Life. Families. Goodbyes

When I left my home to come to Honduras, it wasn't that difficult to say goodbye to my parents because I had been away for a year already on another missions program. I didn't realize how different this would be, to be away from them, life is different than what it was back then. I now have a handful of new family members that I didn't have to say goodbye to 3 years ago. I'm missing out on a lot of things that are happening back home.

I'm here in another country that I never would have imagined back when I left the first time. I am seeing new things, meeting new people, speaking a new language and learning to work with new people. It is quite a challenge at times, but rewarding all at the same time.

This past week I got an email from my Dad, that made me miss home a lot. The familiar of my usual day-to-day routine just seems so inviting right now. But I am here for a reason and meeting the people I am meeting for a reason. I'm living with a family that is not my biological family, but they are still my family.

Each time we leave a ministry that we've been at, I don't like saying goodbye. It is just so sad to think that I may never see them again. But like what Kristen had posted in one of the recent blogs, one of our friends said "If we don't meet again here, we'll see each other in Heaven" Such an amazing statement.

Always be thankful for those that you have in your life. They are there to help you grow and learn new things about yourself, and about life.

Hermanos En Cristo (Brethren in Christ)
We are all family in Christ!

Nikki

 

Some of our small group went out for Baleadas last Saturday

 

Nixon and I sharing Lunch

 

My host sister and I last week at a Birthday Party

 

Kristen and her host brother

 

Myself and a Sister in Christ

 

Mama Sonia

 

Papa Jim with a Brother in Christ

 

Brynne with a Brother in Christ

 

Hanging out with some sisters

 

Kristen and a Sister in Christ

 

Papa Jim and a Brother in Christ

 

Katlyn with a bunch of Siblings in Christ

Sisters in Christ

 



My "STEP" Sisters

 



 

 

My "STEP" Parents

 

 

My Dad

 

Mum and I

 



A Week

A week, it passes by all too quickly when you spend it in a tropical place, when you are caught in a habitual net, or when you perceive it through your rear view mirror. When looking into the future, a week can seem like a lifetime-- seven days and never ending. When there are only a few of them between you and something you desire, they feel like an eternity, and immeasurable expanse of time. It's like running on a treadmill expecting to get somewhere; like swimming in the middle of the ocean.

I feel helpless, my head barely above the water. About to drown despite my efforts to fight the depths that drag me downward. Boats pass offering a false sense of hope. I cry out desperately, but they can't fulfill my deepest desires and leave me feeling even more vulnerable than I did before. I want to give up, I want to submit to the force against me. I can't do this alone, but my Savior walks on water.

-Kate

Stepping Forward

It has been awhile since we have written. You may start to call us slackers, but we spent our past week in a part of the mountains that barely had electricity, let alone Internet. And it was beautiful.

Last week the team made the long and treacherous trip to a tiny town in the mountains of the Honduran/Nicaraguan border. Our mission: to evangelize and teach kids´ club. With our faith in our Spanish waning, a flat tire, and interesting sleeping arrangements, we weren´t exactly thrilled with the week to come. Little did we know that we´d fall in love.

Our first couple of days started out a little rocky. None of us had ever evangelized before, let alone in another language. Feeling out what was expected of us was a challenge. And I had to eat a fish...with a head...and eyeballs. If you knew me, you´d realize just how amazing that is. I DON´T eat fish. Well, now I can say I ´´didn´t.´´

2 Corinthians 2:14
But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us along in Christ´s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume.

A sweet perfume. I can tell you that after climbing all over those mountains, we sure weren´t smelling very sweet, but I pray that our words did.

It can be very easy to get discouraged in times like these. With everything stacked against us, it almost seemed futile to even be there. The seed we were planting is a tiny one, and without being able to watch it grow  and see the harvest, our motivation began to wane a little. But, we are called to it, and though the seed is small, it will grow great, like the mustard plant (Mathew 13:31-32). It says in Zechariah 4:10 ´Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel´s hand.´´ This reminded me of something Sandy told us in training: the promised land was given in inches, not miles. Though it may be small, we are doing something.

