First, every person's mission trip experience is different. Each of us have stories about what touched us and what we thought of the trip. Even if we were all in the same spot seeing the same thing, we all have different stories about how God spoke to us in that experience. (I'm saying this because I've heard people say "were you on the same trip with _________??? They didn't mention that at all!")
Second, when you've gone multiple times, you start to expect certain things. However this year some of the things I was assuming to be a certain way turned out completely different - in an incredibly wonderful way. I love it when that happens, it's like you're experiencing your first time there again.
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(photo courtesy of Darleen)
After getting up three times I checked my clock and it was only 2am. My head felt like it was going to explode and I struggled to not start crying. Crying would make my sinuses worse which would just feed the headache. My Tylenol was in the bottom of my empty water bottle, with my other prescription bottles on top. The problem was that the 2 prescription bottles had gotten wedged in the water bottle.
(Please don't ask why I put them in there. It was taking up space in my bag and it was empty. I couldn't find anything else small, so I put all my pill bottles in there. Never again.)
All the shaking and shuffling of bottles wouldn't release any of them. And there was my Tylenol stuck at the bottom. Once again I was fighting back tears. About the time I was considering taking the bottle outside and bashing it with a rock, Kathy woke up. (I'm sure it was all the pills being shaken but she said it wasn't.)
I explained the situation to Kathy and she gave it a try. After much shaking and poking she got no further than I had. Unfortunately I think we woke up Darleen and Joyanna about then. (We were starting to giggle a bit about the stupid water bottle.)
I thankfully had a brain storm and took the top off the one bottle that wasn't child proof. I was then able to pull that bottle out and get the others out. Success!! By then Darleen and Joyanna were up and we were all chatting.
They suggested I turn around so that my feet were by the window and my head closer to the door. They were right, this helped with the air flow. I had also (thankfully) bought a travel pillow in the airport and using this I could elevate my head, which helps when I have a headache. Also, the donut shape of the pillow helped relieve the ache in the back of my head.
Then the best part, we all started giggling about silly stuff. I was afraid we woke up the girls in the next room but they swear we didn't. Around 2:30 am we finally got settled down and I was able to fall asleep. Really asleep. I woke up 4 hours later feeling rested, and without a headache. I was so grateful for those wise, wonderful, silly women. Laughter with girl friends definitely relieves stress and helps change your mood. Thank you Kathy, Joyanna, and Darleen. Love you so much!
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I had no idea that taking a camera on a mission trip would be an outreach tool. There's always a group of kids that hang around our work site and watch us. They love having their picture taken and then looking at the photo. This would probably go on for hours if I didn't quickly tire of it. I just worry about all those little fingers all over my camera, sometimes yanking it back and forth, putting finger prints on the lens. So I've learned when to call it quits before they start getting too grabby.
One day on the work site I was taking pictures of the kids (and they were trying to be gangster, too funny). One of the kids, Kaylie Paola, asked if she could take a picture of me. I had my camera on a lanyard around my neck, so I let her turn the camera around at me and snap my picture.
You can see Kaylie (and my camera) in the reflection of my sunglasses. :) I'm also making that face because she's pulling on the lanyard which is around my neck... you understand.
Later her cousin, Alexander, asked to take some pictures with my camera, and I let him. Kaylie unclicked the lanyard (which made my heart stop for a moment), I put the strap around Alexander's wrist, and he took off to take pictures. The pictures were great and will be the subject of another blog post. :)
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Thursday night was the fiesta! We made 700 meals and then showed the Jesus film (in Spanish). There were some challenges which included starting late (Honduran time), the electricity in the village going out several times, the DVD skipping, and a storm threatening to hit at the end of the movie. However, we made it to the end of the movie and prayed for people when it was over.
There were a lot of children who came up for prayer. The interpreter asked what they needed prayer for and they just smiled and stood there. I think they were just curious as to what was going on, so I started praying for some of the girls that were standing near me. I prayed for a few of the other kids and then they started asking for their photos to be taken. (At this time I was carrying the church's video camera and my little camera was around my neck. I just screamed "CAMERA GIRL.")
After taking a couple of pictures of the kids, they started saying "con usted, con usted." With me? This surprised me at first, the kids have never asked for ME to be in the pictures with them. So I sat down on a step and had the kids gather in around me and tried to take a few pictures by holding my camera out.
These kids in the village, Valle de Angeles, just grabbed my heart. There was something about them that will stay with me for a long time. When I left I realized I may not see them again and it just broke my heart. I continue to pray for them and hope to see them again someday.
Allie, me, Natalie, and Jason
Ruth, me and Allie (photo taken by Natalie)
Look how those girls were hanging on me. Miss them.
By the way, these last three girls (who stuck around until we left) were the first few girls that I prayed for. I hope to see them again. Someday. :)
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The next day we drove to San Pedro Sula and had lunch at Power Chicken. We do this every year. The meal is served family style and we get to try several different kinds of meat and sides with flan for dessert. What doesn't getting eaten gets divided up into to-go containers, which we give away. We drive to a part of the city where the glue boys hang out (they huff glue) and then hand the meals out through a window in the van. The food is usually gone pretty quick and then we head to the Bed & Breakfast for the night.
This time it was different. When we found some of the glue boys they were pouring water over one of them that seemed to have paint all over him. We were confused at first as to what was going on. We weren't sure if they were helping him or making it worse. Jason pointed out some painters nearby that must have thrown the paint on the guy. His friends were trying to help him by pouring water over his head and helping him get the paint out of his eyes.
When they saw that we had food they ran to the van and took the containers. They then ran back to the one with paint all over him and set their food down and continued to help him. This was like a shock through my heart.
Normally they devour the food after only taking a couple of steps away from the van. Sometimes they follow us begging for more food. This time though, their friend was more important than their hunger. I guess you don't have much else when you live on the streets.
There was something about that that just spoke to me. That showed me how different my world is from theirs. Here I'm thinking "look how much love we're showing you by giving you a styrofoam container with food in it." And yet greater love was shown by the friends trying to help each other. I enter their world for just a moment and then I'm gone, forgotten. I can make such a bigger impact on the world I live in on a daily basis - the people I have contact with each day. And yet it seems so much harder to do this at home with the people you know than it is to go on a mission trip.
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The last memory that I want to share was our last morning in Honduras at El Meson Bed & Breakfast in San Pedro Sula. The couples got to stay together, so we asked if we could have the bigger bed. (The other couple aren't quite as big as us... so they agreed.) The room we ended up in had a king sized bed and a gorgeous tiled bathroom.
I got my first hot shower that week and finished getting ready with some David Crowder Band playing in the background. I could hear the ladies on the other side of the wall making our breakfast. They keep the windows in the bathrooms open, so you have to keep the door to the bedroom (with the A/C) shut. The rain was falling (the beginning of Hurricane Alex) and it was cool and humid in the bathroom. It's a moment in time that I want to hold onto for awhile. I guess that's what I think it would be like to live down there.
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