So time for an update i guess. i just have not been writing. i have been working on video editing more,

So the time i have spent here after the interns have left has been great fun!!!

i had the city to myself (only UPH person) and met a lot of locals and made a life for myself,

i have found i really fit in here very well.

I have made a few videos now.

First one is the one about Camp Joy!!!

and this one i made for a playground that was made at camp Hope by a workgroup

and this one is the Day in the Life of Rachel Nelson

She was given a video camera and had to make a video.

The Fourth one that i have made is of a tour i got to go on, i made it for the tour guide to promote his tour, he had no videos and now he does!! and i got a free tour in exchange!

So the Copan Ruinas life is good. we watched the sun set from high up in the mountains the other night, most epic thing i have ever done!!! it was so incredible. you can see this entire valley with mountains on both sides. it was like Imax theatre God style. sooo good.

that's all i have to post i think. i love you all!!!

july 14th

So july 14th, another week almost down!! it's crazy to think that after this week we only have two camp weeks left!!! then the interns are leaving me and i will be all alone :( but only for a while. then the group from New Jersey will be down here for two weeks and that will be a lot of fun.

It's hard to comprehend how fast time is going. once camp started we got so busy that it's near impossible to keep track of time!!! it just goes and goes.

I feel like since i have not been writing my blo

gs every night anymore i don't remember what has been going on! that is no good i apologize for this.

I found out today that someone Burnt down the new playground in Camden that was by my camp site. the play ground that i used every day after school with my kids. . .

It was on the news and everything. I felt it as a personal attack, like that was my own back yard! But it is ok, God will use this i pray. Jesus says to love our enemies and i hope that whoever did this gets love in return for their actions and come to find that they are actually also loved and no longer need to act out this way.

Camp has been going great!! this week i did team building activities with my kids, on monday they had to get from table one to table two without touching the ground! they could only use the few chairs provided. the challenged changed each round. IE. 8 people 4 chairs. or 4 people 2 chairs ect. it went really well and even the little ones were able to do it and have fun!

wednesday we did the spiderweb challenge where you have to get each member of the team through the spiderweb without using the same hole. they loved this!!! With my younger group it just turned into half an hour of louis and i picking up the little girls and passing them through the web. but they loved it so we kept going.

i will try and get more photos up i just have not had time!!!

I hope all is well with each of you who read this.

May the God that loves us more then we will ever know be with you! Bless you! Keep you close and safe!

July 10th!! Myan Ruins

So this saturday we got to go and check out the Myan Ruins, which were really incredible!! you can see the PICTURES HERE! this is the link to my Facebook pics. i think this is going to be the best way to share the pictures and stories with you. i am trying to find the best way to do this with my lack of consistent internet.

The ruins really amazed me. i can not believe how sophisticated they were. they had a running water system made out of rocks!!! yeah that beats our planet killing plastic pipes any day. and it was interesting to see the resemblance of how they lived with their rich and poor classes. people being underpaid for doing the work that the people with the money don't want to do. it's lame.

Friday at camp was so much fun!!! we had this skit, where i was beard o, a villain with night runner aka emma and we stole a bag from snorlax (amner) that was given to him by forever young (rachel) this bag was supposed to go to the camp for the kids with some very important information for them, (the bible) and we stole it, and then the kids had to do different games throughout the day to earn clues to find it! which they did at the end of the day. the second skit had us in my lair with forever young tied up in my chest hair on the ground. then the dreded negrito came in (duane) and darted night runner and i setting forever young free. she then turned back time and saved the day!

PICTURES OF FRIDAY!

I am learning so much while i am here. walking a lot and getting in shape slowly. God is teaching me so much while i am here, it's amazing what being emerged in a different culture will do to your mind. you really begin to realize how spoiled you are as a citizen of the United States and how ridiculous we are for hoarding all the goods of the world to our selves. Just so you know, we have the recourses in the US to provide housing, food, medicine, electricity, education, a better life to every person on the planet. but we continue to support things like Football where we pay people millions of dollars to do something they should be doing because they love it. we pay for celebrities to have 200 million dollar houses. we pay for businesses to pay their employees close to nothing so that we can have stuff we don't need for cheap. while the owners of those businesses live a luxurious multi million dollar life. why do we have to live on 100 dollars a day when there are people who live on less then a dollar.

Does not loving your neighbor mean that you desire everyone else to have what you have? why are members of our churches in debt? why do you have 100,000 in the bank when you see men on the side of the road begging for money.

