highlight // meet caroline

In Honduras, whenever someone stays in your house they are often referred to as your "kids" -- especially if they are the same ages or younger than you and especially if they need to go home in your car with you. It doesn't really matter if it could have been physically possible for you to have a child their age... ;)

With that in mind, we'd like to introduce you to our "hija" (Spanish for "daughter".)

There are lots of things that someone could say about their kid that we would say about Caroline, our intern. She lives in our home, we feed her, and we are generally responsible for her well-being (though we hope we've taught her to make her own good decisions!). She constantly brightens our lives and makes us laugh, and we're really glad to finally have more than just two players when we play games. She is a better surprise than we even thought she would be! (See what I mean about that daughter thing?)

All joking aside, our intern is actually just a few years younger than us. She went to Virginia Tech and New Life Christian Fellowship (NLCF) just like we did. We are thrilled to have her here and we feel like she is the perfect person to be helping us with both of our social projects.

Meet Caroline Stephenson!

1) Tell us more about you.

I was born and raised in Fairfax Virginia. I graduated from Virginia Tech this past December with a BS in Biology. I have three older sisters, two step brothers and a step sister. I like reading, outdoor activities, cooking... EATING and traveling. I especially love everything science/biology related which includes animals and creepy crawlers.

2) Have you ever had any other international experiences? Can you tell us about them?

I studied abroad my sophomore year in Quito, Ecuador. I lived with a host family and attended La Universidad San Francisco de Quito. All of my classes were taught in Spanish and I was able to take Ecology, Ecuadorian culture, Spanish and Andean Archaeology. The greatest experiences I had abroad was when I was able to visit Machu Piccu and the Amazon. While in the Amazon I touched a wild anaconda and a tarantula!

3) What are you most excited about for your time in Danli, Honduras?

I have two things that tie for what I'm most excited about. First, I am excited at the opportunity to build up the kids at the CDI. I have been lucky in that my parents and teachers have always been incredibly supportive of my interests and education. I would love for the kids of the CDI to be so poured into by us teachers that they have confidence in their own abilities and that they believe in themselves.

Second, I am thrilled to be a part to the health promotion classes with the water project. I have long felt a pull toward international health work and this is an opportunity to gain experience in the field. I can't wait to see the water project progress in the Urrutia community and to be able to see God's blessing happen before my eyes.

Picking Caroline up from the airport (left); Introducing her to Honduran pupusas (right). 

4) Tell us about something cool that has already happened or that you have learned about.

This past week we had a visiting mission team from Virginia Tech. I went out evangelizing with them and spoke to an amazing woman named Leticia. Her daughter wasn't able to live with her because the child's father was dangerous and threatened to take the girl away. Leticia now lives with her new husband and fervently prays for a way that her daughter can return safely to live with them. Among all the trials in her life, Leticia's faith is strong and she seeks to give thanks to God every chance she gets. This kind of thanksgiving and faith was amazing to witness and such an encouragement to me. I have so much to learn about finding my joy in Christ amidst any circumstance.

5) What's your favorite thing about Jamey and Lesley?

My favorite thing about Jamey and Lesley is that they seek to make me feel welcome every chance they get. Whether that is inviting me to play card games, introducing me new Honduran places or checking to see how I'm feeling. I feel supported and cared for while living here because they go out of their way to make sure I'm doing well. Oh and they're hilarious...

6) How can we be praying for you personally?

I would love prayers for God's guidance in my life and that I am sensitive to hearing His voice. I am at a place now where big choices need to be made about my future career path. For that reason, I want to make sure that God is at the center of my decision and that I'm following His call.

Hear more from Caroline personally about her time here on her blog.

right now // november 2014

READJUSTING to elevation changes. Traveling between Colorado Springs (around 6,000) ft) to Houston (about 75 ft) to Honduras (2,600 ft) in the span of one day was enough to make our bodies go crazy! Thankfully we are starting to feel back to normal, but if the elevation change wasn't enough, the weather was quite a shock as well! It was about ONE degree Fahrenheit when we landed to attend the EMI Conference. Very different than what we are used too! But nevertheless, thankful for the time of learning and fellowship.

RESTING from lots of computer screen time. The Total Water website is finally launched and Lesley is enjoying looking at the computer screen LESS this week. Once you stare at the same thing for too long, your mind starts to play tricks on you. Go check out her hard work at www.totalwater.org and don't forget to share about Total Water for Giving Tuesday (Dec. 2nd)!

