Time Flies When You're Learning

As my final week here in Honduras approaches, i've been thinking about the different things I have learned and discussing with myself (don't worry it's completely normal :)) how my mindset has changed since being here. The list keeps on growing. This summer I have been blessed to learn from the gold mines (minds) of long-term missionaries here. I have been picking their brains learning what I can about a life devoted to Overseas missions. I have been able to witness a Biblical way of approaching a different culture. I have learned to have a "glass half full" mindset when approaching different cultures. I have learned the 5 principles of being a missionary: flexible, flexible, flexible, flexible, and fun. I have received so many tools to add to my Spiritual Belt of Truth. I have seen to learn to teach.
As for what i've been doing this past two weeks.....well there's been quite a bit. We have formed quite a schedule and stick to it pretty stringently. On monday I go to the Bilingual School in Rio Esteban. On Tuesday I go with Dr. Don to three different schools teaching Bible Songs, Guitar, and English in each. Wednesday we go up to Satal...it's a mountain and it's big and tiring to climb...but the children there are so bright and eager to learn. Then Thursday we go to schools in Lucinda, Margarita, and then we walk across rivers to go to Las Niguas and teach there. Fridays have been more free, because we don't have certain schools we need to go to, so sometimes we'll visit the Bilingual school, some fridays we will stay at the house and work on songs and power point slides. During this past week I had the opportunity to go and stay in the villages again with Bictelia. Naomi and I went to stay with the Garcia-Ramos family on Sunday night and went to school with them on Monday, then I went back alone from Thursday to Saturday. As my time here wraps up I wanted to get more time with their family. It is so peaceful in the villages. We eat, walk to the beach, lay in hammocks and talk or just rest. You know when you've become good enough friends with someone that you no longer feel the need to be constantly talking? You feel comfortable with silence? Well that is how I feel with this family. Yes the silence might be due to a bit of a language barrier...but throughout the past 7 weeks my Spanish has grown and so has their English.. so needless to say our conversations are definitely Spanglish. Just last night we sat in the hammocks, Bictelia, Delmy, Deyni, Walter, and I and just talked about life in America and life in Honduras and just laughed. I've said it before but I cannot get over the joy that I see here among the people.
Parts of me are sad to leave, but other parts are excited to return home and share more personally with whoever wants to know about the things I have learned here. For those who care to know I will be arriving in Tulsa, July 16th around 10 pm. Feel free to call and we can get together and I will share all that I can about how I saw the Lord in Honduras. :) I leave you with pictures.

Wade in the Water

Before I forget the details, I wanted to share about an awesome experience all of us here shared on Friday morning. One of the interns, Adam, was baptized in the Caribbean Sea! That morning we woke up and spent time learning about Baptism. We looked at what the scriptures say, what Theologians say, and what different commentaries say. We looked at the purpose of baptism, the reasons for being baptized, and what physical baptism looks like. While we were discussing I was on the computer making a Certificate of Baptism for Adam.
After all the talking we loaded into the car and drove down to the beach. Once we arrived Dr. Don got out the guitar and we sang a few songs, in English and Spanish, then shared our favorite verses with Adam. He then shared his testimony, we prayed and then he and Dr. Don walked out into the water and he was baptized!!

It was such a neat time of community and fellowship. It makes me think of the baptizing John the Baptist and Jesus did over 2,000 years ago. They didn't have nice heated pools in big fancy churches then. They had the seas, and the oceans with all their glorious sand. What a day of rejoicing! We love you Adam!

I'm Sorry for Procrastinating

I apologize readers (if you're still out there haha) for my lack of postings lately. I'm keeping a journal of my travels and so sometimes I forget about this nifty thing! Okay, so much has happened sense my last post, but I cannot go into tremendous amounts of detail so I will highlight the main points.
This past weekend, for four days, Brogan and I went out to the Rio Esteban village again to live with Bictelia and her family. It was so much fun to spending time with them on the daily. We didn't do anything fancy, just cooked with them, ate with them, hung out in hammocks, talked about the Lord with them, participated in their family worship time, taught them English, learned Spanish from them, and invested in their lives. They are such amazing family. They would be the perfect host family for foreigners. They all love the Lord and it is evident in their lives. We got to go to a 3 year olds birthday part over the weekend! Pinata and all! Here is the birthday girl herself!
Brogan and I spent the majority of the week at the Bilingual School because it was Brogan's last week and we felt closest to those children. Here are a few pictures of them.
Another highlight from this past week was going to this beautiful Waterfall on Wednesday... I about died 5 times getting to the Waterfall haha but we made it! We weren't told that it would take 1 1/2 hours to hike straight up the mountain to the reach the Waterfall, nor were we told that we would cross multiple edges of cliffs and literally hang on by our fingertips to not plunge to our death. Ha, it was quite an experience.. amazing.
I think the beauty of this picture sums up my week :) Miss you all and love you very much.

