Monday morning at 3 a.m. the mission team congregated at St. Alban’s alongside our home missionaries for a memorable send-off.  Rev. Grayce led us in a circle of blessing with each person blessing the next with a cross of oil in each palm while saying, “May the work that you do bring honor to God and blessing to others.”  We arrived in Honduras flawlessly with all of our bags, supplies and people in one piece.  Upon arriving at the compound we were given a tour and bit by bit the girls emerged from their play time to greet and meet our group.  Tons of hugs were exchanged by those who have been here before and the girls wasted no time getting acquainted with the new missionaries.  Our theme for the day was “Calling” and memorialized by scripture which read “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.’”  Each of us reflected this evening on what our “calling” from God was to bring us to Honduras this year. Denise, our summer Seminarian had the most remarkable story.  She had a dream 3 years ago of walking down a dirt road holding the hand of a small girl. She never knew what this dream meant until we arrived at Our Little Roses today.  She now knows that mission work is in her future.  As we all reflected on our calling, we were all drawn to Honduras for different reasons but we all know we will leave finding something we knew we weren’t looking for and we will walk away feeling we have received more than we have given.

 - Lauren Hodgin

DAY 2 (Tuesday)

 

Hospitality and love

 

We started the morning with a scripture reading from John, “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

 

Each year when we return to Our Little Roses we are greeted with warmth, friendliness and arms wide open.  Our theme for today was hospitality and love which was represented in each interaction with both the staff and the girls.  In addition, our team showed hospitality to the girls through leadership and support during the arts and crafts portion of our day.  We noticed hospitality when the newest girls to the home are greeted and accepted as sisters by all the other girls.  The staff extended hospitality when Tom Curren, one of our missionaries, had to be taken to Dr. Tony because of a dislocated shoulder.  Despite having her children with her and being late for a class the school administrator, Mayra,  escorted our missionaries to the appropriate clinics to ensure they received the best care.  All in all, hospitality is always at the forefront of our stay because every time we return to Our Little Roses it is like coming home.

- Lauren Hodgin

Today’s theme was “Strength” and “Refuge”.  Psalms 28:6-8 “Blessed be the Lord, for he has heard the sound of my pleadings. The Lord is my strength and my shield; and in him my heart trusts; so I am helped, and my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him. The Lord is the strength of his people; he is the saving refuge of his anointed.” We found a lot of comical examples of strength such as Aylin, a younger girl, eating an entire clove of garlic without water; the little girls on the soccer field being thrown around but still the most feisty; Tom Curren enduring the pain of little hands pulling his hair into pony tails; and Bari St. Cyr being a trooper and coming to the market after having her ankle smashed in a folding chair.  Trust us! We are not completely falling apart!  Wounds heal and don’t slow the girls down so they can’t slow us down either. 

 

Our team of missionaries takes refuge in each other so far away from home. In a way, Honduras is a refuge for us to escape from the hustle and bustle of our daily lives.  Contrary to that, when we left the compound this afternoon for trips to the clinic and the marketplace we realized what a refuge the hogar (home) is for the girls to run, play and just be young girls in the midst of an impoverished and somewhat dangerous surrounding area. 

 

Today, when we delivered medicine to the Holy Family Clinic ($4,000 to Crosslinks International, worth $12,000!)  we saw the strength of a vision - Diana Frade’s vision.  Her ideas are bearing fruit - we learned today that a dental clinic is to be added and will be staffed by two girls who were brought up through Our Little Roses.  Diana’s vision and the girls’ initiative are finally beginning to change Honduran society.  In closing, despite the rough situations and encounters many of these girls have experienced, they show their strength through the smiles and laughter they show all day every day.

