Service Times
Traditional Worship Services
Sunday 8:25 and 11:05 AM
Contemporary Worship Service
Sunday 9:45 AM
Sunday School
9:45 AM and 11:05 AM
2011 Honduras Trip
Hello from La Ceiba!
Sunday July 31st, 2011
Yesterday as everyone knows we woke up at a time it is rare to see people moving around. I have not been up that early since May so of course it was a struggle for everyone but we made it...eventually. After a two and a half hour flight, a three hour lay over, a twenty minute bus ride, a twenty minute layover, and then a bus ride a little over three hours, we finally got to our destination. Now back tracking a couple of hours to our early morning flight. It never fails but if I am sleeping on a plane someone always has the need to wake me up. And 99% of the time its the flight attendants, whether its muffins, water, putting my seat up even though I do not recline it, or to tell me that the cart will be coming through in the next ten minutes so I should see what they have to drink. Something always happens that is completely unexpected. The sweetest words I could have heard came from the captain saying that we were going to be landing in about thirty minutes and so I anxiously waited for that time to fly by. We then explored the town through buses until we finally got to La Ceiba where we unloaded all of our things and then had dinner, hot dogs. So good ole american food for our first night in a foreign country!!!!!!! Everyone hung out as a group in the living room and talked about our expectations a long with out first impressions of the country it self and what we wanted to get out of this. Everyone then ended up talking about random things and then nothing all together before we all went to sleep. Obviously it took everyone a while to go to sleep, like on Christmas Eve. We were all just too excited to see what we were going to find the next morning when we woke up. After listening to music for a couple minutes I eventually fell into a much needed slumber and woke up to the sun blaring in through the bare windows!
Monday August 1st, 2011
So today was our first official day for a couple of things. We got to see the new land that the orphanage was going to be built on (a house, school, playground, crops), we got to go into the orphanage and see the little kids who weren’t old enough to be in the school, we got to see the older kids who were relieved from school to hang out with us, and we got to see the area while the sun was up and not hiding. After waking up at the crack of dawn to the sound of rooster, we were warmly invited downstairs to have homemade breakfast tacos. Now when I say homemade, I mean homemade. From the juice to the meat to the eggs and even down to the tortillas, each and everyone one of us was saying how the food here was incredible and not even their parents cook like this for them at their house. Now no offense to my mom or anyone else, this food was pretty freaking good not gonna lie. I wish I could eat like this every day! :) Love you Mom! Now for the people that know me, know that I like to sleep. Meaning once I’m done with breakfast, I like to go back to sleep before I leave. So continuing my morning ritual, I ate my tacos and went back to sleep. Why break tradition? After a nice little power nap 20 minutes after waking up we left the house for our first destination, the new land.
We loaded into a van and drove to the site. There we met up with the Papa Jones( The owner and founder of the orphanage) who is in charge of the orphanage where he explained his vision for the land and how he got involved in this organization, we saw his pet monkey and of course everyone freaked out because how often do you see a pet monkey, and we played with his dog Poncho. After talking to him for about 30 minutes we left and went to the orphanage where we saw the little munchkins! We unloaded our vast amount of items (hair products, diapers, toys, food, clothes and much more) we interacted with the kids, gave them a snack and then walked next door to the school. As soon as the kids saw us from the other side of the fence you could see and hear them light up with joy! After playing with the kids outside with all their toys we broke into two separate groups. In these groups we read a story, did a craft and then played games with them outside. In my group I had Kenzie, Carolyn, Joy, Jason, Angie, and Ian. We started off using paper lunch bags and made a puppet and the kids got to decorate them however they wanted! We then went out into a different room where we read a story. Now in each of the groups we had one person that was good at spanish. Their job was to read the story with them when it came time because the books were in Spanish. In my group that person was Kenzie. So the kids sat down and Kenzie started reading in Spanish until the kids demanded her to read in English. So she had to translate it, not what she was expecting but she did pretty well if I were to say so myself! After reading the story we burned some calories out in the field with the kids and crumbled over with exhaustion. Haha! After figuring out we were going back for lunch we said bye to the kids for now and then loaded back in our car and drove back to the house!