Living the Village Life

Well the main highlight of this last week for me was staying the night in the Rio Esteban Village with Bictelia (principal of the Bilingual School) and her family. Brogan and I went over to her house after teaching English at the Bilingual school for anyone who wanted to come (like we had been doing all week). We walked to the beach and visited a few family members, saw a few newborn babies..but really we just hung out in the hammocks and spoke English and Spanish. Most of my conversations are Spanglish because they don't know enough English to carry on conversations and I don't know enough Spanish. So I use what Spanish I can and mainly hand motions and physical actions, but the Lord has been gracious in allowing me to communicate pretty well. We went to a house church with Delmi (Bictelia's 20 year old daughter, who is also a teacher at the school) and then ate dinner. It was pretty relaxed, we have chocolate milk drinks, and some local food that was really good. It was like a croissant role filled with meat and rice :) Then shortly after we went to bed. It was a late dinner and people here are early risers...so people go to bed around 9 pm. It's great :)
The next morning I wake up at 5 am to the sound of sharpening knives. I only know it was that sound because my Dad would always sharpen my Mom's kitchen knives so I woke up and was a little alarmed. I went back to sleep and woke up again at 6:30, I decided to get up and grabbed my toothbrush and toothpaste to go brush outside. When I get outside I realize over half of the village is surrounded the hut that was containing hammocks but was now holding three large portions of Cow Meat. The Hammock Hut had converted into a Butcher's Distribution Hut overnight.
Another exciting thing happened today! This afternoon we interns were invited to join some MKs (Missionary Kids) on a trip to a Waterfall in Rio Coco! It was absolutely beautiful!! It was such a fun trip. We jumped off of rocks, did tricks, swam in the fresh water and when I looked up, all I could see was Jungle... it was absolutely breathtaking.
Another week well spent!

Feeling Like Home

Well, it's been a while since my last post. I'm not sure where to start! I guess I will cover the basics and go into detail where needed :) On saturday Brogan and I traveled with a few missionaries here (including Julia and Estelle Barnett) to La Ceiba to go to the dump and run some errands. The dump is the city dump where they talk all the trash. Over 2,000 people live on and off of the dump...they wait for trucks to come and dump trash to rummage through to find things to eat and sell....Wow, talk about a change from home. It was absolutely incredible to imagine over 2,000 people living there. No one had shoes on, clothes were torn, they were rude to one another, they picked on one another. It was similar to seeing hungry crows pecking each other to have the food all to themselves. The ministry the missionaries have there is splitting up the children into groups and leading a study similar to one you would see at a VBS.. then after they pay attention they eat soup that a local church provides. I'm finding most evangelism here through subliminal messaging. Some witnessing is open, but most is done through coercive things... not in a bad way, but a way that sparks interest. After going to the dump we spent the rest of the day in Ceiba shopping for groceries, eating lunch, and going to a souvenir shop.
In the past few days we welcomed 3 new interns: Randy, Sam, and Adam. There are all so kind and eager to learn. This week is the Week of the Student here in Honduras..meaning that there is no school. So we set up with a few people to hold a two hour English class in the bilingual school and have invited anyone willing to learn. We held the class on monday, we will go tomorrow and friday. It went very well. Most of our teaching is based off of Dr. Don's already written curriculum, so it consists of us pronouncing English words, correcting the students when they are wrong and explaining why English is the way it is (which is not very easy!). After teaching at the school, Brogan and I went over to Bictelia's (principal of the Bilingual school) house to hang out and spend time with her family. She is wanting to learn English, along with her two daughters Delmi and Deyni. Delmi is a 20 year old teacher at the bilingual school, and Deyni is a 4th year medical student in Tegucigalpa (the capital). We are becoming quite close with these women. They teach us Spanish and we teach them English. Yesterday we made lunch together, which included fried plantains, shrimp, queso (really strong cheese), and beans. I loved the fried plantains... they were delicious.. They taste similar to potatoes when cooked, so they were great! We also made tortillas! Wow, not an easy task...I dropped the dough multiple times!!
Today we spent the day with Lyndi. A young woman who teaches in the school in Balfate. She is one of the candidates for missions in Dr. Don's opinion. The only thing holding her back from going is her English not being up to snuff...so that is our job, to get it up to snuff. So today we went over to her house and worked on English and learned more Spanish!. The new interns came with us and I think it went well. We were worried she might feel a little overwhelmed with all of us trying to help, but the Lord was gracious and allowed us all to contribute in non-invasive ways!. We made more tortillas because the Rumbaughs were expected guests and wanting to have plenty...so of course Dr. Don made it our job to fed the crowd :)
All is well here, I got my camera lens with the intern Samantha, so I have been taking pictures trying to figure out all the buttons. Here are a few. These are from a big rainstorm we had today :)

