Student Life 2014

Camp Highlights:

1. Getting anywhere between 5 & 6 hours of sleep at night.  Who doesn't love that?

2. Getting to hang out with my new youth group. What a group! 

3. Getting to worship IN ENGLISH with other students and leaders who had a desire to draw closer to God. 

4. Getting to work with an organization in Houston that provides food, clothing, furniture, and financial help to those who really, really need it.  A lot of the work was tedious and exhausting but these kids were awesome!

5. Getting to eat camp food. Just kidding. No, I swear, I'm kidding!!! 

6. Getting to hear the stories and the testimonies of what God has done and what God is doing in the lives of my kids.

7. Listening to a student on Monday telling me that he's not even sure if God exists and then hearing the same student on Thursday, say with conviction and tears in his eyes, "God exists!" 

I was a little freaked out and overwhelmed to start with these kids and then jump directly into camp.  Yes, it was a little hectic not knowing some things, but in all honesty, I wouldn't have had it any other way.  I got to know these kids in leaps and bounds during camp.  I learned their strengths, their weaknesses, their desires, their fears, their hearts, all in one week. And I also learned that if we ever have food at one of our functions, I need to bring a lot!!! 

Thank you for those of you who were praying for us while we were at camp.  If you want to keep praying, just pray that these kids would mount on eagle's wings, run and not grow weary, and walk and not faint in their faith in Jesus Christ. 

Underwater...

While I was in Honduras, one of my roommates and I went to the island of Utila for Semana Santa.  

Two American girls, traveling by bus and boat, having an experience of a lifetime, and realizing just how much God takes care of us. There were some slightly scary stories to tell from this trip, and if you'd like to hear them, ask me personally and I'd love to share them with you! 

Despite some of the crazy things that happened, and despite losing a close friend two days prior, we had a good time.  For me, it was a soothing time.  I didn't realize how hard it was to be landlocked until I was landlocked. So, Utila was a fantastic change of scenery.  Beautiful mountains to my back, and the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean to my face (a face that learned to wear sunscreen!). 

Snorkeling in the Caribbean will go down as one of my favorite experiences in the entire ten months I was in Honduras.  It was like I was in a gigantic fish tank.  Standing on the dock as I was putting my flippers and snorkel on, I thought, "It's so beautiful out here! Nothing but ocean for miles and miles and miles." 

And then I went under water and saw this.

And I went, "Woah." 

And y'all, let's be honest...it's hard to take pictures underwater. I kept smacking my goggles with the camera just so I could see through the little glass, lens, thingy (can someone say digital cameras?) and still missed most of the fish I was chasing. 

As I was under there I just kept thinking to my self, "Man, God makes some sweet stuff!"

And speaking of sweet stuff....

We tried....

My soundtrack for the weekend was (shocker) Switchfoot's latest album, Fading West. My favorite song is Saltwater Heart.  The chorus says, "When I'm on your shore again, I can feel the ocean. I can feel your open arms. That pure emotion.  I'm finally free again, by my own explosion."  After everything that had happened in the past couple of days, just hanging out in the ocean among some of the coolest creations I've seen, was definitely like sitting in God's living room, just talking and hanging out and allowing him to heal some wounds. 

The Next Step

Back in April, one of my roommates and I took a short "Semana Santa" trip to Utila, Honduras. While we were on the island, we went snorkeling in, what I was told, is the second largest corral reef next to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. It was an absolutely amazing experience. It was like I was inside a gigantic fish tank. So, if you see me longingly looking at a fish tank, you'll know why. Anyway, back on track. There was a point when my roommate popped her head out of the water and yells, "I found the drop off!!!" I suddenly had the biggest desire to drink water, which was on shore, away from the drop off. Jenna said she had never seen me move so quickly.

If you ask me what my biggest fear is, it's not knowing.  In the reef, I knew where I was, I knew what I was doing, and I was seeing some awesome stuff. But the drop off...oh the drop off. There was too much water and not enough knowledge for my tastes. My heart rate went down as I sipped on some cool, refreshing water. I laughed at myself and my reaction towards "the drop off" and decided to go back out. When you're under water and snorkeling, you kind of have no sense of direction.  It's actually relaxing because in your mind you're thinking, "As long as I don't see a man eating shark, or a gigantic sting ray that could stab me to death, I'm okay." Before I knew it, I was facing the drop off. My heart was racing. My palms were damp (yes, even in the water, I could feel the sweat of my palms). But I just sat there, looking at it. It was the deepest, prettiest, most amazing blue I had ever seen. It was also the most vast, most dangerous thing I had ever seen.

