And I'll give give give... (thank you Relient K)

Well-- it is almost November. I've had nice Saturday afternoon. We did our weekly shopping at Del Corral, ate some street food (pupusas and pastallitas or something like that), and visited the other teachers at Destino, Nathaniel and Mallori, as they moved into their new house in town.

Please continue to pray for Destino. Financially God has been blessing Destino (and huge thanks to people in the Pendleton County area). Please pray for Rhonda as she continues following God and his will with Destino. Also remember Carlos (minister, maintenece guru), Wendy (the wife of Carlos and principal), the Honduran teachers, and us Americans. Also, the school is lacking about 50 sponsors for the students. A lot of these are my kids since they are the youngest in the school. Not only do they need the money, but Rhonda is very persistant on the idea that these kids are not being prayed for by name. So please, check out the Destino del Reino website and if you can't sponsor a child every month ($60) you can sign-up to pray for one. $60 might seem like a lot-- but God will bless you. That is what I've learned a lot about being down here. Give, give give. Give time, give money, give love, give food, give forgiveness, give grace, give mercy, etc..,

Here are some of my students that do not have Padrinos (sponsors from the United States). So, if you fell led to be a sponsor for a child in anyway contact the ministry or me.

Eneyda (pic)- Kinder, very timid. Usually silent- which I've heard isn't too uncommon at this age. Hopefully in a few months she will break through and speak English!

Ingrid- New to Destino, but to old for Kinder so she went straight to Prepatoria. She is behind because of this, but she can catch-up. My biggest concern is how often she falls asleep in class- since I can't really communicate with her I can't ask her if she is sleeping at home. I've told the principal. So hopefully things will get better.

Jasmin (pic)- Precious and beautiful! She is a tiny girl in Prepa very smart. Her English is great. If she keeps going like she is she will excel in school and be a great leader.

Javier- He has come a long way in the past few weeks. I enjoy him because he is so loving- he gives us hugs daily. He is also really funny. Everyday at lunch he walks behind me and quietly whispers in Spanish (profe, if anyone doesn't want their food I'll eat it).

Jonathan- A happy Prepa kid who is further behind then the average student. He has a lot of joy and behavior wise has come a long way.

Karen- Like Ingrid she skipped Kinder, but she is doing very well. She is a fast learner, very quiet, and polite. A joy to have in class.

Andrea (pic)- A beautiful Primero student who is an excellent student. She makes me smile when we sing songs (like Amazing Grace) because she really gets into it!

David- An awesome Primero student who has changed a lot over the month. He is really maturing fast and is a lot better behaved then in September. He struggled last yer and they thought I would have to tutor him, but as for now he is doing excellent!

Karina V- Karina misses quite a bit of school because of a family situation. She needs a lot of prayer because she is falling behind in class.

Jafeth (pic)- A great kid who learns quickly and sometimes gets bored in class (oops).

Karina N- Jasmin's older sister- very polite and loving.

Katherin (pic)- A great Primero student- very smart and kind to her classmates. Respects the teachers and a great role model for her peers.

Maryuri- Likes English a lot and is really good at a few phrases. She is loving and sweet.

Rosa- A kind Primero student. She is very sweet. Sometimes easily distracted, but very precious!

Thanks all! See you in December!

Constantly being reminded and amazed of God's love

Wow! What an incredible journey this has been so far. Mainly I want to take time to say thank you to everyone who continues to support me. Your prayers mean so much to me. My 2 months in Honduras have been wonderful. God has blessed me in so many ways with this transition and I know that each of your prayers helps me every day. I e-mailed this to Bro. Harry to read to FBC, but I also want everyone who supports me to be able to read it. Please know that I will never be able to thank you enough for your love and support over these past few months.