- Lauren

DAY 4 (Thursday)

 

Today’s theme was “unity” and our reading was from Ephesians 4:2-6 “Lead a life worthy of the calling to which you are called with all humility and gentleness, with all patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”

 

Unity is a harmony of people who come together to form one community.  It is apparent in this home as the girls show utter selflessness, strength and generosity.  In addition, our group’s unity has been strengthened by learning about each other and helping each other in times of need.  Today was a very special and eye-opening day.  Our group and The Little Roses really united today during our bible lesson.  Today’s lesson was a modern version of The Good Samaritan.  In our first version one set of girls played the cast of characters – the driver of the car, three passengers, a doctor, a priest, a teacher, the victim and a narrator.  The reckless and careless driver struck the victim.  As the victim lay asking for help, she was passed by the priest, teacher and doctor.  Along came a neighbor who rendered assistance taking the victim to the hospital and footing the bill.  The victim was happily healed and restored to health.  We hosted a second run through with a new cast of characters.  This time we cast two victims rather than one.  To our great surprise and delight our two victims were joined by 3 year old, Dayana, becoming the third victim.  Our 18 months old Little Rose, Heydi, decided to follow suit becoming the fourth victim.  We had four victims laughing on the cancha (playground) and the narrator changed the script accordingly.  At the end of the skit the narrator was joined by our two youngest Roses.  Pretty soon it became a group hug with Denise, St. Alban’s summer seminarian, in the middle.  The steering wheel to the car, an inflatable, yellow, halo-shaped object was raised behind her head, and our St. Denise stood surrounded by all the children.  It was a very special moment for all who witnessed it. This is where we saw God today in the unity that brought everyone together to have fun and rejoice as one.  We have been here four days and the girls have wholly and completely accepted our missionary group into their home – making us all feel like one community. 

 

I leave you with what I believe to be the spark that ignited the day of unity from Romans 15:5-6 “May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

DAY 5 (Friday)

 

Walk on Water

“Service” was our word of the day. We started the day with scripture reading from Genesis, “May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples.” 

 

Sometimes service is entirely too much fun!  Our Little Roses has enough funding to feed, clothe, and educate the girls, but there’s not much left over for the kinds of fun outings that we all take for granted.  For this, the girls depend on missionary groups.

 

God blessed us today with beautiful weather and sunshine as we traveled with a yellow schoolbus load of Roses to San Ignacio – a place about 2 hours away from San Pedro Sula which has a scenic walk through a zoo, a pool with huge water slides, and a beach. 

 

We saw God in so many places today, but mostly on the water slides and the pool. Abby, a Little Rose, was the most skilled water slider of the day. She had a rhyme and reason to sliding that allowed her to skim on the top of the water half the length of the pool before plunging into the water. Jesus walked on water…so did Bruce Almighty…Abby beat them all with style and grace.  Another place we saw God was in the fearlessness and courage of the girls, big and little, as they came up with new ways of going down the slide.  There were trains of girls (most led by Larrrry – roll the R’s for the full effect), backwards, forwards, belly up, belly down, facing each other, back-to-back, the list goes on and on.  These girls had a blast! As did we. 

 

Reflecting back on our word of the day, we saw service represented today when the girls attempted to feed their own lunches to the wild turkeys looming nearby (unfortunately the turkeys weren’t interested in eating chicken…food chain complex?).  The missionaries felt we truly provided service to the girls today by being pillows for both directions on the 2 hour, non-air conditioned school bus.  While taxing, there is a love for these girls that allows no suffering.  We had a wonderful day trip and are very thankful for all the experiences we were blessed with today.

-Lauren

DAY 6  (Saturday)

Being Still and Listening

 

There is not a lot of being still on this trip. None actually. While we respect the idea of being still and listening to what God has in store for us at the moment, we don’t get time to physically stand still.  We were all a little groggy this morning with it being a Saturday and all, but we jumped in to continue our work and play.

 

If you have looked at the pictures, you have seen Erika Perry, Hope Grauel, Lauren Hodgin and others emptying a room full of treasures and junk, cleaning, and painting it.  Meanwhile, Gail Allison and a small group of missionaries headed into the town to pick up items needed by the hogar and the missionaries – it’s challenging and exciting! While all this was going on, Jim continued collecting photos for a new photo directory that helps build friendships by allowing future missionaries to call the girls by name.

