transitioning back home.

“How long, O Lord? . . . How long . . . ?  How long . . . ?  How long . . . ?”  Psalm 13:1-2

There is an in-between-ness to this life.  God gives us great promises in the gospel.  Then he calls us to wait for their fulfillment.  He doesn’t give us everything right away.  He calls us to wait.

In between the giving and the fulfilling of God’s promises, the waiting can be hard.  Sometimes it can seem impossible to endure, because what we’re stuck in for now doesn’t just fall short of God’s great promises.  Our experience can be the opposite of God’s great promises.  Living in-between is not easy.

But God’s greatest gift is not always what we think.  God’s greatest gift is himself.  And he does give himself right now.  His own reality and presence and nearness and immediacy and smile: “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted” (Psalm 34:18), “The Lord is near to all who call upon him, to all who call upon him in truth” (Psalm 145:18).

That is not a consolation prize, not something we have to settle for.  There is nothing greater in all this world.  We don’t understand how God draws near and we can’t control him.  But this is real, very real, very wonderful.

As we stumble forward, God’s real presence gives us strength to wait without self-pity but with resilient good cheer.

--Ray Ortlund

sunday of departure.

i wake up to piggie grunting about and realize it's my last morning here. i'm saddened as i get ready for church in the village but was excited to see everyone in their sunday best. as i walk over to the house i find out that the little kids weren't going to church today because the sunday school teacher was sick (i don't know how they found out since there's no telephone) the older kids were going to church but we couldn't join them because otherwise we'd miss our flight...though that would have been preferable lol. i played with them one last time and said adios which was met with a lot of no's. so hard to leave!! there was so much to process, so much to reflect upon and too many emotions to suppress as i packed. 

chancho somehow got out of his gate and was roaming about. he actually followed me to his gate. i lured him how i would lure my pet dog, brady.

hasta luego little ones.

saturday.

how does the weekend differ from the weekdays here at miqueas 6.8? more play time!! but they try to make it purposeful play time. the kids sleep in a little bit but still have chores to complete. clay comes in and teaches them a bible lesson. today they made a video of samuel being called by the Lord. it was so cute! surprisingly i felt like i understood everything even though it was all in spanish. elsie ran some games for them to burn off some of their energy.  there were 5 kids that did really well in school: carmen, heidy, douglas, cristian and gereson. some also won awards for their behaviour in school so melody and joby decided to take them out for the night to reward them. they emphasized that this treat was predominantly for their good behaviour. they didn't want the kids to think that they would get external rewards every time they did well in school because that is a basic expectation for them. the kids were so excited and dressed up in their new tshirts. we drove to the mall and they got to pick one activity to do and they got a kids meal from wendy's to themselves. heartwarming moment: the kids praying for their meals and carmen sharing her fries with me. we also stopped by the grocery store where i picked up 6 bags of plantain chips, zambos! they're so yummy. maybe because they're loaded with msg...i still like them :)

these kids run SO fast.

caught red-handed again!

neberley picking up all the kids worksheets that they keep throwing through the fence.

tia hilda with the kids.

jessler wanted me to pick him up.

elsie explaining target practice.

pulling her weight by bringing in the milk delivery. the cutest part was when we asked her who the milk was for and she said "for the little babies" meaning she thought she was beyond milk. so cute.

keylin underneath the mango tree.

joby and melody with their small family of 5 kids for the night. one seventh of their regular brood.

friday.

miqueas 6.8 is being supported primarily from donations and money coming in from the states. joby and melody hope that one day, miqueas 6.8 will be able to sustain itself from their projects in honduras. right now they have a dumptruck which they rent out to the locals to bring in some money. they're planning on building a "strip mall" which will contain a pharmacy, convenience store etc. they've also bought a plot of land 30 minutes away from la colorada which is where jen and i were going to visit today. clay, walker and the local pastor took jen and i to the land where they were planting palm trees, corn, bananas, rambutan and other crops. miqueas hired two families to live on the land to farm it and tend to it. clay and walker are teaching them the basics of agriculture and since they're fluent in spanish the locals have no trouble understanding them!

view of the land. the view was amazing. especially when clay and walker took us on the back of their truck. the terrain was pretty steep and jen and i decided to be "adventurous" and ride in the back of the truck like the locals. let's just say there was a lot of screaming as we held on for dear life. clay was nice enough to let us know when a tree was going to knock us in the head though lol.

this is dolce. her name means sweet. her family is one of the families here that farms and tends the land. she was fascinated with my camera. a lot of the photos from today were taken by her.

this is her younger sister and their pet dog who is pregnant.

inside their home. very simple as you can see. this is their kitchen.

dulce loved taking pictures of her mama. her name is carmen and she's a very lovely lady who spoke some english. she collects chip bags and makes purses and earrings out of them. she also braids bracelets and sells them in stands.

sweet.

the brother who we met while he was herding pigs. he also goes to school when he's not farming. he didn't like getting his photo taken lol.

exploring the land with carmen as our guide. they pointed out many of their crops and were trekking in slippers. i was in runners and still managed to step in a puddle which made the girls laugh.

the dad, carlos, getting fresh coconuts for us so we can have a refreshing beverage after our mini tour of the land. that's a very long handled knife!

eating the flesh of the coconut after drinking the coconut water which felt and tasted almost carbonated?

the roosters and chancho's brother! the kids at miqueas 6.8 got their little piggie from this farm. at the bottom of the picture is their version of a slide. very different playground than i'm used to.

the land is very vast. wildlife roams wherever they please.

jen and i. very sweaty but happy!

their stove.

walker and carlos.

rambutan, one of the crops they grow. lychee takes 8-10 years to establish a yielding crop so rambutan is the next best thing. its typical season is in august and out of the 364 trees they have on the land, this is the only tree that is bearing fruit. talk about bearing fruit in and out of season!