To the congregation at First Baptist Church! ¡Buenas dias! I hope all is going well back in Kentucky. I just wanted to thank you for all of your prayer, love, and financial support over the past 3 months. You have been such a blessing to me, my roommates, and especially the school. I would have never imagined the ripple that Destino del Reino has made on my life, the students lives, the teachers lives, and even the lives of people back home. I want to also thank you for sponsoring one of my kinder students. His name is Osman Eliel and he just turned 5 years old. He is a really great kid that God is preparing to do awesome things with! He is smart and loves English. He brightens my day. The church is sponsoring him for $60 a month which provides him the transportation to the school, his two school uniforms, shoes, underclothes, a warm lunch everyday, the chance to learn Spanish and English, and to learn about God’s love everyday. I have been so inspired by God’s love since I’ve been down here. It has been a life changing experience. I have realized how important it is to focus on other people and just love people in anyway possible. People sometimes give up on themselves, so we as Christians shouldn’t. I encourage you to find ways to genuinely love people that you come into contact with; whether it be an encouraging word, a great big smile or hug, great conversation over a warm meal, or even things like paying for someone’s gas, buying someone’s groceries while shopping at Wyatts, or buying the persons food behind you in line. Random acts of kindness like this can really change people’s lives. First Baptist is the light house—so let each of your lights shine brightly. So, in closing- love random people, love people who need it, love those beside you, love those who have hurt your, and love those who are different from you. The greatest commandment is to love God and love your neighbor. Thank you again for being a blessing to my life. I can’t wait to see everyone in December.

Amanda

"The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." Galatians 5:6

Als0-- a huge thank you to Northern Elementary who raised over $1200 for Destino. I am posting a Thank You video--

Southern Elementary is beginning their change drive next week- I have started a blog for them Southern and Destino Unite as we try to incorporate a little bit of Destino into the classes at Southern. I look forward to this partnership and to the direction it may go.

I am also starting a blog for the sponsors of the Prepatoria and Primero students sponsors. Amanda is doing Kinder and I will be doing the older two grades. I hope to update them monthly and add pictures and stories and ways the sponsors can specifically pray for their kids.

Shhhhewww-- that is a lot of blogging! But, God is good!

Since I wrote last time I....

Traveled to Cuevatas. A small mountain villiage 3 1/2 hrs away from Siguatepeque (though the trip there took over 5 hrs) where I saw over 26 baptisms and one Honduran wedding. It was a really fun Sunday afternoon. The baptisms just took my breath away! It was so cool to see all kinds of people pouring over the hill to come to the small spot in the river close to a waterfall where Pastor Jon and Pastor Hector baptized people from both of their congregations.

I also made delicious Chicken and Dumplings-- watch out Mom. Mine could give yours a run for your money.

It got cold. Okay, not cold- but for Hondurans 70* means bundle up in scarves, hats, and gloves ALL DAY. It was so funny the kids were dressed like this throughout the whole day. It was chilly for about 2 days, but it has warmed back up.

The only thing that counts... Galatians 5:6

I love sand! The beach makes me so extremely happy! So- here is Mallori and me by the Caribbean.

Long time, no update. Sorry! The past few weeks have been amazing! I have now been in Honduras for 2 months- and I love it!

We missed school because of the political unrest in September, but we haven't seen anything different here in Siguatepeque. It sounds like things are still rough in Tegucigalpa, but for now life is back to normal. All of the news is so biased so I have trouble forming an opinion on the situation. I feel safe so pretty much I'm just waiting to see what happens with Zeleya. The election will be held at the end of November and the change in Presidents will happen in January.
Last week we had Friday off. Bowen, Mallori, and I traveled to La Ceiba. It was one of the best experiences of my life. We traveled 5 hours by bus, arrived in La Ceiba, taxi'd to downtown to eat at Pizza Hut. We then walked to the beach, saw the Caribbean Sea, and headed to Jungle River Lodge-- about 25 minutes outside of the city in the Rain Forest of Pico Bonito. All of this was exciting- just working through it on our own. With our little bit of Spanish skills...simple everyday life things are fun because it is a challenge. I like being challenged. It helps me grow as a person.

The Lodge was amazing. The area was beautiful. Saturday morning I got up early and had an amazing quiet time overlooking the Rio Cangrejal. I just remember thinking about all of the bad things that God has to see everyday-- but then wow, he also gets to see things like this everyday.

We then went on an adventurous river hike with two tour guides and four backpackers from Australia. We waded through water, climbed and jumped off of big rocks, and then rafted. The rafting was fun, but because of the time of the year the water was pretty low and thus no class IV or V drops. We headed back to the "chill" lodge, rested in the hammocks, read, ate lunch, and then went zip lining through the Pico Bonito Rain Forest. It was actually a cool learning experience. The two tour guides, Angel and Darwin, taught us about plants in the forest that were good for different remedies and we ate wild bananas (a little different from normal bananas because they had seeds that you couldn't eat in them) other random fruit-- oh yeah and termites. This picture is actually of me eating a termite. They taste like carrots! Dead serious. I would put them on a salad if I had the opportunity.
<-----Eating a termite

<----- Hiking during the zipline tour

This rock was really hard to climb up-- I bloodied my knee and had to tie my shoes to my lifejacket. But it was worth it.

