Message Bean

My plant...

Incredible

Since I last wrote, much has happened. We've started the new school year, added another volunteer to our list, made some interesting decisions, had some good days, and some bad days. Yesterday, Sabbath, was a really good day! Really good! A group from Andrews is working in a place about an hour and 1/2 from here so yesterday Sherin, Onilzon, Ioana and I went to a town called Peña Blanca to visit them. The entire day was really relaxed and very much how a Sabbath day should be. It was just such a good day, I can't fully explain it! These are the kinds of days that make me feel like I could stay here forever... After church we went and saw another Adventist orphanage and ate lunch there and got to spend sometime with our friends from Andrews. On our way back home we stopped by Lake Yojoa. It was the perfect day. The wind brushing my face, the water smoothly rocking the pier, the sun gentling warming my skin. How amazing, the creation of God, imagine what Heaven will be like! I can't do it justice to try to describe it. I just wanted to share how amazing He truly is. I couldn't have asked for a better way to breathe some fresh air, to rejuvente my sense, to make me come alive once again, to prepare myself for another week of teaching and working. As the sun slowly sank below the horizon, my heart was content and I felt renewed, rested and prepared to continue on with the work God has set out for me. This week, try to open your eyes to the things He has created for us all around, allow His creation to speak to you, I think you'll be amazed at how much He's trying to say to you.

I am teaching english again, but this school year only in the elementary school and this time around I'm teaching by myself. Some aspects of the job are easier and better, but others are still difficult. I'm learning and growing, every morning praying to God, telling Him I have no idea why I'm here or why He has sent me to do this, but I know He has put me here for a reason, I ask Him to use me how only He can.
Thank you again for taking the time to read this. God Bless!! :)
--
I've thrown myself headlong into your arms; I'm celebrating your
rescue. I'm singing at the top of my lungs, I'm so full of answered
prayers. - Psalm 13:5-6

Cambia Tu Vida

Last Sabbath evening, January 17th, finished the evangelistic series "Cambia Tu Vida", Change Your Life. The 8 volunteers here at the hogar, have been planning this since mid-September. It was an eight night series starting on the 10th of January. This was a full-blown evangelistic series, not just some meetings. We wanted to something different than had ever been done in this area before, and that we did! We had t-shirts made, went door-to-door, put up posters all over town, announced/advertised on the radio and t.v. and even set up a website (www.cambiavida.com). Every night, there was a full children's program that taught the topic for that night in a more kid-friendly way. The program was broadcast live on both the internet (audio and video) and the radio; was shown on the main t.v. station every night and played on two other main radio stations in town. 

Besides the actual program running every night, we also had 3 buses transporting people for free to and from the meetings. The featured speaker was none other than: Vlady Daddy, with song service, theme song, special music, question and answer time, crowd interaction, a short video segment and Emcees.

Planning an evangelistic series involves a lot more details than we had originally thought, but in the end we all learned so much, about ourselves, about each other and of course about our Almighty Creator! It ended up being pretty awesome and we were proud of how well it went for none of us having ever done before. But in the end we couldn't forgive who gave us the original idea in the first place and who led us through the whole process, nothing would have been possible without Him. 

Not as many people ended up coming as we had hoped, but we know that the Holy Spirit sent the people there who were supposed to be there, and we were told that an estimated 2,500 people were watching and listening in their homes. The whole thing went really well. By the 8th night we were all exhausted, but it was well worth it! Thank you for your prayers :)

Christmas/New Years/my birthday were all really good, really good :D I would even go so far as to say that this was my most favorite Christmas ever! and New Years and my birthday aren't far behind that. I loved all three days... there were soooooo good! I wouldn't mind spending another Christmas or two here...

Very surprisingly, my mom and sister paid a surprise visit the week before my birthday, it was soo weird! haha but I'm glad that they could come, it was really nice!

The new school year is fast approaching (Feb) and new job assignments will be given soon. When I find out, I'll let you know. 

