friday photo dump // may 2

It's been a few months since our last Friday Photo Dump, so for this one we'd like to show you around little bits of our last couple of weeks through Instagram-style snap shots. Sometimes pictures do a better job of telling a story!

When we first moved here, Lesley thought it was hard to learn how to adjust to cooking
in Honduras. Now she's taking on an even bigger cooking challenge: cooking for over
10 people at a time in a little kitchen with barely the "bare essential" tools at the CDI (nutrition clinic).

This week we got a big surprise when we pulled onto the church's lot
and found a whole bunch of cows! Apparently there were some random cows
walking down the street, so they were let in to "mow" the grass. 

After almost two months of having no storage for the kitchen or for our clothes, we were 
able to unpack the final boxes and suitcases with the addition of these great shelves! Hallelujah!

Jamey has recently been spending his Saturdays learning the sound board and mixer
in order to be another spare hand of someone who can help out with AV when needed. 

We are beaming with pride for our sweet student, Alison, from the CDI! Last
week, Alison won the "Most Intelligent Student" award for her entire school. We
already knew that (duh) but we're so proud of this accomplishment for her!

We finally got a picture in action of some of our sneaky iguanas that have been
roaming all in the church's roof where we can hear them everyday! Lesley is 
obviously not a fan of these super fast guys. The kids want to make a soup out of 'em!

Sunday was Jamey's birthday, and what a happy day it was! Jamey was surprised
by the church leaders and their families at our house with cake and singing at our gate!

Jamey got the best of both worlds this year as far as cake goes! Lesley made him 
a spice cake with buttercream icing just like from home, and our church 
friends brought him a Honduran cake as well! Two cultures, two birthday cakes!

And what we did today: we woke up early this morning to head to the church and
 help our dear Luis, another of our students from the CDI, with his piles of English homework.
He says that this year his English homework is getting a lot tougher! You go, Luis!

We also got to visit this cutie today and play a lot of peek-a-boo while visiting
prospective neighborhoods for a new church outreach project.  

Also, for a fun surprise, a video! Here's a quick video clip for y'all to see a worship service at our church, Iglesia Gran Comision Danli, with our friend Larissa singing with her beautiful God-given voice! 

Larissa singing at church from Jamey Smith on Vimeo.

highlight // exponencial - easter conference 2014

With this being our first Easter, or here "Semana Santa", in Honduras, we got the distinct pleasure of attending our first of the annual GCLA Easter conferences called "Exponencial." For those of you who don't know, we are employed by Great Commission Ministries, but on the ground we work for and partner with Great Commission Latin America. GCLA is an awesome movement of 33 local churches in Latin America in 9 different countries, including Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama, Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezula, and the United States.

We love working with GCLA for many reasons, but especially because it believes in a holistic approach to ministry. GCLA believes that Scripture wholeheartedly desires to compliment our faith in Christ and manifest our faith through our compassion projects and evangelism throughout Latin America.

We were so excited to go to Exponencial to hear more about all of the churches involved in GCLA and hear from the leaders of these other churches while we explored through the book of Ephesians during the duration of the conference. It was such a wonderful experience to bring as many of us as possible all together, and of course we loved having practically everyone we know in Latin America under one roof. We wanted to share a few pictures, though it seems that we were always talking too much to actually take pictures with other people! Imagine that. :) 

Daytime session 

And nighttime session. 

Also, below is the promotional video for Exponencial 2014. If you can read Spanish, great! If not, still give it a look. It's so pretty!

Exponencial 2014 from GCLA on Vimeo.

Since this was our first trip to both the conference, San Pedro Sula (a very large city in the northern part of Honduras) and to the Iglesia Gran Comision church there, we decided to travel with a group from our IGC Danli church in the church's bus. It was an interesting trip for sure to travel across Honduras in a school bus, because the road quality significantly improves as you get closer to San Pedro Sula, but on the way home, it just gets rougher and rougher. 

One thing we do love about travelling with Hondurans, is though it may add more time to the trip, they definitely love to stop for snacks. And anyone who knows Jamey knows that he is one of the thirstiest men alive. He always needs something to drink... and snacks don't hurt either! We even picked up some knowledge on where to find the best kinds of Honduran snack foods. 

For most families in the church, Semana Santa is their one week off of work during the entire year, and the fact that they chose to use it to attend this conference is incredible. So, since we were near water (which rarely happens to a person from Danli), our group made a trip to the beach during a conference break AND a stop at the one and only lake in Honduras on the way home for a Latin American "fish & chips" (tilapia & plantain fries). This was Lesley's first time having fish that still had a head on it! Our friends thought that fact was hilarious. :)

To the right is our friend Kike (who works for GCLA at the church in Danli) & his daughter Dayana, and we are to the left.
Note that both Kike and Lesley were already wearing their "Exponencial 2014" t-shirts! 

We can't wait until next year!

video // danli home tour

We've had many requests for another home tour of our new house in Danli, so enjoy!  We've been living here for a little over a month now and still have a couple more changes we need to make, but we love the house.  We live on a really quiet street in a neighborhood where we know a few families in the church where we work.  It is such a blessing that we were able to live here and we are so thankful. We chose the house just from a few pictures that were sent to us, but it was even better than the pictures!  If you have any questions about what it's like to live in Danli, feel free to post them below!

Danli Home Tour from Jamey Smith on Vimeo.

newsletter // in case you missed it...

Here is our February & March 2014 newsletter that goes out to our friends, family, ministry team, and prayer team. If you would like to be added to this list, please feel free to email us at jamey.smith@gcmweb.org.

Click here to read the newsletter!