Things Have Changed

Since being in Honduras the past 4 years, technology seems to have advanced all around me and it's kind of weird coming back to the States for a few weeks and experiencing all of it. Here are a few examples of things I've noticed in the past year or so:

1. 4 square is a game kids at our school play at recess. A game I used to play at recess. Apparently it is a way to "check-in" somewhere.
2. "Checking-In" used to be a process involving at least 2 people...like checking in to a hotel, or at a doctor's office.
3. People in churches, pastors included, used to use an actual Bible. Now many of them use iPods, iPads, iPhones, or whatever similar thing.
4. My parents now know more than I do about the TV and recording stuff.
5. A cell phone that flips open seems to be less popular.
6. People rely more on GPS.
7. It is not necessary for some people to carry around actual books. You can read them all on something that is smaller than my laptop.
8. You can scan a little bar-code thing with your phone and show that to a store for a coupon.
9. You can talk to people through your computer...and they can actually see you and hear you.
10. If you have a certain kind of phone, you don't have to be near a Wi-Fi "hot-spot" to access the internet.


Saying all this makes me feel old. Some of these things are readily available in Honduras. Some are not. And I'm not saying any of them are bad. They just take some getting used to.

How to...

A recent writing assignment for my students was to tell how to do something. I thought they were cute, so I decided to share them with you.

How to Ride a Horse:

1. First get a horse.

2. Then get on a horse.

3. The ride the horse.

4. Then we jump with the horse.

5. Then we go to bed.

6. Then we get a horse.

7. Then we put the saddle.

8. Then we ride the horse.

9. Then we love the horse.


How to Put My Socks:

1. Get socks.

2. Put socks on right foot.

3. Put socks on left foot.


How to Ride the Bicycle:

1. Get out the bicycle of the house.

2. And ride the bicycle.


How to Go to Bed:

1. Go to the bathroom.

2. Brush your teeth to be clean.

3. Put your pajamas.

4. Go to bed.

5. Go to sleep.


How to Watch a Movie:

1. You get the TV on.

2. Then you choose a movie

3. Then you get a coca cola

4. Then you get popcorn

5. Then you watch the movie


How to Get Married:

1. Be friends

2. Then fall in love

3. Then be boyfriend and a girlfriend

4. Then get married

5. Then have a honey moon

6. Then have babies

Talking Coffee Plants

It's coffee season! That means that we have lots of workers from the community coming to the ranch to pick the coffee. They come and are starting to work between 7:30 and 8am. Anyways, sometimes when I'm walking to school in the mornings it sounds like the coffee plants are talking b/c there are people picking coffee,  but you can't see them because the plants are so dense. It always makes me laugh or reminds me of some movie or children's book or something imagining plants that can talk. I always like coffee season because I enjoy seeing some more people from the community and this whole agricultural process if you can call it that. Growing up in Richardson, there wasn't much going on in the way of harvesting any kind of crops, so being here and watching them work with the coffee and moras (blackberries) has been very intriguing.

Chicken Feet

On Monday, one of my students came back to school after lunch and showed me a bag of something that she said she brought for the boys in our class. I didn't think much of it until later one of my boys came up with a chicken foot hanging out of his mouth!! I asked him about it and he said it was given to him by this other student. He thought it was delicious and continued to eat several of them in front of me of course because I thought it was disgusting and was making a big deal out of it. Just when I thought it was safe to uncover my eyes and actually supervise the rest of the kids at recess again, I looked to my right and there was another boy in my class with a chicken foot in each hand taunting me with them! It was disgusting and of course they thought it was hilarious. Then I felt bad thinking that maybe I shouldn't make a big deal about it if maybe it was a cultural thing...but then one of the Honduran teachers reacted the same way I did about them. Here's a picture I stole from my roommate:

3rd grade quotes

Here are some fun quotes from my 3rd graders...just a tiny glimpse into my daily life:

"Guess what? I have a new boyfriend at church. He's really awesome. You know why? He knows how to control the TV."