As I was floating there, right on the edge of the reef and the big blue (as our friendly, orange, clown fish would say), I thought, "Wow, this is kind of like my future. It has the ability to be really exciting and amazing, and at the same time, kill me." At that point, I had recently made the decision to not go back to Destino and had absolutely NO idea what I was going to do when I got home.  My whole plan for coming home was, "Eat Chick-Fil-A, go to my church, get a job, and get a place of my own." After applying to some jobs and having interview difficulties (something about being countries away throws a wrench in your plans) I had just surrendered the job search for the time being. I figured I would start looking once I got back Home.  And then my dad's accident happened and I came home earlier than planned.

The night I got home, my mom came to me and said, "I didn't want to throw this on you too soon, but Taft really wants you for their youth minister." And I was stunned! Ever since working with their middle schoolers for VBS last summer, I wanted to be their youth minister. But, that one would have to hold because I was Honduras bound! I had spoken with the pastor a few times on Facebook just checking up on the kids. I had even told him that if they hadn't found a youth minister by the time I got back, I'd love to help them out.  Turns out, God was saving that spot for me!

So yes, my future has the ability to be exciting and amazing and kill me at the same time.  I don't know how long I will be at this church ministering and encouraging these kids in their walk with Christ. Could be one year, could be ten years! But I will stay there until God tells me to go somewhere else.  And let me tell you, I am excited!!!

All Because of Jesus

It's been almost two weeks since the last day of school and what an emotional and crazy ride it has been.  The Tuesday after we finished school, I received the news that my dad had been in a bad accident.  I made the immediate decision to come home two weeks earlier than I had originally planned. Thankfully, classes were over and I wouldn't leave people at a great disadvantage.  So, Wednesday and Thursday I worked with the other teachers on getting things in order for next year. 

These two days were full of things to do which was a blessing.  I am (as my aunt calls me) the "freak-out-child."  This is due to a crazy imagination that, simply put, knows no bounds. I would start at the thought of, "God pulled my father through an accident" and would head into, "There's a reason people are calling this a God thing" which would lead to "MY DAD ALMOST DIED!" Which led me to think of my dad dying which of course, led to tears, lots and lots of tears. Over my imagination. 

In the amount of time that I've been home, I've seen so much improvement in my dad's health. His head wound is healing wonderfully, his hands are practically all better, and he's moving around with a lot more ease.  God is AMAZING!!! There are so many ways my dad could have died. If the vehicle rolled one more time, he probably wouldn't have made it. If he had a different type of seat belt, he would have landed in a worse position. But it all boils down to, if God had not wrapped my father in His wings, by Dad wouldn't have made it. But, I'm finally getting a heart knowledge in this, my dad did make it, and it's all because of Jesus. 

With that being said, here's some pictures of my last few days in Honduras!

*Note. There's a tadpole in there. I promise! They're not just showing off a dirty cup that they found. 

Last Days

The last day of classes was on Friday. Oh my, that was a day!
It started off as usual, we picked up the kids at the usual time. I was able to land bus duty on the last week of school, which I may complain about but I secretly LOVE bus duty. Well, I guess it's not a secret anymore now that it's on the internet. This is just a fun time to talk to a bunch of students and greet them and play with them (we've all gotten proficient in poking someone and then blaming it on someone else).

We were supposed to have soccer games in the morning but that's kind of hard when it was raining so hard the animals started showing up two by two. This led to indoor desperation moments of singing songs in English and Spanish in first grade along with reading "la libro grande!" Side note: I read my kids this GIGANTIC Mercer Mayer book earlier in the week and they LOVED it and wanted to read it again.  I highly recommend "My Special Friend" by Mercer Mayer. It was cute and gave us opportunities to talk about how to be nice to our friends.And it's a plus if you can read it from a book that is 2'x3' in size. After finishing the book, we played musical chairs which was adorable. I don't know what it is about little kids turning into football players and pushing each other for a seat, but I found it hysterical. Oooooh the faces they make.
By around 10, the rain finally stopped and we were able to take the kids out to smack the snot (or in this case, candy) out of a pinata.  For my 23rd birthday, there will be a pinata. I'm just saying.

