Kids Ark International Honduras Missions Trip Day 4

 Today was a little easier, it was the second day so I already knew what to expect. In addition, the students that came today were from a bilingual school, which meant I could actually converse with some of them!

I would ask what their favorite subjects were, or what they enjoyed doing in their free time. One girl said she loved to read and hoped to get more books in the future. Meanwhile  we have so many books at home we have banned ourselves from buying anymore. So many things we have at our fingertips and take for granted. 

Another young lady told  me she loved reading, especially loved books, and that one day she wanted to write love books. She already has started writing one and is half way through with it. The children live in a way different kind of life than we do, yet some of their dreams are still the same. Others are completely different too, like the girl who said she was learning English so she could move to America and have a better life. Talk about making me feel grateful for the undeserved blessing of being born in America. In fact, when I would ask "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Most of the time the kids would answer "I want to move to the United States of America". Honestly I didn't think to even ask why they wanted to, I was just so saddened at how spoiled I am.

I got to be a clown today for the afternoon part where we sing and do the devotion. I also got to do a skit with PR. I totally felt like I was a teenager in youth group again, being a clown (only this time I didn't spray my hair pink) and being in skits at events.

Thankfully on the way home this time nothing too adventurous happened, well except it taking forever to get on the main road due to a rice truck blocking our way.

Kids Ark International Honduras Missions Trip Day 3

 Today we held kids camp. This is where they bus in kids from a local school, we do different activities with the kids, feed them lunch, and then do a few songs and share about Jesus with them. The week we were there, school was actually out, it was kinda like their fall break. So the kids that showed up, showed up because they really wanted to go, not because they were at school and it was just a field trip.

We started out in a big circle playing a game that I did not understand because directions were obviously given in Spanish. Part of it did consist of having to lay on the ground. When I did I got something on my arm that most definitely did not appear to be mud based on color and texture. Also the fact that there are dogs running around everywhere. I just counted it as "it makes a good story" and went and washed it off, with lots of soap.

I worked at the nail station, painting little girls nails. This was way more difficult than I realized it would be since my Spanish speaking abilities consists of being about to count to 10. We were told a phrase to say to ask them what color they wanted. The first child I tried that with looked at  me like I had three heads so I have no clue what I said to her but it clearly was not "What color do you want?" That was also the last child I tried it with since I didn't want to make a fool of myself with all of the girls.

We fed the kids, then went inside to eat our lunch. I'll take a moment to put in a plug for how well fed we were there. Most of our meals were eaten at the camp (this helps prevent anyone from getting sick). We ate good food, authentic food, with just enough Americanization to it to make it where most everyone would enjoy it. We also had HUGE portions. Here are a few pics of the food we ate, and I forgot to take pictures of some of the meals because it looked so good and I dug in so fast I didn't think to take a picture of it. 

The only other times I have ever eaten this much food and had the "I haven't experienced a bit of hunger in a week" feeling is on a cruise. We were so well taken care of on this trip.

Back to the day. After the kids left we had time to explore the grounds a bit. I got to see the Bible scenes that were there. Normally the kids camp takes place on that part of the camp but due to lots of rain it was muddy and we didn't get to do it there.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel. Now, I thought I already had my story for the day with the brown sticky substance on my arm. Not so. Our bus starts overheating on the way back. The bus driver, Hosea, refills the water in the radiator, which is accessed inside the front part of the bus in the bus.... bus then fills with stinky steam. We all end up outside of the bus standing on the sidewalk. In the dark. Bus is not restarting. We now have to wait on the other bus to go drop off the Alabama team (which is the bus the boys were in, remember they stopped riding with me) at the hotel and come pick us back up. 

When we got there the boys had been staying with the Alabama team since I had the room key, and we were finally able to get in and get our hot showers. First day ALL three of us had a hot shower.

Kids Ark International Honduras Missions Trip Day 2

Before I get into the things we did to "minister" to the people we encountered I must give a disclaimer. I did not take a lot of pictures of  the things we did. A few reasons, the first and biggest being that if I am helping someone, I want it to be about them and not something I am able to look back on and pat myself on the back for. Secondly, if someone walked into my home and took pictures without asking I would totally be upset, and I personally couldn't do it. I tried to sneak a picture here and there for the sole purpose of showing my girls my experience, but ultimately I stole pics from others that did take pics (no judgment on them taking pictures, I am just saying I could not do it). So you may not have a lot of "ministry pics" from  me, and if that's what you're looking for, this isn't going to be the blog to read.