Me: "Who can tell me what two categories animals are classified into?"
Student: "Ummm....mammals and femammals?"  :)

Me: "God made us different from the animals. Who can tell me what the difference is?"
Student: "Well, animals, when they have babies, they just kinda pop out, but humans have to go to the doctor and have lots of help...and people have to go inside to use the bathroom, but animals can go wherever and whenever they want."

Student: "Miss Hannah, you should be Princess Jelly."
Me: "What do you mean?"
Student: "You know, like on Star Wars?"
Me: "Oh, you mean Princess Leia?"
Student: "Yeah, yeah...that's what I meant."

Student: "Miss Hannah, we should have really hard spelling words this week."
Me: "Like what?"
Student: "Something like....Rock and Roll"

(while working on spelling)
student: "Miss Hannah, I need moist (one of the spelling words)."
me: "I don't understand. You mean you need to know how to spell it?"
student: "No. Don't you know what moist is? We talked about it with the plants. I'm so thirsty, I need moist."
me: "Oh, you mean you need water."
This lead to a discussion about the difference  between moist and moisture, etc.  :)

Mr. Fluffypants

One of my students brought in a caterpillar she had caught today. His name...Mr. Fluffypants. His habitat consisted of a cardboard box with the top cut out of it, and a hole just the size of a plastic "insect-catching- aquarium-thing" turned sideways to fit in the side of it, the whole thing covered with a piece of fabric. Inside this home were sticks, leaves, and several torn pieces of cardboard. I thought they were just regular pieces of cardboard, but it turns out they were a bathroom, TV, remote control, and video game for Mr. Fluffypants.

When it was time for prayer requests this morning, a student raised his hand and asked for prayer for all the people in China to be able to talk about Jesus without getting trouble. (Our Bible lesson was about China). The owner of Mr. Fluffypants then raised her hand and said, "the same...for mr. fluffypants." So I asked if she was saying she wanted all caterpillars to be able to talk about Jesus. This led to a discussion between the rest of my students about communication between caterpillars and rather or not caterpillars talked about Jesus. I tried to end the conversation by saying, "Caterpillars don't talk, and they don't have souls, so they don't talk about Jesus." to which one of my students replied, "But what about Hermie and Wormie? They're caterpillars, and they talk about Jesus?"  :)

She ended up praying for people in the whole world to be able to talk about Jesus.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

It's been raining A LOT here. In the morning it may be sunny and look like it will be beautiful day, but then it will start raining in the afternoon and continue pouring on and off all afternoon/night. I actually love the rain. I love putting on my rain boots and taking my umbrella and walking through big mud puddles. I like how hit cools everything off and how a lot of times the clouds linger over the trees and mountains. I like how sometimes there are thunderstorms with really cool lightning.

Earlier this year we were praying for more rain b/c we were in a drought, but now we're praying for the rain to stop b/c it's causing lots of problems. Part of the main road in the city that we take has collapsed and is impassible. The river has been too high to cross many times. The tractor has been needed to pull vehicles out of the muddy patches on our road. Because of all these things it's taken people anywhere from 1 1/2 to 3 hours to get into the city when it usually takes about 45minutes. As you can imagine, this can be very tiring for those who commute back and forth every day....all this to say, please be praying!

Pray for the safety of those in the city and everyone who has to travel on these roads!

Thanks!

Super Heroes

Today we were reading a book about super heroes. One of my students said, "Right, Miss Hannah, there are no real super heroes?"
I replied with, "You're right. They aren't real people, just pretend."
In all seriousness, the student then responded, "But, dads are super heroes. They do lots of really cool things like make breakfast for us every morning!"

July Newsletter

Spiritual Emphasis Week
“Reconstrucción Total” (Total Reconstruction) was the theme of our Spiritual Emphasis Week this year at the ranch. It was named after the Spanish version of the TV show “Extreme Makeover Home Edition.” During this week we explored four different types of relationships we have: our relationship with God, our relationship with others, our relationship with ourselves, and our relationship with the world and its resources. We discussed how each of these relationships is broken by sin and needs “total reconstruction” through our relationship with Christ.