CONSIDERING putting the Christmas tree up early... like before Thanksgiving early. Normally, we are very respectful toward the order of the holidays and decorate for Christmas starting the day after Thanksgiving!! But we're considering it because we won't be here to enjoy the tree on Christmas day (which is okay, because we'll be with our families instead this year!) and because we just want to feel like the holidays in always-summer Honduras. Speaking of the holidays, we are...

SEARCHING for easy peasy Thanksgiving recipes. Pray for us as we Lesley will be cooking a Thanksgiving meal by herself with one mini-sized oven, that only has one shelf (gasp!), and that runs on gas (so we'll need to conserve baking times). Last year we played it low key, but this year we have some curious Honduran friends that are being introduced to Thanksgiving food for the first time. We want to do it justice! First item on the list, bake the pumpkin pie the day before.

GETTING creative with crafts that only use paper + glue, because that's what we have the largest quantities of. Most recently, we tried braiding paper at the CDI! Check out these awesome bracelets (or ties, or bookmarks, or belts, or whatever the kids want). These kids are rockstars, and get a kick out of the simplest things!




WONDERING where the time has gone. This month we celebrated ONE YEAR in our host country! Somehow the time seems to go by faster here? Or maybe it's just because we aren't always aware of exactly of what day it is like we were back in the States, and work always spills over to the next day and the next with all that needs to be done, so the day called "Friday" sneaks up on us a bit! Sending a big Thank You to everyone who has supported us and prayed for us this year! Seriously, this ministry wouldn't be possible with each one of you!

INDULGING in anything chai flavored. Chai Tea of course, but we've also gotten into putting chai spices in other things, like cookies. Can you make chai cinnamon rolls? We don't know, but we might figure it out soon!

PRAYING for the two local civil engineers that Jamey is currently discipling. Praying that he is an example to them, and they that would begin to take interest in being open to the Gospel. Praying that they will continue to strive towards integrity-driven professional work, and that they would want to learn more about what has changed our hearts towards wanting to do good for all people.

PLAYING just a little bit more as we are wrapping up the Honduran public school year. The kids studied hard for their exams (well, and crammed a bit too) and they will be receiving their final grades in about a week. Then the government gave them surprise extra school days after their exams were over, with just a days notice, because that's just the kind of thing that happens here and no one really understands! Now they are receiving some well deserved extra play time at the CDI, which many of them don't get very often... time to play with other kids their age, in a safe area, without worrying about anything else. We have plans for a very creative cardboard Christmas tree before we break for the holidays!

friday photo dump // november 7

Welcome to the Friday Photo Dump! 

As an October baby, all Lesley wanted for her birthday was pumpkin! Pumpkin bread, pumpkin pie, pumpkin candle, pumpkin anything. We searched and searched here, with no luck. But thanks to Lesley's dad and stepmom, she ended up getting all three! Now we're trying to convince our Honduran friends that it's a great idea to eat big orange gourds that they've seen sit on your front porch. 

We have been busy bees at the children's development center figuring out creative ways to bring construction paper and glue to life for our students. Recently, as you may have seen on the CDI's Facebook page that we and the students created a table-sized board game to review all of the English they've learned all year. The craziest part is, most of them have never played a board game before and some of our kids are 11 years old or older.

In addition to other things our students have never played before, we are reviewing English numbers with our homemade Bingo cards! 

While traveling to Northern Honduras, we had two Honduran friends with us that once again taught us the art of car travel here... you stop at the shakiest looking little fruit stand and buy a huge bag of your favorite fruit, especially if it's known for growing better in the part of the country you're in. Though Jamey still has a hard time opening them, we enjoyed eat licha! 
(Also known in other parts of the world as rambutan.)

The reason for our travel was to go to the October GCLA Leadership Conference in La Ceiba, Honduras. Though we didn't spend as much time outside as we would have liked, it was beautiful to get to see green mountains and the Atlantic Ocean right beside each other. 
Honduras, you're pretty. 

During the conference, we had the pleasure of getting to attend a special session where we heard one pastor's story of living and ministering in Eastern Europe and Western Asia, where it is incredibly dangerous to even identify yourself as a Christian. It was so amazing to hear his stories and wisdom, and once again praise God for all of the countries who have religious freedom, while so many are still fighting for it.  