 




the whole day i was just amazed to see God's creation, to see how He sustains these people and to see His goodness overflowing for His people. we saw the rainbands move through the mountains and it soon reached us. i fell asleep on the ride back and when we reached home, the kids welcomed us back with their silly faces!

another birthday cake! happy birthday estefani!

all kids love icing :)

marvin's favourite pose to soothe himself. he's a multitasker.

thursday.

by now i think i've finally got the kids' schedules down. the big kids (11-14 years old) wake up for school around 5:00am. they shower, get dressed in their uniforms and eat breakfast to be ready to go by 6:00am. then they are driven to their respective schools to start learning by 7:00am. some of the kids get home by 1:30pm and some get home by 3:30pm. then they do their homework and chores and spend time with walker, the tutor. the little toddlers have a different schedule. they have a later wake up time and are dressed and fed and then have a playtime. then some of them go with elsie, the intern from atlanta, for tutoring and activity time. (some days they see the staff psychologist) that's followed with a bible story from tio clay clay and then it's lunch! the rest of the day is taken up by naptime, play time, eating time and worship and prayer time before they go to sleep. the days have been flying by.

i started out love day by reading the loveday card my sistah snuck into my luggage. i also ate a combination of cereal every morning which was all sugar but so good!

jessler being jessler!

left to right: juan, estefani, neberley, nathan, marvin, jessler.

karen.

my little troublemakers. so. cute.

jefferson loves the chalk.

since today is the day of love and friendship in honduras, melody wanted to do something nice with the kids and let them each make a card and give it to one of their brothers and sisters. this in theory was simple but with 38 kids and staggered schedules, it was a bit harder for jen and i to execute. at one point when we were surrounded by 8 kids at one table all trying to make cards, let's just say we were overwhelmed. but by God's grace we figured out a system and each kid had a secret person. (we ended up handing out the cards to each other the next night since it took a while to make them) 

anderson, juan and jessler making cards.

jen and karen working together :)

the tias make all the kids' meals from scratch. including the corn tortillas! you should see them pounding these things out. it's not easy. they were so sweet and hardworking. love their love for the kids.

estefani with her older sister carmen. carmen came here first and later were reunited at miqueas. estefani had some asthma problems and had trouble breathing which is why she doesn't look too happy here. they love each other though. carmen will come home and bring snacks for estefani to try that she acquired at school.

wednesday.

jen and i brought so many donations of tshirts, dresses and things for kids that we filled two luggages each! when we went to check in, for some reason american airlines gave us free baggage check for up to 2 luggages. praise the Lord! what a blessing :) i don't think we realized that we then had to organize all the donations. and that's what we did today. we went up to their storage room and there were boxes and boxes and tubs upon tubs of donations from other people. our goal was to organize all the boxes for them. and we tried our best but the heat up there only allowed us to work a little faster than a snail's pace. sometimes we came across items for winter and seeing how they don't experience a true winter in this village, i don't see how a fleece onesie or a winter puffy jacket will benefit these children. so they are planning on donating all the donations that don't suit their need to the people up in the mountains in honduras where it does get colder. such a spirit of sharing and caring here. i love it! 

view from the top floor of the building. one of the few buildings here that had a second level in honduras.

jefferson helping out with anderson's chores. really cute to see how anderson can convince his younger siblings to help him complete his chores.

estefani and i in the morning while all the other toddlers are getting tutored. she's a bit too old for that so we hang out instead. sometimes she sees the staff psychologist instead to chat.

the kids making jen do push-ups. joby disciplines the kids in the form of a circuit of physically demanding tasks such as squats, pushups, and running laps. no physical or emotional abuse is used to discipline the kids given their backgrounds and past experiences of that in their own homes. the kids sometimes pretend to be joby and the kid being disciplined and take turns running laps and doing push-ups. really cute! but meant to be taken seriously lol.

every kid and staff person gets a cake for their birthday. with 38 kids and 17 staff members that's a lot of cake! we had 3 cakes this week alone :) and there's no complaining from this cakelover! feliz compleanos= happy birthday. i messed up jen's beautiful writing by accident when i tried to "decorate" the cake. the heat made the icing a lot softer and it kind of fell onto jen's handiwork. sorry!

jen, jessler and little carmencita during night time worship.

trying on some sunglasses :)

jeffer playing around in the staff house. the little kids don't have school in the morning so sometimes they wander into the house and hang out. they're so cute!!