Merry Christmas!! This holiday season has been filled with so many new places and adventures!
We celebrated Thanksgiving with the school and taught the kids about our American holiday traditions. They enjoyed drawing pictures of things they are thankful for and having a Thanksgiving celebration day at school.
Christmas was quite the ordeal! A huge Honduran tradition is to stay up until midnight on Christmas Eve and shoot off fireworks. We went over to some of our Honduran friends’ house and climbed a mountain at midnight. We were able to look across the city from higher ground and see fireworks filling the sky from multiple locations. It was one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen! When the show was over, we stayed out with our friends for a few more hours and then went home and did our own family Christmas/Secret Santa exchange. Needless to say, we ended up doing a super fun Christmas Eve all-nighter! For Christmas Day we slept in and went over to our pastor and wife’s house for brunch. Kris and Alania “adopted” us for the day since we were away from our parents and homes. That evening, we invited a single mom and her kids from the village over for dinner. I had expected to be sad and homesick this past week, but it has been a really great time celebrating with my Global Year family and Honduran friends!
Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we hit our three-month mark in Honduras. Since we could only get a 90-day visa, we had to take a visa trip to renew them. We went to Guatemala and Mexico for a week, and what an adventure that was!
In Mexico, we basically had a 3-day “mini-vaca” in a cute hotel. We spent a lot of time relaxing and recharging as a team.
In Guatemala, we stayed with a missionary family in San Antonio Aguas Calientes who is partnering with Global Year starting next year. Their names are Richard and Lauree Hayden.
***Disclaimer: The new Global Year Guatemala location is starting up for the 2020-2021 school year! After being at both the Honduras and Guatemala GY location and experiencing both ministries and GY homes, I would be more than happy to answer any questions anybody has about going on their own Global Year mission trip!***
There are two main ministries for the future Guatemala team and we got to be part of both of them for a few days. My personal favorite was a special needs home that is about a ten-minute walk from the Hayden’s house (also the future GY students’ home). There are three special needs homes located in the town in total, and we got to spend a day volunteering in one of them that had 15 special needs children. They range from energetic autistic kids to kids who can’t walk or feed themselves to kids who are considered terminal. It was very sobering and so fullfilling to love on these kids and help take care of them.
The other ministry is called BuildinGuate. This one is located in a more rural area of Guatemala outside of San Antonio. They minister to families who are less fortunate by providing food, a soup kitchen, teaching them how to live sanitarily, and many other opportunities. There is also a birthing center that provides a safe, clean place for births and teaches women how to best care for their children.
INTERESTING/FUNNY STORIES
Coming home to Honduras was quite the adventure! As we crossed the border from Guatemala back into our country, we stood in line and each handed the border patrol our passports. When he took mine, he said “You’re not going to Honduras. You have to stay here.” I was so confused and when I asked why, he told me that if I crossed the border I would be deported back to the States and that I had to stay in Guatemala. He didn’t speak much more English than that and since I wasn’t sure what was going on, I called Josh over. Long story short, my passport somehow wasn’t stamped when we left Honduras the week before. That meant they didn’t have me leaving Honduras in their system and therefore my visa was not renewed. Thankfully, Josh was able to convince them (after an hour in the office) to let me in and renew my visa with a fee of 4000 limps (which is about $170). Moral of the story: ALWAYS check when you travel between counties to make sure they stamped your passport. But thankfully, everything worked out and I can warn people to always double check!
The other night, we went to a Honduran fair. We have decided that the rides deemed unsafe for fairs in the States must get sent down here... lol. We rode a shaky ferris wheel that was run... get this... by a car engine! The guys running it even used the peddles to move and stop the ferris wheel! When the ride was ending, they let everybody but us off. Then they started it up again! They made it go back and forth switching directions, stop when we were at the top, and go so fast we were staring straight at the sky sometimes! They definitely had their fun making fun of us gringos and laughing at our screams. And it was definitely the most fun (and terror lol) I’ve ever had at a fair!
PRAYER REQUESTS
The special needs home in Guatemala is desperate for more help for a few months starting in January. I would like to invite anyone who may be interested or know someone who might be interested to pray about this opportunity. This would involve living on the second floor of the home with the other interns and providing care for these sweet children in shifts. Please please please do not hesitate to reach out to me if this sparks any interest! I would be more than happy to put the information and contact in your hands and answer any questions.
Also, Global Year is having a short-term mission trip to join us in Honduras for a week in February! I would be more than happy to give anyone information about that week. This is the same short-term mission trip my family is coming for and I would like to ask prayer for them as they prepare to come, especially financially as it’s far from cheap.
Lastly, our church has been renting out a room in a hotel to meet for services. After saving for several years, they are now looking into buying a permanent building. The name of the church is International Christian Fellowship [Honduras] pastored by Kris Henderson. Kris & Alania are our biggest mentors down here and have opened their home to us every Thursday for Bible study and even on Christmas Day. They pour their hearts and souls into us and their ministry. Please pray as they guide the church into this new chapter!
Thank you as usual for reading my blog! Feel free to message me anytime with any questions. <3
Love,
Allee
