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.

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.

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!

highlight // meet miriam

1 // Who is Miriam?

Miriam is our wonderful teacher for our Spanish language classes and she's had lots of teaching experience before us. She's one busy lady, and we love just talking with her & hearing her stories. She's also become one of our best friends here in Choluteca as we've gotten to know her even more!

2 // Can you tell us more about her? 

Sure! Miriam is 64 years old and has been teaching for a long time, including previously teaching English at the CDI Nutrition Clinic here in Choluteca, being a private tutor in English for families, and more. Through tutoring, Miriam realized that she loves this teaching format, rather than full classroom teaching, much more in order to personally have conversations with each of her students and be able to constantly check their grammar and pronunciation personally. Miriam is a widow, and has five grown children, and seven grandchildren. We're blessed to know some of them too!

3 // She's a busy lady, huh? What makes you say that?

We're amazed at how much our dear friend Miriam gets done in a day. She's very busy with a full home of family members, taking care of the woman who served as her nanny growing up full time (who is now 95 years old and has no family of her own to care for her), and working with our church, Iglesia Gran Comision Choluteca, in reaching out to individuals who have HIV or who have been affected by family members who do. Miriam is also involved in other ministries that the church does, including acting in some of the drama plays and skits whenever there is a part for her! She loves it. And this is ALL on top of teaching us three hours a day!

4 // How did Miriam learn English herself?

Miriam told us the story of her coming to learn English, and she told us that when she was seventeen, and growing up in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, she made the decision to go to a special school to learn English. A few friends of hers decided to go too, and the program took about two years to complete. We asked her if she was glad that she decided to learn English, and she said to us that she is glad because she has been able to help other people learn English, but she doesn't always have people to practice her English with to keep it well in her mind. (The "if you don't use it, you lose it" idea.) We told her very early that she would get plenty of practice with using her English by teaching us, because when we first arrived we knew very, very little Spanish. We relied on Miriam being able to explain things to us, and receive instruction for lessons, in English!

Quick snapshot of Jamey & Miriam in class together at our apartment!

5 // What is your favorite thing about Miriam?

Our favorite thing about Miriam is how comfortable she feels talking with us about anything. She is willing to answer any question we have for her, whether it is about Spanish grammar, phrases that are used common, or even just questions about the Honduran culture. Miriam has been the one to tell us where we can find things here, given Lesley advice for working with the children at the church's projects, and even helped give us advice on selecting, using, and cooking new produce and foods that we aren't used to. She has been a wonderful blessing to our lives every day!

6 // What is her favorite thing about you guys?

Miriam tells us constantly that her very favorite thing about us is that we are able to laugh so much together, even while we are having classes with her. She loves to laugh about stories we tell each other, about our mispronunciations in Spanish that have us saying different words than what we intended, and even about the funny relationship Jamey & I have while being classmates. We have our own private jokes that come out of this language learning sessions, and Miriam tells us that she tries to tell them to other people, and then she'll realize that it was simply a "you had to be there" kind of thing. Miriam will leave with an extra skip in her step on the days that we have laughed extra and says to us, "Okay! I will see you tomorrow! And we will laugh more!". She also regularly tells us that she is glad to have classes with us because it makes her use her brain very actively. She believes that we're helping her to not lose her memory when she is older.

7 // How can we be praying for Miriam personally?

Since Miriam is someone who is very near and dear to our hearts, we would like to ask that our ministry team and blog readers remember to lift Miriam and her family up in prayer. Miriam is a breast cancer survivor, who has been in remission for about a year now, but she has to continue to take chemo pills for five years. Her health is something that is constantly being monitored and we pray that she will remain in good health for many years to come. If her personality has anything to do with it though, she will be around for a very long time because we know that Miriam has so much more she still wants to do in this world. She's a go-getter! Also, several other members of Miriam's extended family have been suffering from cancer, including her 2-year-old granddaughter. Would you join us in prayer for this sweet little angel? She had surgery to remove the tumor in her kidney several weeks ago, and the doctors have been doing a lot to help her. They found out recently that she will not have to go through as much chemotherapy treatments as they had originally thought she would. We are so grateful for that! She starts chemotherapy treatments tomorrow, on her 3rd birthday.

highlight // Casa Hogar Vida

Yesterday marked our 2 month mark of living in Honduras... time is definitely flying by! Before too much time gets away from us, we wanted to give a highlight with more details about one of the projects that the GCLA church here in Choluteca has, Casa Hogar Vida.