During this week, we cancelled school for the week and had somewhat of a “retreat” here on the ranch. Every morning we opened the day with an hour session including a time of worship, an icebreaker and a brief message regarding the theme of the day. Each day we focused on one of the aforementioned themes. After the morning session, our preschool through fourth graders participated in various activities related to the themes while our older kids and some of their families attended workshops taught by teachers, parents, and a couple of our guests. After the workshops the whole family came back together by a time of activities designed to explore the dynamics of the family and help them figure out how to work through various problems they may be having. Each day was concluded by a short time of worship and reflection.

On Tuesday night, we transformed our meeting room by placing as many candles and oil lamps as we could around for an intimate time of worship. On Wednesday, we had day of service with groups going to the city to pour concrete floors and help another ministry with a feeding program, while our youngest kids stayed to do a gardening project at the ranch. On Friday, we ended the week with a fun party at a nearby pool. We enjoyed some typical Honduran food and ended the night with another time of worship and reflection.

It was amazing to see how God worked during this week. At least two of our children accepted Christ and several of them came to some meaningful realizations. I know God is doing even so much more than this. Please pray with us that the kids would remember what they’ve learned this week and that God might use this week as a milestone in their lives.

Blackberries are Everywhere!

We grow blackberries here at the ranch. There are berry patches lining the road between my house and the school. It’s currently blackberry season and I think this is the biggest harvest of blackberries that I’ve seen in the past 3 years that I’ve been here. We have workers picking them during the day. Once they’re picked, they’re taken to our “Casa Grande” where they are made into jam, jelly, juice, and dried to make teas. The jam, jelly, and teas are then sold to visitors and teams that come through as a fundraiser for the ministry. A lot of the families pick the berries and make homemade cobblers, pies, cakes, and smoothies. On the way home from school, the blackberries make a nice snack for all of us too!

New WGO Website!

Our WGO website has been updated! It looks amazing and has lots of interesting information on it. Even if you’ve read stuff on the old one, you should look at the new one. Maybe you’ll learn something new! Here’s the link: World Gospel Outreach

I would appreciate your prayers for these things:

• Pray for the transitions of the new teachers coming and old teachers and other missionaries leaving.

• Pray for the continued spiritual growth of all our kids.

• Pray for a strong beginning of the school year with teachers and students adjusting to their new classes. (School starts August 2nd)

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and encouragement!

Find me on facebook to see more pictures!

"God Responded to Us"

Every morning during our Bible time, we have a time for prayer where we can share prayer requests. A month or so ago, we prayed for more teachers at the ranch. I had forgotten that we had even prayed for this as a class. The other day I was sharing with my class that a new teacher was going to come. One of my students got real excited and said, "God responded to us!" It took me a minute to realize what he was talking about so I asked him to explain. He said, "Remember a few weeks ago that we prayed for more teachers to come and now there's one coming, so God responded to us!"

This was a good reminder to me to look for ways God answers prayers and praise Him for doing so!

Visitors!

I had a team from my church come to Honduras! Woodcreek church sent a team of a few families to come work at the ranch last week! It was such a blessing and encouragement to have them here. I really enjoyed spending time with them and getting to know those who I didn't know before (which was the majority of the team). They accomplished a lot while they were here. They built a playground at the school, sorted coffee beans for a coffee competetion, dug a trench for a phone line, repaired screens on porches, helped at school, worked on some computer stuff, and probably other things that I'm forgetting right now. We were also able to go to a waterfall, hike up to the pond, eat dinner with families at the ranch, play capture the flag, and have two bonfire worship nights. Here are some pictures from the week:

School Starts Tomorrow!

Our kids come back to school tomorrow. I'm excited to see them after not having them in class for 6 weeks! This semester I'm teaching lots of random stuff. I'm still teaching primarily 5th and 6th grade, but also have my 3rd and 4th grade math class, an ESL class, Chemistry, and Geometry. It will be a little more work refreshing my knowledge of Chemistry and Geometry, but I think I'm ready for the challenge!