I'll try not to let is be so long next time before I write another blog... I'm just getting lazier!.. but in the meanwhile, I hope you enjoy the pictures! Email me sometime  :)

Much Love, MC

Que Tal?

Not very much has happened in the past month or so. School ended the first week of November, the school years here are kind of opposite of ours in the states. Here, school is in session from February thru November. It's been really nice not having to make lesson plans.
As a result of NO SCHOOL (!!!) I've gotten to spend more time with the kids here at the hogar and I think I've decided that maybe they might like me. They ended up having a small Thanksgiving dinner here for us, so that was nice. I ate a lot of mashed papas, I had to make up for the lack of turkey! We decorated for Christmas the other day, that was fun. Christmas is going to be different, I've never not been home/with my family for Christmas... it will be really different, but I think it's an experience I need to have, something to help me gain a new perspective.
During break, I'm still having to teach english two days a week, then on the other two days of the week I teach choir. It's actually kind of exciting! I think it was 2 weeks ago now that we had our first performance and it was so good!! They did so well, I was so proud of them. Right before, I was a little nervous, I have to be honest, I was really nervous about looking bad in front of the people at the church, but then I decided that I didn't care what they thought about me and I gave it up to God, I had to remind myself that the kids were singing for His praise and glory only, not for their praise and definitely not for the praise of their director, mwa, and then it ended up turning out really good! I just couldn't help but smile. That's a lesson that God has been teaching me lately, in order to get something, I have to let it go. I have to be willing to give it up and in the end He'll decide what's best for me and when it should happen. I am constantly reminded that I don't control things, He does! It's a good thing He does, other wise this world would be in chaos!
We're also well on our way to planning the evangelistic series that I told you about. So please continue to pray for us as we continue along with that.
Happy Holidays and God Bless!
xoxo
C

En Serio?!

UPDATE: Mandy no longer has lice (I actually haven't had it in a long time, I found out I had it on a tuesday or something and on Thursday when I had someone check, it was gone!). No need to worry, Mandy is still alive and well, a little disturbed, but ok.
Honduras is good. It's been cooling down lately. We're in rainy season now so there has been a lot of that going on lately. Actually we found out that this is the most rain they've had since Hurricane Mitch which hit them 10 years ago in 1998, so in other words there's been a heck of a lot of rain! The main bridge going into the capital, Tegucigalpa, which is like 3 0r 4 hours from here, was actually run over (or however you say it) by water and 4,000 people have died so far from drowning. In other parts of the country there are floods as high as 2 or 3 feet. It's pretty serious. Pray for them, who ever knew rain could do so much damage.

Ok next topic of discussion, we, the volunteers, have officially decided that we would like to put on a evangelistic series here in Santa Barbara. Now this will not just be your ordinary evangelistic series, we're putting a lot into it. We are planning it for late January/early February for right before school starts (the school year here is Feb-Nov). It is going to be eight days long Saturday night to Saturday night. The program will consist of a short sermon, singing, special music and other such things. We will also be providing transportation to and form the place where we are having it in hopes that more people might come. There will be a children's program as well so that people can bring their kids. We are also hoping to have some kind of snacks to pass out every night as well. It doesn't stop there: we are wanting to advertise on the radio, the local television station and by passing out fliers. We are also wanting to broadcast the programs on the radio and/or t.v. Big goals, we know, but we know that nothing's too big for God and we feel that He has big plans for this. The kids, volunteers, and staff members here at the hogar will be involved in all of this as well. Ok, now you ready for the catch? - We need two things: fervent prayer as we go through the planning process and you guessed it = $. In the next week or so we are all going to be making/sending short videos back to our churches to ask them to help us raise the money for this. This is a way that you too can get involved! 

I am now praying that God gives me something to do that causes me to think, stress out a little bit, gain/use some skill, work hard on, initiate, stretch my ideas and most of all point to His work within me. 

hmmm... that's it for now. Thank you once again for reading :)

Mandy (Taco Bell deprived in Honduras)

JIMMENY CRICKET!