One of the biggest parts of Lesley joining the trip to the conference was having the chance to visit another CDI in the GCLA network at the Iglesia Gran Comision church in La Ceiba. They currently have over 100+ children in their program, which was great to see and learn from. It definitely helped us gain more vision for the direction our CDI in Danli could go as we continue to grow. 
We would love to visit more CDIs if God permits!

As many of you probably already know, we have other missionary friends from the States that live in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. They were kind enough to make the trip out to see us and us their tools/talents to help us get some projects done around our home, which was an amazing help to us. 
In this picture: we were cutting back our "weeds".

Just to realize the size of our crazy weeds trees, use Jamey as a reference!  

We were out in Urrutia, the community where we are doing our pilot water project, recently conducting bacteriological tests to see if there is contamination in the well due to lack of sanitation. You can also see that most of the people out there don't understand proper water storage because their collector bin is sitting outside uncovered where rain, animals, trash, mosquitoes, and more can get into it. 

Speaking of the water project, our website for the Total Water ministry is in the works right now and will be making it's debut VERY SOON! Be excited. Seriously, excited. If you haven't yet go like our Total Water Facebook Page to get more updates on our ministry here.

We had a good response to our first installment of our "missionary cookbook" series of recipes, which began with Honduran empanadas. Comment to let us know which recipe you'd like to see next in the series: perfect banana muffins, lasagna made abroad (without ricotta cheese!), or one of our favorite meatless Monday meals, pasta primavera. 

highlight // feliz dia del niño (meet naomy)

Feliz Dia del Niño! (Happy Children's Day!)

Honduras has quite a few of their own (highly celebrated) holidays that are very new to us, but we really have a heart for the holiday that is today. Today is the day that children are celebrated, honored, and allowed to be exactly what they are: children. Celebrations happened in schools all day today with food, cake, piñatas, games, costumes, outings, parades, dances, performances, and more. We would like to celebrate by introducing a new series. We'd like you to have the opportunity to get to know some of the wonderful children that we're blessed to work with!

Meet Naomy!

Naomy is 8 years old. She is in the 3rd grade, and is a very, very intelligent student. She was very quiet when she first started attending the children's development center earlier this year, but since then she has opened up tremendously. She used to only play with her little cousin Andrea who also attends, but now she will organize pick up games of hide and seek, tag, and frisbee. She thinks outside of what everyone else is doing with art projects we do, and always wants to go first in English class to prove that she doesn't need to listen to someone else practice before she knows how to do it.

We have loved personally witnessing her skill level in learning English at the CDI. She is very interested in it and has excellent pronunciation abilities.  She also goes home and practices the lesson from the day if it was difficult for her, without ever being asked to, and comes back the next day declaring that she's mastered it after having a night!

Naomy lives in a house with eight other people, which includes her aunt who is Andrea's mom. Naomy's mother is a single mom. She also has a brother who is 18 years old and another brother who is 5 years old. She and Andrea are two of very few who are actually walked by and picked up by a parent or other family member when they come to the CDI. It's simply the culture here that younger children (as young as 7) are permitted to walk places alone or in a group together, but Naomy's family always ensures that she is very cared for even in this aspect. It's a very great thing to see here.

When she grows up, she says that she wants to be an English teacher. Her favorite color is light purple (the "light" is very important to note, she says). Her favorite foods are spaghetti, rice, and carrots.

Please be in prayer for our dear Naomy. She has come so far in just this school year, and we are elated to have the privilege to watch her grow even more. Pray that she will continue to be a part of this program for many more years. Pray that she will become a leader within her class, an example that other kids can look to. Pray that she keeps this spark for learning, and that she won't be afraid to ask her questions she has.  

mission team // the rock church 2014

Honduras 2014 from Anthony Lagoon on Vimeo.

Just a few days after we arrived back in Honduras from a trip, we welcomed a mission team to our church, Iglesia Gran Comision Danli, from The Rock Church in Salt Lake City. We were anticipating this trip quite a bit, simply because we had heard so much about them from our friends here in Danli. This church started bringing teams one year after our sending church, NLCF, so you can imagine the bond they've been forming with the church in Danli.