 

The fun activities of the day today consisted of a bible story reenactment and a treasure hunt around the entire compound.  The bible story was described as “organized chaos” which to most people is an indicator of great success with these girls – and these missionaries. 

 

The treasure hunt was thrilling as well.  Seven teams of girls set out about the hogar to follow one clue to the next with the final clue being one of the missionaries.  The girls are so intelligent that it didn’t take much time at all for them to follow all the clues.  When they all returned to the cancha there was a trunk of prizes – one for each Rose.  The Roses and the missionaries enjoyed the afternoon playing with the new toys, sharing with each other, listening to music and dancing.

 

We squeezed in a graduation party for Steph Rosse, our newest Virginia Tech graduate. 

 

With so much activity underway, we seize and savor the moments when we can be still and know that God is God.  Chet’s moment was in watching Dayana, one of the baby Roses, paint and have a ball with the arts and crafts.  Denise, our summer seminarian, saw God all over the chapel in our evening worship service; and God was there in each of the girls singing their hearts out in worship.  Friendships are blossoming and deepening – David loves it when the girls call out his name and run to him, as they do to veterans Chet, Tom, and Julie.

 

In all these moments, we may not be so still, but believe us, God, we know who you are.

 - Jo Hodgin

DAYS 7-8 (Sunday/Monday)

Trust and Courage

 

Sunday and Monday’s words were “Trust” and “Courage”.  One verse which represents trust which we read this evening was in Psalms, “Cause me to hear Your loving kindness in the morning, For in You do I trust; Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, For I lift up my soul to You.”  We would like to recognize Erica Perry for all her trouble and hard work which went in to planning our overnight trip to Copan from which we just returned.

 

Sunday morning we set off for the Episcopal cathedral of San Pedro Sula for our Sunday morning church service.  We were graced with the presence of the Bishop who informed us of the restructuring of the Honduran diocese currently taking place. He asked us to keep them in our thoughts and prayers throughout this process, and to findways to help that would allow them to build for themselves – “Please don’t give us fish, but teach us to fish,” he said.  After eating lunch at the infamous Power Chicken our group headed off to Copan for a day trip.

 

On the bus trip en route to Copan we saw immense amounts of courage in the lifestyles and living situations endured by local Hondurans. The deep poverty was evident alongside the road where some houses were made of dried mud holding sticks together or had plastic tarps for roofs.  It was an eye opening experience for many of us who had not seen this before.  It takes a lot of courage to get from one day to the next for these people.

 

As we drove up the mountains the vegetation became increasingly lush, the temperature dropped, and the industry changed from factories to farming. Once in Copan, we checked in to our hotel and went into the town for dinner. While we missed the Little Roses, we knew we had an exciting and educational day ahead of us so we headed back to the hotel..

 

A small group of us awoke early the next morning for a bird watching tour right out the front door of our hotel.  The tour was led by Jorge, a very intriguing gentleman who represents our next example of trust and courage.  Firstly, our group trusted in him that we would be lucky enough to see some of Copan’s wildlife and sure enough we saw various types of beautiful birds – including parrots.  He taught us a little about the mannerisms, mating or other interesting attributes of each.  Secondly, Jorge is a man who did not begin any education until the age of 22.  By the age of 38 he had gotten through university, and at the current age of 47 he knows at least 2 languages, is extremely intelligent and has a great sense of wit and communication skills. He showed us courage to take life by the reins and prove that it’s never too late.

 

The second adventure of the day was with the whole group.  Jorge led us in exploring the Mayan ruins. Built between approximately 400 A.D. – 900 A.D. the ruins were breathtaking in the amount of history and legend behind them.  Jorge told us stories, Mayan beliefs, and explained the detailed hieroglyphics to portray what we were viewing. After the ruins we went to downtown Copan for shopping and lunch before heading back to San Pedro Sula. 

 

Stay tuned for photos on the web tomorrow of a new paint job on the stairs to our room.  We look forward to tomorrow and are making the best of it being our last full day with the girls.