Hola mi Amigas

Greetings from Honduras! Boy was it a hot one these past few days. I continue to learn just how much my body can sweat :) haha. Let's see, since I wrote last we have spent fellowship with the missionaries on Sunday, for church. Gone back to our familiar school in Rio Esteban, accompanied Dr. Don to more neighboring villages, and pioneered our way through a completely new school.
On Sunday, Brogan and I went with a missionary couple and a nurse (who works here at the hospital) to a local church in the Lucinda village. We went to the night service to hear our friend Bill speak (the missionary from Morocco I have spoken of). It was quite different, it was soo loud! The missionaries said that Hondurans like things loud .. so they definitely were yelling into the microphone that was close to being down their throat they were holding it so close to their mouth. The missionaries said they normally bring earplugs and can listen to the sermon normally with them in :) How interesting no? It was neat to see the Honduran believers worship. They pray alongside with the person praying on the microphone, they really drown him out.
Okay so Monday, we went back to Rio Esteban to visit our bilingual children. We drove the ATV out there by ourselves :) We later found out that doing so was quite amazing to the other missionaries here, they said, "uh people don't normally do that after being here for a week....but I mean it's awesome that you guys did!" We made our rounds of classrooms, speaking English, going over Math, Geography, Colors, etc... then with the older classroom we're working on conversation and reading comprehension. So they will get in a circle and we will ask them a few questions (all in English), they will respond and we will correct their pronunciation as needed. We also assist them in reading English, sometimes providing the words, but mainly correcting pronunciation. They are learning so quickly and are so advanced. The education they are getting is far different than the others school, it's a real blessing for them. That night other missionaries came over to the Rumbaughs to share with each other about one another's ministries. It was interesting to hear them discuss the community and how things can be changed for the betterment of the Hondurans.
Tuesday, Brogan and I accompanied Dr. Don to three different schools where we have never been before. Crusitas, Lis Lis, and Limeras. In Crusitas and Lis Lis we mainly went over songs in Spanish, because the children are memorizing them to earn different things from Dr. Don (a ceiling fan, soccer ball, guitar. etc...) Then in Limeras, we taught primarily guitar with a little English. Just basic things like ABCs, 123, Days of the Week, Months of the Year, etc... Then that evening the Rumbaugh's had Alpha (the local Youth Group). Children came from neighboring villages, some missionary kids came, and some missionaries. A missionary spoke on CPR which stands for Creating Positive Relationships. It's is built to educated youth here on relationships and how to maintain good, pure ones... which is practically unheard of these days.
Then today, Brogan and I embarked upon the land of unknown to a school in Balfate. There is a teacher there who Dr. Don knows well, a believer who is looking promising to become a missionary. All that is holding her back is her English. So after school Brogan and I went over to her house for 2 hours and helped her on her English, and she helped me with my Spanish, well she helped both of us but I did more learning than Brogan.. she's quite the Spanish speaker :)
Tonight we go to teach a one hour English course to some young adults in the community who have expressed a desire to learn. It will once again be just the basics, but adding a few vocabulary words today.
As for me, I am doing well. The Jones (missionaries from Morocco) left today, and that was sad because they have been here almost as long as Brogan and I have.. so we were getting used to them being here. It was a great time of learning with them. They are very special people.
I think that about sums it up for now. Thank you for reading and commenting :) Always good to hear from folks back home!