After the fun and games at the school, we moved on to the church for the end of the school year program.  The kids sang, danced, acted, entertained. By far, the Second Grade drama was the funniest and adorable thing I think I've ever seen. I will try and get video footage uploaded to my blog at some point. After all the performances finished, it was time to say goodbye. Having my students come to me cryyyyyying as they said goodbye was by far one of the hardest moments of my life. I was honestly convinced that I would be able to hold off the tears until I at least got home. Yeah. Right.  To see all of my first grade girls with tears streaming down their face was so heartbreaking.  My emotions were drained after a time span of maybe 10 minutes, and my heart was wrenched from my chest (forgive the dramatic explanation, it was a dramatic moment in life).

But as I look back at that moment, not once did I ask myself if I was doing the right thing by leaving.  Not once did I say, "God are you sure?"  He had given me so much peace beforehand knowing that I was supposed to return home that I had no doubts during a huge emotional moment.  My dad even asked me later in the evening as we were chatting on Facebook if I was sure I wasn't supposed to stay. I told him that as sure as I was that I was supposed to come down here, I knew I needed to go home. Anytime I'm afraid at what will happen to these children while I'm gone, God whispers to me, "You call these 'your kids,' but they are really mine. And I won't let anything happen to them that I haven't planned. I hold them in the same palm of my hand that I hold you."  

Time...

I have five days with my kids left.
Five.
Days.

I am not emotionally ready for the last day of school.  It's going to be so hard to leave my students. I have thought throughout this year how my students are my joy.  While they are a huge part of my happiness, and I have so much joy when I'm with them, they aren't my joy. I'm realizing this. If they were my joy, I would stay here for years and years to come.  My God is my joy.  He's the one who gave me strength to come down here in the first place, and He's the one giving me the strength to go back to the States and leave the care of these children in His hands, where they have been this whole time.
Does it make it easy? No. I'm beginning to believe that whole, "Christianity isn't easy," message these preachers are coming at us with. *wink wink*

With that being said, I am extremely excited and counting down the days until I see my home again. But I am already feeling the loss of my students. I've grown fond of having ten students attack me in "un abrazo de oso."

Psalm 91

Last Wednesday, my first graders had the opportunity to recite Psalm 91:1-7, a passage of scripture we had been working on since sometime last semester. They did absolutely wonderful! Only problem was Teacher Nicole (yours truly) got nervous and missed a line in the passage.

I love hearing my students recite Psalm 91 because I hear it as a declaration of this class.  They will be protected and blessed in the Lord as long as they dwell in His presence.  This was a constant reminder for me as well that I will be protected and blessed when I am dwelling (not visiting) in His presence.

death has been swallowed up in victory

Growing up in church, I knew what Easter was all about. It wasn't about a bunny, or candy, or eggs.  It was about Jesus' death and resurrection.

It never clicked with me that it was about victory over death.  As we approach Easter, I am painfully reminded of death.  My mom called me this morning to tell me that a my good friend, Matt Mahoney, was shot and killed last night.  This kid. Oh my lanta. He made summer 2013 interesting and awesome. After giving my guitar away, he went out and bought me another one, a nicer one, because he wanted me to continue glorifying God with it. He quickly became a brother as we talked about the things God was doing in our lives and what we were learning about God.

And that brother is no longer on this earth.

Death hurts.

It hurts for a short time compared to eternity in the presence of Jesus Christ that awaits us.

Oh death, where is your sting?
Oh death, where is your victory?

Death, the moment my Savior died on the cross, the moment He gave up His life for us, you lost the victory oh death. You couldn't hold my Savior down!!! And you know what else death? You can't hold me down either. In Jesus Christ, my brothers, my sisters, and I have victory over you as well!

This is what Easter Sunday is all about.  Being able to look death in the face and saying, "You have no victory over me in the name of Jesus Christ. You have no victory!"

When the perishable has been clothed with imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." 
           "Where, O death, is your victory?
             Where, O death, is your sting?" 
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Everyday life. Right?

There have definitely been some incredibly funny moments in the past few weeks.  I'm hoping that these aren't the "you totally had to be there" moments. So, I will attempt to tell you what happened to my roommate and I last Wednesday. 

There is a Baptist church that's about four blocks down from our houses.  Every now and then, we'll pass it while they're having band practice.  It sounds JUST like home. Somewhat cheap electric guitar plugged into a somewhat cheap amp.  It's that raw "garage band" sound that I'm definitely a fan of.  So, I've continuously been drawn to this church. 

Bethany and I decided that we needed to find out what the service times were.  There's nothing wrong with going to church at Destino, but every now and then, I need a change of view.  We passed by the church on our way home from school Wednesday afternoon and there was nothing opened. Found out the pastor was supposed to be there around 5ish (this is Honduran time!).  At 5 pm, we walked back up to the church to see if there was anyone we could talk to about service times.  