Yet again we were welcomed with some amazing food; homemade fried chicken with rice, a salad, and vegetables. We quickly realized that we had around a half hour until we were leaving the house to go paint a playground that a group had built before us. So what do I do? Well if you guessed sleep then you won the trivia question of the day. I introduced the Mexican custom of siestas to everyone and so we had a little power nap. But that nap was quickly interrupted by Matt who informed everyone that we were going to leave early. So I slowly crawled out of my bed and put my shoes on. We got to the new piece of land where there was a brand new swing set built just weeks prior. We started our multiple day job and primed the entire play area. We then broke up into two separate groups to do different things. One group was going to go with Del and play soccer with his group of boys that he is mentoring, and the other group was going to go back to the orphanage to give the kids their new shoes, hats, clothes and toys. I, along with Angie, Ann and Joy went to the Orphanage to deliver the surprises the kids had been eager to see. The looks on the little girls faces as they tried on their pillow case dresses was something that just made everyone in the room smile. All of the kids were so excited even just to get a beanie baby! We then watched the movie called Rango, The bus then came back from the soccer fields and we then went back to the house for yet again another amazing meal.
We walked in the house after a little detour and were welcomed by the smell of homemade empanadas, and again when I say homemade I mean it. Most of the students who had never had empanadas before were extremely reserved, except for the handful that had had them before. After everyone got one bite of theirs they went back for more because they were incredible. Most of the people were so beyond exhausted that they ate and then crashed from running around playing “Duck, Duck, Goose”, “Red Light, Green Light”, or having a kid on their shoulders and running around. I know feel sorry for all the dad’s who had to put up with that when we were younger and we went to the zoo. Sorry Dad! So everyone is waiting in anticipation to figure out what we are going to do tomorrow. We are anxious to finish the swing set and see what it looks like when we are completely finished, but we are more excited to see the kids again and see what crazy roller coaster ride they are going to put us through tomorrow and for the rest of the 10 days that we are here. They are so much fun!
As you guys are finishing up reading this we all here have a couple things that we want you guys to pray about for us. Firstly, that no one gets sick or hurt. Second, that we can have an impact on these kids and the same way around. And lastly, one of the workers in the house Ditzia, who prepares the food for us, found out that her brother had fallen out of a tree and was seriously injured and so she had to leave and go to the hospital. So if you could keep all of us and Ditzia in your prayers it would mean a lot to everyone!
Well I am finished for the day and I do not know if that is a good thing for you guys because you can stop listening to be ramble or a bad thing because you want to know more about what we did. But that is our day in a nutshell! Someone else will be writing to you about tomorrow but I had the pleasure of writing to you about the first night and the first day!
Justin Hinckfoot
Romans 8: 38-39
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011
Finally getting into the swing of things on our second day, we rose again at an unseemly hour to a shining sun and the beautiful sound of barking dogs. As usual, the food was amazing, pancakes this morning, and of course, a quick game of speed scrabble before we left. All the girls unfortunately had to wear our long pants today in the 100 degree weather because we were attending the older kids school. Unlike yesterday where most of the kids could speak english with us, today all the kids could speak little to no english, but it didn’t stop us from having an amazing time with them. We colored pictures with them, read a bible story in spanish, made bracelets, and then played a game of duck duck goose and red light green light. Even with the language barrier, you could tell from the way they clung to us when we left that they had a great time. Before we did anything else though we had the pleasure of going to visit “The Lagoon” where the italian version of Survivor was filmed. We walked down the rickety old bridge a good ten minutes until we found the opening to the bay. In the van ride back we took a small detour to a road side convenience store and bought good old fashioned doritos and cokes for $85 in Honduras money. After that we split up into our groups of six again and went our separate ways. Angie, Jenna, Jessie, Charlie, Nathan, Caitlin and I went to the orphanage to pick up nine children and take to the beach outside our house for the rest of the day. The other group of six plus Matt went to paint the playground. It was only about noon so when my group got back to the house we had lunch for us and the kids, then it was time to change into bathing suits and open the gate to the beach. That however took about twenty minutes because we couldn’t find the key. We were out there for a good two hours and we still had two and a half more to kill so we did our best to dry them off and then went inside for the rest of the time to watch the movie tangled. The kids were amazing and we all loved them but just looking after nine of them took all the energy out of me so to all those women and men who are here helping out in the orphanage everyday...good job, I don’t know how you do it! We all made it back to the house after a little while and played more speed scrabble and again enjoyed a fantastic meal. I can’t believe it’s only our second day and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the week holds for us!
