Hanging Out at the Curch on a Saturday

Gonna miss Carlos' hugs!

Nidia - Tony's wife

Steffan is teaching me Spanish, while I teach him English.

2 Churches, 2 Bdays

This morning we got up early and got the girls all dressed for church. It was Valery's bday, so she would be recognized at church for her 6th birthday and we wanted her to look extra cute! I was also asked to come onto the stage at church. It was my last service at La Iglesia En Transformacion (at least for this visit). Next week Jose wants me to go to Jairo's sister's church so she can pray for me and whatever the future holds for me. So Jairos called me up to pray for me. It was a strange kind of full-circle kind of thing. When I visited a year ago, on my first day here we all went to a party for Helga, a local girl who was leaving for college in the states. This year I arrived in Honduras and was welcomed back at the same time that she came home from school. And now we are both leaving to go back to the states at the same time. So I got to hold on to Helga as Jairo prayed for us and thanked me for the work I have done here.

It was sad. I looked at Gladys and got teary eyed.

Then we rushed home (for the first time EVER!!! - usually leaving church takes at least an hour) and finished preparing for the bday party. Tony picked me up at 3pm for coffee and a little pep talk. He has been so supportive during this time when I have felt sad or frustrated. We drank our coffee and talked about cultural differences and all of the plans he has for the future and what my future might hold. Then we went to CCI, which is a huge church near my house that has a service on Sundays in English and they sing all of the songs I know from K2.

We sang "I am a Friend of God" and I told Tony - this would be a great song for the kids in the English class to learn. So as a surprise, I taught it to them at the breakfast program while he was off taking kids to the dentist. When he returned they were humming and singing it in English. I have a vision of a huge circle of 50 kids singing "I am a friend of God, He calls me friend" in English. They understood the translation and we talked about how great it is to have a friend in God. Most of the kids love to pick up tidbits of English and use it whenever they can, so I think as we practice more this will be a big hit. But that was today - back to Sunday.

Sunday when I got back from church the house was full of adults. The kids were playing outside. Everyone was eatting and talking. The neighbor lady was trying to sit near Tony whenever she could so I was running interception for him, poor guy. Everyone loved my homemade cake, so that felt great.

The party ended with everyone dancing and I mean everyone! Valery was really funny imitating the adults. Dana Sophia got jealous everytime anyone danced with her Daddy. Jairo busted some moves. And it turns out Bismar is a mini-Michael Jackson! Guillermo Mario was the DJ - it was his wedding that the ladies from our last trip witnesses at our retreat center. He played 'Billie Jean Is Not My Lover' and Bismar broke out some Michael Jackson moves that had the whole party begging for more.

Karla and Karina were still dancing as the last people left the party. They never stopped.

I spent some time talking to Lourdes. She and Jairo invited me for dinner Saturday night to say good bye and to talk about me returning to Honduras. I think somehow, that was when my spirits lifted.

Birthdays Galore

I am feeling much better mentally yesterday and today. Although I did spend yesterday sleeping. I'm fighting off a cold. Got all ready to leave the house and called my taxi driver on the way out the door, as usual, but he said he wasn't driving yesterday. That was a first, but it ended up being best for me since I went back to bed and slept the entire day. Clearly my body was trying to tell me something. And I didn't infect 50 kids at the breakfast program with my germs. As we all know, sometimes God works in strange ways.

Saturday we finally found cocoa powder for my favorite chocolate cake. It was at the grocery store where we all went after the baptisms last year and bought food to bring home with us. Turns out that's the store that's known as the most Americanized, and expensive. But I got the cocoa and made 2 bday cakes that night. I stayed up until 1 am, Karla and Karina until 3 am, cooking and decorating. It was fun. Got some great pics of Valery licking the spatula for her bday cake.

Saturday was also Bismar's bday. We celebrated it at the youth group at church Saturday afternoon. Friday Karina and I toured the city looking for bibles for Jose and Karla. Finally we found bibles, cards, a leather zippered cover for Jose's bible, as well as a card and a bracelet for Bismar. Bismar is such an incredible young man - it was his 13th bday! Tony invited us to a party at his house for Bismar. I was disappointed that we couldn't go, but was glad that we chose not to when we were still working on things for Jose ad Valery's party until late into the night.