and the journey begins...

Hey guys. Just wanted to give you an update of the last few days. Orientation was wonderful!  We leaders had a little time to get to know each other before we joined with the rest of our teams and that was so great. It makes our prayers for each other so much more personal over the summer. On Wednesday we joined up with the rest of our team. I met our fourth, Kimberly. She’s so great. She has such a sweet heart. We are going to make her our honorary quad for the month. The first day of orientation was spent learning about Buckner, our country, our role and our responsibility. Buckner did an amazing job preparing us as much as they could. I wish I could name everyone by name who meant so much to us during orientation, but there are just so many. I do need to thank Analiz for all that she has done. She is our mission coordinator in the states (aka mom for two days). She was absolutely wonderful.  The first half of the second day of orientation was spent working in the Buckner humanitarian aide and shoes for orphan souls warehouse. After that we spent time with our regional director to learn a little more about our country. Then the staff at Buckner really poured into us to prepare our hearts spiritually. We had a sweet time of worship and prayer before we headed off. I cannot speak highly enough of the people at Buckner. (If you want to serve orphans and vulnerable children, they are an amazing ministry to serve with.)

Well.. yesterday we started our journey at two in the morning. We hopped on our first flight at 5:30, caught a second flight in Miami, and we were in Tegucigalpa by 1:00 Alabama time (12 Honduras time). We met our in country mission coordinator Nettie and our wonderful translators Karla and Luiz. We dropped of our bags and headed to lunch at Baleadas (also known as Mary Elizabeth’s favorite restaurant). After lunch we visited the orphanage we will be working at. It is called Casitas Kennedy orphanage and it houses children from 0-18. The children are divided up into houses by gender and age group. Here at this orphanage you are not allowed to take any pictures. We were a little bummed at first but know that there is a reason and we respect the leadership there in trying to keep there children safe. Casitas Kennedy has a large number of staff members and the leadership from what I can tell is very nice and very willing to help.

We were at Casitas Kennedy making our way to the baby room when I just stopped walking. Caitlin was tapping my back over and over asking me the name of the girl we were looking at. The girl and I just stared at one another until finally I smiled and got out her name. I said “Kenya” and she just looked at me with a face that was saying, “you know my name? you know me?” I told her who I was, that I was Maria who visited her last year in San Pedro. Her eyes lit up and a smile stretched across her face as we then greeted each other with a huge hug and kiss on the cheek. I was in shock at God’s faithfulness. Kenya had her daughter and she is now ten months old and living at Casitas Kennedy as well. Here is a picture of Kenya from last June, she is on the right.

We also saw something very hard to see. We walked into a room with three children. They looked as if they were starving, so skinny and so frail. They are all extremely special needs. There is one little boy, Christian, who has been there for ten months. His parents used to use him to get money. All three of the children have severe handicaps and problems with oxygen getting to their brains. The only way they are able to eat is by food and juices blended to liquid, and even that is hard for them. As I sat in the floor holding Erika’s hand and rubbing my fingers across her face with no response, I prayed for her. What a joy it is to know that one day she will be in a glorified body walking beside our God.

We left the orphanage stopped to get some breakfast for tomorrow and then came home to settle in. I will leave you with some pictures of our new home. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support. You have no idea how much it means.

funny story about the milk... it's at room temperature and doesn't expire for a year. :)

"Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations." -Deuteronomy 7:9