A tiny little taste...

This video is just a tiny little taste of what I do in Honduras. Enjoy!

Fall Newsletter

Literacy Program in the Community

Our ministry has started a new program in the community on Wednesday afternoons. We have a literacy program where our older kids are able to teach adults in the community how to read and write in Spanish. While the adults are in their classes, we have a program for their kids. I have been helping with it. A typical day consists of singing songs, telling a Bible story through a skit, puppet show, etc, praying, and learning a Bible verse. The goal of these ministries is to get the kids here at the ranch involved with reaching out to the community and sharing Christ with them. There are several teachers and one of the Honduran house parents that are helping to plan everything and the WGO youth is slowly taking on more and more responsibility. So far we have taught about the parable of the Lost Sheep, the Prodigal Son, and the Parable of the Sower. For the month of October we had the theme of “Trusting God” and told the stories of Job, Joseph, and the centurion in Matt. 8, and Joseph. For the story of Joseph, the kids enjoyed making tie-dye t-shirts. I have enjoyed this opportunity to work alongside the youth to minister to the kids in the community.

Concrete Floor

On September 29th, many of the teachers, families, and other missionaries from the ranch had the opportunity to help put a concrete floor in the house of one of our house assistants, Betulia. She is an assistant in one of our houses of boys we have here at the ranch. The house has six boys, ages 1-17. Although she works at the ranch, she lives about 10 minutes down the road. It’s hard to judge distances because the roads are bad and it sometimes takes a long time to go a relatively short distance down the mountain. Many of the houses in the community only have dirt floors. Their walls are made of mud bricks, and are easily washed away when there is lots of rain. We were able to mix and pour the concrete floor for her house, and work in her yard. We made a new flower bed for her and cleaned out a lot of weeds and things that were beside her house. When all the work was completed, we had the opportunity to pray for Betulia and her family. This was a fun day to work with some people at the ranch that we don’t usually have the chance to interact with while helping Betulia, who has been a huge blessing to the ranch.

Celebrations at School

Honduran Festival

Honduran Independence Day was in the middle of September so we had a “Honduran Festival” at school. One Thursday afternoon the Honduran teachers and some of the kids prepared a program for the rest of the ranch to teach about the history of the country, some of the national symbols, and different regions of Honduras. A few of the house parents also prepared Honduran food for us to try. A lot of their food includes plantains, yucca root, beans, tortillas and rice. Most of it was pretty good, and all of it was definitely different! I enjoyed this time to learn more about Honduras and try some of the food.

Day of the Child

Another celebration we had at school was “Day of the Child.” This is basically like a Father’s Day or Mother’s Day would be in the states, but this one is for kids. They get all kinds of candy and toys. One morning at school, each of the primary grade teachers came up with a game for the kids to play. We spent the morning playing games and then ended the morning with the kids hunting for bags of candy that we had hidden outside the school. It reminded me of an Easter Egg hunt. The kids (and teachers) enjoyed this fun little break from the routine of a normal school day.

Home for the Holidays

I’ll be back in the states from November 23rd-January 2nd! I’m looking forward to this time at home to see my friends and family. I will miss everyone that I’ve developed some great friendships with, teachers and students, over these past four months. After spending pretty much all day everyday with them, it will be weird to not be around them for several weeks. I would love to see you while I’m in the states! Email me or call me so we can work something out. I’ll be in New Orleans for several days in December, but I should be in the Dallas area for the rest of the time.

2008-2009 School Year

After a lot of prayer and thought, I have decided to extend my initial 1 year commitment for another year. So, I’ll be here for next school year too! I’m very excited about this because I love being here and feel like it’s where God wants me right now. Thanks to everyone who was praying with me about this! You should be receiving an email over the next couple of weeks regarding additional financial support needed, so please be praying about that. I look forward to going home for the holidays so I can talk about it with some of you in person.

Cute Quotes

“Miss Hannah, why do I have to multiply my choices?” –One of my students after seeing a multiple choice section on a test… and again the other day, “Why do I have multiplication choices?”


“Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness! I really want to say God’s name in vain right now, but I can’t!”- One of my students after hearing that a container filled with shipped from the states with personal belongings had finally arrived at the ranch.

Contact Information

I have enjoyed getting emails and a few cards from people! Please continue to send them my way! They are good reminders that I have people praying for me at home and I love hearing about what’s going on while I’m gone. I promise I’ll reply to emails and return letters…it just may take awhile. It takes about 3-4 weeks at least for me to get letters and cards and I have to wait until there is a team here to send them back with. There’s not a reliable mail service here, so when we want to mail things to the states, we ask a team to mail them for us when they get back.
The best address to mail things (letters and cards only please) to is in Miami:

Hannah Dakel
World Gospel Outreach
TGU 144
P.O. Box 02-5387
Miami, FL 33102-5387

(If you would like to send a package, please contact me for the best place to send it.)
My email address is Hannah.dakel@gmail.com.
You can read WGO’s most current newsletter online at http://www.wgoreach.org/.

