rando pics

Various pictures I didn't post from Honduras and other various pictures I've taken over the last few years.

Regresso

Back in the US. I'm chillin' in the gym of a church in Denton where "Next Step", a mini retreat to finish out the trip before returning to our lives, is being held for all of the CAM interns. Leaving Honduras is hard, but I felt a little better about it being able to say "Si no aqui, miro tu en cielo" Knowing my luck I said something far off from what I meant to say, but in my mind it translates "If not here, I see you in Heaven". Its not totally sound Spanish, but I think they got what I meant.

Its still tough to leave behind the culture, the great friends I've made in my fellow interns and Honduran locals, the abundance of beautiful scenery and nature, and just the overall experience as a whole, even more so as I sit in a clean gym in a relatively gigantic church on my Mac with Subway sandwiches for a midnight snack. Life goes on, but I know I've changed. My heart does hurt. For reasons I'm not entirely sure of and for the realization that I'm leaving an experience I will cherish forever. In the book I'm reading the guy talks of our little link to eternity. Even here we realize in moments like these that we just never have enough time to fully enjoy a moment. The beauty of a sunset will always fade into the night sky. Time always continues on. It doesn't wait; it just keeps going. Time always flies. For now, I know God waits for me in the depths of my heart. I cry out and He says "Come and drink!" I don't know what it looks like or exactly what that means yet, but I'm trusting its good. I remember the times in the past where I've met Him in the depths of what matters to my heart. The places of deep wounds and pain, the places of immovable captivity. I remember the literal indescribable joy and pure love I felt when I realized I had been so incredibly pursued and set free, so loved and so rescued by the God of the universe. I cannot put into words what is like to truly meet the person of Jesus Christ. It does not do the experience justice. Paul does not kid around when he claims he considers all but Christ to be rubbish. I know Jesus calls out every day to me: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” Leaving is hard, loss is hard, rejection is hard, failure is hard, life is hard, but I know He continually invites me to Him, as a person, as a Father, to the perfect love only He can fulfill. Its a long journey, I'm happy to be on it.


I've loved my time here since I last wrote. My last week in Honduras majorly involved helping out with VBS at a local church, hand sorting coffee beans to be roasted, continuing to take Spanish class, and hanging out with an awesome team of 3 families that came to serve along side of us. Seriously, we hand sorted so much coffee...

To my right you'll notice what became my favorite drink in Honduras: Naranja Miridina. Its like a super sugary version of Sunkist, it was crazy. 


Here's some other pictures from my last week...

 Here is me getting my hair cut at Tobey's barber shop, proclaimed to be the best in Siguatepeque by all the missionaries.

Kevin y Yo en nuestra clase de español con nuestra maestra Reyna.

Ultima dia de clase. Watch out world: "Hablo español" (un poco)

 Some of the team with a cake presented to us by the church as their thanks.

 Three of the most hardworking men I've ever met, one of them being a 15 year old boy.

Yesterday was among the highlights if not the highlight of my trip in many regards. I absolutely loved it. I'll let some of the pictures speak for themselves.

 Does this even look real? It is.

 There were tons of these little guys.

 Foreal?

 Rickety old bridge.

 Would a post be complete without the above?

The second waterfall we saw.


Our trip was to Panacam, one of the 3 National Parks in the country. We arrived around noon, hiked down to the first waterfall, and then continued on to a pretty tough hike up to the second waterfall. The second waterfall wasn't as beautiful, but the hike itself was astounding. Everything was as green as green can be, water flowed freely and joyfully, birds and bugs constantly provided background music, and the fellowship was as a friend of mine would say "over the top". It was a beautiful day. On the way down we stumbled across the sunset over a mountain with the only lake in Honduras in front of it. The picture gives an idea of the view, but wow it was incredible.

God is an artist. 


I'm glad I have a few more days left to hang out with my friends. It'll make saying goodbye harder, but I'd rather suffer the pain of a goodbye than miss out on the opportunity of developing true friendship.


It is late, so I'm off to bed. I'll probably return to write at least once more. Despite my feelings of leaving Honduras, I am very excited to return to my friends and family.

hahahahaha

I love this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qa1MVYE29ZI

TIENE HAMBRE

the home stretch

Its been awhile since I last wrote. I have much to tell. This past weekend Kevin and I went to the orphanage where some of the other interns through CAM are staying. Shout out to yall doods, we miss and are looking forward to chillin with yall again. I loved visiting. Its amazing getting to hang out with those kids even for the short time we were blessed to spend with them. My Spanish is still young, but I could communicate enough with them to know "arreba" means they want up on my shoulders and "bajo" means they want down. They never say bajo though. Unfortunately I was a dumbie and didn't take any pictures. Regardless, I won't soon forget my time there. I did take plenty of other pictures of the whole experience, including various trips into the nearby capital city of Tegucigalpa.

We stopped in Comayagua for lunch before going to Teguc and saw this nifty looking church.

The traffic in Tegucigalpa is turrrrrrible. It would probably be pretty fun to try and drive there, but I was totally cool with Allan, a guy who I've become good friends with down here who actually grew up in Honduras, doing all the driving. Check this sick traffic out.

