Pictures from Honduras

I posted some pictures last night from the the Honduras trip for all of you. I have decided that the fastest way to upload and get all of the pictures out to all of you is to put them on Facebook, so that is what I have done. Follow this link to get to the pictures Honduras Pictures. I hope you all enjoy, you all should be able to access the photos because most of you are my facebook friends but even if you arent i still think you should be able to see them, if not get a Facebook account and add me as a friend haha!!

Blessings,
sg

Pics from Honduras

Flying into Teguc

another shot of flyin into Teguc

A group of houses on a hill side.

it was pouring rain once we got through customs in Honduras so therefore we were soaked once we go to the yellow dog bus.

Seth was tired from a long day, Johnny laughin at Seth!

Water Buffalo, its whats for dinner!!
One of the boys making a sweet rocking chair!!
The Chapel at Escuela El Sembrador
One of the many massive trees that are prolly close to 400 years old and one of the houses at the school.
They paint billboards on the side of rocks

Working on de-tiling the dormA game of Futbolito!!
That black figure in the center of the tree is a Hollar Monkey, and let me tell you it may look small but it has the deepest hollar i have ever heard from a small animal!!
My first coke in over a year! Gosh it burned the junk out of my throat!

Four guys crammed in the back of the WGM VanFresca ahh refreshing!!

These are just a few pics of what went on in Honduras, I am trying to post a few here and there as I get the opportunity. I hope you all enjoy!! Blessings!
sg

The Final 2 Days of Honduras

Well I didn't have Internet access the last night we were in Honduras and haven't gotten the chance to write about those days just yet, so I am going to do that now. I gave you a run down on the last blog of what we were planning to do on Friday and Saturday and well some of it ended up happening but some of it didn't. The day started out really well! We got up ate breakfast and were pretty much on schedule leaving El Sembrador. We continued to be on schedule till about 9 or so when we were about an hour or so from the school and our yellow dog bus decided that it wanted to overheat on us :-( while we were going up some pretty big hills. (Had I mentioned before the driving in Honduras??) Well if I hadnt, being on the side of the road is not a safe place to be at all. Anyhow, we let the bus cool down and headed back into Juticalpa so that we could catch a bus into Tegucigalpa. It was about 2 hours until the next bus so we went to a small mall and then had some Chester's Fried Chicken. We then headed out to go to the bus station where we loaded onto the nicest bus I have ever ridden in in my life! We even had our own stewardess who gave us a light lunch and a coke. We left at about 12:45 and were into Teguc by about 4. Once Travis got there with WGM's van we headed to a few souvenir shops to do a little bit of shopping. After we all bought things we really didn't need we headed to the guest house of WGM, we got settled in and then went and ate at a restaurant where I had one of the better steaks I have had recently!! (I might have mentioned it before but I will mention it again, it was kinda crazy to see people at almost all stores and restaurants who were security type people who had either some sort of rifle or most likely they had a pistol grip shotgun!) After we ate supper we headed to Baskin Robins for some ice cream!! (That's probably not very Honduran but it sure was good!!) We went back to the guest house and had a good time of visiting and then some headed to bed and some stayed up visiting some more. I had the privilege of sleeping in a hammock on a screened in porch and for the first time of the my stay in Honduras I actually got a little bit cool while sleeping which was pretty nice. The next morning I awoke about 5:40 or so and we had breakfast and started our journey back to the states! I once again had to go through the ringer getting through security. I had my carry on bags searched completely through twice and had to get wanded as I was boarding the plane. Good thing I wasn't trying to bring anything illegal back. I was asked by the Customs agent in Houston if I had brought back any dope or guns, I told him no and he then asked me how come I hadn't. We joked a little bit so that was comforting and fun! From there after getting through a few more security check points where I luckily didn't have to go through the ringer again. After that a few of us went to Pappadeaux's for supper where I had some Alligator for and appetizer then some good ole fried shrimp for the main course and a great big ole huge piece of cheesecake with strawberries for dessert!! Needless to say I was completely stuffed!!! We then had a couple more hours to waste in the airport and our plane finally departed for Midland at about 9:30 central time and we got into Midland around 10:45cst after we went through a few clouds and a sorta rough ride, but I thought it made things good and exciting!! After arriving in Midland we began the journey back to Artesia and arrived back here at about 1:30am! The trip was a great time and a great blessing! I thank all of you for all of your prayers and support during those days we were gone! And I look forward to the prayers and support that we have as we go on our next few trips for the summer!!
blessings!
sg