Prayer Requests:
· Pray for the kids, that they would have a great attitude about school and be ready to learn new academic and spiritual things each day.
· Pray for wisdom when answering spiritual questions my students have.
· Pray that I would continue to develop strong relationships with the youth here at the ranch.
· Pray for unity and healthy relationships between all the teachers and other missionaries here.
· Pray for a safe and refreshing time back in the states for the holidays.

Thanks for all your prayers and support!

It's been a while..

I'm still alive! Our internet hasn't been working for a while, so I haven't been able to write anything.

Everything here is still going well! We only have a week and a half left of school in the semester! I can't believe time has gone by so fast! We have graduation on the 21st for our 6th graders. The Honduran school calendar ends in November. Two or three of our kids who are in the spanish curriculum will be graduating on that day! It should be a fun day. Many of the teachers are planning things for their students to do for graduation...it will be kind of like a talent show/program kind of thing. I'm not doing anything with my kids b/c they are already doing things with several of the other teachers....music, spanish, etc.

The community program with the kids has been going really well too. This past week, they made tie-dye t-shirts after talking about the story of Joseph and trusting in God. The kids loved it and the shirts turned out really cute! Here's a picture:

In other news, I'm coming home in a couple of weeks! I'm excited about it, but it will be sad being away from here for about 6 weeks. I'll be in the Dallas area for most of the time and in New Orleans for about a week. I'd love to see you if you're around!!

And about my newsletter.... my fall newsletter will be coming by the end of the month. I apologize for the lack of updates. I've been really busy and like I said before, the internet hasn't been the best, but I hope to see you soon and then I can update you in person!!

As always, thanks for the prayers and support!

Blessings

On the way into the city today, I was reminded of how blessed I am to be in this beautiful country. It's a blessing to have nice accomodations at the ranch. I'm blessed to be able to teach these kids. I'm blessed to be teaching with some awesome Christian people that are all here for the same reasons. I'm blessed to be developing some wonderful friendships with these teachers. It's a blessing to be in the middle of God's beautiful creation. I'm blessed to have family and friends at home who love me and pray for me.

I love being here and feel incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to be here and love these kids!

90+ Days!

So, this past Friday, October 12th was my 90th day in Honduras! I can't believe that I've already been here for so long! The only reason I know that it's been 90 days is because I had to go to immigration last Wednesday in order to get my visa renewed. I wasn't really looking forward to it because I'd heard some horror stories about it, but it really wasn't that bad. The lady at the window in the line we got in even spoke English which made things a lot easier!! The only bad thing that happened was at first we asked for 60 days, but when we got in the line to pay, they had the price for 30 days. Thankfully someone in our group noticed before we paid and we were able to go back and explain the problem. Anyways, now I can legally be in the country for another 60 days. It's also weird to think about that I'll be home on furlough in less than 60 days. It will be sad to leave here after spending everyday with the kids and teachers, but it will be a nice break and good to see friends and family! I'll be home from November 23-January 2nd in case you were wondering :). I'd love to see any of you that I can during that time and share a little about what's going on here and catch up with you on what's going on there.

These last few weeks have been busy, but fun. Honestly, they have all kind of run together, so I can't really think of what I need to tell you guys about. I had my first Spanish phone call today, and it was successful! I was able to understand pretty much everything that was said, and I'm pretty sure the person I was talking to was able to understand what I was trying to say. That was exciting! I just need more practice speaking Spanish. All but a few of the kids here are bilingual, so I don't get a lot of opportunities to practice. There are several of the teachers and houseparents, though, that know little to no English, so it's good to occasionally practice with them.

OK...I was debating on whether or not I should include this or not yet, but I've decided that some of you probably already know and it's exciting, so I should tell you :). I've committed to stay here for another year! So, I'll be here for the 2008-2009 school year as well. I'd been thinking and praying about it a lot and I feel like God isn't calling me elsewhere right now, so I feel like I should stay. It sounds like right now, a lot of the teachers are planning to stay, so that is exciting! It's kind of funny. No one is being really open about whether or not they are staying or where they are in the decision making process. It's good though, so we won't be staying just because someone else is, or for the wrong reasons.

I'm working on a September/October Newsletter that should be finished soon, so you'll here more details then. I apologize for that delay. I've been slowly getting some of my pictures organized so I can include some new ones on there.

Here are some prayer requests as usual:
1. Pray for the health and safety of everyone involved with the ministry. Several people have been sick recently and 2 of the girls have hurt their ankle/leg. Also, we've had a lot of rain lately, so the road that we take down the mountain is really really muddy and hard to drive on. There are tons of holes and it is very slick and easy to get stuck in. Today one of the teachers got stuck when driving to school from the city, so someone had to go help them out. You can be praying for a safe commute to and from the ranch.
2. Pray for wisdom and guidance as many people are trying to decide about whether or not to stay for another year. It's a hard decision to make, especially this early.
3. Please continue to pray for patience and energy as i teach. I love it, but some days are hard :).

Thanks, as always for the prayers and financial support! Love y'all!

A fun day!