Another really great thing about this trip was the fact that we had a 5 hr bus ride both ways. So, right before leaving I downloaded some sermons from Jon Weece at Southland Christian in Lexington-- and it was one of those things where I was just like WOW! This is exactly what God wanted me to hear. It is funny to think about the way God works. Like, I downloaded the sermons on a Wednesday when I didn't go to the Bible Study with my two roommates (I thought I just needed downtime and alone)... but it was actually so I would finally take time and look for podcasts from Southland so I could hear these amazing sermons. I challenge all of you if you can to either stream the sermons from the internet or download them for free on itunes... God is moving right now in this world. He is doing some crazy things-- and there is going to be amazing revivals in churches, towns, and hopefully even bigger than that! Southland is doing awesome things like really challenging its members to LOVE people. To SERVE people. To do crazy radical things... make people think what are these people up to... and then to point it all towards God. Jon challenged the congregation of 10,000 people to go serve (he let church out 40 minutes early... because sitting in church isn't what its all about-- I liked what he said about God not wanting our faith to be like a comfy couch that we just sit). He then talked about all of the stories he had read the next week of people who were served. Stories of a waitress searching for God who had "it" done to her twice through large tips and inspiring, but simple notes about God's love. He spoke about a man who had been driving around contemplating suicide-- pulled into a gas station and a Southland attendee filled up his car for him. And story after story was read of the people that God led others to help. Literally, changing and saving some of their lives.

http://www.southlandchristian.org/media/series/it/

It has just did crazy things for my faith. My roommates are on board and we have some great ideas about how to serve the people here. Pray that this doesn't fade like some spiritual highs do. Pray that God is really changing people.

I was a little anxious about this week because it was the first 5-day week in about three-weeks. And it was great. God is really working the lives of the students. Kinder is still a little crazy, but it is getting better. Our relationships are growing with our students and that makes it a lot better too.

Life—is good if we can rely on God and strive to be in his will. Some things he has really been teaching me lately about is: to watch out for complaining (which I fall prey to quite frequently—complaining about little things that shouldn’t matter) and instead of complaining find ways to give thanks to God in all situations; and to trust fully in God relying on him solely— I struggle with trying to plan out everything. I still want control of my life—so I continuously have to ask myself—my plan or God’s plan? I was reading in a short devotional that said our lives shouldn’t be divided into things we can do and things that we need Gods help with… EVERYTHING should rely on him. And love people (I think it was in one of Jon’s sermons that he said always LOVE people, believe in them, encourage them, and support them because a lot of times people give up on themselves).
God is good… All the time. Thanks for your continuous prayers. Love you all!

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through LOVE—Galatians 5:6

Prayer requests:
Patience with the children
Financial support for the school
Sponsors for the children at Destino (both financially—but also spiritually—the children at Destino need to be prayed for individually—even if you don’t think you can support them financially through the website you can become a prayer sponsor of a specific child).

For more info on Destino visit: http://destinodelreino.org/ddr/home

Want to sponsor a child for $60 a month check out:

http://destinodelreino.org/ddr/school_sponsor

According to the website about 55 sponsors are still needed.

Ohh I can't leave this part out about my life in the past few weeks without updates...

This is Marvin Micheletti-- He was our cat for about a week. Bowen and Zoe found him crying in our wash bucket in the backyard. We took him in, warmed him, and fed him to discover a few days later how he fell into our lives. One evening we heard another kitten in distress. We searched for him in the back and side yard with candles and flashlights. We found him-- on the roof. Crying. We were going to rescue him (we thought he had been left like Marvin) when we realized that Marvin wasn't dropped by his mother cat into the water bucket- instead he fell from the roof into the bucket. At about that time we saw the mother cat coming for its kitten (she seemed pretty ticked off at us). We tried to give her Marvin back, but she didn't want him. A few days later we had a teary goodbye to Marvin when Ariel (a teacher at school) said he was looking for a cat. So, Marvin has a better home than we could have gave him-- and he still has my surrogate sweater to lay on.