That poor truck...

Can I just say thank you one more time?  First to God for working in crazy ways to make it possible for me to come to Honduras and then to you for giving me this opportunity. 

My first week, well almost full week, has been really good.  I got here Tuesday and Evelyn was waiting for me at the airport.  She said, “are you ready to go to Mololoa and work right now.  You don’t need to rest you need to come now” and then laughed.  The first place we did go was Mololoa but it was to see Femorza, the daycare.  Bad rains had come again and it had flooded once more about 3 weeks ago, not nearly as bad as the first time but mud had buried the bottom of the front gate to the point it can’t be opened until the mud is dug out.  It also bent the gate a little which will have to be fixed as well but it’s all good.  Repairs will start soon.  The first day was good in the sense that nothing bad happened.  My plane left and arrived on time, my bags all made it and I made it to Jen’s house.  So that makes it a great day.

The second day however is when the fun started….. yea we’ll say fun.  As we left the house Jen looks at me and asks, “Do you want to drive?  You need to learn the roads and the truck doesn’t have power steering and I don’t really like to drive it.” So I was like “definitely, let’s go”.  So we are going along, talking and avoiding swimming pools in the road…. I mean potholes.  Things were going good.  As we are talking I am looking over at her occasionally.  At one point I glanced over at her and about the time we both looked back ahead we see it.  The big black speed bump in the middle of the black road.  Now why would you not paint the speed bump in the middle of a highway yellow or white or something!?!  Why do you leave it black so it blends in perfectly with the road!?!  Anyways, we hit this thing at about 45 mph and I kid you not I think we were in orbit for about 20 seconds.  I looked out the window and saw the ocean for a second.  We had to stop on the way back to pick our teeth up out of the road.  Haha but really it was a nice hard lick that I’m sure the truck didn’t appreciate... or my back or anything else.  So then we get to the bank.  I remember perfectly turning the truck off, pulling the e-brake, putting the car in 1^st gear but for some reason it didn’t go into first gear so I let out the e-brake and let it roll a foot or so till it went into 1^st.  Pulled the e-brake again, got out, locked the door and shut it.  Did you notice anything that I didn’t do?  Yea, I didn’t get the keys out of the ignition.  So when we go to leave the bank I’m looking in my pocket for the keys and they are nowhere to be found.  So I’m running through my head thinking about what I did with the keys and then realize that I remember leaving them in there.  BUT, Jen COULD NOT know that.  So I kept looking in my pockets thinking dang where are they while I’m jerking on the door hoping it might open.  Then she looks in and sees them.  A 20 minute wait for a locksmith and we were back on the road.  Let’s just hope that her husband, Josue, doesn’t read this because his truck is his baby.

Sunday I went to Church at Mololoa which was pretty awesome.  They let me borrow the truck to go, we’ll get to another short story in a second.  Being the only gringo there is definitely a bit different.  I was a little nervous believe it or not but everything was great.  I found out when I’m forced to speak Spanish I can actually do it a little bit.  But I was still a little nervous not knowing how things would go since there is still a language barrier.  The cool thing was as that the first song we sang was a song I knew.  The second was a song that has the same tune as one I know in english but the words are in Spanish.  Here I am thinking I’m going to sit like a knot on a log for an hour feeling a little out of place but God was like just chill out dude, I got this.  It turned out to be great.  Somehow on the way back I ran over something in the road apparently.  When I got back to the house a rear tire was low on air.  We went to get it patched and when the guy put water on it to see where the air bubbles were coming up, that’s how you see where the holes are, it looked like someone put 10 bubble machines next to each other and flipped them all on.  I don’t know how you get that many holes in a tire without running over nails but somehow I did it.  YAY ME!... Not really.  But one good thing came out of all of that.  Josue really wants to go look at trucks with me now. 

Things have been going really well.  Not a lot has happened since I am looking for a truck and an apartment and just trying to get settled in, we’ve done a lot of “settling in” stuff.  I did work at the kitchen on Thursday, which was great.  We had 84 kids come for lunch and the daycare was closed bc it was a national holiday.  The kitchen was closed too but Evelyn and Wendy came to cook along with Jen and I bc kids still need to eat, even on holidays.  Things are progressing nicely.  Gloria a Dios!  And yes I am listening to call me maybe at burger king right now..... I just cannot get away from that song!

Oh and today is my birthday... WOOT WOOT!!!

T-4 Days

It's been a busy few weeks.  I've been doing a lot to get ready to leave.  Nobody wants to hear about my last few days at work, it'd be a really boring story, but half of last week and the first part of this week I went on a last road trip to see some family and friends as well as meet with a couple of congregations to raise support. It was a great trip, met some really awesome people and got to see some of the best people in the world right before I leave.  But now it's time to pack.  I've always waited until the last day to pack and my thought has been, why change now?  It's always worked sooo well BUT, it's a little different this time.  I've got to decide what I need to take with me, I'm a guy so it's not an elaborate thought process, what I need to box up annnnddddddd then do it!  So I'm getting a head start today and since I am sitting here typing you can guess how far I've actually gotten with this whole packing early plan.

But really it isn't packing early.  I'm leaving October 1st, yea that's tuesday...TUESDAY!!  As in 4 days!  Plus there are things to do between now and then that have nothing to do with packing.  But this is going to happen....as soon as I get done blogging....so here I go.....to pack a little more... right now....bye bye.....oh wait I have a story first.