Casa Hogar Vida was started in 2009, and there still continues to be a vision for future construction of this project. In Spanish, Casa Hogar Vida means "House, Home, Life." The main purpose of this project is to help provide homes for people that normally would not be able to afford their own home. Currently, there are a total of 49 houses on a piece of land that the church owns about 10 minutes outside of the city of Choluteca. The church hopes to eventually have over 100 homes on this property. People who live in these homes pay a small monthly amount and eventually will own the home, in which the church will then title over their plot of land to them. They are about to begin the next phase of construction with additional homes in the coming months.  Praise the Lord that over 90% of the people who live in Casa Hogar Vida attend the GCLA church here in Choluteca!!

On the same site, there is also an orphanage (where Lesley currently works) that right now consists of 3 houses. There are currently 6 children living in one of the homes, and the construction of the third house is almost finished. Praise God that they are currently ready to and in the process of bringing new children into the second house. The orphanage is meant for children who are either affected or infected by HIV. The set up of each home consists of one "Tia", or aunt, that gets paid by the church to work in the home. She is responsible for caring for and loving on the kids, including feeding them, helping them with school work, and basically raising them. This orphanage structure is starting to be used widely across the world in new orphanages. Each of the children have monthly sponsors to provide for their basic needs.  It takes $75 a month per kid for everything they need.

Left to right: Jorge, Heidi, and Bryan. 

Right now, Lesley is serving at the orphanage on Monday and Wednesday mornings. Some of the kids go to school in the morning, where as some go in the afternoon, so currently she works with three of the six kids -- Bryan, Jorge, and Heidi. She spends time with them, plays with them, loves on them, and helps teach them English.

On site there is a block factory in which the church employs people to make concrete blocks for church projects, as well as other projects they receive orders from. There is also a couple of ladies who live in the community that work at "Manualidades" on site, where they make and sell handbags and jewelry that the church helps to promote throughout Honduras. Casa Hogar Vida also has a coffee roaster on site where they roast coffee and sell it throughout Honduras to make money to help fund projects as well as provide for the kids in the orphanage. They have also partnered with Revive Coffee in the United States to be able to sell coffee in the States to which some of the profits come directly to GCLA for project funding.  For more on Revive Coffee, check them out at www.reviveyourcoffee.com .

Part of the block factory.

Currently at Casa Hogar Vida, I (Jamey) am helping with a water project in which they will be treating the water that goes to the community homes as well as the orphanage. Currently, there is no treatment of water that comes from the well in the community. Part of the project will be to dig a new well on site as the current well is at it's maximum capacity and only provides water to the homes every 3 days. The orphanage receives water 24/7. Living Water International will be joining the team here in Choluteca in late January to help with this project. This project is serving as a "pilot" project for GCLA and their hope is to connect with Living Water International continuously over the coming years for projects in all of GCLA's major churches in Honduras including in Danli. I am VERY excited about this opportunity!! I have also been tasked with designing a treatment system for the "aguas negras" (wastewater) that comes from Casa Hogar, as there is currently no treatment for it at this point.

We hope this gives some more background on Casa Hogar Vida and it's vision, since it's where we both are spending a lot of our time working while we are in Choluteca. We hope to post a video in the future giving you a tour of the project site, so that you can see it first hand!  For more information on Casa Hogar Vida as well as GCLA, go to http://www.greatcommissionla.com/tag/casa-hogar-vida/

Love,

Jamey

training // goodbyes & hellos

Saying goodbye to Colorado, then Virginia, and then a "hello" to this beautiful Honduras.