We gave out food today. The team separated into two groups, taking food to 5 families each (total of 10 families were given food). PR was on a different team from me, but Jax was with my team. This is when PR met the other young people and this was the last day he rode on my bus, because they road with the Alabama team the rest of the trip. 

The homes we took food to were very small, some barely had a door. I think the biggest house we took food to was maybe the size of my bedroom. Kitchens were typically outside of the main house, in some sort of structure, not sure they could really be considered a "room" in our standards. The floors in them were dirt, there was usually a table like structure for their stove, which was a small fire for them to cook on. Sometimes a shelf with less supplies than I have on my counter for coffee (and I drink my coffee black), and maybe a cup hanging on the wall. 

This was hard to see, knowing I have more food in my pantry on just half a shelf, I also have food in the refrigerator, and a shelf in the garage I fill up when things are on sale. The few days leading up to us leaving on the trip we were without power due to Hurricane Ian, but I still had a gas grill I used to cook everything on. I even cooked frozen pizzas on that sucker. I didn't complain, but it was definitely tricky and I wanted the electricity back on. I didn't have to cook over a fire on a table though. I also had frozen pizza to cook. 

To prove my point, one of the families we took food to was a single dad with two kids. The dad had been out of work for a week (and when he does work he makes equivalent to $7 US per day). He was almost out of food (to me it looked like a little flour and maybe at most 2 cups of rice left), and the night before had told his two kids of his concerns about running out of food and having no money. He told us that his children told him not to worry because God was going to take care of them. That next morning while the kids were at church, we showed up with food. 

So many thoughts but I'll just say this. I have NEVER had to rely on God like that. Sure, I've struggled to make life altering decisions, but not to have such a basic need met (especially in conjunction with so many other lifestyle elements they live with there that we do not). I've prayed for us to make wise decisions with our money, but I've not had to have the literal child like faith I witnessed there, just to have a meal.

I did want to take a picture of a comparison of homes. I didn't get a great picture of the home we helped, but it is there behind the bushes. if you look to the right of the pole you can almost see it.
Made of unpainted concrete block (which is a pretty good house in comparison to others made of spare pieces of wood or tin, or even a few sticks and a tarp) and a tin roof. 

The blue house is one that looks very much like what you would see here in the US. The local pastor who was walking with us to take food pointed out that those homes have someone living in the US, sending money to them to help better their life. 

While I've always understood the economical argument against that from our US perspective,  I've never really cared that people do that, its their money to spend how they want. I now SEE why they do it. When you've physically seen someone living in poverty, having less (what we consider) necessities in their house than you have in your bathroom drawer, you have complete understanding as to why they send money back home. Uncomfortable truth: a good portion of us in the US are just too stingy to do that anyway so we can't understand. We have not embraced what the original church did in Acts 2. No, not talking about the first part, when the Holy Spirit came down (Pentecostals have that one down) I'm talking about what the fruit of the Holy Spirit in their lives looked like. Down a bit in Acts 2, starting in verse 42, the believers actually shared their lives together. Verse 45 talks about them selling things to help others who needed it. I saw way more of this in Honduras than I've ever witnessed in the US.

On a lighter note, when we got back to our rooms we all got showers. I got mine, it was cold again. PR got his, again, a cold shower. Jax gets his last. As he exits the bathroom a billowing cloud of steam follows him and he goes, "I thought yall said the shower was cold?". We might have told him we didn't like him and that he needed to go sleep with the donkey outside... and to brush his teeth with the sink water. Jesus is still working on me.

Kids Ark International Honduras Missions Trip Day 1

October 1st, 2022 I left on my first missions trip, with my oldest, PR and his friend. Being that I had never been on a missions trip to a third world country I really had no idea what to expect, so I didn't have any expectations. I think that's my defense mechanism so I don't get disappointed or feel completely out of sorts. If I am clueless about something I admit to myself I am clueless and accept whatever comes, hopefully with grace but not always. However, with knowing I'm going on a missions trip to a third world country I did know that there might, or might not be hot showers. Might or might not be Wi-Fi. Might or might not serve food I don't like. Might or might not like the coffee, especially since I drink it black and don't like super strong coffee. I knew I would be there to serve at Kids Ark International, to do whatever was asked. Those were the things I knew I might could expect. Everything else was blank.

The first part of our adventure was our first flight being delayed, which meant we spent an extra 3 or so hours in the Tampa airport, which of course means we missed our flight out of Miami. That meant going on standby for a flight. So we had then an extra 6 hours in the Miami airport. However, we were extremely grateful to get that flight out of Miami with the whole team on it!