I pray God keeps me poor my entire life. and if He grants me money i pray that i will never loose the mentality that it is His, and i pray that God gives me the diligence to use it as He needs me to spend it.

if i have learned one thing in the last 2 years it is that God always, ALWAYS provides. i will never fear not having a place to sleep or food to eat. and if i go without then i will be content with that because MY GOD is MY GOD and He is a good God

Matthew 6:26
Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?

Luke 12:24:
²⁴ Look at the ravens. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for God feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than any birds!

Matthew 19:24 (Whole Chapter) I’ll say it again—it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!” Mark 10:25 (Whole Chapter) In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!” Luke 18:25 (Whole Chapter) In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”

Why would i ever make money something that is important to me?

God calls us to a life where the PEOPLE in our lives are what is valuable.

if you ever feel lonely, abandoned, unwanted or un needed in the christian community!

try getting rid of stuff, free yourself for the service of the Lord.

Having many things requires you to worry about your many things.

How can you be ready to work the harvest in the protection of your home you do not invite strangers into.

do you welcome in the Mormons for tea and a good conversation about God, or do you say i am a Christian and not interested?

how many homeless people have you bought a meal for this year?

I CHALLENGE YOU TO GO DOWNTOWN AND INVITE A HOMELESS PERSON OUT FOR A MEAL!

i promise you with everything i know to be true that God will bless your conversation, you will change that person's life and your own and see life differently.

The major reason for white males to be depressed in america is because they have nothing to fight for. The reason i am no longer depressed is because i found something to fight for. Christ and his good news to the POOR, This good news of redemption and forgiveness is not for the rich. but for the poor.

Isaiah 61:1
[ Good News for the Oppressed ] The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me,for the Lord has anointed meto bring good news to the poor.He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be releasedand prisoners will be freed.

Matthew 11:5
the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.

Luke 4:18
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,that the blind will see,that the oppressed will be set free,

We are called by God! we have recourses as Christians in the US to change the world for the Kingdom of God!!! how amazing is that calling, why are there so many dormant christians. . . it breaks my heart. we are called so such a great thing!! to suffer for our savior!!

Matthew 10:39
If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.

John 6:27
But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man [ “Son of Man” is a title Jesus used for himself.] can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.

savings account? what are you saving for? when God does not come through? wow.

and school. .

Acts 4:13
The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognized them as men who had been with Jesus.

we walk with Jesus every day, our stories of how He works in our life is His Life.

Luke 22:35
Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you out to preach the Good News and you did not have money, a traveler’s bag, or extra clothing, did you need anything?”“No,” they replied.

1 Corinthians 9:16 (Whole Chapter)
Yet preaching the Good News is not something I can boast about. I am compelled by God to do it. How terrible for me if I didn’t preach the Good News!

1. Mark 16:15 (Whole Chapter)
   And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.

I aslo challenge you to pick up the bible not as a text book, not as a lesson book. and not with another book telling you about the book. Just pick up the bible. read it from cover to cover as the story that it is and nothing more. don't jump around in some study. and see what it teaches you. it is a living book!!! it is alive!!! it was meant to be read from cover to cover as a story, like that movie or song you cannot stop listening to.

I love you all and you are constantly in my prayers. i wish upon every Brother and Sister in Christ that i have that you would live in Community with each other working to better the lives of those who are struggling or lost. our challenge in the US is far greater, this country where people don't need God because they are rich. keep our lost friends in your prayers and never be afraid to ask someone what they believe in.

The church is the only establishment set up that can give 100 percent of it's recourses and survive. so lets see that happen. out with the 600 thousand dollar stage and in with the provided for congregation. 4000 person pot lucks every sunday!!! This is a celebration of the good news we are sharing with the poor and hungry, the broken and the dead. lets share the good news to unbelievers with joy and food!!

july 7 - 8th

The link to this blog be here.

I was having a lot of trouble converting the word document into what i needed so i think this will work.

July 6th 2010 second day of camp down and under our belts!! Camp is going very smooth and better then any of us could have possibly hoped for!

This is the spot where snack is had. Each of the kids finds a seat, gets their food and then has to wait for the prayer to start eating!

Today we had Carrots and Cucumbers with a glass of water.







This is the youth that we are working with. (hired high school students)
starting from the left Samuel, Louis, Erlin, Gabby, Genesis, Anna, Alejandra, and Christopher. Each of the Mentorns (intern/mentor) is paried up with one of the youth to have as a sidekick! mine is Louis!












During English class the kids went on a scavenger hunt for different animals hidden around the schoolyard, when they found an animal they got to act out what the animal was like. here they are being Kangaroos and then playing leap frog!



























