Honduras!!!

This Saturday I will be returning to Honduras after 2 1/2 years away from one of my 

favorite places on earth!

Honduras has played a HUGE role in my life since 7th grade.  Thirteen years ago my family started taking a yearly mission trip to Honduras over spring break to build houses, help build church buildings, run a VBS, and run a medical clinic.  I had no clue how big of an impact that first trip in 7th grade was going to make on the rest of my life.

I remember so much about my first week in Honduras.  I remember not being able to breathe because the air was so polluted!  I remember lying in bed coughing myself to sleep at night. I remember falling "out" of a tree and landing in a pile of glass and being my parents' only emergency medical patient of the day in the clinic.  I remember catching the "bug" with about 30 other people from my group and being super sick.  I remember the guards walking around with huge guns.  I remember not being able to speak a lick of Spanish.  I remember being scared out of my mind,  yet somehow God caused me to fall in love with this place.  I was hooked from there on out.

I began to look forward to each March because I knew that I was going to be going back to Honduras with my family.  As the years went on I grew to love the place more and more.  As soon as I got to high school I started taking Spanish classes so that I could learn how to better communicate with my Honduran friends.

In the mean time a dear friend of mine, Amber Foster, graduated from OC and moved to Tegucigalpa to be a missionary.  The yearly trips to Honduras soon turned into two or three trips a year.  Anytime I was out of school I was heading to Honduras and staying with Amber!  I was there over Christmas break, Spring break, and would spend at least a month of each Summer speaking Spanish with my kiddos in Honduras.

As I went off to college I felt a pull at my heart to do mission work in Honduras.  I felt that God was leading me to move down there when I graduated and work with the people there.  My parents always use to joke that they were going to have to learn Spanish to be able to communicate with their grandchildren (not like that's a current issue).  As I started school at Oklahoma Christian I decided to major in Spanish.  I needed all the help learning the language that I could get!  My biggest language mistake ever would probably being telling a group of girls Soy hombre instead of Tengo hambre.  That's the difference between saying I am a man and I am hungry. The girls got quite the giggle out of that!

At the end of my freshmen year of college I told my parents that I wanted to take a semester off of school and move down to Honduras to live with Amber for 6 months.  They weren't nearly as excited about the idea as I was, but they knew that God was calling me there, so with much prayer they kissed their baby girl and shipped her off to a third world country for a few months.  I do remember my mother clearly telling me before I left, "if you don't get back on that plane in November I will fly down to Honduras and put your booty on that plane. You will finish college!"

June through November I spent living with Amber and working right by her side.  My Spanish improved daily and I developed strong relationships with so many little kids and the women in the church at Magote.  Those people are so dear to my heart.  God showed me a lot over those six months.

The first few months I was there were busy busy busy.  Our time was consumed with organizing youth groups who had come for a week for Summer mission trips.  I loved working with all of the different youth groups and building relationships with so many different teens from around the US.  It was so much fun to teach them how to build houses, mix cement, run a VBS, and help translate.  As the Summer came to a close and I began to experience what daily life in Honduras was like without all the busyness of the groups I found that my heart wasn't fully in it.  I started to realize that maybe this isn't what God was calling me to.  Don't get me wrong I still loved the people, but my heart just wasn't drawn to it like before.

As I returned to the states I began to question all of the plans that I had made.  I began to realize that Honduras wasn't where I needed to be.  God had given me a passion for Honduras for 10 years, but I believe that He allowed that passion to fade over time as He planted new ones on my heart.  Second semester of sophomore year was challenging.  I mean I thought I had my whole life planned out, and then just like that I realized my plans were wrong.  I didn't have a clue what I was suppose to do from there.  It was too late to change my major and honestly I didn't really have a passion to do anything else. I remember being scared out of my mind and thinking, okay God, now what?  What am I suppose to do?  I also know that His response to that question changed my life.  It's one of those moments in your walk with God where you hear His voice so clearly that you can remember every detail about the moment.  I remember Him saying to me, "I have never let you take a breath alone, I'm not going to start now.  Trust fully in me."  Just like that I had more peace than I had ever felt before.  I didn't know what He had in store for me, but I knew that He was right by my side and that I had nothing to fear.

It wasn't long after that that he led me to Mayfair for my first youth ministry internship.  For the first time in years I was spending my Summer in the United States.  I hadn't celebrated the 4th of July in the US in probably 5 years.  At the time I had no clue that God was preparing me for my dream job.  Isn't it crazy how when we look back we can see so many of the ways He was working, even though in the moment it was so much harder to understand what was going on.

Spring break my junior year of college was my last trip to Honduras.  It was filled with mixed emotions. My love for the people was still so strong, but my desire to move there was no longer there.  I knew that God was preparing me for something else.  He is so faithful.  After two Summers of youth internships I prayed and prayed that He would open up and youth ministry position for me and seriously weeks after I started praying that prayer I received an email about the youth ministry position at Pleasant Valley where I have been for the past 1 1/2 years.  He works in incredible ways!

This Saturday I will be taking off to Honduras for the first time in 2 1/2 years.  I'm excited and nervous all at the same time.  I don't really know what to expect.  I know that my awesome God will reveal Himself to me in exciting ways.  I am excited to see my little kids!  I can't even imagine how much has changed over the past 2 1/2 years.  I'm so excited to see Amber and Darwin (my Honduran brother) and to meet the newest addition to their family, Rosie (Amber is incredible...she has pretty much adopted these 2 kids and raised them as if they were her own).  I am so excited to see all that God is doing through them in one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere.

Please be praying for Kristen and for me as we take off on our "vacation".  We know that God has exciting things planned.  We pray that we can be a source of encouragement to Amber and that we can be the hands and feet of Jesus to those in Honduras.  I pray that we will reach out in faith and touch those who no one else will touch.  I pray that God will transform us to look more and more like Him with each one of His children that we meet.