Why Am I Here?

At the beginning of our week, my Dad asked our team the question "Why am I here?". As our week has gone on, I have kept this question in the back of my mind but to be honest I have been pretty discouraged about a few situations so I didn't really know how to answer this question. Last night after dinner with my family and Bethany at El Corral, I finally got my answer. I couldn't help but notice how God placed this certain situation right in front of me. My mom, Bethany, and I didn't eat all of our meals therefore I got a box so that I could give our leftovers to 2 or 3 kids that we had seen sniffing glue on the street corner by our hotel earlier that day. Unfortunatly when we got to where the boys were standing earlier in the day there had been an accident therefore the police were standing all over the street. The boys weren't there because the police would have taken their glue if they had seen them with it. The glue is used to take away their hunger pains. Anyway, I was pretty disappointed since I didn't get to give away my food but then out of the corner of my eye I saw 2 younger boys sitting on the Burger King sidewalk. We called one of the boys over to where we were standing and I handed him my bag of food. The way he reacted you would have thought that we gave him gold. He stood there and kept saying thank you over and over. As I watched the boys eat their meal my heart broke for them. I can't imagine living in the poverty that these boys are faced with everyday, I can't even imagine eating food from a complete stranger off of the street. It wasn't 5 minutes later that the same little boy came back over to me and told me thank you again for the food and he told me how it meant a lot to him for me to give him the food because his mom didn't have enough money or food to support his family. That period of time opened my eyes and my mind. I am here to help give hope to kids like the boy that I gave my food to last night. Many times I ask myself, Why did God place me on Earth to live in the U.S. with all the material resources I need or want, an awesome family, a well paying job, and great friends, why didn't God choose to place me in a poverty-stricken country such as Honduras? I don't know that I will will ever be able to answer that question but I do know that God placed me on this Earth to provide hope and a future for those that don't have any hope. God has given me the talent for mission work and I know have come to the realization that God has placed me at the spot where I am in my life right now and I need to use my talents to the best of my abilities when he places the oppurtunities in front of me.
Thank you for all the prayers that you all have prayed for our mission team!
Please pray for a safe trip for our team as we begin to fly out tomorrow and Friday.

A success!

Today has been another successful day for our team! We bagged and handed out about another 200 food bags for Nueva Jerusalem. Our VBS team also did a few lessons with the kids while we were in Nueva Jerusalem. We had lots of kids for that. Our construction crew is almost done with building the 2 houses. They have the roof, floor, and a few windows to finish up tomorrow. They have made a lot of progress this week. The dental team saw about 200 people and the medical/doctor team saw about twice that amount. The water filters are going to be assembled in the houses tomorrow as well.
Yesterday my Dad had the privilage of baptizing one of our very good Honduran friends', Marvin. He has been wrestling with the decision of giving his life to God for about 4 or 5 years and yesterday he made his decision of putting God in control of his life so that was an awesome part to add to our trip.
It's unbelievable but tomorrow is our last day working together as a team. We have a group of our team leaving on Thursday and 8 other people flying out of Honduras on Friday. This trip has definatly opened my eyes and our team has been able to touch the lives of many, many Honduran and American people.
Continue praying!
Buenas noche!

God is Good!

Ok I'll start with Sunday:
We went to Nueva Jeruselem for church. Our team built a church in this village about 5 or 6 years ago and since then they have expanded their church building to twice the size and also they have added a classroom for the kids. We did Sunday school while we were there also. Durning church I got to hold the cutest little 2 month old baby girl named Jaime. It was hard to give her back to her mom when we left! After church we went to Casa de Esperanza which is the childrens home that I stayed at while I was here in March. It was good to see the little kids again and it was definatly a happy moment for me when they remember my name and that I came in March. With all of the people that stay there at Casa, they remembered me! God definatly placed those children in my life to show me that I am a special child of God and that I do have a purpose in life.
Today we bagged up another 200 food bags and went to a village to do VBS and hand out food bags. Bethany and I went out to pass out tickets with a Honduran preacher, Felipe. It was really neat but very sad seeing the conditions in which these people live in. As we walked to their doors we had to walk underneath their moldy smelling laundry to arrive to their one room house, some made of concreate while others were made of only string and plastic. It was so awesome to see how thankful and excited that the people were once they recieved their bags.

I will post more about the construction team and medical team tomorrow.

God is doing awesome things here in Honduras!Keep praying!

I will also try to post pictures tomorrow, the internet is really slow here at the hotel and I havent had enough time to download the pictures on here yet!

We made it!

We made it into Tegucigalpa last night around 7:30 or 8pm. Due to the airport being closed in Tegucigalpa, we had to fly into San Pedro Sula then drive 4 hours to get to Tegucigalpa.It was a lot of traveling in one day and I think everyone was pretty tired once we got to the hotel. In Miami's airport God definatly found a way to start my trip out on a positive note. Bethany and I were in the bathroom and this lady came over to us and asked if we are group was christains because she could tell by the way we acted. She then asked us what we were going to be doing while in Honduras and when we told her she said thank you for helping her country over and over then she stood there, in the bathroom, and hugged us. It is such an awesome feeling to know that we are making a difference in peoples lives, even when we might not know it.
It is so good to see all of family and friends here. I have definatly missed them! Today we went to the warehouse and then ran errands most of the day. The rest of our team still hasn't gotten to the hotel yet, they probably won't be here until around 12:30am. Their plane had gotten delayed in Miami therefore they didn't make it into San Pedro Sula, Honduras until late. Tomorrow will be a busy day since it is the first day of work. I will blog about that tomorrow night hopefully.Please continue to keep our team in your thoughts and prayers. Pray that our eyes are opened and that God will work in unimaginable ways!

2 more days

My family along with a few other people from our mission team leave fpr Honduras in 2 days! It is hard to believe that it is almost time to go back to my second home! As overwhelmed as I am feeling with all the packing that I still have to do, I can't wait to see all of our family and friends in Honduras as well as see what plans that God has in store for me over the next few weeks.

One of my favorite quotes that exactly encompasses our trip to Honduras is:

"In a contagious world we learn to keep our distance. If we get too close to those who are suffering, we might get infected by their pain. It may not be convenient or comfortable but only when you get close enough to catch their hurt will they be close enough to catch your love"

-John Ortberg