Ann Vondrak
Wednesday, August 3rd
Dear Parents and Friends,
Day three of our trip was one of the hottest and most exhausting so far, but also one of the most rewarding. We started our day with another dynamite breakfast, banana oatmeal with toast and jam. Today, as we did yesterday, we split up into two groups. One continued painting the playground, the other worked with the kids. I went to the playground to continue the paint job and was excited to see the swing-set and slide coated in the electrifying colors our hosts picked out. They picked the vibrant red, yellow, blue, and green paints to colorize the equipment because Papa Jones originally envisioned a color scheme that would be bright and exciting and really wow and excite the kids. However, I think that seeing how the playground was coming along energized our group just as much as it was intended to energize the kids. While driving back to the house for lunch later in the day, Matt, wide-eyed and grinning from ear to ear, would ask us, “Did you see the colors?! Aren’t they AWESOME?!”
In the sweltering heat we slathered on coats of paint while discussing everything from music to ex-boyfriends to freestyle rap techniques (shout out to Nathan Kennard) to our relationships with God. After finishing what we could on the paint, we hopped in the van to eat our lunch of coconut chicken and rice and recharge before the two subgroups switched tasks. When my group arrived at the home to play with the kids, Mama Jones gave us what now I realize is an impossible job: take the kids outside and wear them out. We played frisbee and futbol with the kiddos for a solid hour in the blazing sun, but their energy was far from spent. We went into the playroom to “settle down and watch a movie,” but the reality is that these kids are relentless when it comes to playtime. There were very few times in the latter part of the day that I had less than two adorable, tireless children crawling in my lap or swinging from my arms. For roughly five hours we carried drooling babies, bounced little girls on our laps, and obeyed countless demands to be tickled. There were moments today when playing with the kids started to feel more like work than fun, but all in all, I cannot complain. Tonight I sat back and thanked God for the amazing opportunity that I and the rest of the group has been given to work with these amazing kids and to be a part of something much bigger than ourselves. Plus, the sight of Papa Jones coming home and rolling around on the ground with his adopted children, all of them smiling and yelling out his name as the hugged and kissed them on the cheek was worth the fatigue in my muscles and the slight smell of urine on my clothes.
After a full day of hard work and a dinner of good ol’ fashion American cheeseburgers and fries, I think I speak for the rest of the group when I say that there is nowhere else in the world that we would rather be right now. Hope you all are doing well in Kingwood and are enjoying the ends of your summers. You will be hearing from us tomorrow night.
Much Love,
Charlie Wood
Thursday, August 4th
After having such an exhausting day yesterday my group stayed home this morning to prepare a spaghetti lunch for some local families who live in an extremely poor and small village near the orphanage while the other group did some finishing touches on the playground we have been painting for the orphanage. It was very nice to have a break this morning after having my patience tested by the kids the day before. Parents I don’t know how you did it!
After lunch we all loaded up in our van and headed to pass out lunches to some extreme poverty stricken families just a few miles down the road. Two local boys also tagged along with us who we had met at the soccer field earlier in the week. We all joked around together taking funny pictures on our cameras and in the little spanish that we know. The families we brought food to live in small houses made out of dried mud and sticks with palm tree limbs as the roof. They don’t have any electricity or running water, just a small stream along their houses where they wash their clothes. The families were overjoyed when we brought them a big lunch for each residence. We also brought along the beanie babies we packed and handed them out to the children of each home, many of them wanted more and more. We prayed in english and spanish with each family to bless the food and that it would help nourish the families. The impact that we made on their day and their lives was evident in their faces. We didn’t need a translator to realize that!
After we headed straight back to the orphanage to pick up Christy, our new friend from another group working here, who plays soccer at a small college in New York, we arrived at the soccer field and Jason shared his testimony with the team. Del helped to translate and when Jason was done he received many hugs and high fives from the players. They even asked if he had Facebook so they could friend request him! We had soccer practice tonight with the team and a few of us also played along. They are extremely good at soccer here and it’s pretty hard to keep up, but I definitely played a few games!
