This is Not Goodbye, It's See you Later

I am wrapping my journey up here in Honduras. I can’t believe I am leaving on Thursday. I have mixed emotions. I feel like I have been here a long time, but I also feel like I just got here the other day. I was talking to one of my sponsored children the other day and I was telling him how long I waited for this trip and how excited I was and now it almost time for me to leave. WOW! I just can’t seem to find the right words to say.

I guess for this last blog I could share my high lights and my low lights of my trip. By the way, thank you Shelly Simpson for introducing highs and lows to me. haha I use this phrase all the time now. First I will tell you all that has gone on in the last week. I met “me” in 20 years. This amazing lady came to visit the home this past week. When I sat “I met me”, I mean this is going to be me in about 20 years. We got very close and connected so well. She said I was her daughter. Haha We talked about how when believers meet for the first time and they have never met before you can just instantly become life-long friends. This is so true. This has happened to me my whole life. The only flaw that she had was that she was the biggest LSU fan I have met. Haha We had fun this week fighting back and forth with that little issue. Of course I pulled all the national championship jokes in there. Haha ROLL TIDE! She reminded me so much of my Aunt Keke and Aunt Karen in one person. To all my family reading this, you will understand why this lady is me in 20 years. I don’t think I have laughed that much since I have been here. She was defiantly one of the college kids this week.

A sad event that happened was the original 3 musketeers split this week. Tess left to continue her journey to Nicaragua and Waleska went back to Tegucigalpa. The original 3 were the best. Tess and I arrived in Honduras the same day just about an hour difference. We then stopped by the BMDMI office and picked up my translator. I was excited to meet her, but I was also wondering what she would be like. I don’t think BMDMI could have put a better match together than us two. We were instantly best friends. I enjoyed all of our shenanigans together. We had the best laughs late at night along with dance parties in the dark. Watching romantic movies and wishing we could find Mr. Right, playing cards till late, and just enjoying each other’s company. I just want to give a big hug and kiss to my loves Tess Turner and Waleska! We will always be the original 3.

And then there were two. Bailey and I are the only ones left. We will leave on Thursday about an hour apart. Her flight is headed to Houston around 11:30 while I head towards Atlanta around 12:45. Bailey is such a sweet and Godly young lady. She defiantly has a heart for these kids. She is constantly encouraging the kids to look to Christ for everything. She has it. She understands the urgency of the Gospel. By watching the way she has lived these past 4 weeks she has encouraged me so much. I am so blessed to have met her. She another SEC girl. She will defiantly be missed in my eyes.

I can’t even begin to try and find the words to describe my time here in Honduras. No one will understand or be able to comprehend my time here because I was the only one who lived it. But I guess I can try to describe my experience. Let’s start with I know for a fact the Lord wants me in missions. One day I was thinking about what I want to do every day for the rest of my life. And the only thing that makes me even happy or close to satisfied is missions. I want to wake up every morning in the mission field. Another highlight of mine was getting too deeply know some of the teenage girls. They are so sweet and all they want is to talk with me. They love me and I love them. I have enjoyed many laughs and tears with them. We have had bible study time, dance parties, movie nights, watching soccer games, and lots of fellowship together. I have built amazing life-long friendships with so many people here in Honduras. I thank God for forming the relationships and for bringing me here. What an amazing God we serve.

Beside spending time with the children and forming relationships, I have been helping out with different projects. I have resized all the children for the website. I have interviewed every child on property. I asked them about 5 questions to update their biographies on the website. This will help the sponsors know more about their child. Tess and I did several art projects with the children for teams that have come. We also made welcoming signs for the new pastor, Abnor and Allison. I helped Bailey do inventory of all the casita kitchens. Bailey, Angie, Waleska, and I got the pleasure of painting Trisha’s new office in casita 4. I have stayed busy with different big and small projects.

I thank the Lord each morning for allowing me another day here. My God is so amazing. I want to also thank you to all my prayer warriors and financial supporters for everything. Without your support I could not have come to Honduras and serve for six weeks. This has been the best six weeks. Thank you Abba Father.

I will give you all another update the night before I leave or when I am back in the beautiful U.S.A.! I love you all. Keep serving the Lord. 

First Time for Everything

Hola!