I had a great time in the states! I'm glad that I got to see and reconnect with as many people as I did. I returned to Honduras on the 30th of December. The next night was a fun celebration for New Year's Eve. In Honduras, it's a tradition to make a scarecrow looking thing called "Old Man Year." You stuff him with fireworks, and at midnight, you burn him representing the passing of the old year and the coming of the new year. We continued with this tradition and also had games and puzzles going on in the big house to wait until it was time to burn him. I was excited to actually witness this tradition this year. My first year here, I was still in the states for new years and last year I slept through it b/c it was the same day I flew back into the country and I was exhausted. Needless to say, it was a fun night!

Happy New Year everyone!

"I'll be Home for Christmas..."

Well, I'm already home...my home in the states that is. I've been here since December 2nd and will leave for Honduras again on December 30th. I'm about 1/2 way through my time here and have had a great time so far. I've gotten to see family, meet with some friends, meet some new friends, share about what God's doing in Honduras, and other fun stuff too.

I've been cleaning out things in my room at my parents' house, mainly because I'm a pack rat and haven't done so since high school. I've found some fun stuff, given away lots of stuff, thrown away lots of stuff and enjoyed some fun memories that came with the things I found.

My brother Robbie just got married in November. I've gotten to spend time with him and his wife, Mallorie, as well. They were in town for a Cowboys game, so we were going to go to the Fort Worth Zoo. It all sounded like fun, but it was cold and kinda rainy that we planned to go, so we ended up going to the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum and a mirror maze they had there. They had some wierd and random stuff, but it was fun! I'm also looking forward to the beginning of this next week when I get to go spend a couple of days with them in Tyler, hanging out and getting ready for our family Christmas celebration we're having at their apartment.

I have a feeling the rest of my furlough time will go by quickly with Christmas and all that comes with it, so I thought I should post a little update now before I forgot.

Merry Christmas everyone! May God bless you and your family as you celebrate Jesus' birth!

Love According to Kids

A month or so ago, I received an email that had kids' definitions of love. I thought it was cute, so I decided to ask my kids. I gave them an index card and said, "Write down what you think love is." I did this several weeks ago, but I just found the cards :). This is what they wrote:

"When people get kissed."

"[Love] is an expression of the soul and heart."

"Love means that you love somebody like dad, mom, brothers, sister, and girlfriend."

"Love is more than an emotion; love is a dedication, a commitment, a goal, to always care for somebody/something, to the point you'd give your life for them/it; no matter how tough times get."

I thought these were interesting responses for 5th and 6th graders.

Thanksmas Christgiving

Tonight we had a Thanksmas Christgiving party. This combination of Thanksgiving and Christmas stemmed from the fact that some of our "family" aka coworkers here are going to be gone for Thanksgiving, yet we wanted to share a Thanksgiving type meal together. We also wanted to have a Christmas party before everyone went home for furlough, so it seemed like the perfect combination. We had all the traditional food that you might have at a Thanksgiving or Christmas meal (except we had chicken instead of turkey b/c it's cheaper), had a "Secret Santa" gift exchange, and played a few Christmas games. Our table was set with regular plates, fall/thanksgiving napkins, and Christmas colored cups. Hanging outside on the door were two welcome signs: one that is decorated with a fall theme, and one that says "feliz navidad" with a snowman on it. It was a fun start to the holidays and a great time of fellowship with the family I have here in Honduras. I hope this becomes an annual tradition :).

Happy Merry Thanksmas Christgiving!

Oops!

So...I kind of forgot that I had a blog. Sorry to those of you who read it and have been looking for another update. Umm....let's see...the semester's almost already over! I can't believe it!

This has been a great semester. It's been challenging in many ways, but in those challenges, I'm reminded to seek God and I end up growing from the challeging situations. I've been blessed with great friends that are pretty much like family, so it makes times when I'm missing my stateside family a little easier.