One Week Down, Seven to Go

Wow,
I cannot believe it has already been a week! But at the same time, it feels longer than a week. So many new things have been jammed packed into the last 7 days, that it feels like months. I haven't mentioned that much about my surroundings here, and I would like to. I think it will better paint a mental picture for those curious in my day to day life.
I am living in the Casita (a side house) of the Rumbaughs. They are missionaries here and Dr. Don (Rumbaugh) is the man I am working closely with this summer. His ministry is teaching English to young students in the community. He has spent many years with these people and has narrowed the list of many villages down to a few that he chooses to visit and teach. He teachings English to only the students who want to learn and are respectful in the process. Brogan and I came here this summer to help with his ministry. The view from my housing consists of the Caribbean Sea to the left, and the Jungle Mountains to the right. Walking to the beach to swim in the Sea (which we have done :)) takes only 30 minutes. Hiking up the Jungle Mountains takes a bit longer...but still just as close. Every morning we wake up to Howler Monkeys (the loudest animals in the Western Hemisphere) and Tuscans. The monkeys and birds come right next to the house and jump from tree to tree checking everything out. Just yesterday morning and White-faced Monkey jumped to a tree right in front of where I was doing my quiet time, stared at me and starting jumping up and down on the long palms (almost like a trampoline). It was absolutely amazing. The animals are wild, so we're instructed not to go near them, but they are soo much fun to observe! My living conditions consist of no air conditioning (I am adjusting very well though ;)), cold showers, scorpions in the sink and bath, and not flushing toilet paper but instead burning it :). And I am enjoying every minute of it.
The five points of Mission Work are flexible, flexible, flexible, flexible, and fun. Dr Don shared these with Brogan and I our first day here and on Wednesday we exercised those 4 points because just minutes before we were to leave for the bilingual school in Rio Esteban, we heard from Penny Alden that there was a gang in town who had threatened to take a young mans life if he did not pay them money. Dr Don quickly decided that it would not be safe for us to go out there, and since everything was so new we didn't really have another school to go to. So needless to say Brogan and I had a chill day, reading, writing, playing guitar and piano. Flexibility is key out here. I would consider myself a pretty flexible person haha to it hasn't been to difficult, but I go to bed each night not really knowing what the next day holds. It's adventurous :)
Some of the Rumbaughs friends came to visit this wednesday from Pioneers (mission organization). They are currently missionaries in Morocco and are making a rounds around the world "checking in" with other Pioneers missionaries (the Rumbaughs are associated with Pioneers). It has been a blessing to have them here, they are a sweet couple, Mr. & Mrs. Jones (they prefer me to call them Karen and Bill, but the respectful Mr. & Mrs. from my childhood is still there :) Thank you Mom and Dad). Both are very knowledgeable of the Islam faith and the Muslim culture. It has been a blessing to learn from them these past few days.
All is doing well here. We spent a few hours in the morning giving piano and guitar lessons. One might ask why I am giving guitar lessons when I don't know how to play the guitar? Well, starting last sunday I do, haha. Dr Don informed Brogan and I within 30 minutes of arriving here that we would need to learn...and we have learned, enough so to teach. So Mom and Dad, when I get home, maybe we can go guitar shopping?? I keep appreciating your prayers. I am so thankful for your support in that way. :) More from this Gringa later

Not Called to Comfortability...

These past two days I have been constantly reminded that the Lord does not call us to a life filled with comfort. My friend Becca Jungers reminded me of this last semester...but now I am feeling it. It is uncomfortable to live with strangers, it is uncomfortable to be around people who speak a different language, it is uncomfortable to not communicate with the children I am serving, it is uncomfortable sweating all day every day, it is uncomfortable feeling ill-prepared..... But here uncomfortable, is comfortable through the Lord. He doesn't call us to be comfortable so that we can see that Only because of Him are things comfortable. (Just some food for thought :))

Yesterday was Brogan and I's first day out with the children. We went to a neighboring village called Rio Esteban. There is an elementary school there where Dr. Don has working in months previous. It is a bilingual school, so Dr. Don thought Brogan and I could start there best because the children speak the most English. When we went I honestly did not know what to expect...I was nervous, excited, uncomfortable by not knowing what would happen. There were so many aspects of the day that I did not know how they would look... so I just prayed that the Lord would be honored and I could be used and would be helpful. The school is composed of 4 classrooms, 1 for Kindergarten, 1 for 1st and 2nd Grades, 1 for 3rd and 4th Grades, and 1 for 5th and 6th Grades. When we walked into the first classroom with Dr. Don, one child spoke up saying, "Hola Gringas!" Which translates into "hello white women!" After hearing this Brogan and I just looked at each other and laughed, there was nothing else to do. Children speak the obvious in Honduras just as much as in Oklahoma. We went throughout the classrooms going over songs in Spanish and English that Dr. Don has made up to help the children learn English through Biblical principles. Songs we sing consist of the Ten Commandments, the Armor of God, Holy Holy Holy ...etc. It is amazing to see these children memorizing these words without realizing what they mean. I cannot wait to see the "light bulbs" above there heads when the songs make sense to them.

