The Day...
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We started with a well formulated plan to make sure that all of our students were safely transported to the community of La Boomba (there were suggestions of having students ride in the back of pickup trucks... oh the joy of bridging the gap between 2 cultures!). Our leaders and I were up until nearly 1 AM trying to orchestrate a creative plan of who would stay to work on bunk beds and who would go in (INSIDE) of what vehicle so that we could all get to where we needed to be (there was a mixup on the end of those in charge in Honduras regarding who would have the bus... us or the award winning marching band...)
Well, this morning we got up (tired) to find out that our driver Julio picked up on my discomfort at his suggestions and spent part of his night finding a bus and a driver for our group today.
We quickly adapted our lists to allow a few extra students to go the community leaving about 9 students back to work on beds. The other group was expecting to head to a VBS for about 60 kids... when they got there, that was the case... until a few more heard about it... then a few more... then a few more... they eventually stopped counting when they had seen about 200 kids!
I was one of the unfortunate souls who stayed back, but from what I hear it was INCREDIBLE. Here is a link to a youtube video that I posted of some of the children singing "Jesus Loves Me" (get the Klenex handy, moms)
The students who remained at the compound to build beds had a big day of their own... at the end of the day, they were able to build 7 more beds!!!! WOW!!!!!
Here is a qucik image of what I had planned for this bed back in April...
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And here is a pic of the finished product... you should be proud of these students - they are doing work they should be proud of!!!!! I know that I am!!!!
What a great day! VBS... from start to finish. Beds from start to finish... the whole day... from start to finish!
21 comments:
Wow, what a wonderful day!!
Emily W. we miss you so much..and so do Pokey and Dottie!!
We are enjoying watching what God is doing through all of your efforts. We are praying for you all...
Remember the old song: It only takes a spark to get a fire going, that's how it is with God's love . .
Your comments about today made me think of that song. The pictures are priceless. It looks like they are coming from all directions to hear what you have to share about Jesus. Keep spreading the love of Jesus.
Love & Prayers,
Maggie
Emily C.
This message is from Raychel your long lost friend..she says Come home now!!! I miss you. The pool is calling your name.
Luv Raychel
Em - Hope you are having a great time. I miss you but I know you are exactly were you are supposed to be right now!!
Love always - Mom & Dad
PS Thanks for leaving you gas tank on empty we were lucky to make it to the gas station!!
To Zach
I hope you are having a wonderful time. Your Dad and I are so proud of you. We know you are enjoying this opportunity. Don't worry about us...Ethan is making sure we don't get out of line. He misses you - I know, but he won't say so.
We praise the Lord for you Zach and all that He has planned for your life. This is only the beginning.
love
Mom and Dad
To the Leaders,
We have always allowed our children to step out and enjoy what God has planned for their lives. We as a family have been blessed by having wonderful people in our children's lives to help guide them.
We are overwhelmed by God's goodness and wisdom in planting you where he needed you to be - on this trip! We have placed so much trust in you with the care of our children. God has truely blessed us with your guidance, patience, willingness and probably by now a good sense of humor.
Thank you for taking the time to make this an important part in the lives of our youth.
May God richly reward you with awesome blessings in return. Thank you!
Joni and Randy Rosebrock
We're scrapbooking tonight and have been giggling at pictures of Grayden, Jacob, Dylan, Tristan & Maty as little 2nd graders. (That's how far behind I am) Hard to believe you are now so grown up and serving yourselves. We're all so proud!
Jacob - In the spirit of scrapbooking in mind, please be taking lots of pictures. With people in them. Love, Mom
Misty says, "Hey."
Grayden - Hope you're working hard. Col. 3:23
Yankees - 1
Bosox - 0
Jeremy - Awesome pictures!
All - You rock! Have fun!
Danae - it is so nice to see your face. (I, like Misty, thought maybe they left you back in MoTown!) Seriously, I had tears in my eyes. The Lord has blessed you with an amazing gift working with children. Seeing that picture just reminds me everyday as you are on this trip, that you are exactly where God wants you to be. I love you and I am so excited about how God is going to use this moment to "grow" you.
Scott - I just want to say what an awesome pic of you and those little children walking along the road. I once again, have tears in my eyes. You are such an incredible witness to those around you.
Even though there may be a language barrier, I think we can look at these pictures and know that God's Love is the universal language that connects all of us!
Thank you Sandy, Stacy, Katie, Chris, Nate and Jeremy for all the late night, last minute decisions that all of you have had to organize and plan for when the unexpected happened. You guys are absolutely awesome. I am so thankful for your servant hearts'. Not only for the work of the Lord, but to our kids.