At 5, one of the gates was opened; we went in...and called BUENAS for about 5 minutes, searching the church grounds for any sign of life.  Made our way up to the second floor that looks out over the campus. Finally, I heard shuffling of feet. This sweet, old man came shuffling around the corner. We asked him what time the services were and he told us.  We got what we needed and had to get home for dinner before Destino Church that night, so we headed downstairs and back to the gate where we entered.  

It was locked. 

Padlocked. 

*gulp*

"Permiso!!!! Como salimos???" (I don't have a Spanish keyboard to do the upside down punctuation marks).  The gentleman, was no where to be found. He disappeared into thin air.  

By this time, a small crowd had gathered across the street.  And our only way of exit was...

You guessed it...

To climb the gate. 

Now, I've climbed a ton of chain link fences since I could climb. But never in another country with about 7 strangers watching. 

What will the people of Honduras laugh at when Bethany and I are no longer here? 

As silly as this was, crazy antics like this seem to be a normal, every day thing.  

And this story didn't even happen at school! 

Like today, I had two boys who had a small scuffle/misunderstanding. As they told me what happened in English/Spanish/Reenactment with lots of tears (the tears came from an exhausting week. I was ready to cry multiple times today too), I went "Ooooh Lord help me on this one. I have NO idea what on earth is going on."  I had the boys apologize to each other and then told them the three of us were going to pray.  We formed a three person prayer circle and I started praying. About 10 seconds into my prayer, they started giggling with each other.  I have NO idea why they were laughing but 2 minutes before they were steaming mad at each other, and then they were giggling and laughing. 

Gosh, I love 4th grade boys.  If that were two girls...sheesh! I'd be dealing with drama until summer! 

   

Missions Day

Missions Day at Destino was definitely a day that I had been looking forward too since I started teaching here. It's a day where students get to learn about different countries. They learn the similarities and differences between the countries and Honduras. They get to eat cool food native to the country.  But most importantly, they learn what the needs are of these countries and get to pray for them. 

I was assigned the country of Uganda. I say assigned but I'm pretty sure I planted a bug in Rhonda's ear that "Uganda would be pretty awesome" almost every week. 

Anyway, I was assigned the country of Uganda with two of the Spanish teachers who were a blessing to work with. Pictures were taken of the three of us, but somehow not with my camera. 

What happens on Missions Day? 

This is what happens on Missions Day. 

Every child receives a hand-made flag for each country that is apart of Missions Day.

The rooms get decorated to give off the aura of the country they are representing. 

Here's Uganda!!

 

Brunei

Belarus

And Cuba!

Cuba!

Here's Jordan (Jordania). 

The morning of missions day, was absolutely crazy.  One of the buses wasn't working at all so our big bus picked up all the teachers and all our missions day stuff (which was pots of this, bowls of that, and bags of who-knows-what). Not only did the bus carry all of that, but we picked up EVERY student and piled them all into the bus. For those of you who don't know, we stack children on top of each other with the two buses we normally use.  So, with that being said, the electricity in the air was agitated by our interesting morning.  People in Guatemala were probably feeling the surges of excitement coming out of Destino. But you couldn't tell by the looks on the kids faces could you?

Once Missions Day was underway, we were able to deliver information, missionary stories, and prayers to our 1st through 6th grade classes. 

We started off by welcoming the kids to Uganda and telling them a little bit about the country. And then I prayed. In Spanish. Once it got to the older grades I started praying in English.  

No, she was not posing for the camera. Alisson really is just that angelic. 

After the prayer, country information, and missionary stories, the kids got to color a page in their Country Folder that had a picture of the country's flag on it. I swear, these kids LOVE to color. 

 After coloring came the kids FAVORITE part of the day. 

Eating. 

Some things are the same in every country aren't they?

For Uganda, Profe Yohanna (the Spanish teacher I was with) put together various fruits in a salad to represent some of the fruits that they eat in Uganda. 

And they loved our "Tooti Fruity" as Yohanna called it. 

In between rotations, we ate lunch and took kids out to recess.  So, there was plenty of time to cheese it up. 

And take cool pictures of our shadows.  The kids thought that was the coolest thing in the world. 

Oh? Did I forget to mention that we all got to wear cool outfits??

And this sums up the end of Missions Day for all of us. 

But it was WELL worth it! All the glory to God.

Pray with me that the passion of missions was placed in the hearts of these students and that they would be able to seek after God's plan for their lives.