Tonight after dinner the group from Brooklyn decided to share with us how they worshiped. They go to a Creole christian Church in Brooklyn. Many of their grandparents and parents moved from Haitiwhere creole is spoken, so tonight they sang a few songs with us in creole! Carolyn and I were really excited because creole is mixed with French African Languages and a little spanish, so we understood a few songs! The last song they shared with us we all got up and did the dance motions with them. Then we shared with them how we worship; Nate on the guitar, and Del used an empty water barrel as a drum. We did a few songs, and of course we ended it with the Happy Song, Texas style! We clapped, sang, and danced hoedown style and everyone joined in.
Today was a really good day for me. I had some much needed rest in the morning, we practiced God’s good works in the afternoon, and praised Him tonight. At so many points in the day I just said how I wanted to stay here and praise God instead of going home next week, but I know I need to bring the things I’ve learned here home and find my own Honduras. But right now theres a dance party going on in the Gazebo that I have to join!
lots of love,
Caitlin Collier
Friday August 5, 2011
Driving to the game and looking out the windows, I saw the absolutely beautiful mountains. We drove about an hour up into a mountain village until we pulled up to the community’s futbol (soccer) field. We got to the game and Dell handed out the jerseys to the players and they talked some strategy while we hung out with a couple of the local guys named Jorge and Kepros that Dell coaches. They were hilarious and kept us quite entertained. The game began and we all sat down in anticipation. They scored first but we quickly tied it up and our crowed all cheered! On a penalty kick by the opposing team, the ball was kicked over the goal and into the cornfield.
One of the local boys who was watching the game ran to shag the ball. When he got to the edge of the cornfield he suddenly stopped and began to shout hysterically in Spanish. Suddenly everyone, including the players on the field, began running in a mass frenzy. I looked to Matt see what he was saying but he just had a blank look on his face and I could tell he was trying to make sense of what the boy was saying in the midst of chaos.
We realized that something was quickly coming out of the corn onto the soccer field. Dark reptilian figures began pouncing upon both players and spectators alike. We all stood, frozen in absolute fear, as the full reality of our situation became clear. What I once considered only just a childhood toy and a relic of the past was now threatening our very lives. We were being attacked by a pack of velociraptors.
At this point, countless velociraptors were pouring out of the corn and surrounding jungles. Their masses covered the soccer field and our group was separated. Over the screaming, I heard Angie, Dell, and Matt’s shouts and calls for us to get away as fast as possible. I bumped into one of the players and I fell, dazed. I scrambled to my feet and looked up as Angie was swarmed by a group of the bloodthirsty creatures. Jason desperately tried to throw them off of her but the two of them didn’t stand a chance. The woman who had guided me through so many tough times in my life had been snatched away from me in an instant. However, despite the crushing pain for losing my sweet Angie, I knew I had no time to grieve. Tears streaming down my cheeks, I turned and fought my way to where Carolyn was standing.
On my way to her, I watched in horror as Joy was knocked to the ground. It looked hopeless as the beasts encircled her. Just as they looked ready to pounce, Del appeared over her. With herculean strength and courage, he looked the pack of raptors dead in the eyes, daring them to make the first move. One lunged and was met with a blow from Del’s massive fist. The raptor crumpled and the next one leapt over its still body. He twisted and caught it in the jaw with an elbow, stunning the cruel lizard. At that moment, Joy reached into her pack and pulled out a can of Off bug-spray. Spraying a enormous dose of the potent liquid into its eyes, the raptor was reduced to whimpering and retreated back into the cornfield. As Delturned back to face his attackers, one launched itself at him, jaws open wide. Del caught its vicious rows of teeth and halted it in midair. Using his brute strength, he tore the beast’s snout in clean half. With a bloodcurdling roar, Del threw himself into them as he and Joy went down in the masses.
I eventually broke away from the horrendous scene and luckily ran into Matt and the others. The sun was beginning to set and we stumbled through the thick jungle into a cave for shelter. Storm clouds were brewing on the horizon so we knew we had to stay there for the night.