My students have been doing very well! I'm impressed by their hard work and diligent effort that they show (most of the time :)). We've had several big events this semeseter including an Independence Day program, a Day of the Child celebration, and a Culture Day program. We're also looking forward to a Christmas party with the kids and graduation before the semester is over.

I'm currently in the states right now for my twin brother's wedding! Robbie and Mallorie are getting married on Sunday! One of the ladies at the ranch is subbing for me so I can be here to celebrate with them. (Thanks again Jaylene!) I'm excited to be here for this special occasion and look forward to seeing a lot of family and family friends that I haven't seen in a while!! After all the craziness of the wedding festivities, I'll have a few days to rest at home and get ready to head back to Honduras to finish out the semester. I'm also looking forward to spending the majority of the month of December in the states and being able to spend Christmas here with my family.

Please be praying with us for more teachers! We need several more North American and Honduran teachers for next semester (beginning in January)! If you're interested, please let me know!

As always, thanks for all of your prayers and support!
-Hannah :)

1st week of school...year 3 :)

We just completed our first week of school! I enjoy all my classes and kids that i'm teaching. This year, i'm teaching pretty much the same kids as last year, but now they're in 5th and 6th grade instead of 4th and 5th :). My kids keep making fun of me because i keep saying how much they've grown since I first got here 2 years ago. I'm teaching all the main subjects (Bible, Science, Math, Grammar, Reading, Spelling) to 5th and 6th grade as well as a 3rd and 4th grade math class. I have 2 5th graders, 2 6th graders, 2 3rd graders and 2 4th graders.
Here are some funny quotes from the week:

When we were on our way out to recess:
student-"mmm...it smells like recess!"
me- "what does recess smell like?"
student- "like freedom!"

While videoing another student with the black and white feature on my camera, one of my students said, "Look, it's like i'm videoing in the 90s!"

We were learning about different types of numbers (cardinal, ordinal, nominal) in math. For one of the answers, one of my students said, "you know...the one like the fair....like...carnival or whatever"

It's my goal to update the blog more often this school year! Thanks for all your prayers and support!
-Hannah :)

Summer Newsletter

Here's a copy of the summer newsletter i sent out a few weeks ago:

Hannah’s Honduras Update
Summer 2009

Dear friends and family,

I hope this update finds you and your family doing well. This has been a busy, yet productive summer complete with graduation, a medical brigade, staying in houses, Spanish class, furlough, and getting ready for school to start again.

In June we had a graduation ceremony for our Kindergartners, 6th grader, and 12th grader. It was a great time of celebration of these students as well as the accomplishments of our whole school. The week after graduation, I was able to go on a medical brigade with the other side of our ministry. I really enjoyed getting to spend the week with several other people from the ranch, as well as a few people from the church I was able to work with last year. God stretched me in some new ways, I was able to share the gospel with several people, a couple people accepted Christ, I was able to practice my Spanish, and hang out with a lot of kids. It was a great week. To read a more detailed account, please visit my blog: http://hannahhonduras.blogspot.com.

When our house parents are gone from the ranch for any reason (whether it be for furlough, their monthly days off, medical emergency, etc), one of us stays in their house until they are able to return to the ranch. This summer I stayed in several houses for a couple of nights. I enjoy doing this during the summer because I can see some of the kids that I don’t usually see as often and get to know them better.

We had a lady come in from the city this summer to teach Spanish classes to the missionaries on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I was able to participate in these classes for a couple of weeks before I went back to the states for my 2 weeks of furlough. I feel like I learned a lot and was glad to have this opportunity to learn more.

July 3rd-17th, I was able to go back to the states for a quick furlough. It was encouraging to see some of you and catch up with what’s going on in your lives. I was also able to go visit my brother Robbie and his fiancé, Mallorie and hear about more of their wedding plans.