On our last couple of days at our training at MTI, we had all completely bonded more than most all of us had even imagined we would. We knew that we were being asked to live completely in community for a month -- every meal, every time you wanted to use the internet or sit on a couch, every time you went to class, you had to be with everyone. That's a lot of people time. And a lot of other-people's-kids time. We went in afraid that we might not really have an down time or that we might just get too much "people time". And for people like us, you know - extreme extroverts - if we're afraid of too much people time, that really means something.

Well by the end, the extroverts & introverts alike were broken hearted to be leaving. We all had kind of just blended into one giant family; there were times where each of us had been a part of the "village" that it takes to raise each kid, we had eaten plenty of meals with every person there, and together we'd been through plenty of both ups and downs. Even plenty of those moments where everyone has so much fun getting really too into games that you're playing. Sounds just like a family, right?

After this month of making family with people who are all going out all over the world, our training had to come to an end. And, of course, at that end when we have bonded so much, our trainers had us go through probably the hardest topics we'd cover: grief & loss, and goodbyes & hellos. During our day spent on grief & loss, we were asked to go deep and explore those losses we are guaranteed in our new vocation:

1) the loss of a stable home; a place that is familiar to you, that offers warmth and security, a place of refuge. This is the loss of consistency and dependability and balance. 2) the loss of safety; this is the most underestimated loss in missions. In America, one of our core values is safety and comfort -- what happens when you find out that the system is corrupt and justice isn't there. There are so many "what ifs" of what could actually happen to you now. 3) the loss of competence; who are we when we are stripped of our ability to contribute in a new language and a new culture? 4) the loss of identity; how to you grieve when you realize that in many ways you'll never be an insider anywhere & when you realize how much of your identity was set outside Christ before? 5) the loss of support system; we're now entering a vocation that is a revolving door of relationships, and we're being asked to grieve the loss of friendships that must be transitioned out in order to make room for new ones. 6) the loss of quickly and easily attained goals; going and making disciples of the nations is a job that's never done. It's hard to feel like you've made a difference.

We had a two hour period of time where all we did was grieve together; we sat and prayed with and in front of each other and let each other cry. It's honestly what we didn't even realize that we needed... to be able to grieve these kinds of losses of everything we know and hold dear with people who are doing the same thing. "A heart awakened to great love is also opened to great pain."

And if one day full of facing our heartbreak and pouring tears wasn't enough, we had another one the very next day -- our last full day of classes. This time our focus was on saying goodbyes & hellos and opening up to each other about the people, places, even pets, that we are having such a hard time saying goodbye to. Our trainers gave us TONS of advice on how to say our goodbyes well, because healthy goodbyes are part of a gift that we're giving to those we are going to say hello to, so that each person gets as much from us as the last. We have to let people know what residence they have taken up in our hearts, as well as admit that it hurts. But we can't forget about our "I can't wait to go!" attitude, in being firm in what God has called us to.

Our last day was our goodbyes and a time of "praying around the world" -- praying specifically for each missionary that is going out into the field from our training class. And the list is amazing; they are going out to Mexico, South Sudan, Ecuador, Thailand, Honduras (not just us, another couple too!), China, Nigeria, Swaziland, the Middle East, Kenya, Albania, Japan, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Niger, Malaysia, and Central Asia. Our trainers then did our commissioning, and gave us an incredible example of how to say our first "good goodbyes". As in African tradition, one of our senior trainers, who is South African, led everyone in walking each group that left out of the building, following them all the way down the driveway, and waving them goodbye until they couldn't see us any more. (It was so incredibly precious, and obviously made Lesley cry.)

And with that, we had to say one of the hardest goodbyes we've had to do in a while, just because of how unique it was. We had not had a close community of people around us in a long time, since all we've done over the last year is move around and travel. We also had never had to say a goodbye to people dear to us that we may, quite literally, never see again. But it hurts because we loved well. 

