Honduras..finally!!!

alright..so here is my update about Honduras..there will probably be about 2 or 3 more blogs about other summer stuff after this so go look at those later too!!! So my mom and I went to Honduras, June 9-17, with a group from our church, the Grand Central Church of Christ. It was absolutly amazing!! Oh man..I can't even begin to explain how this trip has changed my life. It make look at some things a lot differently now. I mean people here in the U.S. (including me) just want and want and want. Down there..man..you get a real realitly check. They have probably one outfit maybe two until more groups from the U.S. bring them clothes down. They may wear the outfit they have for a year before they get a new one. I take everything for granted that I have here. I mean, I have a mom, dad, and sister, a family that loves me, friends that are always there for me, a wonderful church who supports me, and a school to get an education from. I also get to eat as much as I want in a day. Down there, they're lucky if they still live with one parent. A lot of them don't have a way to get to church besides walking so they will walk for 2 hours just to get to church on a Sunday morning. It's just so amazing!! Some of the kids don't even get an education and if they do then it's only for a few years. Most of them get only one meal a day..if that. It just hurts my heart to see that. God never stopped amazing me on this trip though. Just the way He made things work out for our group to do more things then we ever imagined and to have way more money then we ever planned on getting!! It was truley an eye-opening experience for me. I will never be able to forget some of the sights I saw. I mean..kids were fighting just to get one toy because they didn't have anything. There are some kids faces that I can't get out of my head. I think about them all the time..wonder how they are doing..where they are now..are they getting food to eat? Are they okay? I just can't help up wonder about all of them..I came home and was like..What am I doing here? Why do I deserve all of this when they have nothing? It just didn't make sense to me. I am so thankful for everything that I have now! For everything that I get to experience. So now about our group.. We had about 35 people I think that went from the trip. We all came from all over! We had someone from Texas, Deleware, and Morgantown, WV. Most of us didn't know eachother before we went on the trip, but now we have life-long friendships from it. I believe everyone was called to go on the trip for a certain reason..God had them there for a reason. We all got along so so well!! It was truely amazing!! I love every single one of them!! One thing we always did, and I will never forget this, was sing. No matter what we were doing, we were always singing. Whether it was bagging food for a food distribution or just singing on the bus. It was simply amazing! So we got to Honduras on Saturday afternoon and man..was it hot!! We went outside and took a group picture and loaded all of our bags onto a truck that was then taken to the mission house. We walked over to Church's Chicken and saw the kids from Casa de Esperanza which is the orphange that Jen Wright from Belpre runs. Then we loaded up on a bus and went to the mission house where we had a meeting then loaded our stuff our rooms. We went and had dinner at the dining hall after that then we had devo that night...

This is the group pic outside of the airport in Hondo.

Mom found a Dunkin Donuts in Hondo outside of the airport. That's what she's pointing at. She didn't get an iced coffee though..haha This was during the meeting where we were told about 100 times NOT TO DRINK THE WATER!!! haha =]

On Sunday we woke up, ate breakfast, loaded on the bus then headed to church at Los Pinos. Church service was simply amazing!! I will never look at a church service the same way again! I mean..they were clapping and lifting their hands up the whole time while they were singing. It was true worship. The first song they sang was "Shout to the Lord" (in Spanish of course). It was awesome!! I will probably never sing that song the same way again!

This was the church building. Our group took up one whole side of the church seats.This was my little girl, Rosa. She was with me the whole time at church. Isn't she beautiful?

This was a picture of me and Rosa that another girl on the team took. After church, we loaded on the bus again and went to Jovenes in Camino which is an orphange just for boys. That was so much fun!!

This is my mom and I with Marlon. He was my little brother that we couldn't take home. He wrote down his name on a piece of paper so mom would never forget him! Here are some more pics from there.

After Jovenes, we went to The Good Shephard's Children Home, which has about 225 people! It was so cool!! We felt famous when we got there cause the kids were all around the bus when we pulled up and they kept grabbing us and yelling "Hola!" A few little girls grabbed my hands right away and stayed with me the whole time!! Anna and one of her girls, kept making fun of me in spanish..It was a lot of fun!! When we were leaving, Anna and I kepy hugging our girls and we were bawling our eyes out! It was so hard to leave it! We kept hugging until they told us that we had to get on the bus, NOW!

Anna and I with our kids Seth and I with our kids

waving at us as the bus was pulling out..at this point, Anna and I were a mess!

On Monday we built a house. The house site was on the side of a hill! It was crazy! It was pretty scary for me cause all the Honduran guys kept looking at me and asking a guy on our team, Walter (who speaks fluent Spanish) about me. He finally told them that he was my husband so they would stop asking. So he was my husband for the week =P They also kept trying to steal our backpacks. We had to move them three times. It was all worth it at the end though when we saw the look on the family's face when they came inside their new house. When the mom of the family came around and hugged us all with tears streaming down her face..that one moment made it all worth it!

up the hill that the house site was at. We had to carry all of our wood and the tools we needed up that hill. It was crazy!!

