COPAN ADVENTURE!

This is taken from Jessica Sitler's blog- shout out, thanks for spelling it out sista! SO MUCH FUN :)
(since it was already a week ago since the trip I figure I better get something up)
VIAVIA
Probably one of the best international weekends I've had thus far on my journey. Honduran Independence Day was last Wednesday and the kids at school have been practicing for the parade for weeks. We marched around French Harbour with the band, baton twirlers, flag holders and Miss Honduras. We left on the ferry to La Ceiba later in the afternoon and arrived at Michael and Sarah's house to stay the night. We had an amazing spaghetti dinner with fresh avocados, cucumbers, bean soup, chocolate cake and horchata. We decided to hit the town and ended up at a karaoke bar filled with discoballs and a sweet dance floor. Harry sang some Enrique Inglesias, the girlies sang Beyonce and Zach sang Coolio. Very typical. Slept on some yoga mats until our alarms rang at 4am. We walked through some sketchy woods to the highway and then to the bus station. Boarded our bus to Copan. Layover in San Pedro Sula. Decided to check out the city. Language barriers and misunderstanding lead our taxi driver to believe that we wanted to go to the "supermercado" instead of the market downtown. We ended up grocery shopping and drinking coffee and eating smoothies during our time in San Pedro. I couldn't stop laughing. Arrived to Copan around 5 and checked into our hostel, Carrillo, located about 2 blocks from central park. For $5 a day, it was very nice with HOT SHOWERS. WHATTTT!!! We ordered 4 pizzas at a place called Milo's between the 7 of us and finished every last piece. We found a nice coffee shop/book exchange and then meandered over to a wine bar down the street. We met some travelers, played hacky sack, and invited them along for the ride. We ended up dancing the night away and learning how to "punta" from some of the local Hondurans. We chatted on the roof of our hostel with candles since the power was out. Woke up on Friday morning and headed over to the Mayan Ruins where we hiked around for a few hours and of course, played hacky sack in the casa court. The ruins were phenomenal, some dating back to 300 BC. John decided to feed the parrots out of his mouth; he provided most of the entertainment for our trip. We were starving and found a cheap local place called Tipicos where we ordered like kings for about $1 each. Nachos, HUGE burritos, quesadillas, fried plantains with beans and queso, and strawberry juice. We immediately decided to take a 3 hour horse riding tour of Copan which, was not the best idea after indulging in copious amounts of comida. Trekked up the mountain to a mud hut village where we were swarmed by children selling corn husk flower bouquets and dolls.The guides Margarito and Juan Carlos were in extremely good shape; they ran beside the horses with us for the entirety of our trip. We headed back to shower before the power went out again, made our way to central park to eat dessert and tacos for dinner. We found a restaurant and bar called ViaVia, mostly with gringos and a bartender from Oregon. We wandered to another place down the street, listened to some guitar playing, some of us went home, some of us decided to keep exploring the beautiful quaint city of Copan. The discoteca we found, was not so quaint. It was phenomenal and loud and full of lights and dancing Hondurans. We had a blast in the fog machine, jumping into the pool at the end of the night and walking back to our hostel, making it in time to catch the bus at 4am back to La Ceiba. We made it to Ceiba around 1pm on Saturday, jumped off some cliffs and took it easy playing spanish catch phrase and meeting fellow travelers who were there to hike waterfalls and white water raft at Jungle River. All 7 of us slept in one room, it was fabulous. Started the rafting trip around 9:30, took a midway hike to a gorgeous waterfall and jumped into it's surrounding pool. We took the ferry back to Roatan and got back on Sunday around 6:30, utterly exhausted yet feeling so accomplished and cultured after the fun filled and adventurous weekend. Can't wait to go back.

CAN'T STOP CELEBRATING!

BIG NEWS! I have been away from internet for a week but just have to share my excitement and celebration that two of my best friends are getting married... to each other!!! AHHH I am about to explode with praise, thanks, and joy :)

Stacie and Grant are two of the most set apart people to me, I just love that they get to be set apart together forever! It has been the greatest blessing to get to walk beside these two and watch the Lord transform them and move in their lives/ relationship! From Stace praying over G for 8 months before him realizing his feelings for her to Grant pursuing her so faithfully.. their relationship has just been SUCH a beautiful picture of the Lord's loveto me and so many! We have always called ourselves the trifecta, which sounds ooober cheesy (because in some ways it is) but in reality it has been/ is an amazing honor!! After praying the past year with both Stacie and Grant for patience, it's so fun to get to fully celebrate them and not hold back!! Although it's times like this that it's hard to be away, I am just overwhelmed with awe and thanks for this season and so many to come! Can't wait to walk with them forever, to be behind them forever, pray faithfully, continue to celebrate, and JUST SEE THE LORD ALIVE in them and their marriage! AHHH- LOVE YOU TWO LIKE CRAZY, SO MUCH CELEBRATING TO DO!!! CONGRATS TO THE MEIBURGS TO BE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Philippians 1:3 3 Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. 4 Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, 5 for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. 6 And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

(this is not only their verse for each other but mine for them)

Faith that moves mountains!