Please be praying for us as we are about to say the really, really hard goodbyes -- goodbyes to home and to family. Please be praying that we would do these really well, even when that means relishing it how much it hurts. Next step is Honduras! Next step is a brand new kind of life.

training // what we're walking away with, pt. 3

Our MTI training class family :)

In hopes that these posts would not be too long, we've split them up into more achievable lengths. To read about the beginning of our cross-cultural training, please read "what we're walking away with, part 2." 

In reference to thinking about our personal values & beliefs (from our previous post), as Americans, and as Christians, we had to explore when we should embrace a new culture's completely different values, and when we should protest them in our training. Of course, God's Word is absolute -- we must always conform to what the Word asks of us, even if it directly contradicts a culture that we are living in. Because when we obey God, we make a statement that He is trustworthy, loving, and in control; He is not vindictive, unpresent, or mean. Him giving us commands does not take away from His mercy or compassion or knowing of all things. We are just making the statement that He is God and we are not.

But what about the areas that the Bible is unclear on? For this, we explored the ministry of Paul.

1 Corinthians 9:19-23: Paul’s Use of His Freedom

"19 Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, 

to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. 

To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not 

under the law), so as to win those under the law.21 To those not having the law

 I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law 

but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak

 I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that 

by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel,

 that I may share in its blessings."

We learned that Paul was motivated to be spiritually fruitful, morally faithful, and culturally flexible. Conforming and embracing a new culture was permitted in his ministry when Christ-centered principles were not compromised; where he could enhance the unity for people he was sharing the gospel with. But he never violated his allegiance to Christ.

One of the values we are called to have as followers of Christ is to be people who take rest and keep the Sabbath. We spent an extended amount of time on this topic, and  had to ask ourselves this question, "We would never intentionally and maliciously break any of the other commandments, so why do we do it with this one?". We explored our tendency to overwork, especially coming from our culture in the U.S., and it's impact. It seems that even when our sole job is to work in ministry, we are so tempted to break this command that God has given us. God asks us to start our week in celebration and awe of what He has done... to start & work from a place of rest, not rest from a whole week of work. Taking rest & Sabbath is being obedient no matter what is convenient; it is declaring that we are marked and set apart for God. It was really beneficial for us to explore this often glazed over or forgotten concept with our classmates and trainers, especially to try to seek out why we personally act the way we do towards taking rest, and to help us see ways where we can actively place rest into our lives. The day that was devoted to learning this really taught us that everything, every bit of time and moment, doesn't have to be qualified & counted for. Disciplines of rest and play, even of taking time to see God's bigness and "wasting time" has it's own time, place, and function. (Luke 10:38-42, anyone?) BOY, did we need to hear that lesson. (Again.)

Our "Transition Bridge" exercise.

Another major topic of discussion during our lessons was transition and stress. Remember the crazy looking picture from our extras post? With that exercise, we were learning about the different phases of transition: settled to unsettled to chaos to resettling to new settled; and how our big transitions in life take at least 2 years to complete. Yep, years. And everyone will go through these phases at different times and paces. With transition, of course, comes great stress. Especially that tricky time of complete chaos that feels like you have no "normal", no sense of steadiness. For this, we learned about identifying different kinds of stressors (and how Jesus experienced these same kinds while on Earth), our personal signs & symptoms of stress, and how to make a plan for managing stress BEFORE it happens. Then, to take it to a whole other level of truly learning about ourselves under stress, we then had to undergo an intense high-stress simulation for about two hours. It was amazing what we learned about ourselves when simulating a situation of what you do when the unthinkable happens directly to you.

Amazing what all they can fit into just two weeks, huh? We were so floored by the reality of what is soon to be happening in our lives and all of these multiple facets of our new lives, that we are just so thankful for amazing trainers that have so much experience in both decades of mission work personally and in years of teaching so many other training classes. Without their passion, authenticity, and real, honest, open stories of all of these lessons and principles having to be put to use, we would not have learned half as much as we did. Thank you so much to all of the staff at Mission Training International to being so committed to teaching each and every person that comes to learn from you.

