Here we go again!!

We are gearing up for our 2015 trip to Honduras!!  And Jay & I are leading the team!!

This has been an incredible journey & opportunity to do this work in Honduras & even better, we are doing it together!!  

Below is my testimony & photos of a lady named Laura that has forever changed my life!  

-M

This is the testimony I wrote between my 2011 & 2013 trips to Honduras.

 Both were very different and life-changing events.

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This is an image that I simply canNOT get out of my head/heart. This woman is raising her 2 daughters in a shack that we would not keep a lawnmower in. Her kitchen is an eternal flame of sorts just outside her home, which is located downhill from the neighborhood outhouse. Her youngest child is indeed naked, all day - no diaper or simple garments. The woman had just been diagnosed with Leukemia.

I will never escape the moment that I met her or when she showed us with pride her home and meager belongings heaped on the bed (which the “HOUSE" was just big enough to fit). That's why we go on these trips, right? To open our eyes and change our lives? In my heart, that can't be all of it....I went to make a difference & continue to make a difference after I returned to my home - a mansion by Honduran standards. I am blessed; I have an able-bodied husband with a great job that provides for our family, a healthy and vibrant 7 year-old, 2 working vehicles and a 2 bedroom house with a finished basement and indoor plumbing...how could I want more?

That is the question I have lived with for a year. The conclusion was that, I can't and I shouldn't. I am too blessed compared to others. I need to share my good fortune and my skills, ie. knitting. A washcloth could make a huge difference in this lady's life and the life of her children. I am hoping on this trip not to simply hand-out items we have collected and didn't sell in a garage sale to the communities I visit in Honduras, but really meet the people I am helping and make a difference, one relationship at a time.  I am not hoping to change the world for all, but change the world, for the better, for all of those I meet both in Honduras and here at home. If you feel the "tug" do NOT ignore it, embrace it. You don't have to travel the world to make a difference, just listen to your heart.

2011 

                   

2013

In 2013, I saw Laura again.

She is healthy and her girls are growing and doing great!

God is good – all the time!!

**So excited to see her in 2015!**

Trip Number Tres in the works!

Trip #3 is being planned!!  And...Jay and I are leading the team (eek)!

What is in store for us?  Who knows!! The main structure they have been working on for years is being completed and worked on the inside as well!  We will have painting and "finishing" to do as well as VBS and visiting.  Let the journey begin!! 

To Honduras & Back....

Well, it is March 20, we arrived home safely on February 1...so it is definitely time for some photos from our trip.  It was a GREAT adventure & I am truly blessed that y husband went with me this time.   He now knows and shares my love for Honduras!  And. he was able to go with me a few days to the daycare centers where we taught Vacation Bible School to the children.  We also learned that one of the centers provides the only meal of the day for many children that regularly attend the center, this has broken our hearts and changed our lives back home.  Food is definitely a hot button at our house.  You do not have to like what we are having, but you better eat what we make & appreciate that you were given a meal, let a lone 3 & snacks that day!!  

Here are a few daycare pictures....

Catching bubbles!  This picture makes my heart smile!

Watching the Americanos mix cement.

My husband playing UNO with the older kids - we had about 75 little ones inside....I think he needed a few more outside with him!

This we brought & bought cars, puzzles & Playdoh as fun treats & activities to play with the kiddos.

This mom we even ran into at the marketplace & she came up and gave me a huge hug!!

I no VERY LITTLE Spanish....but it did not stop me from bonding with these moms!

How could I not take this picture?  :D

Being cool translates well no matter where Jay goes.

 For an extra special last day in Honduras and at VBS, we took the kids to a park and had a pizza party!  (Also the school we were using was also our team's worksite & the roof needed to come off of the classrooms to build another layer/story of the school.) 

In addition to the playground and bubbles & outdoor toys we brought, I also had pipe cleaners along...so I started making animals and flowers for the kids.  The other adults got into it as well! 

This dad had awesome pipe cleaner skills!!

Ring Around the Rosy & Duck, Duck, Goose were BIG hits! 

This little guy, Anderson, was my seat buddy on the bus.  He told me his grandma wore glasses and that the teacher should have driven her car instead of riding the bus with us....he was ADORABLE!!

Pipe cleaner antennae anyone?

<3 

The teacher of the daycare....a kindred spirit in organization & loving the kiddos!!