Because of Him,
Sue
Danae, I MISS YOU!!! =[
hope ya'll are having a great time...u guys are in my prayers!!
LOVE the pics of Scott and Danae with the children. Leading the young and innocent is such privilege! Thank you, God, that you are placing people -- like our New Hope youth and leaders -- into the lives of these kids so that they have the opportunity to hear your TRUTH!
So I officially miss my sister. Luckily I am going to be picking Ali up at the wonderfully invigorating time of 2 a.m. on Wednesday [i think]. But as she and all of the others are where God wants them to be right now--and from what I was reading, doing an AMAZING job at showing the children there, the leaders, and us back here in little insignificant northwest Ohio how much we can do with so little resources given to us. And most of your amazingness has been the direct result of something you couldn't buy or pack in your suitcase--an overwhelming amount of Compassion. All of you must possess it in huge quantities to be doing what you are doing down there. Immersing yourself in a culture that you do not understand, hearing language that is, for the most part, incomprehensible, and looking past the people's circumstances treating them like the amazing human beings they are. I am so proud of all of you, those i know and those i don't keep up the good work. i love you Ali and so does mom. She desperately wants to leave a comment but cannot get the word verification on this blog to work for her, so I will be passing along all of her messages from now on. Have fun. Miss you!
Praying for you day and night!
Bri
WOW!! It sound like you uys are having an amazing time!!
I love and miss you Ali (James).
Also, I thought of you the minute I read digital camera!!!
Thanks again, to all of the Leaders, God Bless you! Love the Pic's...keep them coming! We are enjoying watching what God has planned for all of our children's lives.
Dylan, hope you are well and working hard...keep it up!! We miss you!
Have a Great Day!!
Love Mom and Dad
Ok so I have more to say than "hey" now that I'm awake.
The pictures are priceless!
KEEP IT UP! The video of th kids, Awesome!
Scott the one of you with the kids following you was AWESOME! You'll want to cherish that one forever!
Danae, I agree with your Mom. God has given you a gift to be able to work with children. We have LOVED having you on our team! Hey, since you aren't going away to school you don't have to leave us right?
Hey Nate! How's it goin? What a way to get adjusted to a new job! Hope your learning to love our students as much as we do.
Jeremy, Only you could plan and execute such an amazing trip for students. We are SO blessed to have you!
Leaders, you have all my respect! Even though I think we have some AWESOME students on this trip, I'm not sure that I could be in a room with that many teens for longer than five minutes. Let alone travel to another country where I have to see, hear and smell them twenty four seven for ten days! I'd much rather deal with them when they are under three feet tall, crying, slobbering and biting their friends. SOOOO much easier!
Jacob, we miss ya! The kids want me to tell you that we got a puppy. His names Remington (Remi) and they can't wait for you to see him.
Looking foward to seeing all of your smiling faces on the big screen tomorrow morning. Praying that all goes as it should!
Praying for you all constantly!
Hi everyone,
Enjoying the pictures and journaling. Chrisden don’t forget to take lots of pictures, there’s at least room for 300+. We miss you and can’t wait to here about everything.
We’re praying for all of you daily.
Love Mom and Dad
It likely seems pretty amazing that you’ve been there now almost a full week and you’ll be home before you know it. From the comments and pictures, it looks like it’s been a great trip for all of you. Jeremy and leaders—Great Job! Keep pressing on.
Students keep up the good work. God will use your efforts for lasting change.
Madeline—your family is excited to hear all the stories when you return. We miss you and can’t wait to give big hugs. Leah says hi and hopes you’re having a fun time. “We miss you here. You’re probably glad your not here because, you don’t like cleaning up. [It is Saturday after all]. Did you do well on “Father Abraham” in Spanish?”
We do trust your Spanish lessons from last year have been extremely useful. (Thanks Katy!)
Love to all.
Mark & the rest of the Pitman’s
Connor Boy,
Just wanted to say hi and let you know I was thinking about you. Its Saturday afternoon about 1:30 and it sure is quiet around the house. I hate to say it but I kinda miss you and your sister arguing. Hope you are having a great time and are showing all the children of Hondurus the love of Christ. We all miss you here and are praying for you and the whole group. P.S. Granny called and asked about you. She misses you too.
Love Dad.
I have uncontrollable tears.What only He can do with willing hearts.
Being on these trips, I have seen so many lives touched in many different ways. Even kids that have been being abused get help for the 1st time, because they see an adult they can trust.
The exciting part of having your own child come home and say, " I want to serve God, no matter where he leads." I pray that same pray, for all the kids on this trip.