Please stay posted on even more that we learned from our training there. More, you say? Yes, even more.

_________________________________________________________________

If you'd like to read more blogging from our classmates:
- "Embracing Inefficiency", by the Janicek Family
- "Missionary Boot Camp", by Alexis
- "Entry Posture", by The Russell Family

training // what we're walking away with, pt. 2

7 

Where can I go from your Spirit?

    Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,

 even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.

Psalm 139:7-10

Since the very first day of our cross-cultural training portion of our time at MTI, we have been eager to share about it all with you, our blog readers & ministry team. But when you are learning things that make you understand even more of how just so very complicatedly human you are, it's so hard to explain it all. All of the topics we learned about hit us to our very core, and it was just a taste of what life-changing and challenging things we know we'll be experiencing by working in cross-cultural ministry.

As one of our classmates excellently put it, it all felt a whole lot like "missionary boot camp". All topics were things that are incredibly hard to even talk about with someone we know really well, let alone with people you'd only known for two weeks. But, the one factor we had working in our favor is that we are all in a common place and can absolutely relate to one another. This helped us to just grow even closer as we explored these so-hard-I-don't-even-really-want-to-go-there-right-now places. One of the greatest things we are walking away with is that we now have a vocabulary to explain a lot of these hard places, feelings, struggles, and reactions.... and people who we can reach out to that are always going to be right there with it us.

Please forgive us if the way that we explain it all doesn't quite make sense yet. :)

To start us into getting down to the nitty-gritty really fast, the first item on the agenda was to discuss conflict. This began by doing an assessment about ourselves completed by us, by people that are close friends & family, and by exploring our last conflict we'd had with someone. Talk about intense homework!! ... calling a person close to you and asking "how well do I handle conflict, how does it make you feel, and what I could I do better?". With this, we learned a TON about different conflict handling styles; how we perceive others' styles and what we can appreciate about & what we might need to confront about them. We also learned that we can most often be misunderstood in conflict when we overuse our dominant style of handling conflict. This section was so helpful in us understanding and being able to pinpoint why we react the way we do in so many different situations, and was really helpful to us even in just understanding each other even better!

We also went through several different sections on adjustment and culture shock. We had to explore ourselves -- what our personal values & beliefs are, and how they influence the filters through which we view things -- and come to an understanding that literally everything we see as "normal, natural, right, and good" could be challenged in the new culture that we are moving to. But that doesn't mean that different values and beliefs from our own are automatically wrong; most everyone across the world acts from a place that is normal & good from their own frame of reference. We do have to be prepared that many countries, including Honduras, have different focuses on everything from the degree of directness that is appropriate, on productivity, the importance of time, on change & tradition, on privacy, equality vs. hierarchy, relationships vs. tasks, etc. We have to be ready to step into each one of these different ways of operation and see the value in them, even if to us they do not seem "natural" or even logical.

We learned that when we will be living and working across cultures, we'll be frequently finding that our personal values will be in conflict with the values and expectations of the people of the culture we're in. Our values could be affirmed, but they could also be challenged; and it will be up to us whether we feel it is most appropriate to change to their comfort zone, or retain our own value either modified or as is.

What do I mean by personal values? I mean how much value we put into things like independence, education, intimate friendships, routine, law & order, safety, effective use of time, schedules, equality, freedom, justice, cleanliness, self-reliance, respect, even adequate resources. What our personal values are and how much weight we put into them will effect the lifestyle choices that we will make on the field. And the reality is that we can't please everyone... "try to please all and you will end up pleasing none." We must first consider God, our spouse/family, and the people we're working with when making our lifestyle choices. And we learned through this training that the most important thing to do when making decisions is to consider our longevity -- it was very clearly explained to us that if we do not live in such a way that we can take care of ourselves long term, we will end up burn out and will have a high, high risk of coming back prematurely.