Last day at the farm :-(

Well today is/was the last full day here at the farm. It was def a good day though! Mos of us were up and at em for breakfast at 6:30 (a couple of us were up earlier than that, I wasnt one of them.) We started working on a few different projects this morning. Some of us took some grates off some windows while others took down a couple of doors. After those projects were done some people knocked the ceilings out of a couple of the rooms and hall in the dorm we were helping prep for remodeling while some of the ladies took all of the nails out of those boards when they were carrying them out. Seth, Johnathan, and I after we finished with some metal grates off windows finished putting on the metal roof on the remodeled part of the dorm!! We just worked till lunch today because there were other things planned for the afternoon, which I will get to later, but I think I still sweated more today than I did the last two days. My pants and shirt were completely soaked and I was nasty dirty! This has been a common occurance throughout the week! Thankfully they have graciously let us wash some of our clothes!! I have been pretty nast each day after working, I have a pic of Jeffrey and I yesterday and then also a picture of just my pants and I am pretty sure my dad would be proud of how dirty I was (the dirtiness might even compare with the dirtiness of his pants sometimes mom!!) After lunch we went to some caves that are near Catacamas and explored them a little, def werent as big as Carlsbad Caverns but were def very interesting there was a river flowing through the whole part we walked through which was pretty neat! After that we went into Catacamas and climbed some 580 steps to the top of a hill where there was a cross, needless to say all of our legs will be sore tomorrow!! (oh yeah on the way from the caves(cuevas) we came upon a ginormus dead snake!! Where Travis (who is Bev's brother-n-laws grandson) decided he would pick up the snake and wrap it around him! It was pretty gross and he got blood from the snake on him I think it made me throw up a little in mouth!! After that we went and ate at a resturant in Catacamas, the food was good but a little bit different. They did serve some cooked banana chip type things that were super good!! After that we came back here to the farm for some more Futbolito (fast soccer) and then a little game of our own football in the courtyard where Jeffrey made one of the most amazing catches I have ever seen while triping over and into a flower bed stumbling, loosing his glasses, and still was able to catch the ball! It was quite amazing!! If any of you were wondering about the football game that was supposed to be last night, well it got cancelled since the Honduras National Soccer team was playing. Anyhow this might be my last blog from Honduras depending if we have internet service tomorrow night at the guest house that is in Teguc(that is what all the people here call Tegucigalpa) at the World Gospel Mission headquarters. But in case we are not able to have internet I will give you a run down of tomorrow. We wake up tomorrow for breakfast at 6:30. We then leave the farm at 7:30 to head to Teguc where we will have lunch at a McDonalds. After that we will go to the Valley of the Angles which is a shopping center where we should be able to get some souvineirs and stuff. After that we are going to go and check in to the guest house and then after that go out to eat at a nice resturant there in Teguc. Our flight leaves somewhere around 11ish on Saturday morning from Teguc and we should be into Houston by around 3 or 4 I think. I cant remember what the time change is. I hope this has given you all a small chance to take part in this week with all of us from a distance!! Thank you all for your comments on the blog as well as all of your prayers!! I have definitely appreciated both of them!! Blessings and goodnight from Honduras (possibly this will be the last time I am able to do this :-(. ) Goodnight!!