When we finally boarded the flight to Honduras, that was when I started panicking. This was my first time flying to another country, and to top it off, without Paul and all the kids. I think I had to continuously hold back tears the whole flight. I knew we were going into Honduras at dark, which was another point of anxiety due to the increase in violence after dark. Since I had PR and his friend with me, that meant I was going to be watching them like a hawk. So many things flowing through my mind, in addition to the sensory overload when walking through the airport and out to the bus. 

Once we got on the bus we enjoyed Pizza Hut on the way to our hotel, which was about an hour and half away. The ride was quite interesting at night. While we drove through the city area, we noticed that the gas stations and businesses we saw all had armed guards. Only slightly added to my anxiety of course.😳 Once we got out of the city area, all I could see outside were little dots of light on what had to be mountains in the distance. It was very pretty, and I spent most of the bus ride looking out the window, taking in what I could see.

We arrived at our hotel around 10 or 11PM Honduras time, which is two hours behind my normal EST. The hotel was nice, as we waited for our room assignments and keys we saw that a horse and cow were wandering freely, and I heard a donkey, or two, which I assumed at this point was wandering freely as well. I knew that meant I needed to watch my step for landmines💩. Here is a picture I took later of those donkeys....

The boys and I had a room with three comfortable beds, a bathroom that I hoped had hot water, and a porch with a hammock! It was such a cute little cottage and finally getting settled, I was able to start to relax a bit and my anxiety was easing.  I was also able to connect to WiFi and send a text to Paul to let him know we arrived safely. We all got showers, although to our disappointment they were cold.

Hiking the Grand Canyon in a day

Warning: There are a LOT of pictures in this post. I have tried to take out a few since I had nearly 100 pictures I wanted to include. We arrived at the Grand Canyon before sunset on Thursday night. When we parked, Paul wanted to go right out there but we knew the gift shop closed soon and I didn't want to be rushed once I saw this massive beauty. So we went to get my T-Shirt (something I said I was getting since I knew what I was going to do the next day), a gift for the kids, a patch, and a key chain to use as a Christmas ornament.  After finishing all of that, we went out to take a look.

It was simply breathtaking. The most amazing sight I've ever seen. I couldn't wait until the next day. Now you should know, what we were about to do, hike from rim to river and back to the rim was something they strongly suggest you not do. They suggest at least 3 days and 2 night to do what we did in one day. We trained for this as best we could in our flatland surroundings. We also researched, read blogs and talked with others who had done the same. The time we went was in October so it was not as hot. Water was still running at the water stations as well (once it gets cold enough that is shut off due to freezing). This was completely doable for us as we prepared ourselves for what we planned to do. We also dressed in light layers. We knew to expect somewhere in the 30's in the morning and the 80's during the day. We only needed to stay warm during the first hour or so of the hike, so we had items that were not too heavy and easy to take off.

We got started right around sunrise. Not pictured are the large elk that were at the trail head getting water from the water station. Apparently people leave water on for the elk even though they are asked not to. We started out with at least 3 liters of liquid each, we filled up at the hotel before we left since water is not a guarantee. One lady who was with a group of ladies that planned to hike the South to North Rim that day did not fill up her water pack before getting to the trail head and when she couldn't figure out how to get the water to turn on, she began using very colorful language and blaming the park ranger she spoke with the day before. Do not do that. Even if you spoke with someone that said the water should be running at the trail head, just fill up your container before you go anyway since all printed material says water isn't guaranteed. At any rate, I figured out how to get the water going for her, you pushed the button rather than pull or twist.

We got on our way, it was very steep on the way down and we took it slow. Lots of people passed us. There were even runners running down the trail. You will never catch me doing that. Looked like death to me. One thing we were not very prepared for was the dusty trail down, we actually were very slow on the way down because of being careful and not wanting to slip and fall. We trained by walking long distances, walking up and down parking garages and steps (for hours) and by running. All of those things helped our bodies handle the movement but we couldn't train for the dusty descent.

Another reason we were so slow was because we stopped and took a lot of pictures. The views were incredible. There were quite a few people out there. Many more than we expected, but this was also in the morning, many people go out for sunrise and quite a few are walking down to the river to camp at Phantom Ranch for the night.

Our first sighting of the river!

Something I was interested in was the colors of the layers. It was so neat to see the trail change colors as we went down.

I stepped on a rock and lost my balance, falling on another small rock. I got up and started walking, a few minutes later I decided to look at my knee and realized it was a pretty good gash. I used some Owie essential oil which stopped the bleeding almost right away and thankfully a fellow hiker, Chris, had a band aid and offered it to us. Next trip I'm bringing band aids and definitely making sure I have my oils again.