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, PRAISE the Lord! Yesterday I woke up to a sky filled with clouds, so bright that they almost appeared to be a rainbow. As I started the day praying with my little Honduras family over Aunt Jan, tears were rolling down my cheeks in thanks that our God only offers HOPE! Thank you to SO MANY who have been prayer warriors over Jan, Jack, and the boys this past month! Many of you have been so faithful to ask updates, sorry that it has been a little while since my last email, but know that your prayers have been powerful :). Yesterday she went in for round 3 of chemo and her first CT since we discovered the cancer. She is responding to the chemo and the cancer is shrinking!! The doctor was pleased with what he saw and is going to continue 2 more rounds, then evaluate again. I tell her often but I have been floored, watching the grace and strength of my aunt in walking through this process! What a beautiful picture of a daughter who knows her Father is good, and who has faith and love that will move mountains! What a testimony it has already been to so many just to watch the way shes clinging to the Lord through all this... and even on the hardest days the Lord's joy is still shining in her! WOW- only God can do that! So thankful to get to walk with and learn from her! Romans 8 is a huge part of my story, the Lord uses ALL things to work together for good! I know he will use this for good!

Luke 1:37, Nothing is impossible for God! Thank you so much for all your bold prayers- PLEASE DO NOT STOP! Our Father is SO FAR beyond doctors words, and medicine (even though they are a blessing).. he is ultimate healer! Amongst SO MANY, one of my ransom prayers is that her lungs would allow her to laugh hard and not have to hold back.... it excites me to think about all the prayers of everyone together- lets keep asking, that's what He calls/ invites us to do! LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!

I survived!

It hit me today that we have been here exactly 4 weeks- NUTS!
So you know you’re in Honduras when:
1. You go to sign in and there is a huge tarantula over the door!
2. During communion you look down and realize the bread that’s broken is a tortilla!
3. After each bathroom experience it takes 6 flushes for a success.
4. For the first time in your life you are so amazingly thankful to only have cold showers!
5. You spend your Friday night floating in the sea, watching the lightning strike over the perfectly lit sky, singing worship to 5 shooting stars! Did I mention, with the most amazing little family :)
Many more to come, just a glimpse!
So I made it, praise the Lord! I have a very new respect for teachers! Getting up at 4, riding the bus to and from school with the kids, getting home at 6 just to do lesson plans, and grade work… it will take some time to get in the rhythm. Wednesday I got 3 more new students, and am so excited to be getting to know them. One thing I love about the 6th grade is that it’s definitely the age where you start to try to find yourself. In their journals this week I asked them questions about the adventures they have been on, places they would like to go, and who they want to be?! This week was hard, but even amongst behavioral issues and complaining I see kids that the Lord is going to use in mighty ways! I’m really having to take it one day at a time, celebrate the small victories, and pray for a lot of patience and guidance! Thankful to be able to encourage them and speak into their lives, there is so much opportunity! Also, SO THANKFUL for grace because I feel like I mess it up a lot- very humbling but very good!
Saturday we finally got to meet the group of boys that Harrison fell in love with last year. All of these boys are around 13 years old, full of personality and spunk, but many don’t have support and are only in the 3rd grade! I look forward to hearing more of their stories, but am so encouraged by the way Harrison loves them. They all lit up to have him back! Most of them rode their bikes from French Harbour to West End (like 14 miles) and even though we weren’t allowed to fish, we had a blast swimming and playing on the beach/ eating bailiados !
Another praise, the Lord stirred in conversation today and created an opportunity to reach out to my neighbors. It all stemmed from asking sweet Santos how the kids were doing… one thing led to another and by the end he asked so humbly “do you know anything that would help my son”? This is a really hard thing, especially in the Honduras culture to admit that a kid is special and might need extra/ particular attention. (In order for this to make sense you had to of read a past post about m and by the end he asked so humbly “do you know anything that would help my son”? In order for this to make sense you had to of read a past post about my precious 6 year old neighbor Ederick who has un-diagnosed autism). I definitely continue to pray the Lord would move and bless this family, it’s frustrating when I definitely continue to pray the Lord would move and bless this family, it’s frustrating when you don’t understand what’s going on- but I know Jesus is molding an amazing man in Ederick… he just needs to be understood and invested in! Will keep you posted!
Pray everyone's doing well, as always just want to say how blessed I am by you! Love to all!