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!