sg

Day 5 From Honduras

It has been another good day in Honduras!! This morning it was Cooper and my turn to do breafast prep so my morning started at 5:45 this morning!! That seems super early but in all reality I have had a good amount of energy even waking up 2 hours before I normally do, hehe!! We had pancakes for breakfast and they were amazing!! That is one thing that has def been good here!! The food!!! There is no shortage of yumminess and most of us will most likely come back a few pounds heavier than when we left. But we have worked fairly hard so maybe our work has kept up with our food! Today we continued removing roof tiles (tejas) from the dorm they are remodeling. We got a good amount done this morning and after a good roast beaf lunch we went back and finished the whole roof!! (We actually didnt think we would finish that until tomorrow so that was super cool!) Also a few of the people went to an awards banquet this afternoon while some of us were finishing up the roof to show our support to the boys there as well. After that there was a faculty vs. students soccer game. I watched the first half and it was good an exciting and it was tied 2-2 then. After that I spotted some boys playing some basketball and couldnt resist going over and in my broken spanish ask if I could play too. So I played a game similar to around the world (if you know what that is) where I think they were making up some of the shots I had to make. They were laughin a bit so i figured they were prolly saying haha look what we are making this idiot do. But then another guy got to the same point in the game as me and he was having to try the same shots so at that point i felt a little better about the whole thing. We were just gettin goin when the dinner bell rang so our fun game was cut short. We had supper then which was some BBQ Chicken and baked potatos then a good ole peanut butter pie thing that was super good!! After that we thought there was church, but when we showed up we learned that it was just small group and so the ladies went ahead and went to the girls small group and us guys headed back here to the conference center porch where we had a short Bible Study slash discussion! After that the some of us went and watched the first half of the Honduras vs El Salvador World Cup qualifier match. Then came back for the nightly meeting and then everyone else was tired so I decided to go back and finish watching the 2nd half so I did!! Honduras won 1-0!!! It was a great game!! Today has been a good day and as our week here is winding down I am a little bit sad. It has been such a good time and it has gone by so fast! Tomorrow is our last full day here on the farm since we will be making the trek back to Teguc on Friday for our flight that will leave Saturday morning. Oh yes, funny story for today. (Well actually a few) 1st. I have been meaning to write this in the last two blogs but have forgotten. On Monday after seeing the Holler Monkeys that morning Beverly and Pattie kind of went crazy and began swingin from trees, they actually ran off into the jungle and we couldn't find them. Kinda of a crazy story. The good news though is that they showed back up today and seem to be back to normal!! (ok the part about running into the jungle and being gone for two days was a lil bit of a stretch, but they did sorta swing from a tree while they were trying to break off a dead branch.) 2nd funny story- tonight while in our nightly meeting I noticed that my shorts were unzipped and I then thought to myself alright when the meeting is over I will walk kinda somewhere and discreetly zip my shorts back up. Well if you know me, you know I dont have a great memory sometime so I forgot to zip my pants up. So i stood up from the meeting and kinda stretched and then I hear Seth and Johnathan laughing then I remebered. So I sat down but then all of the attention was on me so to make the moment even more awkward I danced strangely around the corner and then zipped up my pants. Ok, maybe that story isnt as funny to yall, but it was to me!! Anyhow I know this post has prolly been pretty lengthy and I do thank you for stickin with me through it. I wont give you a preview of tomorrow so it will keep you all in suspense until the next day!! I hope all of you have a splendid Thursday!!

blessings

sg

Day 4 I suppose?!?!

Well my days are getting all mixed up but thats ok! We had a good day today! Its been a long day but it was def a good day! Today we had a fairly good day of work! We finished one side of the roof we started on yesterday and started on the other side. It was a little bit hotter today and I prolly sweated about a gallon of water but no worries mom I drank plenty of water!! Funny story though, so while working on this roof I sweated pretty profusely and then sat on some dirt so on the way to lunch it looked like i had a small case of the hersey squirts in my pants but it was just a mixture of sweat and dirt, but it was quite gross!! So that was a funny story for today. I also have a pretty crazy tan as well from wearing just one glove!! A part from working on clearing all of the spanish tiles off of the roof we didnt do a whole lot more than that today. Some of the ladies did help make some cupcakes for a multi-month birthday party for the boys. They had the party for them where they sang and played some interesting games that I will bring back to the states so that we can play them as well. They had the party and games and the cupcakes and then from there we just kinda hung out and relaxed the rest of the night. Tomorrow looks like another day of removing tiles off the roof and then watching a soccer game in the afternoon between the faculty and the boys and then have supper and church and then hopefully a game of football where we can redeem ourselves from our poor performance from Sunday. I will blog about all of this tomorrow night, so there is alot for you all to look forward to hehe!! I hope you all have a wonderful and blessed Wednesday!!

blessings

sg

Day 3 from Honduras!

Wow!! What a cram packed full day of stuff today!! This morning we went on a tour of the whole school and farm. We started out going through all of the vocational buildings and then moved on to the dorms as well as the kitchen and laundry area. The tour this morning took about 4 hours. A few pretty interesting things happened on the tour, first of all I found the rocking chair I want (its one they made here on the farm and its beautiful, the only problem is getting it back to the states!!), next we heard a gunshot as we were going into the boys dorms (no worries though, they were just shooting a water buffalo!! I got pictures of them hauling it up to be slaughtered a few pics of them in the process of processing it, pretty interesting!!), and finally I broke my fast from cokes today at the snack shop here at the farm (they have pepsi in glass bottles, it was quite good, but it stanking burned my throat!!). We had a wonderful lunch and then had a good work this afternoon clearing some of the rooms of the dorm they are remodeling as well as doing the beginning work to take the roof off of that same dorm. Tonight for supper we had tacos with homemade tortillas (gosh they were amazing!!) and then got to watch two matches of Futbolito (Fast Soccer) which is soccer played in a small court and and it is very fast!! My team the Amarillo Team (yellow team for those of you who dont know spanish) lost, but it was a great match!! We finished the day off with Banana Splits over at Travis and Lorie's house (those are two of the Missionaries here at the school)! I think everyone is having a great time with all that is going on and things can only get better!! I hope everyone has a splendid Tuesday!!

blessings!!

