Semana Santa

School vacation. Three visitors. Twenty-three kids. Those three things made the past week very different. Since Honduras is a catholic country, all schools, and alot of workplaces, have the week over for Holy week. Here at the finca that also means that the kids can go spend the week with their families if they want to. Many kids went to be with their families, and for the second half of the week most of the remaining youth went to spend the weekend at the house of a couple who works at the Embassy. That left approximately 23 kids here at the finca for the second half of the week. It was very different, and much more laid back. As I mentioned in my last post, I also had three friends visiting...so it allowed more time for me to relax and hang out with my friends.
Here are some of the things we did...

talked about the armor of God in Bible Study,

made bracelets and earrings with the girls,

 

went swimming late at night,

 hung out with some of my friends who used to live at the Finca,

 had devotions with the girls,

practiced a presentation for the anniversary,

made supper one night for all the kids and adults who live here (pizza!),

...and much more.

Thanks girls for coming to visit!

A Crazy Hike

I should start first by saying that I have three wonderful friends visiting me for the week. It's great to have friends sharing the house with me and showing them where I live and who I spend so much time with.

Yesterday we had the great experience of hiking up the mountain to "Las Minas". (It is one of the national parks) It is a hike that I've been wanting to do for about 2 years but have not done it until yesterday. The original thought was to go up with a few friends of mine who go to a local church. They in turn decided to get a big group together, and take a "picnic" lunch up the mountain with us. The idea of a picnic lunch for me would be sandwiches or burritos--something easy to make and carry along with you on the hour up hill hike to our destination. But this group's idea of a picnic was complete with meat kabobs, rice, chismol, mantequilla, beans, tortillas, fried plantains (which they fried up on the mountain), and soda. It was quite the amount of stuff to haul up the mountain. (I thought that burritos would be just fine...but I was the minority...haha.)

Waiting for lunch...

...and exploring while we waited.

....still waiting....

...ah...good food!

Then after hanging out by the creek for awhile we went to see an old mine.

...and after the mines we hiked down to a different part of the creek and took a bit of a precarious trek along the creek to arrive at the water fall...the crazy trek was worth it to see the falls. When we arrived at the fall the Hondurans, and Jackie, ran under the fall and enjoyed splashing each other. I personally stayed far away, knowing that some of the kids would've pulled me into the freezing water.

This picture is walking down towards the creek.

A view of the falls from afar, and a humongous rock that the water falls over.

An Outing

Saturday was a busy day--running from one activity to the next with different groups of youth here at the Finca. The afternoon consisted of taking my Friday Bible study group to the nearby hotel pool where we got to enjoy some fun in the sun...and the sun was hot, but the water was cold! Then we walked over to Harlan and Janelle's house to enjoy a picnic supper outside on their beautiful property.

Mennonite Visitors

This past week we had a group of Mennonites from Oklahoma. This group, plus some, had lived with me in the missionary house for a week when they came to visit two years ago. I had no idea back then that we would both be back here at the same time two years later. It was very nice to have them come and spend time here at the Finca. The United States is a big country, and we have various groups from the States come through here- whether it be for a week or a day or a few hours--but there was something special about having people from my own subculture here.

The group..and ironically they are all related as well! (maybe they are related to me too...we didn't play the Mennonite game to figure that out)

My lack of blogging doesn't reflect a lack of activities what I have been busy with..quite the opposite (that and I haven't been taking pictures which usually helps motivate me to post something). With the group here I was a bit busier...one of the reasons being because one of the ladies, originally from Mexico, and I worked together to have some meetings with the girls...so in addition to my normal schedule, I had kids at my house in the evenings for 5 of the 7 days this week...and the other two I was out doing other things like a staff meal and a campfire with all the kids.

I also got to do some other random things like go along to the pool with the elementary students. That was alot of fun as I got to take some of the two and three year olds into the water. It was so fun to watch how much they liked the water, but hard to keep telling the other kids not to splash them in the face. I have also been trying to work on a sign language presentation with some of the younger girls for the anniversary--its been fun so far to practice, and I hope that we can pull it together and have it looking nice by the end of April!

So, that is a brief glimpse of whats going on here...thanks for reading! Please keep praying for all of us here!
God be with you.

Esther Banquet

This evening my Saturday Bible study group celebrated the finishing of our study of the character of Esther with a banquet. It was the celebration of the end of a book study, but I hope that it is the beginning, or continuing, of a movement in their lives to rise up for such a time as this that we are living in.

The beautiful princesses :)

 

 

A Hike

Saturday afternoon I took a group of 10 kids up the mountain. It was nice to get out of the Finca and into nature, and the view at the top of the mountain was beautiful.

Part way up the mountain

 View from the top....Valle de Angeles is the town in the valley.

Another birthday

This Friday we celebrated another birthday, and another new member of the Friday nights group. 

We have been able to continue Friday night game/hang out night at my house even though school started because the evening teachers have been on strike..and that is a story in itself...