Catching up...

So here I am... sitting at my computer on a quiet Friday night. Two of my roommates are gone, and the other one and I have been pretty low key. I just went through a two-hour escapade of cooking eggs and toast (which was easy and fine, except this Honduran butter is not a fan of spreading) and then boiling water to wash and rinse the dishes. It takes a long time for water to boil on our stove, and then I also had to basically wait for it to cool back down so I could touch it. Anyway, have I mentioned that things are complicated here? Because they are.

Let's see... In the last two days I have worshipped in English and Spanish, attended meetings, attended small group "get aquainted" sessions, worked in my classroom, gone to the teacher-store, talked on Skype and Facebook, and many other things.

Last night we were extremely blessed with visitors for dinner. I have three roommates, and one of them (Stacey) has been here before and has friends from a local church. I came out of my room last night to try to figure out the dinner situation, and she said, "Your dinner will be provided..." Her friends drove up the mountain to meet us, cook us dinner, and to welcome us with a time of worship with the guitar and the sharing of the Word. It was so incredible to meet some local young people, in college or somewhat recently out, and to hopefully start building relationships with some solid, local believers. One of the guys read from Acts about the early church and talked about their desire to live that out with us to fellowship and build community, and then he prayed over our apartment and over our ministry this year. It was great...

There is one girl in particular here that I feel like the Lord has already used to encourage me and to affirm me. She taught the worst section of 4th grade last year, and she says she has prayed more for us and our classes than for her own. On the first night when we were talking about it, she was very quick to point out that even if the year is rough, it will radically improve my prayer life and my dependence on the Lord. The other night, she walked up to me and put her arm around me and said, "I want to remind you that God wants you to succeed..." Then I heard from someone else today that it is not God's will for us to be a failure, and it was comforting. I know that He sometimes allows things to be difficult, but ultimately - it is His will to be victorious. And I'm still praying that He will meet the needs of these students through my life this year, and that He will draw them to Himself as we build relationships throughout the year.

Have I mentioned that I have a maid? I mean - the living quarters here may not be extravagant by any means, but I could really get used to this! Her name is Gloria and I am so thankful for her! She comes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and she basically cleans everything, washes the dishes, does our laundry, irons, takes out the trash, etc. If we ask her to, she will even cook for us or wash our fruits and vegetables if we want. I mean, I feel like I'm living the high life! But really... I feel like I have a mom again. :) Today, I was basically running out of clean casual clothes and feeling like wearing some things for the third time might not be okay, and she did all of my laundry and even folded it and put it away. I'm telling you - it is such an incredible blessing to be able to devote my time and energy to other things. And the reason the school asks us to hire a maid is because it helps us with living here, provides a good job for the local women, and also gives us another experience to learn the language and learn about the culture. It's great...

I'm starting to understand Spanish much more easily than even just a week ago, but I'm struggling with the confidence to try to speak it besides basic greetings. I'm planning to take a class starting in a few weeks and to really try to push myself so that I don't miss out on this opportunity. From what I'm gathering, it is entirely possible to live here for a year or even multiple years and not really learn any Spanish - and I think that would just be sad.

I've also heard that when you meet the students and introduce yourself to them, their first question is, "How long are you staying?" There is a pretty high turnover rate of teachers here, with the average length of service being about three years - and the students are obviously guarded against getting close to someone when they are going to leave. This is a hard area for me because I honestly don't know how long I will be here. A year ago, I had no idea I would be in Honduras, so I cannot even try to predict where I will be a year from now...

I also wanted to pass along that I have heard that the majority of the people who are here protesting with all of this political stuff are not even Honduran... Many of them have been discovered to be from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Colombia, and Cuba... It is so sad that they are planted here and creating so many problems, and they aren't actually the voice of the people. The news is not trustworthy at all, and apparently they are telling lies on both sides of the whole thing. And I was also told that the old president was bad, but that the guy that stepped up to take his place is actually the most corrupt man in the government - so it basically went from bad to worse. Please pray that the church will rise up, that the Lord will use this for His glory, and that Honduras will find peace.

On a ligher note, I want to start trying to list a few of the small differences (every once in awhile) between here and home that some people just may not be aware of...
1. To get our gas stove going, we have to light a match or one of those small lighter torch things and then turn on the gas... It doesn't light itself like my mom's did.
2. We don't get to flush our toilet paper. The system can't really handle that and things get backed up, so you just have to throw it away in a small trash can in the bathroom and take out the trash frequently.
3. Dr. Pepper basically doesn't exist. Sad day.