Some of the trees on the property were covered in these worms!! there were hundreds of worms everywhere. Worms of course lead to entertainment and i ended up with a handful of worms. lucky i was able to talk them out of putting as many worms on me as they could.
























Closing program is how we finish out the camp day, usually a game, chant and letting the kids know they are awesome. some pray and send them off!

july 5th

July 5, 2010 was officially the first day of Camp Joy! We had 25 kids for the first day and expect the numbers to grow up to 60. The kids started showing up around 8:30 and camp started right at 9 with opening program, we used this time to explain the schedule and camp rules.

We sent the kids through their class rotation of bible, art and discovery. Classes went very well for everyone and the kids enjoyed all the activities that we had. My class was fun and the kids got a trip out of our balloon powered zip line vehicle things.

I cannot play soccer to save my life. The kids of Copan can play soccer very well. Playing soccer with the kids made me look like I have no competitive sport bones in my body. (This is why I snowboard and long board)

I am so happy that the first day of camp is down and done with, it’s nice to know what to expect for my next classes and I fell like I can be more prepared for the age groups that I am working with in each of my class rotations.

Camp was over around 1 and the day went really fast, we had the afternoon off but spent it sleeping under the fans in the apartment. Monday nights it’s worship night at our house so we had a worship session together, which is always amazing.

It’s so wonderful here I can’t believe I have been here so long already, it feels like not that long but also at the same time it feels like a really long time. It’s weird.

I feel like the super long packed days are harder to write about than the days with less in them so I am going to leave it here :)

july 4th

July 4, 2010 felt like a pretty long day. Sunday started out with some sleeping in (9:30) then some English Church. The staff all gathered at the office for some worship music lead by our fearless leader Dwayne (my camp director) followed by a sermon from the Internet. Today’s sermon talked about division in the church and how Jesus prayed specifically for His followers to be united and un-dividable.

The majority of the day was spent in the office browsing ideas for my adventure class online, I think Wednesday I am going to make silly putty with the kids, because I am pretty sure that they have never seen it before and will love it. Monday we are making crafts that are powered by balloons and have to fly along a string, the winner is the group that has the farthest flying craft, we will see how that goes.

To celebrate the fourth of July, we went to Blair’s apartment for some hot dogs, apply pie and some peach pie!!! The power went out right when we started lightings some fire works, which was awesome because there was lightning going off with the fireworks and the city was pitch black. You could tell where the other US tourists were because you could see a few other spots with fire works going off. I played in the street with the kids that lived on the block running up and down, screaming and howling like dogs, it was great fun.

Starting back right, Obed, Tiersa, Emma, Emily, Rachel, Chad, Amner
This is the intern group that God has given us.

june 23rd

After a little more then 19 hours in the air, I have made it to Copan! Honduras is a beautiful country and I am so blessed to get to experience this. So far the things that have stood out to me are, free roaming cattle and horses, they will just like be walking up the side or middle of the road with no feces or people watching them, and also the people seem more free spirited, the way they drive is crazy, I saw guys hanging out windows, people packed into the back of trucks, people jumping out of busses while they are still moving. I saw a bus stop and people ran up to it with baskets of stuff to sell to the people on board, the currency is really cool it is called lumpa sp*.

It is very mountainous and green and lots of trees and rivers and farms, Copan is surrounded by coffee farms so I am excited to drink lots of great amazing coffee. The food here so far has been amazing, I have only had an orange and what I was told is the equivalent to the hot dog in America, of course it is not a hot dog, but they said it is eaten commonly like a hot dog is, it was a tortilla with black bean some cheese and egg in it, and it was amazing! The place where we at this was in a persons house, Its like a restaurant that the locals would eat at, they have “normal” restaurants also but I have not seen one yet. I am excited to experience more of the local food and customs here.

We (interns) are staying in a three-bedroom apartment on this really cool property that apparently has a monkey living on it, we heard him making lots of noise when we first got here. There are 4 girls, three of which are from Colorado and one from Canada! Then three boys, myself and the other two are from Argentina and El Salvador, so we have a great mix of people from the Americas! The three boys are sharing a room that has two beds and the girls are split between the other two rooms. We only have one bathroom which I feel won’t bother me at all because I am used to that ☺.

The city is peaceful and small, it is very hilly and has a lot of stone roads, the people who drive are nuts and will fly right past you, but that is how it is here so you just can’t get hit. I was told the only driving rule is “don’t hit the person in front of you” which I like.
There are lots of kids here and they love outsiders and will run up and say hi right when they see you, and everyone seems really friendly.

