Home in Honduras!

After a delayed flight from Ft Lauderdale to San Pedro Sula, we finally arrived in San Pedro, and enjoyed our first night in a comfortable hotel downtown. We didn’t get to our hotel until 4am, but were able to still get about 7 hours of sleep before getting picked up by my cousin Chris and his friend & driver, Elmer. We had lunch and picked up some necessary items for our home & food items at a grocery store before making the hour long drive to our new home.
None of us really knew exactly what to expect, but Chris had found us a home that is very nice for the area, and we have grown to really like it. Our home has a kitchen, dining room, living room, and 5 bedrooms –they are literally only BED rooms, with barely enough space to walk around after a bed is in place, and one of them is up a spiral staircase that is only accessed by going outside. We have a cooking stove inside the house, which will be handy when the power is out, and we also have a “pila” – a Honduran washing machine, which consists of a cement slab with a drain and a big basin for water. It’s kind of like a washboard, and of course, still works when the power is out. Our housekeeper, Karleni, does an amazing job of getting the clothes clean with it!

It rains here just about every day, and we have a tin roof, so when it rains, it is extremely loud. It kind of helps us sleep better and masks the sound of the numerous chickens that are very noisy. I think all of our neighbors raise chickens! The benefit to this is that we can buy fresh chicken and eggs whenever we want to, but they do make a lot of noise. At first Conan would bark at the chickens, but he is already comfortable with them, and they don’t seem to mind each other. We also have cows living in the field directly behind us… about 3 steps away from our back door. They have a bunch of calves right now and are really cute. I think Conan likes hanging out with the cows, and they don’t seem to mind him most of the time. We also have geckos sharing our home with us and helping keep the bugs under control. The other night we were treated to a “National Geographic” moment when a gecko (we call him Marty) quickly ran down the wall to catch a large bug about half of his size. We watched him kill, eat, & digest the unsuspecting bug… somewhat disturbing but interesting nonetheless.

We have a housekeeper to help keep our home safe and to help us adjust to the many changes around us, and she is a really hard working and sweet girl named Karleni. We are getting better at communicating, but still need a lot of work with our Spanish. We have met a lot of really wonderful people already in the week that we’ve been here, and that has helped make the adjustment go a lot smoother also. The people here are very friendly and helpful for the most part, and we have received a warm welcome.

We have enjoyed 2 Sundays at our new (bilingual) church, and it has been really nice. We are hoping to learn the Spanish praise songs so that we can worship a little better, but the music is beautiful, and the services have been very helpful and uplifting. The girls have attended the young adult group, and are enjoying making some friends there. Every time we have gone into town we have run into people we know, which is really cool.

There is a lot of need in the area, so please pray that we will be able to discern who to help and what we should do to help them. We have an abundance of children living near us, and they absolutely love the girls! The girls have played with them, and they will come to our door yelling, “Natalie, Venga! Chantal, Venga!” (Come here Natalie! Come here Chantalle!) Most of them come from very poor families, but they are very sweet and adorable kids. We had to hang a curtain (it’s a shower curtain, but it looks really pretty, and we noticed that our neighbors also have a shower curtain for their front curtain!) in our front window so that we can have a little bit of privacy.

We are still working on getting the kitchen equipped to start the food program there. There haven’t been enough funds to get the kitchen completely equipped with a stove and refrigerator and all of the necessary utensils, so we are praying that the funding for that will be available soon, and we can get that underway. In the meantime, we are forming relationships with local people and fellow missionaries, helping out at Sister Maria’s, where she feeds children lunch every day, and helping with things in the church as needed. We are really excited to see how God is going to use us here!

Galatians 6:9 Let us not lose heart in doing what is right, for in due time you will reap a harvest if you do not grow weary.

We're leaving on a jet plane... don't know when we'll be back again....

Well, the day we never thought would come is here! We are actually sitting in the airport waiting for our delayed plane to Honduras right now!  All of us are excited and nervous, and thankful that we are finally in this place.  It is so hard to believe that we will be sleeping in HONDURAS tonight!  But getting here was not without a few incidents....

After many emotional farewells, and last minute nightmare of getting all of our stuff in the truck, we went to the Will's home, where we had a relaxing evening with some of our closest friends.  Conan got his ear pierced by the cat, and we cried a lot, then we began our 48 HOUR car drive... First, we dropped Jesse off at University of Iowa. He gave us a tour, and of course, I cried... it is always hard leaving family behind, and I knew that there were still many more goodbyes.

We continued on from there to Ohio to visit the Trowbridge family (Gordon's sister & family), and had a really wonderful time with them - we only wish it could have been longer!  We were able to go to the Amish country, play games, and just have some family fun.

Next on the agenda was a visit to Aly at Mercy in Nashville.  We had a wonderful visit with her, and it was great to see how she is flourishing in that environment - Mercy really is an amazing ministry, and we are incredibly thankful for everything they do. 

After leaving Nashville, we saw a car fire on the highway to Florida... pretty amazing to see!  We were so close that we could feel the heat and smell the fire - no one was hurt, thankfully!  We made it to my parent's home in Pace, Florida, and it was such a relief to just relax for awhile.... kind of.  We had a ton of last minute things to take care of, but in between the work, we were able to enjoy some wonderful time with our amazing family.  We are truly blessed to have such incredible people in our lives.

On Wednesday morning we left for Clearwater, Florida to visit Becca and Chase before heading out to Honduras today!  They have a very comfortable home, and it was the perfect place to rest before our big trip.

My parents drove us to the airport, where we learned that we could not be booked on our flight without a return flight... which we don't have.  All of us were ready to cry, but the Spirit airline agents were very friendly and helpful, and we figured out a "loop-hole" to get us on our flight.  Thank God for laptops and wi-fi... and Nevar (the ticket agent).  He was so nice, we invited him to visit us in Honduras! 

Now we are sitting here at the gate waiting for our airplane to come in... it was delayed 1 hour.  Conan has behaved wonderfully, and is a great service dog.  It is really hard leaving America and all of our family and friends, but it is also an incredible feeling to be embarking on this great journey that all of us know God has called us to make.

Please continue to pray for us as we make this transition.. I'm sure we are in for a lot of surprises - some good, some bad, but all will be learning experiences for us.  We'll keep you posted! My SD card is stuck in the computer, so until I get that problem figured out I won't get new pics.... another prayer request!

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11