It may not look that nasty in the picture, but trust me its nasty. Anyway, Saturday night we threw on some fancy pantsy clothes and went out into Tegucigalpa to see a giant statue of Jesus and enjoy fine dining at real, real nice restaurant called El Cumbre. I don't know what "El Cumbre" means, but it was krunk. The statue of Jesus was pretty tight, and there was also a breathtaking view of the city from Jesus' perch on the mountainside. Here are some pictures of big Jesus.

This isn't a picture of anything I just said, but I just thought it was kinda cool.

Its a big city

Here is a little taste of some of the barrios of the city. Houses are built on top of houses. Its very poor, and I think there are others much worse than this, neighborhoods without streets and much more packed together.

This is just tight.

Here's the statue of Jesus and the accompaniment inscription. Luke 24:50-51: ^"50And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. ⁵¹ While He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven." I suppose its fitting in relation to the position to the statue. 

After that we went farther up the mountain to El Cumbre. It was AWESOME. Here's a picture of our table and the food I ordered. The restaurant is an old house owned by a rich German guy.

The food and the restaurant were great, but the view of the city with friends is what really captured the moment. It was beautiful. Here's a picture of a cloud of rain plunging into the city and then another picture of the city lights.

It was a fun night. 

On Sunday after church we went and saw Transformers 3 in Tegucigalpa. It was hilarious because the power went out at 2 different times while we were watching. One time they restarted the movie and another they just skipped like 2 minutes or so (at least I think...) It was in English; it just had Spanish subtitles. I absolutely loved the movie, screw the critics. Its a visually astounding and audibly inspiring movie with awesome special effects and an amazing musical score. Steve Jablonsky (the dood who wrote the score) owned it. I've thought a lot about why I enjoyed the movie so much. SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT SKIP TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH. I realize the plot has its holes and lulls and what not, but the depth of which it spoke to me overshadows it all. I felt like crying when I thought Bumblebee was about to get capped in the head. I loved when Bumblebee would come in the nick of time to rescue Sam, his best friend. In a way I feel like the situation is so much like the life we have with Jesus. There is loss, there is despair, something like losing a character as noble and as faithful as Bumblee does happen. Its just like Moses and his escape from Egypt. "The Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly." Things looked so bad. Just as Bumblebee was about to suffer death at the hands of a terrible enemy, the Isrealites were about to be overcome by the Egyptians. Bumblebee is rescued by his friends, and the Egyptians are rescued by our God. It may be a loose comparison, but I still love it. Also, I love the way Optimus at various times comes in and straight up pwns the bad guys. It reminds of the passage of Revelation when it describes Jesus storming in on a white horse with a blood stained robe, eyes of fire, and a sword coming from his mouth to fight the final battle. If we rejoice so much in the victory of a sci-fi movie, how much more overwhelmed with joy will we be when Jesus does that for our lives. Love is the final reality. Anyway, I intend to see it again sometime. And HP7 and Winnie the Pooh are coming out soon, whoop!

This week has been different as every day has been. A new team of families has come in from the States who we are working and hanging out with. We really enjoy the company. This week has mostly been about the Vacation Bible school we've been helping with up at one of the churches in the area. Others from the group go up and work in the mountains, but I've been helping up at the church. Also, we're building the church a wall, a bathroom, and a pila. Here are some pictures of the church/VBS.

 Here's the side of the church where one of the guys is mixing concrete.

 I'm actually not even working here. I just held this large tool up to make it look like I had been. I did shovel a little before i took this picture, but I forgot to snap it.

 Singing at VBS.

Doing crafts at VBS.

Here's some rando pictures I like.

 Another one of the random, beautiful flowers chillin around the seminary.

 Some star fruit, it tastes kind of like a combination of apple and peach. Its good.

 A ripe star fruit.

 Star fruit in the tree.

This is a meal I had last night at a local burger joint called Queen Burger. It was goooood. It was very Hondureny though. The patty on the burger was really weak, but it had an egg, some mystery sauce, and 2 different kinds of cheese to make up for it. I'm still looking forward to an American burger somewhere though.

Spiritually it has been really tough since I last wrote, but I'm continuing to just trust. I'm sure much more is happening than I'm aware of. Film scores from movies remind me how much of an epic story life really is. I find comfort in knowing the future holds Jesus galloping in on His horse to save His children. If anything, I feel more caught up in a story worth living despite it being the chapter everyone looks forward to finishing. I'm not complaining. So as always, prayers are not going unnoticed.

I'll probably write at least another time before I leave, which is in a few days (3 days 7 hours). On this coming Saturday, all of us interns are going to a cabin in the mountains for a final day hiking, chilling, and seeing waterfalls. I don't know exactly what to expect, but I'm sure I'll write about it.

Buenas Noches Amigos!

Coffee

I don't usually drink coffee, but I have here in Honduras. Its like all they drink here. Here at the seminary, one of the ways they raise money to put roofs on houses, concrete floors, build houses, etc. is by selling local grown Honduran coffee to the states. All of the profits go towards donating to the local churches and their projects. Check it out:

http://www.hopecoffee.org/

Oh and check this out:

This was chilling outside on a tree outside a random house in the mountains. I'm pretty sure the Orchid is the country's national flower. Pretty cool.