on these precious kids. Our Lifehouse skit went well too -- added bonus!

Before dinner we drove our to CEI's other property and watched the sunset, it was absolutely beautiful! The truck ride over there was very similar to a roller coaster. Since we were on camp property the driver thought it would be funny to go up a hill slowly, stop at the top and teeter, then zoom down the hill. Regardless, it was fun and absolutely gorgeous!

Dinner was beans, tortillas and guacamole -- AKA peanut butter crackers again!

We had worship and a devo after dinner. Worship was fun and we learned some songs in Spanish. When discussing parts of our day, I made the comment that although the language barrier was tough at times, "laughter is a universal language". I love how although these children come from a completely separate world from we do, they still love to laugh and giggle. And those things don't have any language barriers!!

"You Make A Really Bad Drunk" - Honduras Mission Trip Day 1

SUNDAY -- DAY 1 (January 8, 2012)

Today is the day that we made it to Honduras! We all met at Bush IAH around 6:30 in order to begin checking in our bags. We made it through security without any issues (except that my headband made my hair look "suspicious", so I had to be specially screened... The plane ride was interesting, especially landing, but we were so excited to be finally starting our journey that it didn't really matter. When we got off the plane we easily went through customs and were greeted by armed men patrolling the outside of the airport. We had a 3 hour bus ride to where we were staying, but stopped in a city to have lunch at "Power Chicken". It was a yummy meal of rice and meats-- absolutely delicious! Definitely got our hopes up for the rest of the week.

Once we got to the Campamiento Extremo Internacional (Extreme Camp International) we toured camp, sorted our bags, and hung out by playing Ultimate Frisbee and 4 square. We were loving this relaxing time just hanging out with each other! For dinner we had rice and beans, eggs, spam, and tortillas... Let's just say I had a few packs of PB Crackers after that meal in order to atleast have something in my stomach.

After dinner we practiced the Lifehouse Skit that we would be performing Monday and Tuesday for the older kids (If you haven't seen this -- look HERE for a sample. We are hoping to put our own performance online soon!). My role in this skit was a drunk person. After practicing it a few times, Garret (summer camp director) told me that I needed to act happy, not miserable, as I was playing my role. A few times later he told me that I made "a really bad drunk" and he could tell I had never been drunk before! And I was perfectly okay with that!!

Tonight was the first night that I got to experience showering in Honduras. One word. FREEZING! We literally played the Hokey Pokey in the shower in 3 times in order to get clean. Once to get wet, once for soap, and once to rinse off! Making games out of the not-so-enjoyable experience made it a little bit more bearable!

When I laid in my bed tonight, I felt 3 hard wooden slats under my "mattress" supporting the mattress. I woke up to a loud BOOM at some point in the night to find that 4 had broken and my entire body was now being supported by one slat right at my hip bone! Ouchie!

Overall though, such a great first day!

Sneak Peek of the Family!!

We just got this picture of the family that we are going to be helping build a house for. We also got this snidbit about them

"The family lives in the community of El Bambu 15, just outside of San Isidro. This house is for a very poor family, with many children (12 total) ten of them at home and the other 2 live with their grandmother. Also this family has very little education. The family works in the fields planting corn and beans. The property where the house is being built was donated by the municipality."

I am now even more excited to be building a house for this family, getting to share Jesus with them, and love on these precious people!!

24 Hours!

It seems crazy to me that in 24 hours I will be halfway to Honduras. I keep double checking the dates (even though I KNOW that I leave tomorrow) and re-re-re-reading the packing list. I'm glad that there are 20 other people just as excited as I am, because they are people who understand every emotion under the sun that I am feeling and are in the exact same boat. I don't think it will feel like reality until I walk into the airport in the morning and see everybody, but until then I'll keep floating on this cloud that I'm on, and try to focus on things at hand!

Less than A Week!

Less than a week until I will be in Honduras! I am so excited :) Everything seems to be pulling together, and I know that these next few days will be full of last minute preparations. I am quickly realizing that a carry-on is really small, but in reality it is the perfect size for what I need. We are going to be in a village where these people's entire closet could probably fit in my carry-on, it definitely puts the packing idea into perspective.

We found out about this trip in September -- nearly 5 months ago. It seems crazy that after all the fundraising, profit shares, and anticipation, this trip is just around the corner! I couldn't be more excited!!