Since my return on the 17th, I’ve been busy staying in more houses and getting my classroom ready for school to start! I begin my 3rd year of teaching here in a couple of weeks and I can’t wait! I’m excited to teach the same kids that I have taught for the previous two years. This year, they’ll be in 5th and 6th grade.

You may have heard about the political situation going on here in Honduras. If not, I encourage you to look it up on your favorite news website. Almost a month later, there are still demonstrations and protests in the city where we go at least once a week. Thankfully, most of these demonstrations and protests have remained peaceful. As a ministry, everyone is safe. We’re being cautious and aware of days that we go into the city, etc. Please pray for the country of Honduras and this situation, that God’s hand would be in it and that it would end quickly and peacefully.

Thanks again for all of your prayers and support!
Hannah Dakel
Hannah.dakel@gmail.com
www.wgoreach.org


“In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now…” -Philippians 1:4-5

Medical Brigade

This is a long post because I had a busy, yet exciting week...there's also pictures on facebook if you're interested in seeing them :)

Here's the short version if you don't have much time:

This week I went on a medical evangelism brigade in the city with the other side of our ministry. I had fun and had a great week. God is good and taught me some cool things.

But there's so much more, so you should read my long version:

Medical Brigade #2109- June 14-20, 2009

I worked this week with a medical brigade in the city. The team I worked with was a “first” for the ministry…a “hybrid” team of a ranch construction team, the original medical team from woodland park, Colorado, the ranch interns, Emily Schultz, Tammy Lis, Jae, and me. It was a great week and God worked in many ways.

I was glad to get to work alongside the woodland park team again this year. Jae, Brett, and I worked with them last year and were excited to hear that they were returning. It was a fun week of catching up on the year and growing closer to each other as we served together.

When I talked with Kelly (the team leader), she asked where I would like to work during the week. I told her that I didn’t care, and just to put me where they needed people. She put me in the Evangelism station. At first, I was nervous about this and actually kind of dreading it, because even though I’ve had lots of evangelism training in the past, I felt like I had no idea what I was doing. Because I was a little nervous, I was able to sit with Janene, one of the ladies on the team, and listen to her all morning before I had my own station. After lunch, I felt ready to begin on my own, so along with Manuel (my translator), I talked with about 10 different people on Monday afternoon. I was praying the whole time b/c I had no idea what to do or say and God worked in mighty ways. We had 3 people accept Christ for the first time, one man recommit his life to the Lord after a struggle with all kinds of temptations, and a couple of people who said everything made since, but they just weren’t ready yet. WE also had several people who were already Christians come through our station. We were able to pray for them and encourage them in their faith. One of these people was a guy who looked about my age or a little younger. He said his son lived in the area, but that he lived an hour away. He was asking for prayer for safety because he had recently become a Christian and decided to leave a gang. He said he never felt safe and needed prayer. I thank God that I was able to hear all of these people’s stories, and that Manuel and I were able to share the Gospel and our lives with them.

On Tuesday, we worked at the same church, but I was stationed in the children’s area. This is my favorite area to work in. Once again, God used me to share the Gospel with several groups of kids using the colored bead bracelets. Before lunch, I was taking a break and a little girl came up and gave me a hug. We started talking and she hung out with me for the rest of the morning. I found out that her name is Angie, she is 8 years old and lives with her grandmother because her mom is living in Mexico and she doesn’t know where her dad is. We talked for a couple of hours that morning and quickly became friends. She told me that she is a Christian and that she and her grandma come to church every week. She asked if I could come live in a house that’s empty next to her.