One great thing about this church is they are able to bring such a wide variety of people and ages on their teams -- from teenagers and their parents, to nurses, to previous longer term missionaries, to photographers and engineers. That dynamic makes for a very unique experience between the members of the team each year, and it's very cool to get to witness the amount they have to teach other, and the people that they encounter here in Honduras. We were lucky enough to be the "host parents" of one of the translators from Tegucigalpa and the team leader, who was thankful to be in a house with good internet since he and his wife had welcomed their first baby 3 week prior!

We had several people on the team that had been on this same trip before, so we were able to immediately bond with them, even on the ride from the airport back to Danli, by sharing our stories together. Between these stories and us comparing the similarities and differences between Virginia and Utah, we never ran out of things to talk about!

The week began with a classic Honduran Sunday, a day of rest and fellowship. We went to what we call "the mountain" (the actual name of the mountain is "La Roca", which means "The Rock" ... appropriate for this team!). We ate carne asada for lunch, went for walks around the beautiful property, rigged some homemade fishing polls, and then rigged a rope for a Honduran version of volleyball. It was a beautiful day!

The rest of their time here was very busy; filled with evangelizing in different communities, working at under-funded government run daycare centers, and visiting the very poor hospital and giving out supplies. The team also raised the funds to build the third wall at the church (!!).  We're only lacking one wall to completely close in the church!

The face on this little boy was pure joy when he got his new shoes!
Also proud of these young boys from our church going out to help share the gospel.

On Friday, the team spent the morning with our CDI kids, which of course the kids loved. The highlight about this was one of the team members is a sponsor to one of our CDI students, and the two got to meet for the first time. It was an awesome thing to witness! Tim, the sponsor, also gave Brayan, the student, a few gifts; Brayan, however, realized that the other kids didn't get to meet their sponsor that day, and he chose to share his bag of candy with all of the other students and the teachers. It was precious!

Brayan meeting his sponsor, Tim, for the first time. 

The CDI kids making crafts with the mission team.

On Saturday, while part of the team was at band practice, the other part of the team made two beds to be given to two CDI students that needed them most. Now our students Anner and Angel both no longer have to share their beds with their two other siblings.

One of the beds being delivered to Anner's house. He now has a bed to himself!

As we said, there was a variety of people on the team and two of them specifically are the very talented folks who made the recap video above, as well as kept up with a great photo/video blog for the people following them back home, which you read more specific stories from the week here.

We're already looking forward to seeing you next year, you guys! Thank you for everything.  You're such a blessing to the GCLA church here in Danli!

highlight // fundraiser event for the danli cdi

On July 1st, there was a fundraiser event held in Covington, VA to benefit the GCLA Children's Development Center (CDI) that we work with here in Danli. People from Jamey's home church, Faith Baptist Church, and other churches in the area all helped to make this event possible. We were so fortunate to be able to be in attendance at the event to witness all of the people who came out to support us and this ministry! We had roughly 120+ people in attendance. With so many people filling one event space, we had to turn the dessert table into overflow seating! (Which is not a bad problem to have!). There was a spaghetti dinner, which included awesome salad, bread, desserts, and refreshments as well. 

We just wanted to say again, a HUGE thank you to everyone who helped make the event happen, to all who came out, to all who donated additional funds, to all who brought school supplies to donate, and to all who sponsored kids at this event! We were so happily overwhelmed by it all. In just one night, we received:

• 9 new sponsors for new children to start coming to attend the CDI,
• Monetary donations to the CDI that totaled around $1800, and
• Enormous amounts of much needed school and craft supplies for our students (Like 2500 crayons!)

Some might ask, how will these things specifically aid the Children's Development Center in Danli? First, adding new students to the CDI does not only allow us to help and feed more children, but increasing our number of students will hopefully help us split up our after school Bible and English classes into separate age-specific classes. We are also excited for our current students to have even more kids to play with. Since the children in our program attend public schools, they only go to school for 4.5 hours a day, which leaves little time for playing or recess. Our recess time is some of the only "fun time" that our students get with other kids! 

With the donations that were so graciously given, our hope is to complete the floor in the kitchen and the upstairs classroom (our future computer classroom) with tiling. Most finished floors in Honduras are tile, but right now these two rooms have only rough concrete. Not only have there been lots of falls and skin scrapes on this rough floor, but in the kitchen especially is hard to fully clean We are so excited for a new kitchen floor that can be swept AND mopped! Also with the donations, we hope to buy new tables for the classrooms. There is also one very old wooden table that was given to us, but the top finish has been torn off and there are tiny bugs that we can't seem to keep out. As we increase our numbers, we are going to need more tables!

