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.