I am already being challenged with Spanish, a majority of the people here know English so communication has not been a challenge yet. The two male room mates I have 1st language is Spanish so they have been correcting me on all my attempts at the Language, I feel I will have it going in a couple of weeks.

The summer camps are done in English and we are supposed to speak to the kids in English so that they can practice, but that won’t stop me from trying my best to learn a new language while I have this opportunity! God is amazing and I cannot believe that I am here after a year of planning! It is so exciting!

july 2nd

July 2, 2010 was one of the best days I have ever had in a very long time. Today we went down to the river to this spot where you can jump off some cliffs and swim around. We spent about 6 hours at the river just playing with the youth and messing around.

These are some of our youth swimming out in the middle of the river. The cliffs in the back are where you can jump into the river, it’s only deep enough in one spot so you have to be careful, but it was amazingly a lot of fun!

In this picture, we all coated ourselves in mud and crawled up the river bank like zombies, the video will be on my face book if you want to watch it.

We also had the opportunity to burry emma in sand. And then made it look like a grave with her in it, and we were pretending to be very upset about this.

The boys started to attack me here and I was trying to fight them off, but I ended up with lots of sand in my eyes :(

july 1st

July 1, 2010 falls on a Thursday this year. Today was a lot of fun, we started the day later then we have been all week with a 25-minuet walk to our campsite! Showing up at 10 to prepare, clean, and plan out some stuff for Monday! My room to do my adventure class is actually the biggest room that we have access to, I am sharing a room with the cooking class and we rotate days that we do our class, I have Monday and Wednesday I believe.

I ate lunch with Emma at San Rafael of course, I need to venture to other places for lunch, but for now I really enjoy this place and the people that work there know me now. Not to mention the Oreo coffee is amazing.

After lunch we planned out our skit for this next Friday, I am beardo, my outfit is having lots of hair sticking out of my shirt and arms and what not, and my power is pulling hair out of my chest (string) and wrapping people with it, I can also growl really loud and it blows people away.

The afternoon and night was spent with out youth who will be working by our side this summer, we had the first ever Copan sleep over, which is unheard of in this culture. It was a lot of fun, we played games to learn each others names, their responsibilities at camp and also did a mini day at camp to show them what it will be like. The kids, Rachel, Obed and Amner stayed at the office the whole night but the rest ended up back at the house late in the night.

This was also the first time I have ever gone without access to drinking water, the house was out of water, the office was out of water and all the stores were closed. It was an interesting feeling and I never thought about the fact that I have never been without water. 1 billion people on our planet do not have access to clean water and I have a really hard time comprehending that in my mind.

July 2, 2010
Morning came around and we walked back down to the office to eat lunch with the youth and play a few more games. The kids were so tired and ready to go home. After all the learning that needed to be done was done we sent them home and returned to our house where we laid on the tile floor all afternoon.

The city was without water and electricity from 7am until around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, I don’t really know when it came back on because I woke up and the fans were turning!
Friday has been really relaxing and all we had to do today was spend a couple of hours finalizing plans for our first week of camp. Later tonight we are going to watch Dwayne (our camp director) play guitar at a restaurant while we eat dinner.

2 days till camp starts!!!

june 30th

June 30, 2010 Tuesday felt like the longest day ever! We started at 8 am today with a walk out of town to the river. We discussed prayer life and what it looks like to us, different levels of prayer and how as you grow close to Christ your prayer life changes. We were then challenged to go off alone and pray with meditation and silence. My experience doing this was wonderful, the song as the deer came into my head. I repeated this song in my head as often as I could remember to, while I tried to stay silent and listen to what God had for me. As I stood on this island in the middle of this river surrounded by green tropical mountains covered with clouds all I could think about was how amazing God’s creation is. I saw a tree who’s foundation had been eroded by the river, This tree still stood over 80 feet tall and was as green as any other tree. Half the tree was laying in the river with it’s roots exposed, still alive and full of trees! The remainder of the trunk still upright was in shambles and you could see strait through the tree in several spots, but it survived!

God reassured me that He is in control of everything, I saw lots of life happening on this river, this tree was dropping it’s fruits to the ground like bombs while butterflies were dancing around, ants carrying leaves that were 20 times their size relentlessly up dirt hills without giving up, Many birds and horses cows and the local Honduran people. But the common theme was that everything was ok, God had provided for each of these living things, the green covered mountains had enough life and care to support every living thing in the area. Jesus said look at the birds and the plants, see how they don’t worry about their food, what makes you think you are less important than they are. We don’t ever have to worry about anything because He is our God and we are his people and He loves us.