As the week went on, we got more comfortable and each of us found joy in our little mountain home. I can´t express how much I loved it there. The open sky, the silence, the simple life; my heart got to wander among the wild things. I felt at home. Getting to take a horse for a ride to Nicaragua may have helped that along a bit. ;)

While saying our goodbyes Friday night and Saturday morning, the pain of loss started pulling at us. We had made friends there. We had adopted the life as our own, the people as our own. It was like I was leaving home all over again.
Thank the Lord for wise people, though. On our last night after service (in the middle of the street), Edgar, a fellow evangelist, came up to say his goodbyes. Not only his smile, but his words touched my heart then.

¨If we don´t met again, I will see you in heaven¨

Now, I´ve heard this before, but in that moment, how profound! This family that we´re accumulating all over the world will be with us again one day.

2 Corinthians 5:0 "Our hearts ache, but we always have joy..."

This week, we are working at a Christian bilingual school and are making another round of friends. Our heavenly family keeps growing, pray that we continue to do so as well. :)

Kris

Comfort

We are now over half way done our time here in Honduras!

Last week we traveled to Costa Rica on a 17 hour bus ride, in order to renew our visas. It was a different experience being there, because their Spanish is a little bit different than what the Spanish is here in Honduras, it was a nice challenge to try and pick up on some new words and sayings. 

On Sunday it was time to make the 17 hour bus ride home. We had to wake up at 2:00am, as the bus was leaving at 4:00am. We made a stop at 6:30 to get some breakfast with the other passengers that were going to Honduras as well. We made new friends from Germany, Australia and Tennessee on our ride. It was about 3:00pm on the bus and we still had not gotten lunch, we were wondering what had happened and found out an hour later that we were supposed to get fed on the previous bus, but since that bus was running late, it never stopped for lunch. We were running on about 3 hours of sleep and one small meal at the beginning of the day. These roads that we are traveling on are not flat either, so we were dealing with motion sickness on top of it all.

It was not comfortable. 

We arrived home a little after 9:00pm and we hadn't eaten sufficient food in 14.5 hours, so we went to Jim and Sonias house for the night to get some food in us and try and rest up for the coming week of ministry.

That never happened. 

We woke up sick! Most of us saying that it's been "the sickest we've ever been". We left Jim and Sonias and went out to lunch but felt terrible after eating. Our host families were trying to figure out how to help us (thank God for them! They were such a blessing during the time of sickeness) we couldn't do ministry because we were just feeling under the weather, and we were away from home, away from family, away from comfortable. 

It's not easy being away from home when you're sick.

Why do we want comfort? Why do we need comfort? 

When I come to the moments in my time here, thinking "It would be so easy to go home right now." It just drives me to not want to go home. I don't want to go back to easy, or to being comfortable. I feel like being here in another country has been the most challenging thing in my life so far. I can't just draw back on the familiar that I've been so used to my whole life. 

Matthew 10:39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

When we are here in another country away from what we've been so used to for 18-21 years, it is sometimes easy to forget that God has us here for a reason. There is a reason why we are away from familiar and comfortable. 
 

The other morning when we arrived at Jim and Sonias house for the first time since we got sick, Sonia shared from the Word:

 

Psalm 3:5-7

I lie down and sleep;

I awaken again, because the LORD sustains me.

I will not fear though tens of thousands

assail me on every side.

 

Arise, LORD!

Deliver me, my God!

Strike all my enemies on the jaw;

break the teeth of the wicked.

 

The Lord sustains us! He is here with us no matter what we're going through! The time might be rough for us as we miss the comforts of the familiar that we've grown up with. But both then and now, God is with us, walking beside us and carrying us when we no longer have the strength or energy to.

We've really appreciated our host families during this week as they have been using whatever resources they have to help us during our sickness. It is a home away from home.

Prayer Requests:

- Pray for all of us as we are still on the mend to being healthy.
- Pray for us as we are heading to the mountains next week to do door-to-door evangelism for the first time. Pray that God will give us the words to speak and the people to meet.
- Pray that homesickness will subside.

Nikki

A nice bowl of chicken noodle soup with potatoes and rice to help us when our stomachs were still weak.