Today, I have been here for an entire month. It’s hard to wrap my mind around the fact that I have been living in this country for that long already. The time has flown by and the days have been filled with countless memories.
MINISTRY/DAILY LIFE
This week has been very different from our normal. Johnny and Doug, founders/leaders of Global Year stationed in Atlanta, are here to spend time with us and encourage us and look to see how the Honduras trip can be improved. It’s also the Honduran equivalent of Labor Day, so school has been out the majority of the week. We have spent time together as a team, met fellow missionaries and made new friends, spent another day at the beach (thankfully no burns this time), worked on painting the wall around our house, and even got to swim in a real pool at Johnny & Doug’s hotel.
We started our own personal Tuesday night Bible study last week. We are going through the book of James using the SPEKA method. (S- sins to avoid, P- promises, E- examples to follow, K- knowledge about God and man, and A- application.) Our discussions help us learn more about our God and living the Christian life while learning more about each other and growing closer as a team. In addition to this Bible study, we go to our pastor’s house on Thursdays where we have a Bible study with our wonderful pastor & his wife.
We started Spanish classes and got connected to the singles department in our church, which has been super helpful with building more friendships and feeling more at home. Other than that, not a whole lot has changed. We continue to get to used to our new lives and learning to live together and function in a very different culture.
It’s not always easy, but I wouldn’t trade this for the world. I am reminded of why I am here each time I look into the faces of the precious children I get to spend all day with. Last week, I learned a staggering statistic. Roughly 8 out of every 10 kids in our school have been sexually abused, usually repeatedly, by the time they are 9 years old. As I sat with my 19 fourth graders, all I could think about was the awful things that many of their innocent souls had already been through. I could feel God telling me that this is why I am here. Some of these kids have loving homes, but many do not. I am here to show unconditional, pure, no strings attached love to each child that God allows me to reach each day.
PRAYER REQUESTS
⁃ Continue to pray for Brent & Anne. Running a school while adopting two children from a very different home life demands a lot of wisdom and patience.
⁃ Pray for the individual kids in the school. Pray that God is able to use their life circumstances and the influence of us at the school to impact their lives and draw them closer to God.
⁃ Pray for my team and I. We need patience as we work with the kids and live with each other. Pray that we keep our bond of unity and continue to grow close.
FUNNY/INTERESTING STORIES
Last Sunday night, I was doing laundry because that’s my laundry day each week. I suddenly heard someone singing softly, but I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. Now, our washer and dryer are outside, so I thought maybe it was someone in the street over the wall. That’s when I realized it was coming through the wall of our house. I was right outside the bathroom, and Mac was singing in the shower. Of course I laughed because it was so funny and unexpected, and Mary Elizabeth and Cam joined me. We stood outside pretending to sing along and were about to loudly join in, which would definitely scare poor Mac, when he stopped singing and the water went off. We got very quiet so he wouldn’t hear us, but then Mac burped and we couldn’t keep our giggles in. The next thing we know, his head just from the eyes up pops up in the little window at the top of the bathroom. We screamed and ran out of sight. Even Mac thought it was hilarious and couldn’t stop laughing.
The other night I grabbed my washcloth off the hook on the bathroom wall and began to wash my face. That’s when the largest scorpion we’ve seen so far crawled out from within the washcloth and across my hand. I may have gone a little crazy, meaning I started to scream and threw the washcloth. Cam came in and chased it with a fly swatter until she was finally able to kill it while Mary Elizabeth videod and we all laughed.
The biggest tarantula we have seen so far also made an appearance in the bathroom. Josh decided to catch it and release it outside instead of killing it. He used his crocs and attempted to trap it inside them, but instead ended up dropping the croc and a now on-the-loose tarantula went fleeing for its life. Unfortunately, he ended up smashed into the floor surrounded by screaming girls (okay, and *maybe* a screaming Josh too).
Thank you so much for following my journey. Each prayer means more to me than I could ever express.
Con amor,
Allee <3