The rest of the day was filled with planning sessions and talks about the kids we will be working with, their back rounds, how we need to push them to try new things and expect things out of them because no one ever has before, we were told that culturally nothing is ever expected from the kids. IE they don’t have responsibilities or jobs, and it is not a big deal for them to say they will do something and then not follow through with it because that is just what is normal here. It’s a very simple life here in Copan, most the jobs are feeding the desires of tourist, so sitting in the front of a hotel or in the market to sell stuff, working in the coffee fields to harvest the beans. Everything is slow paced and there is never a rush, they can spend months just to finish one section of road. I saw guys in the river today digging up sand by hand and sifting out the rocks to make cement.

Most of the things we are doing are very new to the culture here, tomorrow night we are having a sleep over with the youth (older kids who are working for us) Sleep overs are un heard of here, kids don’t stay at their friends house over night, so the idea of spending the night at the office was so weird to the kids and their parents, it was not looked down on, just a very strong curiosity as to why! Why would you do that? One of the parents was expressing how it will be so weird for their family not to have their daughter in the house, at the age of 13-16 this is their FIRST time to sleep anywhere other then their own house.

For lunch today we all met up at San Rafael’s for coffee and sandwiches, I really like this place though I should start exploring other places to eat around the city and not stick to one place, I am sure I can find a much larger variety of food and coffee drinks if I explore, but it’s nice to have a spot that everyone likes. The rest of the night is spent in the house resting. We are all feeling dreadfully tired from the long days in the heat. I have still not seen any thing that resembles air conditioner, the milk comes in little bags and they don’t even refrigerate that or the eggs. It’s a very very different culture and I am loving every moment of it!!!

june 29th

June 29, 2010 today was a stressful day, full of sitting and talking and prepping for camp.

This morning we did a worship session with Rachel Nelson; it’s interesting how God works because the common theme naturally this week has been What is Worship. It has come up in three different sessions without anyone knowing it had been discussed earlier and each conversation about it has been completely different.

Camp planning was next on our list for the morning; we sat around and brainstormed ideas for the first week. I forgot how much energy it could take to brainstorm so many ideas, we have a huge paper with stuff written all over it! So many games and ideas I think we are going to have a very packed summer and I am excited. I can’t wait to tell you all about the things we are doing with the kids!! And I am so excited to meet them all and learn their different stories and back rounds.

Lunch was next in the day, we hiked back up to the house for an hour, ate some lunch and read for a while, do note that our house is a 15 min walk from the office and there is this death hill on the way back up so it’s no easy task to just wander back to the house, we need to start packing our lunches.

After lunch we had an hour conversation about “sharing the gospel” “missionary” and “what is the gospel” it was very interesting to hear each person’s different ideas on what it means to share the gospel or how God uses each of us to share the gospel. I recommend having this conversation in your small groups, just make 3 boxes and start filling them in with what you think they each mean or how they relate to your life and how you feel God wants you to live with each one.

After this amazing conversation we ran down to San Rafael coffee and got some amazing oreo coffee things. I think I am addicted to them, the coffee here is so much stronger then the coffee in the States, I really can’t with words help you to understand the amazing ness of the coffee here. Back home I always have to add sugar and milk to my coffee, but here in Copan that would absolutely ruin it, so I just drink it black.

More planning after the coffee, but I had to bail early because Tuesday is my day to cook dinner for the house with Kristin our house director. We made some bean burrito things that were awesome!

Community night is also on Tuesday nights, so after dinner we played this game where each person has to write down three interesting things about themselves no one else would know in the house. Three people are called upon by Kristin to sit on the couch and she reads one of them. One of the people on the couch is the owner of this story but all three try and convince the rest of the group that it is their story, then the rest of the group votes on who they think the story belongs to, it was a great exercise and I learned a lot about my room mates ☺

After all this Emma and I decided to go for a run, (which she does daily in the mornings) so we ran for about 25 mins around the city of death hills. The first speed bump outside our house emma decided it would be a great idea to not notice the bump, fall and slide about four feet on her knees in front of everyone watching. But she was a champ and got right up and kept on running, her knees are pretty banged up now but she won’t let you know it hurts ☺

It is now 12 at night and we are at the office using the Internet about to go back to the house!!! So good night I hope you enjoyed the randomness of this update.

june 28th

Monday the 28th. Today we began prep for camp and also got to see the campsite. Camp is going to be held at a bilingual school in the city, It is about a 30 min walk uphill from my house, the views on the walk are quite amazing! There is a huge river that we walk along and eventually cross over. Today there were kids playing in the river and it looked like a lot of fun, one of the girls came shooting out from under the bridge in the strong current. And another girl was sliding down some rocks on a 3 liter cola bottle.

