Getting Started...

Hello to all my blessed friends and family!

Welcome to my blog! I warn you, I have never kept up with this sort of thing before, but I feel like this will be a great way to keep you all informed of my happenings in Honduras. First and foremost, I want to thank all of you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to pray for me and read my updates. Your support means more to me than words can even express.

God has provided this opportunity for me to grow in my faith and to spread His Word to other nations. Now is the time for honesty... I never imagined myself as a missionary, and even as I say the words, I still can't believe them. I always thought mission work was for "other people" and not myself. Now, I look in the mirror and realize that God had other plans for me. I have decided to follow His lead and move to Honduras. This is a "land of the unknown" for me. Sure... I have visited this beautiful country once before, and it turned my world upside down. The people here are amazingly wonderful and welcoming. I could not ask for a more united country.

Since I have been here, I have found my fair share of things that I do not like... Bugs for one. Enough said. They are HUGE down here.... Holy cow, you could seriously get carried away in your sleep without ever knowing judging by the size of some of these things. Just the other night, I woke up, and I could see something crawling on the floor along my wall. Sure enough, I turned on my light, and I saw a GIGANTIC centipede or millipede. EW! Not exactly the "wake up call" I was looking for. Totally freaked me out... I couldn't even go back to sleep for fear that something was going to crawl into my bed. Sheesh.

Other than that, I am proud to say that I have almost been here for an entire month. I will be journeying back home for Christmas on December 18. I greatly look forward to seeing everyone because I miss them DEARLY, but I do know that God has plans to use me down here. I do not have any regrets about coming to live down here for a while. Yes, I miss everyone, and I would love nothing more than some visits; I also know that if I had not followed God's plan for me, I would have spent every day of my life wondering, "What if..." Now is the perfect time of my life to do this! I am going to be stronger because of it... Not to mention, it should help my Spanish!

One night, after I had been questioning God about bringing me here, Pastor Dennis (from my church down here) mentioned the story of Abraham and how he was asked to leave his home. After his words, I returned to my room to read my Bible....

"The Lord had said to Abram, 'Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you...and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.' So Abram left, as the Lord had told him..." -Genesis 12: 1-4a

This really spoke to me because it made me realize that God does not make mistakes, so why am I questioning it? I am here, and from the beginning of time, God knew that I would be in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, C.A. on August 17, 2009.

Now, I wake up every morning, I thank God for placing me here, and I ask Him for the strength to get me through the days. Now that I am finally teaching, I have my hands full with 5-year-olds who have very energetic personalities! I am sure that I will have many more stories to go along with that later!!! It has been a struggle, but I know that I am here for these kids!