I came away from the day overwhelmed for so many reasons. Not a negative overwhelmed, just overwhelmed... There was so much to take in throughout the day. Also Dr. Don informed us that he would not be going back with us the next day because he made prior commitments with another school in another neighboring village. So day two, Brogan and I were to be on our own. Thankfully, Penny Alden came with us to bridge the language barrier, but it was still up to Brogan and I to lead the instruction and the songs. Today we really made connections with the children. They are not used to people visiting and investing in their lives.. and needless to say they are soaking up our attention with a sponge. I was talking with one of the oldest girls (probably 8-9 years old) and I asked her who her friends at school were. She started to name a few girls in her class, then she looked at me and said you Miss Karin. That was amazing to me. Children are so accepting and forgiving. The children there are a true blessing. It encourages me to see how eager they are to learn. They constantly want to sing more songs and just look at Brogan and I like what we say is golden. They are taking the initiative to educate themselves and it's so neat to see.

Last night, after dinner we had an interesting conversation with the Rumbaughs. They wanted to show us a powerpoint they had put together to show everyone who comes to visit them. The big take home message from the powerpoint is about the falsity of America's view of poverty... America views poverty as lack of money. Which by looking at modern celebrities or people with money, it should be obvious that money does not bring happiness or emotional stability. The Rumbaughs are arguing that poverty is emotional... I guarantee you the hut-living Honduras experience volumes more pure joy than mansion-dwelling Americans.

It feels like I have been here more than just 3 days. Tomorrow, Brogan and I go back to the bilingual school legitimately on our own. So please pray for a sound communicating and relationship strengthening day.

Typo .. Ooopie!

So I made an error. Where I am is Loma de Luz... not Luma. Still getting used to the pronunciation and spelling apparently :)

oh International Travels

Well, 48 hours after first arriving to the Tulsa International Airport, I have reached my final destination. Luma de Luz, Honduras. It is hot. Very hot. I am constantly sweating. I'm sure I will get used to it after awhile but it sure hurts right about now. I arrived in San Pedro Sula yesterday, met up with Brogan, then took a taxi to the Hedman Alas bus station to validate our tickets. We then took a 3 hours luxurious (i'm not being sarcastic, it was really nice! :)) bus ride to La Ceiba where Penny and John Alden met us. They told us that we would not be able to travel back to Luma de Luz (our final destination) that evening because many kidnappings have occurred after dark and they did not want to take any risks. So we stayed the night with another missionary couple. Went to be at 9 pm to wake up at 6 am to travel to Luma de Luz to be back in time for church. We made it to the Rumbaugh's house (where we will be living) around 7:30 am and really hit the ground running. After getting a tour of the house, Dr. Don and Suzanne shared a few expectations and rules with us, they shared their hearts their mission and their vision. They then asked us to share what we were wanting to get out of this trip...I didn't have an answer because I really hadn't thought about it. We then joined the Rumbaughs for a quick Purpose Driven Life Study they are doing with some missionary youth. After that we went to the missionaries church and fellowshipped with them. Mrs. Rumbaugh then gave us a more external tour, driving us around to neighboring villages where we will be serving. After our tour we came back for lunch. And quickly following we joined Dr. Don in his "jam session," ie. teaching guitar to anyone who will learn. He informed us that we will be learning, so Brogan and I picked up the guitar and starting strumming.. I have learned the chords G, C, D, E minor, A, and A7. Soon after learning the chords we were thrown in a told to play a few songs...needless to say it was not worship worthy! Hah, i'm getting the feeling that things are learned through diving in head first here as opposed to toe-ing in to see how cold the water is.
The scenery here is beautiful. There is jungle everywhere. My back porch overlooks the Caribbean. I cannot wait to take pictures! Everyone is very kind here and forgiving at the fact that I know no Spanish. I feel handicapped not knowing any, but I know that my vocabulary will grow and i'll be able to better communicate.
My main purpose is teaching english to children in different villages. I will also be given the opportunity to follow around a rural midwife making visits to different villages and clinics. This first week Dr. Don has us going to a Bilingual school reading stories to the children and having them read stories to us to better improve their English.
Thank you all for your prayers throughout my travels. The only trouble I had was missing my flight to Honduras...haha kind of a big deal I know; but the Lord just gave me a peace about it. I knew I was suppose to come and so I knew he would figure out a way to get me there. I got my luggage when I arrived, which I was very very surprised by; I thought it was going to get lost with all the chaotic events in the airports. So thank you again for your prayers.
Thank you for your investment in this trip. I hope this blog finds you doing well! If you every have any questions about me or what i'm doing or anything at all feel free to e-mail me at karin.shacklett@okstate.edu I would love to hear from you!

Thankful

Hello dear family and friends!

I hope you found this blog easily and hope you frequent your visit here to see what is happening in Honduras! As of now I am not sure what my internet access will be, so I'm creating this blog in hopes that it is sufficient! Thank you all for your prayers and support in making this trip happen!