The campsite is really nice; we have lots of space, a soccer field and basketball court, lots of classrooms and a cafeteria. All the buildings are made out of cinderblock and have big pitched roofs on them, with huge open screen window’s on two sides you can get all the breeze the mountains give you.

Honduras is so amazing; it is very tropical I feel like I am in a movie every day I walk out of our apartment. I really don’t know how to express my gratitude for being allowed this experience. God is way to good for me and I think I am in way over my head following Him. The things God must have planned for my life . . . I can’t even begin to imagine nor do I really want to, I did not expect to be in Central America 2 years ago, learning Spanish by being in a Spanish speaking culture. I honestly thought I was going to end up homeless or work some boring job I don’t really want so I could buy a bunch of stuff I really don’t need. I am content with what I have and still feel like I have to much. I understand how the apostles could own nothing, and feel like they have everything! I may not have any money or a job that pays, a house or fancy car, but the whole world is mine for the taking and God has blessed me with the ability to know how to love people, which gives me access to all the recourses of the world.

Tonight we did a worship service with just the house, it was really enjoyable and I have not had an experience like it in quite some time. We started the event off with some singing, we have a songbook and just picked out a few songs we knew and then got into a discussion about what worship means to us and how we as individuals worship God. It is always so interesting to hear other people’s experiences with Christ.

Amner and Obed have been going non-stop at me with the Spanish lessons and mockery. Apparently I am fun to teach Spanish to because my accent and miss use of words, But Obed reassured me that I am learning quickly and doing quite well. I love our group and really wish everyone could share this experience with me and I hope these letters are giving some idea of what it is like.

Mangos, Mangos, Mangos everywhere, they grow on the trees and fall at you! And they are the best Mangos I have ever eaten in my life! They are way better then any Mango I have ever had in the States. I must mention again the amazing ness of the local grown coffee, it is very delicious, and I will be bringing some back.

My legs are hurting from all the walking and the heat makes me tired and sleep on tile floors but I am loving every moment of it and I can not believe it has only been 5 days!!! I feel like I have been here so long already and it frightens me to think of all that God has to teach me in my time here.

Monday the 28th. Today we began prep for camp and also got to see the campsite. Camp is going to be held at a bilingual school in the city, It is about a 30 min walk uphill from my house, the views on the walk are quite amazing! There is a huge river that we walk along and eventually cross over. Today there were kids playing in the river and it looked like a lot of fun, one of the girls came shooting out from under the bridge in the strong current. And another girl was sliding down some rocks on a 3 liter cola bottle.

The campsite is really nice; we have lots of space, a soccer field and basketball court, lots of classrooms and a cafeteria. All the buildings are made out of cinderblock and have big pitched roofs on them, with huge open screen window’s on two sides you can get all the breeze the mountains give you.

Honduras is so amazing; it is very tropical I feel like I am in a movie every day I walk out of our apartment. I really don’t know how to express my gratitude for being allowed this experience. God is way to good for me and I think I am in way over my head following Him. The things God must have planned for my life . . . I can’t even begin to imagine nor do I really want to, I did not expect to be in Central America 2 years ago, learning Spanish by being in a Spanish speaking culture. I honestly thought I was going to end up homeless or work some boring job I don’t really want so I could buy a bunch of stuff I really don’t need. I am content with what I have and still feel like I have to much. I understand how the apostles could own nothing, and feel like they have everything! I may not have any money or a job that pays, a house or fancy car, but the whole world is mine for the taking and God has blessed me with the ability to know how to love people, which gives me access to all the recourses of the world.

Tonight we did a worship service with just the house, it was really enjoyable and I have not had an experience like it in quite some time. We started the event off with some singing, we have a songbook and just picked out a few songs we knew and then got into a discussion about what worship means to us and how we as individuals worship God. It is always so interesting to hear other people’s experiences with Christ.

Amner and Obed have been going non-stop at me with the Spanish lessons and mockery. Apparently I am fun to teach Spanish to because my accent and miss use of words, But Obed reassured me that I am learning quickly and doing quite well. I love our group and really wish everyone could share this experience with me and I hope these letters are giving some idea of what it is like.

Mangos, Mangos, Mangos everywhere, they grow on the trees and fall at you! And they are the best Mangos I have ever eaten in my life! They are way better then any Mango I have ever had in the States. I must mention again the amazing ness of the local grown coffee, it is very delicious, and I will be bringing some back.