Emotions among the group were running wild and we wept openly for our fallen compadres. Knowing something had to be done for us to retain our sanity, Matt stood up and shouted to get our attention. We fell silent as Matt paced to the opening of the cave. He took a deep breath and began to reassure us as only Matt could. He soothed us and led us in prayer. I felt my racing heart slowly come to a normal pace. Jenna however, was still in hysterics and Matt was forced to grab her by the shoulders and stop her from drawing attention to our hiding place. Finishing his beautiful monologue, Matt sighed and leaned against the mouth of the cave. I saw a single tear run down his cheek as he told us in a trembling whisper that he loved us and that he would do anything to get us out of there alive. What happened next will haunt me for many years to come. As he looked up at us, his faithful youth group, the gaping jaws of a mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex closed around our beloved leader and pulled him away in an instant. The massive beast’s head couldn’t fit far enough into the cave to reach us, so we heard the thumps as it left us alone and distraught.
That was the last straw for Jenna. She shrieked and sprinted out of the cave into the dark rain. We called after her and Nathan and Ian struggled to keep Justin from chasing after her. Her footsteps faded away into the night and she was gone.
Silence echoed through the cave. I stared at the spot where Matt had stood a second ago. I slowly looked from face to face and each of their expressions were the same; utter shock. Ian and Charlie sniffed and held back tears and Nathan pounded his fist on the wall in frustration. I couldn’t help but think that without Angie and Matt, we were hopeless. Still not saying a word, we made our way far back into the cave. I didn’t think that after the day’s events sleep was possible, but the exhaustion of the day knocked me out immediately.
The next morning I awoke to a smell that almost convinced me I was in a different place. The savory scent of scrambled eggs wafted in the air and I breathed it in deeply. Then I froze, realizing what had happened. I turned, and saw Ann cooking several large eggs on an open fire. The rest of the group were starting to wake up as well and they were watching Ann’s actions, speechless. She had gone out early in the morning and retrieved several dinosaur eggs for breakfast. Ann’s goodhearted nature and want to help the group had led her to make a fatal error. As we flung the eggs out of the cave, we knew it was too late. The raptors had arrived and smelling the scent of their scrambled young on Ann’s breath caused them to swarm her first.
The rest of us were flushed us out of the cave and were separated. I joined up with Carolyn and we made our way into the jungle. However, our tale is not near what the others went through, so I will be recounting their adventures.
Caitlin and Justin were chased by the majority of the pack. Caitlin had a step on Justin and the raptors were gaining on him. He stumbled over a root and trying to steady himself lunged forward and grabbed the back of Caitlin’s shirt and pulled himself forward. She then tripped and her step faltered. That’s all the creatures needed. She went down in a crowd of them as Justin looked back in horror. He continued to run forward as his gaze remained fixed on the events behind him. Unaware, he ran directly into the Tyrannosaurus Rex’s open maw.
Charlie, McKenzie, and Ian meanwhile managed to stay together and made their way through the jungle searching for Nate, Caitlin, Justin, Carolyn, and myself while simultaneously trying to evade their carnivorous pursuers. After what seemed like hours of aimless wandering they came upon a wide ravine. Coming to the edge and looking down they realized that any hopes of crossing were moot as the drop was several hundred feet leading to nothing but the jagged rocks of a raging river. However, in the distance, about a mile away, they saw something that seemed to stretch to the opposite side. Hiking that way they realized that it was little more than a rickety old rope bridge with several of its wooden slats missing. Wary of crossing, they timidly stepped out onto the bridge testing its stability. However, their caution was thrown to the wind as four raptors emerged from the foliage. Charlie led the way as Kenzie and and Ian followed closely. About two-thirds of the the way across Ian’s foot crashed through one of the rotted slats of wood. Unable to pull it out he encouraged Charlie and Kenzie to go on without him. Kenzie made it safely across and watched helplessly as Charlie returned to his beloved brother unwilling to leave him behind. Together they were able to free Ian’s leg. Yet the velociraptors were just a few meters away. Giving Ian a lunge Charlie gave his brother one last bit of advise: “Live or die tryin’”. He then turned to face the beasts and began rocking the unstable bridge side-to-side thereby giving Ian precious seconds to reach the other side. On seeing Ian on solid ground he, using a machete he had tucked into his belt during the initial melee, he hacked through the thick twine which held the bridge suspended above the ravine bed. As both Charlie and the raptors plunged into the abyss, Ian and his brother made eye contact for the final time. Charlie gave his signature smirk and threw his little bro a wink.