On Thursday I was in Evangelism in the morning and dental in the afternoon. Once again, I worked with Manuel and we were able to talk to several people. The first lady that came to us was an 85 year old woman. She loved God and loved to tell everyone what He had done in her life. All we really had time for was to say hello and then she started telling us her life story. It was encouraging to see such a strong believer and a good way to start the morning. Thursday morning was also encouraging because many of the people that we talked to were already Christians, and one lady accepted Christ for the first time. In the afternoon, I helped in the dental area. I helped with a couple of patients when I noticed that a north American from a different church was very interested in what was going on and I was kind of grossed out by it all, so I asked if he wanted to help. He said he’d love to, so he stayed there all afternoon and I was able to go hang out with the kids. After the crowds kind of died down, a few of the kids were hanging out with me and one of them asked me to teach her English. Before I knew it, five or six kids were around me wanting to learn. I was able to teach them a couple basic conversational phrases, colors, numbers, and the alphabet. It was fun. The little girl who originally asked to learn stuck around me for the rest of the afternoon until I told her it was time for us to go. I learned that her name was Stefany; she’s nine years old, and lived right down the street from the church. She said that she started learning English at her school; but that her teacher had left and she wanted to learn more so that she could teach her cousins. She asked what time I’d be back the next day and if I could teach her more. I told her when I’d be there, but that I may have to work in another area and may not be able to teach her anything.

Friday was a crazy day. We had about 55 kids come through the children’s station in the morning, but the crowd dwindled about an hour before lunch time. Luis, the brigade manager, asked several of us if we wanted to go for “a little walk” to go see the house where part of the team was putting in a concrete floor. This “little walk” turned out to be about a 45 minute hike up and down lots of streets, across a suspension bridge, and all through a neighborhood. It was a long and tiring walk, but I was glad to get to meet the family that was receiving this floor, and the floor being laid. Friday afternoon, my new friend stefany came back, but I was very busy. The first group that came through, started with 35 kids (they’re usually around 20 in each group), but by the time the songs were finished, 50 kids were in the group. After they hear the story, they receive a gospel bead bracelet, and get their hair checked and treated for lice if needed, washed, combed, and styled. At one point during this time, our tent started falling down, so I was holding it up as well as I could with my head while putting lice shampoo on a girl’s head. It was pretty crazy. Because there were so many kids, we got a little backed up, but God allowed things to go smoothly despite the large number of kids. Stefany followed me around all afternoon and helped with whatever I was doing. We were able to talk occasionally, but not very much. After the afternoon construction group came back, they were very helpful in the children’s area, and eager to help wherever needed. It was a huge blessing. When everything slowed down, and we were cleaning up, Stefany still stuck around and helped. We talked some more and she asked me to pray for her house b/c she was worried. She and her family lived in her house, and a family lived in the house above hers. She said with all the rain we’ve been having, that pieces of the house have been falling into her house. When it was finally time to go, she wrote down her name on a piece of paper for me and I wrote down mine on one for her. She gave me a big hug and walked home with her sister. It was sad to say goodbye, but I know I’ll see her again someday in heaven.

This was a great week of fun, fellowship, and serving, prayer, learning, and once again experiencing the way that God works. I’m thankful that I got to spend this week at the mission house, especially with this team, and I hope to serve alongside them again next year.

Spanish Church

This morning I went to a spanish speaking church. I usually go to an English speaking church, and i like most things about that church, but I've been considering for a long time switching to a spanish church. I went today with a couple of other teachers and a new missionary here that is looking for a spanish church. All that to say, i really enjoyed it! I don't know if it's because it's something new or what, but i found it very refreshing and i was encouraged that i understood the majority of what was being said. that's what's held me back before. i wasn't sure if i could understand enough for it to be worth it, for me to grow at all from church. I can say today though, i understood most of it, and only got lost when he started talking really really fast. This summer and next semester, I think I'll try going to different Spanish churches and try to find one that I like.

I've also decided recently that i need to be working on my spanish more, specifically my speaking. I can understand a lot of what's being said, but my spanish conversational skills are a little rusty. i feel like i'm forgetting a lot of the basic stuff i've learned a long time ago....like basic greetings and present tense verbs. it's kinda sad. So, that's a new goal of mine...to speak more spanish to practice, and not care if i mess up a lot to start out with, because i know i will, but that's the only way to learn and be confident in my Spanish speaking abilities. Going to a spanish speaking church will help with this goal, too :).

Solamente tenemos 3 mas semanas de la escuela! (translated: we only have 3 more weeks of school)