When your kids come home and don`t have the words to discribe there week, just know God is at work and He did so much in them they can`t explain it.
I know they must be saying Lord there is 200+ and few of us, we throw are hands in the air and eyes to God and say "With are God, all things are possible" Because you Lord, have placed us here, at this place and time for reason, we still may not totally understand, we will never know all the work he is doing, behind the scenes, but believe this, He is at work.
Don`t you just love the feeling of 10 kids and more all around you you can`t speak there language, all you can do is smile, play, hug sing,craft,etc... but Christ love is all around.
God Bless, as The Master contiues to mold you!
In Christ Name, Amen
P.S.You know I love you and pray for all those in and around your life Nate. Thank God continually.
Love your Mom. Dad has blog anonymously, A few times, if you read them I`m sure you can figure it out.
Sounds absolutely amazing! It's great to hear how God is using you all!
Emily Elizabeth- I miss you so very very much and you have to tell me EVERYTHING when you get back!
Love you, Emmy- Gavin and I are praying for you
Emily C - It's 3:00 pm here. I have no idea what time it is there. I'm going to have to find out what the time difference is. How's the food? Probably a little different. I can't wait to see more pics; and the UTube of the kids was great!!!! This whole blog thing has been a really good idea. It's so neat that we get to see and hear about what you guys are actually doing over there! Was that a picture of Alexis that I saw??? I didn't know she was going too!!! That's great!!! And if that picture wasn't her, forget the last two sentences!!! :) Anyway, I'm praying for your every need, as always, and that the VBS group will see the light of the Lord Jesus Christ through you.
Love ya bunches and bunches!!!
Grammy
What a blessing your experience in Honduras has been to me. Thanks for the blog updates & pictures. One of the things that blesses my heart is to see many of the kids I used to teach in “Gophers”. This was the pre-school group to “Olympians”. Shall I share names? Why not: Caroline Grant, Grayden McCashen, Taylor Rhodes, Tristan Rhodes & Conner Robinson. Yes, all of you used to be “Gophers” & you were proud of it! Amy Good & Alexis Fisher are near & dear to my heart too since I’ve watched them grow up in my neighborhood & at New Hope. All those years ago, God saw fit to begin His work in your lives. Just think, now you are the tool God is using to begin His work in the lives of some kids in Honduras.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve often wondered why God has chosen to use us. I mean, He is the Creator, He is before all, through all & in all. And, in Him all things hold together. Certainly He can reveal Himself to the children of Honduras without inconveniencing all of you nice people. Furthermore, since He is All in All. He could make right all of the physical needs of these children & their families with one word. So why doesn’t He? Why do y’all need to raise money, travel to Honduras & sweat in the smoldering heat, to build bunk beds & interact with these children?
Could it be possible that God is revealing Himself to YOU through them? Could it be that when you get to know the needs of these children & their community that you get a glimpse into the heart of God & His passion for His people? Maybe we need to see the desperation of people’s physical needs so we can begin to grasp how great our need for a Savior is. And, how can we possibly share what we don’t know ourselves? God has revealed Himself in His Word. We hear Pastor George & Pastor Jeremy talk about knowing our God by reading His Word, but now we understand why. I could go on, but I can say with confidence that God is doing a good work in you by allowing you this experience in Honduras. His work in you will not end in Honduras, but will continue until He comes.
I’ll borrow a prayer of Paul for the Ephesians to pray for you: “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven & on earth derives its name, that He would grand you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:14-19)
Grace, peace & love,
Amanda Davis
So many of you bloggers are taking the words right out of my mouth. I am so stinking proud of all of you guys! This is not a "one time deal" for many of you! Most of you have served the people of our own church and community for many years through VBS and on Sunday mornings, whether in the nursery, helping in a classroom, leading praise and worship for the kids, building things, the list is endless. (I'll unashamedly make a plea here...we need you guys! Danae...I'm so glad God had bigger and better plans for you! And I hear that Emily Wagner, Emily Clark, and Alexis may like to sing and dance...hmm...get em Danae!)
I think the picture of the kids following Scott represents what all of you are doing. No matter if you are building bunk beds or helping with VBS you are all leading those children to the love of Christ. And in turn, Jesus leads us all right to our Father.
I also remember the very first class I ever taught at New Hope. Grayden and Tristin, you both were in it! In fact, Grayden, you colored me a stunning picture of Queen Esther, and I still have it packed away with my special things. I know, I've embarressed you now but I figure you had it coming.
Tristin...don't know if you've heard, but Casey Blake's been traded.
Praying for all of you!
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