Live From Honduras

(Disclaimer: This is originally from 12/21 not 12/29) 

Hi everyone,

I hope you're all surviving the snow. We're a little 

chilly here too, it's gotten down to 70 degrees because 

of the rain. Brr... at least according to the locals.

Anthony and I are staying together at the home of the 

church co-ordinator, Julio Almendarez, and his family: 

wife Xiomara, sons Julio 15 and Daniel 11, and daughter 
Andrea 4.  They are a fun and crazy bunch. Never a dull 

moment. Andrea is a lively little thing, very fond of 

demonstrating the considerable volume of her vocal 

abilities. As I write, she's singing, "Grande y Fuerte es 

Nuestro Dios" at the top of her lungs. I think she got 

her father's gift of gab, but hasn't yet learned that 

there is a setting between off and jet-engine. As a 

family, they're pretty busy. Julio plays electric bass 

for the school praise band. Our neighbors (who are part 

of our extended family in that we share a car so our 

schedule is their schedule) are part of the chorus and 

the dance team as well as the praise band. And then 

there is Julio who is at almost every church function 

(of which there are many).

As such, Anthony and I have a rather full schedule. 

We get up almost every morning at 5:30 to get the three 

kids off to their private Christian bi-lingual school, 

pick up Irene at her house, pick up Lauren and Vicki at 

their house, and get to the church around 8:00 to have 

a team devotions time before class starts at 8:30. Class 

ends at 12:00 when Carmen, our other next door neighbor, 

and Irene set out lunch. Then around 1:00, we repeat the 

process in reverse. Drop off the girls, pick up the kids, 

return home. Saturday is church day for the Amor Viviente 

church, and it is a doosy of a day. We wake up at 4:20 so 

Julio can open the church complex (open pavilion which 

serves as sanctuary in the middle of a field with a house 

which functions as church offices and class rooms). 
Then we sweep out the sanctuary, set up 300 folding 

chairs, rake the fallen leaves, arrange the construction 

cones for parking, and place all the other unsundry items. 

Thankfully, another team takes care of sound equipment. 

Church starts at 3:30 and lasts til 5:30 or 6:00 after 

which there is some sort of meal. It's usually 7:30 by 

the time we get home.

The language training is a little different from what I 

was expecting. There is no school. One of the members 

of the church agreed to create a curriculm to tutor all 

four of us Americans. This provided quite the unexpected 

challenge for our teacher since all of us are at very 

different places. Lauren has had limited Spanish training 

and while enthusiatic to learn, still needs heavy 

emphasis on the basics. Anthony has the basics, but 

needs more vocab and practice talking in tenses other 

than the present. Vicki needs practice speaking. She 

knows how to conjugate verbs and has a large vocabulary, 

but she has difficulty speaking in the moment. I need a 

Honduran high school Spanish course. I can speak, I just 

need to refine my grammar, build my vocab, and learn how 

to talk like a native rather than a gringo. Our teacher, 

Edna, has been very accommodating, trying hard to figure 

out how to challenge Vicki and I, and she has very kindly 

started assigning Vicki and I different material than 

Anthony and Lauren. When we do a common project now, 
it's talking together or writing invidually which provide 

a means for us to work at our own levels.

All in all, I am very grateful to be here in Honduras. 

I love getting to know the people in our church and host 

family, and I hope that continues. Pray that we as a YES 

team, would be able to bless our friends here in Honduras 

as much as they are blessing us. Pray that we would not 

only learn the language from them but we would learn from 

their example as fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. 

Pray for us as a team that God would continue to grow us 

together, that we would be a support to one another and 

not be in competition with one another. And pray for me 

as I struggle to feel like I'm doing much as a leader 

when my schedule and most other decisions are determined 

by others.

Thanks for reading,

Jon