Ok the other day I was talking with some friends and there was one of those moments when someone says something and you immediately remember a few conversations you have had in the past with other people and you had totally forgotten about but someone sure hasn't.  So I was at Lipscomb a few years ago of course people are always asking you what you want to do with your life because hopefully by the time you are in your early 20's you have an idea what you want to do with your life.  I remember sitting with a few friends and we were just talking about that, about our majors and what we wanted to do and whether we could see each other doing that.  So I said that when I'm 25 I hope to be doing one of two things, either working as a full-time youth minister OR living and working abroad in the foreign mission field.  That's what I was telling everyone because that's what I wanted to do.  So we would talk to each other about our interest and what we hoped to do once we were where we wanted to be.  But to make a long story a little shorter, I left Lipscomb thinking a role in ministry might not be my place not because I didn't want it but because I hadn't yet graduated and there seems to be this idea that you can't ever do what you want unless you have a degree, and I didn't have a Bible degree.  After I left I even thought, well maybe I'll push that goal back.  By the age of 30 I want to be in ministry or in the mission field.  That goal eventually faded and I had forgot all about it, pressing on trying to see what else God had planned but apparently He hadn't forgotten.  I turn 26 in about 2 weeks.  I think I've said this before but a lot of things have happened in the last year that have led to this, things that tell me this is what God wants.  A few years ago I told him this is what I wanted and He started working.  I don't believe He would have made this all happen if He didn't want this too.  We just always have to trust in Him, always have a desire to serve Him and he will use you when He is ready.  Remember that when you ask something of Him, He just might do it.  He started putting things together, piece by piece to make this happen. I got chill bumps the other day when I remembered those conversations that had escaped my mind some time ago.  But He hadn't forgotten

He has formed a team, a great team.  A team of people who have a desire to see great work done in Mololoa, a team of people who have faith in Him the orchestrater of all of this and faith in me to do everything I can to make a difference for His Kingdom.  I hadn't really thought a lot about this until just the other day but everyone that has given to allow me to move to Tegucigalpa haven't given just because they love the work being done in Mololoa and know that more help is needed.  You've also given because you believe in me, you trust me, you want to see me do what you know I love.  I can't say thank you enough.  It's humbling to know that one reason so many of you have given and made this possible is because you love me.  Just know that I love each one of you as well and I can't wait to tell you all about it.  As most of you know, where I go good stories will follow.  Or rather shower heads that catch fire, or scorpions that bite you, or THE BUS LEAVING YOU AT A YOUR WORK SITE TO GO EAT LUNCH!!! They make for good stories...eventually.  But anyways, THANK YOU!! All of you for making this happen.  It's going to be amazing!!!  

.....I guess I'll get back to packing now.....

One step closer!

Ok, I have to admit that I’ve been in a relationship for a year and a half now.  Some of you know this and some of you are going to be like WHHHAAAAT???  But now as I move to Honduras I have to let her go and it’s not fun.  A year and a half ago I met her and knew immediately she was the one.  I had been looking for a few years for her and she finally came into my life.  We know everything about each other, we are like one when we are together.  She is an extension of me.  When she hurts, I hurt.  When I hurt, she makes me feel better.  She is sleek and beautiful, a sexy stallion.  She had just gotten out of a relationship when we met.  Her previous man was in the military and was being sent to Hawaii, he just couldn’t afford to bring her along…. or to ship her.  Like a knight in shining armor, I burst onto the scene and swept her off her….tires.  I cranked her up for the first time, she started to say something after a minute but I stopped her and said, “You had at VROOM!”.  But I now feel terrible, doing the same to her that the last guy did.  Leaving the country and having to leave her to start a new relationship, a new life, a new home, a new family.  We had a lot of great adventures together but now all we have are memories.  As I sit here, holding back the tears, I reminisce about our long trips together to the beautiful Keys, to the great mountains of West Virginia, and to the amazing back roads of Alabama and Tennessee.  I slept in her comfortable bucket seats and she helped me as I moved.  Oh the memories…. But I’ll be ok, the dreams of me shifting through her gears will soon subside and I’ll move on.  But it’s for her own good, at least I’m telling myself that, because she would never survive the roads of Honduras.  It has been three days since I abruptly let her know that she would be leaving me for someone else within an hour.  When I word it like that it doesn’t make me look as bad.  I hope she is happy.

But on a serious note, things are progressing well.  I have still not reached my goal of monthly support but I am getting closer.  September 26^th -30^th looks like the date that I will be leaving, with the 30^th being the most likely day.  I’m getting more excited everyday but the reality that I’m leaving my family and friends is beginning to set in.  I’m going to miss them and I wouldn’t be doing this, leaving them, if I didn’t have a passion for Mololoa and didn’t think that God wants me there.  But I do have a passion for the people and the work there and I fully believe that God wants me there for the foreseeable future.  Please keep praying about this and I’ll keep you posted on how things are going and if anything changes I’ll definitely let you know.  If you know of anyone who would like to help financially, please let me know and I will contact them.  Now that I’ve sold my car I have moved one step closer to moving.  The money I got for my car will go directly towards buying another vehicle in Honduras, which I am told are a little more expensive than they are in the States.  Other plans are coming together nicely, I just have to reach my goal of support which I am sure will happen because I believe God is working to make this happen.