sg

Day 2 from Honduras

Well it is now 9:15Sunday night here in Honduras! It has been another great day! We all feel that we are the one's being ministered to and blessed. Today was a day of rest mainly with a few Sunday activities as well. We woke up this morning and had a great breakfast!! We have our own personal cook down here, here name is Andy (pronounced Aundy) she is quite a great cook! After breakfast we went to some singing before Sunday school and then off to Sunday school where we all divided up some and went into different classes to see how they do Sunday school. After that we went back to the Sanctuary and had worship. We sand a couple hymns and other songs and then heard a sermon from one of the students who is in the Bible College here. (Oh and we sang When the Roll is Called Up Yonder! I was excited about getting to sing that in Spanish!!) We ate lunch with the boys in their cafeteria, the food there was great as well!! We had chicken, what i would call cole slaw, rice, and then tortillas (Im not sure what part of the chicken I ate there were a few unfamiliar bones I havent seen before??) But it was very good food!! This afternoon we taught the boys a little about Football Americano (the football we love so much in Artesia!). The actually picked things up really quickly and we got to play for an actual game for about an hour, unfortunately us Americans got our tail ends handed to us :-(. We are supposed to have a rematch possibly on Tuesday night!! After some rest this afternoon and some good pizza we had Sunday night worship! It was a really awesome time!! Then after church we played volley ball with the boys where we once again got beat, but we were improving! Overall day two was a very good day! The language barrier is somewhat hard and makes us feel a little uncomfortable at times but I have actually found it comforting because during those times I can rely and lean on Christ!! God is definitely at work here at Escuela El Sembrador!! In the hearts of the people here as well as working on the hearts of us that are here to serve. We pray that tomorrow we will get to serve some since most of us feel like we have been served since we got here. It is a blessing knowing there are many of you praying back home for us!! I hope you all have a great Monday and I should be able to update you all again on what happens tomorrow!! But for now I will let yall go.

Blessings!!

sg

Blog from Honduras #1

Well it is Sunday morning in Honduras! We have arived and are safe at Escuela El Sembrador! We had good flights yesterday and made it through all of the customs and security. I got put to the side for a random search in Midland which ended up them just searching my pockets?? Oh well. We got into Honduras at around 2:30pm mountain time and we got away from the airport a little bit before 4pm. We arrived at the farm school at around 8pm after a good an exciting and quite interesting bus ride down a variety of roads. There was lots to see on our trek from the airport here and lots to process. There are many here who are much less fortunate than we are at home. Anyhow, my posts will be short so that I dont hog the computer, I also wont post any pics cause i dont have a way to upload them.

Blessings from Honduras,

sg

Embracing Accusations

So I was recently informed that I haven't written a blog in a long time, and so I feel that it is time to write another one. It also seems to help me process what all is going on in my life. Over the last 6 months maybe even going back a lil further than that it has been a rough road. Emotionally and spiritually I have struggled and often felt just completely drained. Part of it is going through a dry time in my life and part of it has been because I have pretty much refused to allow God into some parts of my life and allow Him to heal those parts. Recently, I have struggled to make God a priority in my life (this is often called sin) and I have felt super condemned and even really unable to be used. I see signs of God working in my life and through me but for some reason the joy of that I have allowed to be robbed from me. I love music and often a single song can really minister to me, if you read two blogs back it is about a song. But the song that really began to minister and speak to me last night is a song by Shane and Shane called Embracing Accusations. I will just give you the lyrics and then do a lil explaining afterwards.

Embracing Accusastions by Shane & Shane

The father or lies, coming to steal, kill, and destroy.
All my hopes of being good enough.
I hear him saying, cursed are the ones who can't abide.
he's right, Hallelujah he's right.

The devil is preaching, the song of the redeemed.
That I am cursed and gone astray I can not gain salvation.
Embracing accusastions.

Could the father of lies be telling the truth of God to me tonight?
If the penalty of sin is death, then death is mine.
I hear him saying, cursed are the ones who cant abide.
he's right, Hallelujah he's right.

The devil is preaching, the song of the redeemed.
That I am cursed and gone astray I can not gain salvation.
Oh the devil's singing over me an age old song,
that I am cursed and gone astray.
Singing the first verse so conviently over me
he's forgotten the refrain,
JESUS SAVES!!

He redeemed us from the curse of the law!!

So this is where I have been in a place where I have allowed the devil to sing a song over me but he has only sang part of it, as the song says "he's forgotten the refrain! JESUS SAVES!" I cant count the times in my life that I have allowed the joy of my salvation be robbed by the father of lies who tells me that I am not good enough, which is true, but I only listen to that and forget to listen to what Christ is singing over me. Christ is singing over me that He saves! So that's where I am today.

Blessings,
sg

A Pic From the Farm

just a cool pic, i was gonna upload more but it takes stinkin forever so this all yall get for now, more to come later maybe.

sg