I had a very blessed birthday today! The day was full of one fun thing after another. this morning as I was getting ready for school, I received a phone call from one of the Honduran house parents here telling me what a blessing I was here and how God has a special plan for me being here, etc. Once I got to school, the teachers all had a little party for me before classes started. At the beginning of the school year, we all drew birthdays of each other so that each of us would be responsible for the celebration of the birthday of someone else. One of the Honduran teachers drew my name, but i didn't know it until this morning. We're supposed to go to a meeting at 8:10 every morning where we pray for the day and discuss any important items of business that we may need to know about before classes start at 8:20. ANYWAYS, as I was headed toward the meeting, one of the other teachers called me aside to "talk to me about 2 of his students who i teach ESL to" as a little distraction while they finished getting everything ready. They gave him the signal that everything was ok so I entered to them singing "Happy Birthday" in Spanish..."Feliz Cumpleanos a ti," with a yummy cake with strawberries, some popcorn, soda, decorations, a banner, and a card. It was all very nice!

When I got to my class, my students each brought me a little card they made me and little presents. They were all so sweet. One of my students wrote his card in English and Spanish since he knows I'm learning Spanish. One little boy gave me a little octopus he had made out of yarn in art class a few weeks ago. He also included a "necklace from that place....you know...Hawaii!" the necklace is one of those little plastic leis :). My other gifts included, a little beanie baby blue jay, one of those little flexible rubber mickey mouse toys, flowers picked from the yard, and a cd complete with 2 Michael Jackson songs. Jae's class also came in to sing happy birthday to me, and she had her crafts class make "graffiti signs" for me.

Tonight, Jae and I were invited over to dinner at one of the other teacher's house. We had a nice little dinner complete with a yummy carrot cake from Jae. After that, we went to a meeting where we were planning this next month's lessons for the community outreach kids' thing we've been doing on Wednesdays. In the middle of the meeting, someone wrote a note to the person leading the meeting to sing happy birthday to me. So...right in the middle of the meeting, they sang "Happy Birthday" to me in English, Spanish, and as a rap. It was quite entertaining.

I loved all the emails and little messages on facebook from everyone! I was also able to talk to my mom and leave Robbie a little birthday message too.

Thanks to everyone that made this day so special for me! I've enjoyed every bit of it! It was a real blessing!

The last 2 weeks...

Sorry I haven't updated in a couple of weeks. I've been kind of busy.

I'm not going to include a lot of details in this post because I'm going to try to send out a newsletter very soon with more details.

These past 2 weeks have been good. I've continued to enjoy hanging out with the kids here at the ranch, as well as the other teachers and missionaries. I have a funny story to share. The other night, several of the teachers were invited to a family's house for dinner. This is a missionary family here at the ranch with 5 kids. This story is about their son who is in 2nd grade. While we were eating dinner, the son, Nate, was talking with one of the teachers about playing soccer. Nate suggested that they start up a soccer team of all the kids 10 and under. Nate was going to be team captain and Jason, the teacher, was going to be referee/coach. In order to make things more fair, Jason suggested that they draw straws instead of Nate automatically becoming team captain. Nate thought about it for a second and then said, "No, I think we should play soccer." He thought they would draw straws instead of playing soccer. The story is probably funnier if you know Nate.

You may remember that we caught a mouse that was in our house and kept him as a pet. Well, we took him to school a week or so ago to have a class pet, but he only stayed a day b/c he stopped eating and was pretty much terrified. Well, after coming home from dinner the other night, we came home to find our door slightly open. I was like, "Oh...I wonder if Mickey (a cat that belongs one of the girls that lives in the house above us) came in." Mickey has been known to do that before. Anyway, Jae then said, "If she did, I hope our little mouse is ok." pretty much the same time she said that we saw this:

the mouse's cage had been knocked down off of the shelf where it was, the lid was open, and the little wood shavings were spilled everywhere. Then we found Mickey ready to pounce on something that was under Jae's dresser. That night and the next day we saw no sign of the mouse.

Last night, i came home from the city and saw something dark in the middle of the floor. I realized it was our mouse! But as I came closer to him, he didn't move at all. I was afraid he was dead. Then he slowly backed away, but didn't run like mice usually do. He was so still that I was able to put a box over him until Jae came home and was able to put him back in the cage.

So..now our mouse is back home, but probably a little traumatized from the experience with Mickey.

Yesterday I had another long, but fun day in the city. There was a meeting after church that was supposed to last about 30 minutes. It ended up lasting about 2 hours! 2 of the other teachers and I didn't go in, so we just waited outsided for it to be over. We were pretty bored and starving by the time it was time to go. Afterwards, we went to the mall where I was able to hang out with Kevin, a friend from TCU, who is also in Tegucigalpa doing some mission work. After that, a bunch of people from the ranch went to Ruby Tuesdays for a celebration of Jennifer (another teacher) and my birthday. It was a fun time...and a good deal...2 for 1 appetizers and desserts!

School and everything else is still going well! We've been doing the outreach thing in the community with the literacy program and kid's bible club every wednesday. It's been encouraging to see a lot of the same people come back as well as a few new people each week.

Please be praying for me as I need to decide by November 15th whether or not I'm going to stay for another year. Right now, i'm seriously considering it, and can't think of a reason why I shouldn't stay.

As always, thanks for all of your prayers and support!

Hannah :)