Falling to his knees, Ian wept. Embracing her disconsolate friend Kenzie did what she could to comfort him. Eventually collecting himself, Ian, still fresh with grief, and Kenzie together they made their way into the jungle hoping that this time salvation was near. These hopes were soon dashed as Ian suddenly came to a halt on the edge of a clearing. On the opposite end of the meadow was a T-Rex. Motioning to Kenzie, the they began to retrace their last few steps. Kenzie mistakenly snapped a twig beneath her foot rousing the ferocious lizard’s attention. Instinctively Ian and Kenzie froze in hopes that they would not be seen. They knew they had failed as the T-Rex turned and with a deafening roar began running directly at them. Their only choice was to sprint back through the jungle from which they had just come knowing that it led back to the ravine.
They burst from the forest and found themselves trapped. With a fatal drop at their backs and a murderous beast running towards them, the two of them frantically searched for an escape. Suddenly, a strange sound rang through the canyon and Ian and Kenzie spun around.
Rising out of the ravine, a helicopter hovered above the two survivors. Ian and Kenzie were stunned as they saw Carolyn at the controls. I was on the side of the vehicle manning a .50 cal. machine gun. I proceeded to fire the enormous bullets at the Tyrannosaurus to save my friends. I wounded the enormous beast and it retreated back into the woods. However, the noise of our helicopter alerted the pack and hundreds of raptors began to pour out of the forest.
Carolyn did her best to fly low so Ian and Kenzie could get into the helicopter but the raptors began to leap onto it instead. I did my best to keep them off but one grabbed the extra ammunition I had strapped across my chest. It pulled me off my gun and I barely managed to grab hold of one of the helicopter’s railings. I shook the beast off and struggled to pull myself back up.
By that time Kenzie and Ian had fought their ways into the chopper and Carolyn ordered Ian to take the controls. He grabbed them as she quickly made her way over to me. She grabbed my arm and pulled me back into the cockpit. However, I was unaware that one of the beasts was inches away from biting me from behind. I saw Carolyn’s eyes widen and then she launched herself out of the helicopter into the raptor’s chest. With a final shout of “Happy birthday Mom!” she tackled the creature into the depths of the ravine, saving my life.
Just as it seemed that the three of us would make it out of this nightmare, the rotors on the helicopter began to malfunction. Ian shouted something about them being jammed and we continued to hover at the same height. The raptors were grouped at the edge of the ravine, slobbering and growling at us as we stared back at them just out of reach. Some of the braver raptors flung themselves at our helicopter but none could quite breach the distance. Then, to our horror, one jumped and its claws scraped against the railing. We were slowly floating closer and Ian was still struggling to regain control of our escape vehicle.
Just as we readied ourselves for a raptor to land in the cockpit, we heard a strange horn in the distance. A dinosaur leapt at us and before our eyes it seemed as if a wooden spear was growing out of its stomach. We looked for its source and were left speechless as to what we saw.
A bearded man in a loincloth and a headdress made of a velociraptor skull stood, a sharpened spear in each hand. Behind him were around fifty similarly clad men that we recognized from the local towns. They were all armed with makeshift weapons and charged into the dinosaur’s ranks. The scruffy man looked at the helicopter and made eye contact with Ian and the two exchanged grins. Our hairy savior was none other than our own Nathan Kennard. With a cry of “I’m baaaaaack!” he threw himself at his reptilian advisories.
Ian leaned his head out of the cockpit and called to his dear friend. He exclaimed “Nathan! Come with us! Let’s go home!” Nathan broke away from the fighting for a second and looked Ian straight in the eyes. In a whisper that rang in Ian’s ears for the rest of his life, Nathan said “Cant you see? I am home!” He then cackled and charged back into the brutal melee.
Ian had regained control of the helicopter again at that point and he steered it out. He, Kenzie, and I returned to La Ceiba. We then purchased a hotel and are now planning our next move. See you soon!
With love,
Jessica Rubin
Ed. Note: The veracity of the previous entry has yet to be fully determined ;)
Saturday, August 6th
Man, I woke up this morning and had the weirdest dream about dinosaurs, a soccer game, and Nathan in a loin cloth...weird...must be all that Pepto!
