New Stuff!

God was totally amazing yesterday! I had the meeting with my supervisor. She apologized for being late, saying she was learning about church leaders who are being killed by gangs for not paying the "war tax".

I shared with her that I was extremely scared a few weeks ago because I believed my church was being extorted. Turned out it wasn't, but when I explained the whole story she said she would have been scared too!

(Don't worry. We are all safe at the church. We just had some break ins and had to implement more strict security measures.)

That was the perfect segue for me to explain to my boss that God had been asking me to be obedient for a few months and I had been pushing Him away. I explained that God was asking me to go back to the US but I didn't want to, so I kept justifying why I shouldn't. I became grumpy and withdrawn the more I disobeyed. Finally, God had to shock me into listening. Now that I have accepted God's plan, I feel cheerful and have peace again.

She asked when I will leave. I told her that God had clearly given me a date of June 14th for three months. Then she asked if I will leave my things in Honduras and if I will continue renting my apartment here. Once she was sure that I am only taking the cat and enough clothes to get by, she seemed fine. Hahaha!

She also told me that it's very interesting that God gave me the date of June 14th because international flights go up on June 15th for the summer. I didn't even know that. God is looking out for my wallet!

Then came the best part! She has been thinking about how I can best serve Impacto Juvenil and had several new ideas for 2017.

This year I will help a psychologist start a program for incest survivors. I am really excited about that. It will be a great experience for me, and I will have a lot to offer because I have worked with that population in the US.

Also, I will be working with the "Strong Mothers" program to help women start their own small business. I'm not very business minded, but part of the program is building self esteem and that is one of my strengths.

The third new project sounds most fun of all. My boss needs photos and information to share with our donors. Impacto Juvenil is a Christian non-profit organization. She wants me to do one interview per week and write a story with photos of the person I interview. My interview will be used to keep our donors informed. It can write about a mother in beauty classes, or kids from our weekly clubs. I can write about the community projects we do, or guitar classes. She is leaving it up to me to decide who/what I write about each week. It will be a fun way to get to know the people we serve and see the ways they benefit from our program.

I already did my first interview today. One of the girls in my club said she wants to be a mechanic. She has been raised by her grandfather since she was three years old. Her friends told her she must be bisexual if she wants to do such a "macho" job. But her grandfather told her not to pay any attention to the other kids. He will support her dreams. If she wants to be a mechanic, then she should study to be a mechanic. Isn't that cool?

She talked about how she was in a van on the way home from school. The van broke down. She felt scared because it was not safe to be stuck in a van on the side of the road. A man came along on a motorcycle and lifted the hood of the van. He pulled out his tools and took a look. The girl watched everything he did. He explained to her that the van was overheating and needed to cool down. Ever since that day she has wanted to be a mechanic.

This week I will send out a newsletter and tell everyone else about my new responsibilities and about my trip to the US. I'll have plenty of free time because it's Semana Santa (Holy Week). The rest of Tegucigalpa is leaving today for the beach. The streets are full of people with suitcases. The city will soon be empty. I'll have lots of time to write.