You really could not have had a more beautiful day for this hike. God was certainly smiling on us with this trip!

You see the building back there? That is the bathroom. Its actually pretty neat how it works. All the waste goes to the bottom and basically decomposes, the gases go up through the pipes so the bathroom doesn't stink, as long as you remember to put the toilet seat down. 

This is where we had our first snack stop. We brought along granola bars, Paydays, and Gatorade Chews to snack on while we were hiking. Sweet and salty items were great to have. You need the sweet for the carb pick me up and the salty because you don't realize how much you are actually sweating since it is evaporating so fast. Another absolute must have was BCAA's (Broken Chain Amino Acids). I use Young Livings Aminowise since it doesn't have a chemical sweetener and uses Stevia. It also tastes good so I enjoy drinking it. We use BCAA's when we exercise because it helps our muscles recover and not be as sore from the intense activity. I would not hike this without BCAA's.

I didn't realize that they do have emergency phones on the trail, not many but they do.

We also used hiking sticks for stability. I feel it made us slow down more on the way down but as I said, we didn't have any way of training for the dusty trail so I think they did more good than harm on the way down. They were a great help on the way up!

You know we had to have a picture like this. No worries, I 'm  standing where the previous picture was taken, there is plenty of land behind me, you just can't see it.

We finally made it to the river! So excited!

We stopped and had lunch at this point. PB&J sandwiches, peanuts, vitamin water, and soda for a little caffeine kick. This was near Phantom Ranch campground. We didn't go there, just to the water station and rest area. We did our first water fill up here. I was pleasantly surprised at how good the water tasted.

Due to a family story at the Grand Canyon, Paul had to drink a Pepsi at the bottom. Ask him, he will tell you all about it.

Heading back up now!

This area was actually quite flat, we realized that as we saw that our time was much faster than it had been on the way down.

To me, this part of the trip was the most beautiful. Walking in the canyon was like something out of a movie.

We decided next time our lunch break would be here, it was really pretty.

Her is where the views were simply breath taking. Take a look at this video (password: Grand) of us crossing a creek that was on the path. Then this video  (password: Grand) of Paul crossing. My shoes were Merrell hiking boots and they were water proof. I loved them, best investment I've ever made for any hiking and camping equipment.

This was a really interesting area. The sun was shining so it was warm, but if you were in the shade, the wind blew over the rocks that had been in the shade and the breeze was cool. Made for a nice resting area.

This is a long way to go up. I will say that this was the hardest time I've ever had in controlling my tongue. Every time I looked up and saw how much more we had to go, not very nice things popped into my head.

Indian Garden was a really nice area too. I enjoyed our break there. It was so neat to see all the green in this area of the trail since most things are that rocky/sandy look.

We took a nice break and stuck our feet in the stream. So refreshing.

Ok, this is where it really started getting depressing on how much farther we had to go. The main incline started after Indian Garden, and although we had only about 4 miles to go, it was all uphill.

Paul wanted this picture to give perspective on the wall I was standing next to.

Only three more miles up!

This sign is 100% accurate. Going down is optional but you do have to come back up and coming back up is no joke.

Looks like we are finally starting to get closer to the top!

1.5 more miles to go! I did not stop for the bathroom here.

I should have. Thankfully no one else was on the trail at this time.

How are we still smiling? We are about 16 miles in at this point. We have hiked down 4,860ft of elevation change and up almost that much.

Really, here is how we actually felt.
It was also somewhere in this point in the trip we ran into some wildlife. Take a look at this video. Password: Grand
We were a little intimidated by these horned sheep since they could charge at us and well, one side of the trail is a bit of a drop off.

12 hours on the nose later, we finished our hike!

Happy dance!

King of the mountain!

This place goes down in my book as one of the most beautiful in America. This was a hard hike but entirely worth it. I can't wait to go back and camp. I want to look up at the night sky and see all those stars. As we drove out of the park we looked up and saw more stars than we have ever seen. It was like looking at a professional photograph, but we were there in person.

 Here are our stats from Paul's Fitbit.

 

 We didn't really go 26 miles, our hiking trail was almost 17 miles. Fitbit gives our steps a little more credit than what it was.

 I'd say we burned some fat!

After our hike I told Paul he had to take me out for a steak dinner. We cleaned our plates!

Another shout out to our amazing friends and family who watched our 4 kids for 6 days so we could have this adventure! We couldn't have done it without them!