Not really, the group all came up with the great story you received in your email last night :)
Anyways, like I said today we woke up at the crack of dawn it seemed (6:35 am), and were a little more sluggish than usual. This week has been so amazing but incredibly exhausting in many aspects, mainly physical. We then split up into our normal groups. My group stayed back at the house and cooked spaghetti, spaghetti, and more spaghetti that we planned to bring to the hospital later that day. The other group brought the orphans to the beautifully finished playground that we had been working on all week. From what I was told, the kids adored it! They spent hours running around dirtying up the fresh coats of paint and swinging higher and higher on their swings. What an accomplishing feeling to know that all the sweat and hard work we put in daily to that project truly paid off! Once the two groups recombined after lunch, we all headed down to the hospital in La Ceiba.
We were greeted by many people waiting outside the hospitals gates. Turns out, many of them were relatives of the sick just waiting to be let in to the facility. Once we got in, Del filled us in on the depressing state of many of the children being treated. Here in Honduras, if you cannot pay for your treatment up front, you do not get helped. What’s even more sad is that many of the operations and care for these children costs only $50-$100. So, it brought the sick children great JOY to visit with us during their time of great sickness. We face painted, gave them stickers and balloons, and fed them and their families spaghetti. We talked to them in what little Spanish we knew, but their smiles and faces told us that they understood our purpose of showing God’s love. We are having such an incredible time here and I can’t wait to see what God has in store for us for the rest of the trip. We actually were just told that our “fun” or debrief day is now changed to tomorrow. Not only that, but Matt and Angie managed to pull a few strings and RENTED OUT THE WHOLE ISLAND for us to spend the whole day and night in beach bungalos tomorrow as we scuba and snorkle! :)
Please keep praying for us all and especially for all those who are feeling ill tonight.
Much love,
Joy Davis
Sunday, August 7th
HEYYY PARENTS, MISS YA! Today was very different than our normal
routine of hard work at the orphanage. We rented our own island and
stayed the night there! It was awesome! We woke up very early as usual
and ate our breakfast consisting of delicious cereal. We then packed
up our things and walked a very short distance to the scuba
instructor's house where we picked out our flippers and waited for the
boats. Soon enough the two boats arrived, each seating about 15
people, and we headed out to have an amazing day! The boat ride was 40
minutes and seeing the mountains and beaches of Honduras from the boat
was breathtaking! When we approached the first island stop, the water
became a beautiful turquoise and it was as clear as pool water! We
finally arrived at this very small island where we docked our boat.
The first group, Caitlin, Jessie, Matt, and Nathan, began to put on
their scuba diving equipment while the rest of us skipped rocks and
got our snorkeling gear together. The first group went scuba diving
for about an hour and had an awesome time! The rest of the group
relaxed on the island and snorkeled. As we were snorkeling we saw an
abundant amount of coral and brightly colored fish! There was also
some sea urchins which kind of freaked me out, but overall snorkeling
was a lot of fun! After the scuba diving group returned we all got on
the boat and headed to another island where there were a row of huts
and houses. We docked and ate our lunch there! We went to a local
restaurant where they cooked fried fish and chicken. It was
delicious! The restaurant wasn't like an American or Honduran
restaurant! It was definitely a simple hut where most of the island
got their food from! There were also cold sodas which were very
refreshing. After lunch we played in the ocean on that island until
our instructor was ready to go. We then ventured over to the actual
island we were staying at. The island was about 4 acres and had one
main house and 2 beach bungalows. Between the crystal clear water and
palm trees, the island was so pretty! Not to mention...there NO power
on the island at all. The hosts of the island would power up their
generator for about 20 minutes, so we could get ready for bed. It was
definitely an awesome experience! The rest of the afternoon consisted
of relaxing on the hammocks or playing in the beach. A few people even
cannon-balled off the dock into the ocean! At about six that night we
went back to the island we ate lunch at and bought more sodas along
with grilled coconut and coconut bread. The coconut stuff was very
fresh and delicious! Then we went back to our island and rinsed off
for dinner. We then started a bonfire and began roasting our hot dogs
for dinner. The hot dogs were so tasty! After dinner we had some
amazing s'mores! Along with the traditional graham cracker and
marshmallow we added Reese's cups and it was amazing! After dessert we
hung around the fire where swapped our most embarrassing stories and
took "bro" pictures.
After a while of laughing and talking around the
campfire we went out separate ways. Almost everyone fell asleep
quickly after a long and awesome day!
Much Love!
McKenzie Teeters :)