My legs are hurting from all the walking and the heat makes me tired and sleep on tile floors but I am loving every moment of it and I can not believe it has only been 5 days!!! I feel like I have been here so long already and it frightens me to think of all that God has to teach me in my time here.

june 27th

First Sunday in Copan, June 27, 2010. It is so weird to think of all the things I have done this month, it has been super packed, road trip, saw so many of my friends, saw a good portion of the country. Made some good choices made some bad choices. This was by far the most interesting and intense month of the year for me.

Our summer camps don’t start for another week. This next week is all prep for camp.

Today was wonderful, this morning we woke up and went food shopping for the house, the market is a lot of fun and really packed on Sunday morning, then I managed to sleep most of the day, mostly on the tile floor under the fan. Then tonight we had church at the office, everyone brought something to eat and we had dinner together, sang some worship songs and listened to a sermon online, and we were told if we have a sermon we would like to share from the internet we can do that, so I might share Todd cook with the group.

That was pretty much my day, I also watched some movies in Spanish on TV tonight and yeah that was fun cause I had no clue what was going on. It was a good day, relaxing and slow but I am excited to get things going and have a full busy schedule.

It’s weird writing every single day because I feel like I have nothing to say now. But I guess it’s ok to have short entries too, I was trying to have at least one full page for each one so I guess I could just ramble like this for a while.

I want to buy a guitar. Oh yeah! Our oven caught on fire earlier this week I don’t know if I wrote about that or not, but today bill (who lives on the property we are on) came up to look at it, he is 75 and has seen a lot of the world. I spent a good hour with him while we switched out the ovens and this man is just full of stories, he had a very interesting life and has not slowed down yet, he likes to find archeological sites. He has been working on a hot springs in the area and is very well cultured, I am excited to spend more time with him and get to know him, he is from the states and is living here because it is more peaceful and has less bs then the states, as he put it.

Emma is crazy and has been waking up at 5 am to go run, I wish that I had the diligence to wake up and go with her, but she is 18 and still has that drive and energy, but maybe I can get up and go with her, she has not waken me up to go with her so I don’t even know when she leaves to go.

The coffee is amazing and I love it here, this 5 days has felt like a lot longer and it feels like home, God has blessed this team and I am really enjoying the company! Slowly learning Spanish, I am a slow mental learner, I could learn how to rebuild a car way faster, Mechanical mind.

june 26th

June 26, 2010 today was a free day for us. Emma, Emily and I went walking around and did some shopping, I bought some cool stuff for me friends. I went to the bank to exchange some of my money that I brought with me. At the bank there were at least 5 armed guards who had good size shot guns on them, but they let me in with no problems, I felt like I had a ton of money when I walked out of there because 100 American dollars was 1,886 Lempira so I had this huge wad of 100’s and a 500, so to me it feels like a lot but the locals probably not so much, I can’t imagine what 2000 American would look like in the Lemps.

I was stuck in the office today, we had no keys to lock the building and no one was there when we wanted to leave, so what we ended up doing, there is a side door that leads to an ally way that has a gate at the end, this gate is about 10 feet tall with spiky things on the top, so I locked the side door and went and climbed over this fence, it took me about 7 tries to figure out how to get over it, with the help of the ladies who gave me footings with their hands I managed to maneuver over the top and make it down, leaving me very dirty with rusty hand prints all over my clothes.

I got to know a good portion of the town today walking around and wandering, it is really small and amazing. I also met a lot of other missionaries who are doing work in Honduras, most of them in more rural cities around Copan and some working in Copan! Every one is so friendly and it’s amazing to hear about all the other work that is being done in the area. This group I met last night when we played the scavenger hunt were here for two weeks have been working on digging a whole for septic system.

After shopping for dinner food today we had to carry all of our groceries up the huge hill that we have to walk up to get to our house, and when I say huge hill I mean huge, it’s like 3 blocks and between 50% and 60% grade uphill, I was so covered in sweat and tired! And my calves were hurting for a while, I had to come into the house and take my drenched shirt off and lay on the cool tile floor.

I bought a doll from a little girl today and I only gave her 20 lemps and felt kind of bad afterwards thinking I did not give her enough so the next time I saw her I gave her some more money, and the next thing I new I had like three of these little girls following me around with puppy eyes and dolls! And I did not know what to say to them! They were so cute and staring at me and would not go away oh my gosh! So no more of that!