I can't believe I am actually going to say this on an international level (the internet) but I feel that you (my readers) would be interested to know, that for the first time in my life, today, Tuesday, October 14, 2008 at approximately 5:45 pm discovered that I Amanda A Corea have/had lice....AAAAHHHHH eeewwwww, gross, gross, gross (please take note of the picture)... Okay okay, no more talking about it anymore, I can't think about it, I'm too disgusted. I never thought I would utter those words..EVER! Please just know, that all of the "Mandy never bathes" jokes can stop right now, because I do...everyday! I wash my hair everyday... which you're not supposed to do because it's bad for your hair, but I do anyways...!!!! They only found like 5 or so little ones but still.... when they found those little stinkers, I started telling everyone goodbye because I was dying. I told them I might as well go into seclusion because I was so dirty and unworthy of anyone's presence (and my roommate thinks I'm dramatic! psh!).

So back to the whole bathing thing: I do wash my hair, it's because all of the sweet little chilens' rub their heads up on mine all the time because they love me so much ;) No really though, they do rub their heads against mine.

*sigh* ok well now that I've gotten that disturbing news break out of the way, another small piece of interestingness: I learned how to make pupusas!!! Yay!!! (for those of you who are unaware of what a pupusa is - look it up!) Gente, do you know what that means? I am officially a true Salvadoran!! YAY!!! 

Ok... that's all for now...tata... :)

Not About Me

So I've realized that pretty much every blog has been about me, granted I am the one in the foreign country but, this year is not about me, it's about Him and them, Him being God and them being the people that God chooses to touch through me.... or am I wrong, is this whole thing about me and my spiritual, personal growth? I think it's both. You always hear people say, I went into the mission field thinking I was helping people and they ended up teaching me so much more than I ever could have taught them: this is true, I've experienced it before. But at the same time as a part of my personal ministry and work for Christ I have chosen to come here to Honduras, b/c I want to do something for someone else for once, I don't want it to be about me, I want to completely submit to doing God's work in serving others completely and wholly, not partially or with ulterior motives. I want Him to work in me and through me... wait that makes it about me then doesn't it?!
At the hogar here, we have a grand total of 42 kids (I think). We used to have 43, but a girl left this past Monday. She is the first one to leave since I been here and much to my dismay, I do not think that she will be the last. This time it was ok because I haven't been here long enough to have really built up any deep personal relationships with the kids yet, but I know that as time goes on, kids leaving will not be an easy thing to deal with. It's different here, than in the States where most of the time if someone has no skills they can kind of get by. When a kid/teenager leaves there are so many factors to worry about: Have you taught them everything they need to know in order to survive out there on their own? Will they be smart enough to not get caught up in anything that they shouldn't be doing? Where will they end up in life and how will they get there? With the schooling that they have or haven't had, will they be able to provide for themselves? And most importantly, how do they view God and where He fits into their lives? Life here is HARD!

Among the 42 kids here their ages range from 8 to 19, including three or four older ones that grew up here and either haven't left because they aren't mentally capable of being on their own, or because they have yet to find a job, so they still live here and work/help out here.

Not all, but most of the kids that are here are here for one of four reasons: 1- they are true orphans, meaning that they have no family and were found on the street; 2- their parent(s) abandoned them because they simply didn't want them; 3- their parents brought them here or abandoned them because they were not physically/financially (money, in jail...) able to provide for their children; 4- the home situation was not a good one: abuse, not eating, parents wanting to use/sell their children for different things (food, clothes, drugs, etc.), children running away, etc. 

At this point there are some kids that I know better than others, but I can very quickly see myself getting attached to each and every one of them, the older and younger ones. Besides some weekends, for the most part life isn't that boring here. When it's time to work, all of us, children, adults and volunteers alike, work hard. But we can also have so much fun :) They make me laugh, which I love and when in doubt I can always someone to accompany me.

Also included in our large family, there are 6 adults that work here, live here, and run the hogar, plus the 10 volunteers that are here.

Ok, well, I think this is enough for now. Thank you so much for your emails and prayers, they are greatly apprecitated!!

Until later.... Mandy :)