How have you all been doing? I hope you all are serving the Lord every day with all you have to give. I want to give a special hello to my family. I miss you all so much. I hope everyone is in good health and praising God for all circumstances in your life. The Lord has really taught me to be grateful for the family I have. A lot of these kids here do not have family that they know of. It breaks my heart. This past week I have been able to hear a little bit of two of the teenage girls backgrounds. It has truly blessed me.

Alright, so I have lost count of what week it is. I guess that is what being in another country for a long period of time will do to you. Is there anything that has happened back in the states that I need to know? Of course I got the news that once again Alabama got another national championship. Roll Tide! I am pretty sure that is two national championships since I have been in Honduras. I also believe that is 4 national championships this year! I am so proud to be a student at The University of Alabama. Sorry to all you Auburn fans in the family. Roll Tide!
A lot has happened since I last wrote a blog entry. I have experienced several first times. This past week we had FBC Tuscaloosa student ministry here. It was so good seeing familiar faces and getting to know some new faces in our church. The kids loved having them here. They miss you all a lot! The team did bible studies with the youth. They did art camps, soccer camps, and basketball camps in the mornings with all the kids. They also did some evangelism in the villages around the home. On their last day in Honduras they did several bible clubs and evangelism in a village about an hour or more away from the home. The Lord did marvelous things through the FBC Tuscaloosa team. I am so blessed to know that my church has a heart for missions local and internationally.

While FBC was here we went to a place called the “swimming hole”. It is a river near the home where the youth go and swim sometimes. I say it is near the home, but it was like running a 5k or harder. Haha I will admit I was part of the 6 or 8 that rode in the car with Julie McKenzie on the way there. But we had to park the car and walk UP a mountain then back down the mountain. When walking through all this we had to walk through large fields and the natural woods of Honduras. Hahaha I have never done anything that hard in my life. It was quite the adventure. We finally got to the swimming hole and had a blast. The water was too low on part of the river so we could not completely swim, but we did get to walk around in the water and some of the kids rode down the small rapids in part of the river. It was something I will not forget in my trip. It was one of my favorite moments here.

Another first for me was The Valley of the Angels. It is a little tourist place in Honduras.

It is a block of full of shops. It was fun for Tess, Bailey, and Waleksa to get out and see more of Honduras. We tagged along with a team that had been out in the field with BMDMI.

But I think one of my favorites of first has to be when we took about 60 kids from the home to the movies. Trisha and Eloisa got the event together. It was a reward for all the children who has passed all their classes this semester. We went to Tegucigalpa to see Madagascar 3. The whole movie was in Spanish. I did not know what they were saying, but I got the plot and story line of the movie. It was awesome to see the kids react because most of the kids have never been to the movies before. They were all so excited and loved every minute of it. They all behaved and did very well.

A lot has been going through my head since I last wrote. I have a lot on my heart. My desire is to serve the Lord with all I have. I want to know his will for my life. I want to know the next step in my life. A lot of this is requiring trust in the Lord and patience. Most of you all know I am not a patient person. This is defiantly a struggle for me right now. I know that the Lord has great plans for me. He tells us over and over again in his word. The other day I was lying down in my bed and was thinking. I was thinking “what do I want to do every day for the rest of my life?”. I want to be happy and serving the Lord. I believe with my whole heart that I am meant to do missions with my life. It is truly the only thing I want to do. I do not know what that means or where, but I am fully convinced the Lord wants me in the mission field. 

As most of you know I will be staying an extra week. Yay! I am so excited. I would not be able to leave this Thursday. I think about how I was scheduled to leave then and think wow, I couldn’t leave. I will still not be ready to leave on June 21 when I leave, but one more week is going to be good for me. I am already trying to prepare myself and my heart. It will not be easy. In fact, it will be the hardest goodbye I have ever had to say. I know I have said that before, but these kids have touched my heart in ways and places that no one has ever or will ever be able to touch and bless me. These are special kids and I wish that you all could meet them. I want to urge you all to think and pray about sponsoring one of these kids. You can go to gsch.bmdmi.org and view all the children. If you are currently looking for a way to give to an organization then look into sponsoring a child here at The Good Shepherd Children’s Home. Their biographies are going to be updated this next week by yours truly. That was one of my projects and I am about to finish it up.

Well, I hope you all have enjoyed another update. I miss you and love you all so much. Please continue to keep the kids, the new pastor and his wife, Trisha and Kelly Lawrence, and Julie and Kevin McKenzie all in your prayers. The Lord is doing big things through these people. Have a blessed day!