Walter and I

The house..part way done =] The family we built the house for =]

That night we went to the Jesus Statue for devo. It was absolutly amazing!!! On Tuesday, the guys and the girls split up. The girls went to Mi Esperanza to get manicure and pedicures, and the guys went to build a house. Now that doesn't really sounds fair, but Mi Esperanza teaches single moms important things they need to know so they can open their own buisness. When you tip these ladies $5 it helps them feed their families for 3 weeks!

After that we went to Nuevo Oriental which is one of the poorest neighborhoods. We played with the kids and colored with them. It was so much fun!!

After we left Nuevo, we went to Hospital Escuela which is a free hospital in Tegus. We first went down to the kids cancer ward where they were getting chemo. Oh man was that hard. They told us to go in with smiles on our faces. That wasn't that hard until you saw the kids. Everyone went to one of the kids and I went to a little boy named Ceasar. He's only 12 and he has lukemia (sp?). He is also blind in both eyes. He had such great strength though. We asked him if he felt any pain and he said no. You could tell he was in pain though. He gave him this cat and he just sat there and petted it (the cat is the one you see in the picture). It was so hard. He's one of the kids I wonder about.

After that we went to the malnurishment unit. Wow..that's all I can really say. There's no way to really describe how you feel after see that. I guess I wasn't really expecting to see that. There was one girl in there that when I saw her and heard her story, I started to cry uncontrollably..I have tears in my eyes now as I even just think about it. This girl was 14 years old..the same age as me. She looked only about 10. She was so tiny. Both her parents had died and she was in her room alone. She was the shyest little girl ever. She didn't talk. She just nodded her head. Jen told her that she was a princess and she saw the daughter of the King and that she needed to lift her head high and be proud. We went back to the Villa Gracia (the mission house area) after that for dinner. I couldn't eat. I would start to then I would see the faces of the kids in the malnurishment. It emotinally destroyed me seeing that. Again..there is no possible way to put into words how I felt after that day.

Wednesday morning we did a food distribution underneath a bridge. Literally! We pulled up and there were hundreds of people waiting for us. We were never allowed to be alone. People got a blue ticket then they would go down the hill and get their food bag. People actually lived in houses under the bridge. It smelled pretty bad too. But to see the houses and living conditions they are in..man..like I said before, alot of what I saw is so hard to put into words.

After that, we went back to Nuevo Oriental and had a VBS for the kids, while part of our crew went and built a house for a family of 7 children that only had 1 mattress. It was amzing to be able to see everyone using their talents. Some of us were also able to help feed the kids! They have a feedin center there that feeds children lunch everyday. They feed between 250-300 kids a day!! It was amazing! The VBS went really well! We played the biggest game of "Pato, Pato, Ganso" ("Duck, Duck, Goose") I had ever seen before!! It was awesome! Some of the kids I had seen before ran up to me and hugged me. Man..was that an amazing feeling!!

Thursday we went to the Jimmy Hughes orphanage and the rehab center. Pastor Salvador rapped for us, the Jimmy Hughes preached to us. That was interesting to say the least..Then we went to Didasko which is another orphanage. Our group gave Jorje, the man who runs it, $3000 from the extra money we had left over. The orphange had been running really short on money anf Jorje and his wife lived totally on faith to get them though. It was amazing!

After Didasko, we went shopping in the Valley of the Angels. Then we went to dinner at this resort place.

Then we went and had devo at the oldest church in the western hemisphere, Santa Lucia. The singing was absolutly amazing in that building!!

Friday was another building day. My group had the prettiest view ever, I have to say though! It was absolutly gorgeous!! Building went really well until it started pouring down the rain..haha..but after that it cleared up and was beautiful again!!! After that, we went to Casa de Esperanza and played with the kids then spent the night there. That was lot of fun but crazy at the same time!!

Saturday we went to the state run orphange, Consitas, and ate pizza with them. It's not the best place ever. It was fun to play with the kids though.

Then we went back to Hospital Escuela where we split into 4 groups. Walter got our group in the kids cancer ward where they usually don't let anyone in!! It was so sad to see all the kids in their rooms so helpless. We also went back to the malnurishment area and I saw my little 14 year old girl again!!

After that, we went back to the mission house to have dinner. After that some of us decided to go and get dessert at a restraunt that famous for crepes. And let me tell ya...they were amazing!!

And then it was Sunday..man..I couldn't belive it was time to go already! It seemed like we had just gotten there yesterday..But had to leave and come home sometime.

The mission house where the girls stayed.

The kitchen/dining room where we ate. our trusty bus Elroy and the bus driver that saved our life more than once..Gueirrmo!!

all the guys with Gueirrmo and ElroyThe girls

so after lots and lots of pictures, we headed on the bus and headed to the Jesus Statue for devo before we left. There was a lot of crying going on..and let me tell you I was bawling. I just really wasn't ready to come home yet. But with the money we had left over, we're sponsering 10 children at Nuevo Oriental, we bought 35 mattresses and a washing machine for Casa. And we gave Casa and Jen $1500!! It was so amazing!!

So all in all this trip was absolutly amazing!! It was definitely a real eye-opening experience for me!! I fell in love with Honduras and I can not wait to go back next year and spend two weeks in the place that stole my hear =]

oh and if you read all of that then God Bless =D