The very first craft project that the CDI students completed with their new supplies
were Bible bookmarks to give as gifts to the mission team that came to visit and play with them. 

And with the school and craft supplies, the possibilities are endless for how much these things will change the lives of our wonderful students. First, some of the school supplies are now being used for our Bible and English classes, but about half have been tucked away in order to make school supply packets for our students when they start their new school year in February. This is an incredible help to the families, because most of them don't have the money to buy most or all of the supplies for their kids. Students in Honduras also have to wear uniforms, so hopefully by providing their school supplies, buying a new properly fitting uniform might be a little easier for some families.

Also, why do we do crafts? Well, arts and crafts are great visual examples of class lessons for children, but to these children, it's more than simply that. Almost all of these kids do not receive any art classes in their schools, and we've been able to see what effect that has on them. They have never been encouraged to be creative, or create something that is their very own. They often ask Lesley "What color am I supposed to color the girl's shoes in the picture? What color is right?". And though she encourages them to choose whatever color they think would look great, they can't. They're frozen. We love that by having the capacity to occasionally do crafts with our students, even with simple items such construction paper, crayons, scissors, and glue, we are able to open up their minds just a little bit more. And let them be kids and grow.

Last, but not least, here is the quick video that we showed at the event that we'd like to share with everyone now. (Please excuse any glitches in the video, we need better editing software!). These are the sweet children you've helped with your generosity!

CDI Video from Jamey Smith on Vimeo.

There are still some kids on our waiting list to attend the CDI.  If anyone is interested in child sponsorship at the Danli CDI, please contact us (Jamey and Lesley Smith) personally and we'd be happy to give you more information and help you set up the process or you can visit the GCLA website.

Also, to be kept updated on what's going on at the Danli CDI, visit the Facebook Page.

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.

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!

mission team // step program trip

We are so glad to be able to write about the first team we've planned a trip for and hosted ourselves in Honduras! Funny enough, it actually happened to be a team that currently lives in Honduras already. Yes, you read that right!

We met our friends Jim and Sonia Bridge at our training in Colorado before we moved to Honduras, and we were thrilled to find out that they were also moving to Honduras! They live in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, and their ministry is serving as the leaders of the STEP program here in Honduras that is part of the BIC churches. It is a program that designs team internships to give young adults realistic, intensive and developmental cross-cultural ministry experience for six months. As the new leaders of this program for the first time this year, Jim and Sonia have been searching earnestly for opportunities for their participants to learn and serve throughout all different parts of Honduras, and it just so happens that we live in a very different part of Honduras than them. We were so glad that we were able to help host one of their many trips they will take to the edges of Honduras and show them around the ministries that we have going on here in Choluteca.

This first team that Jim & Sonia are hosting consists of all girls, ages 18-21. They all traveled down from Tegucigalpa last Sunday, and we enjoyed having them serve at the children's nutrition clinic and the family home orphanage during the five days that they were here. This was their first time serving in a more rural Honduran setting as a team, which gave them new experiences and challenges to work through. They were certainly a blessing to the under-staffed CDI, and prepared several fun activities for the the children to do! The kids, in combination with the much hotter 100F degree days, definitely wore out the Steppers by the end of each day.

Along with serving at both children's ministries, we were able to give the group a tour of other projects that Iglesia Gran Comision Choluteca has, including the Casa Hogar Vida community, the block factory, the CHV coffee brand roasting site, the "Manualidades" crafts store, and one of the rural communities that the church is doing a lot of outreach in, Las Bresas.

Here are some wonderful pictures from the week, documented by the very talented Nikki, who is one of the participants in the program. Enjoy!

Everyone needing hugs at once. :) 

The girls showed the kids how to make paper frogs that jump!

We all helped serve lunch for the kids each day!

Bryan is pretty awesome at soccer!

All of the Family Home kids got involved in the soccer game -- 
even the little twins who kept running into each other!

Vilma, the oldest at the Family Home, with her balloon flower. 

Lesley loving, but being a little afraid of, Bryan making his own balloon design!

Elias, the youngest at the Family Home, with his awesome dino face paint!

Water balloons at the family home for a hot, hot day!

Children in the rural community we visited using old bed springs as a trampoline. 

Visiting one of the families that the church here has built a strong structure home for. 

Visiting the Casa Hogar Vida coffee brand roasting site.