Dwayne, our camp director heard from Rachel Nelson that I cannot turn a dare down, so he dared me to shave my beard! My reputation goes ahead of me apparently, when he first met me he said wait, is this the crazy guitar hyper Chad? It’s nice being known where I go by people I have never seen before, this actually happens all the time for me.
So I have decided that we are going to play the shaving of the beard into a skit, I have not come up with how yet, but we are creating characters for ourselves, Blair was duck tape man last summer and yeah stuff like that, so I decided I should be kidnapped at some point in the summer by one of the villains and have them shave my beard as torture to get info out of me or something, I will let you know where that idea goes, but I am kind of mad I have to shave my beard. I wanted to grow it out, stupid dares! Oh well ☺

june 25th

So it is now the end of the 25th, and I am coming along with the Spanish, I am not comfortable speaking to locals or carrying on a conversation in Spanish but with my room mates its fun to throw in some Spanish, and ask questions and what not, I think I just wrote this because I just got done talking to my two male room mates, obed and amner for like an hour, and they are so funny, I love language’s because you have to rethink the way that you say everything so that others can understand what you are saying. I feel like God has really blessed this group, we all get along great and with each of our different back rounds we make a great team.

We got a tour of the city today, saw where to go shopping for different things that we will need, the bank and post office and what not, it is not a very large city but it is very amazing! I don’t think I will get too lost while wandering around. Tomorrow we have off so we are going to go hike up to some ruins in the morning and then come back to the city, I also want to go shopping again because I want a guitar really bad and they are not that expensive. I know I can just play other peoples but I would like to have one and they are super cool.

We did the first ever-video scavenger hunt that Copan has ever had! And it was great fun running all over the city with some of our high school students screaming and yelling. All the locals seem super friendly and will yell stuff at you and laugh and say hi and what not. While I was in town today some guy stated talking to me so I said I don’t know Spanish and so he started speaking in English. I also met a lot of Americans today, my age who were also on missions to Honduras, but they are all leaving this week and have only been here for like two weeks, so I feel special being enabled to stay for 2 months!

The buildings are so amazing! Everything is green and humid and tropic and so many mountains oh my gosh!!! I just wish that everyone would have the courage to do missions to other countries, it is the most amazing experience one could ever ask for, to be united with other Christians from around the world and work as the functioning body of Christ!! Why would you ever want to keep yourself from experiences like this! I just don’t know.

I find myself at peace, at home, myself, confident, joyful, fulfilled. I see myself actively seeking Christ and wanting to explore his world and his people. I love working and living with other Christians who have the same ambition that I have, even with our different back rounds it is amazing how well we work together.

Everyone here is amazing and you can see so clearly that God has brought us together this summer to be the beginning of a wonderful future for Urban Promise Honduras, I pray that God sends me back again in the future, and that Copan will always be a part of my life. Camden and Copan, the new beginnings for me. It’s so awesome that when I turned my life over to Christ I get to experience such wonderful community and see first hand the vast amazing ness and size of God’s kingdom here on earth.

june 24th

First full day down, I wonder if I will be able to keep up this journaling thing, we will see. It’s does not seem like it would be that hard to take ten min at the end of the night to type down my thoughts, especially since I can type plenty fast.

So today we saw the market place, which is where we ate lunch, it as really neat, and the food was amazing, I ate a jalapeno and it was incredible, there was this guy who was singing to us while we were eating, but I had no idea what he said, we walked around a little and got to see the village!

We met this guy bill who lives on the property we are on, he told us about some hot springs and some ruins that we can hike to in the area! So there should be some awesome explorations to happen in the next two months. There is also a monkey in a cage outside, he is really cool, I don’t remember his name though.

My Spanish is already growing, right now I am in the como se dese stage, which is fun. Obed and amner’s first language is in Spanish so they have been teaching us, they are really fun to talk to because it is between Spanish and English and you have to really try to pay attention or else you won’t know what is going on anymore. I think I will get pretty decent and spanglish at least by the end of my time here, I just throw in the worlds I think I know and see what happens with peoples reaction.

We also went over out house stuff and community living today, it was pretty similar to Camden community living, we did this exercise where something is asked like do you prefer your toilet paper to roll out or under, and going to one side of the room means one and the other side of the room means the other and you move as far to either side as you feel about the question, so it was an interesting way of seeing how other people feel about different things you will experience in community, such as introvert or extrovert, nocturnal or morning person. I feel like our house will get along really well.

My job related to cleaning is the living room and kitchen, sweeping and moping, So yeah it’s really pretty, it was not very hot today but very humid and I kind of like it ☺ I think It feels good, we have fans in the house but so far I have not been in any room with AC and will most likely not see any until I am back in the states.