But often every choice we have to make feels so much harder to make as missionaries, since we have so many more stakeholders that we have to consider. All of a sudden new people (like our supporters, sending organization, nationals of our new host country, sending church, other co-laborers,etc.) that are all effected by or have weight in the decisions that we have to make. And some decisions and lifestyle choices for us will occur daily on the field; things like food, clothing, scheduling, housing, and even what our male/female family roles will look like, are all decisions that are under a microscope for us while working in a new cultural that is unlike our own. We have to live in such a way that balances us taking care of ourselves for the purpose of longevity, and living in a context to where we are not a distraction of the Gospel. 


In hopes that these posts would not be too long, we've split them up into more achievable lengths. To read about the rest of our cross-cultural training, please read "what we're walking away with, part 3". 

training // want to learn some more? here's four extras.

If you can't already tell from our first post about training, we're absolutely LOVING our training at MTI in Palmer Lake, Colorado. Just so that we can share in the love with you all, our ministry team and blog readers, we wanted to give you four "extras" in this blog post to learn more about our time here! 

1. // Here is a video from Lesley's language learning techniques practice group using the Hindi language, that we explained in that first post. Bonus points for anyone who can translate it into English!

2. // Here's some other perspectives about our language learning from some sweet friends that are at training with us. Please be praying for their language learning & ministries as well!

From our sweet friend Keri, pictured above, who just served her first year working with orphans in the jungle in Ecuador & is about to return for another year: For her first post, click here and for her second post click here.

And from Alexis, about to go serve in Africa as a doctor to street children in Nigeria: click here to see her post.


3. // Here are some other ways we spend time having fun & getting to know each other! The ladies of our training group love to get together once each weekend for a themed get-together.

Our first ladies night was a nail polish party. Almost every one of the ladies here came out for this one! Jamey got lovingly "kicked out" of our room so that we could turn it into a nail salon, full of a range of nail polish colors, painting stations, even lavender foot soaking stations!

My henna partner was our great new friend, Sonia, who is moving to Tegucigalpa, Honduras!

The second party was a henna party! We watched a video and learned about how women are using henna as a way of sharing the gospel around the world. As they are doing henna with their house guests, they draw little symbols into these intricate designs to help them remember the story of the gospel that they tell them while they are drawing on their henna. It was so cool to see how people are taking an existing cultural norm and using it to share the most amazing news the world has ever known. We celebrated with them by drawing our own henna designs! We loved it!

My pretty henna designs! (and my favorite fuzzy blanket in my lap that
my sweet husband packed for me to bring to cold Colorado.) 

4. // Here is a teaser photo for an upcoming blog post. Can you even tell what we're up to during this training session from today?

training // what we're walking away with, pt. 1

The first half of our training at Mission Training International is complete, and for two weeks we've been learning about language... but we haven't been learning Spanish or even about Spanish. Wait, what?! After we say that, most people are completely confused as to why we are here and why we're even doing this. People want to say, "Why can't you just go right into Spanish school? Wouldn't that be faster?".

Well, at first we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. We knew that this training had received a lot of praise from past missionaries, and that it was required of us by our mission organization. But, we also knew that there must be good reason that GCM, along with numerous other organizations, require that their missionaries attend. AND there had to be good reason that each training session was filling up at least six months in advance. We were definitely very curious!


We came to learn a lot about language over these two weeks that we had never even thought about concentrating on. We first got a huge overview of phonetics -- we learned about how we produce sounds and how to use mouth position, tongue placement, vocals (or the absent of), etc. to make a myriad of different sounds that are found in languages all over the world. We definitely broke open the box of 44 sounds that we typically use in the English language. We even learned things like that we only use low "l" sounds in English, but in Spanish, there is only high "l" sounds. If we tried to learn Spanish with only the sounds that are comfortable to us, that we are used to using, we would be literally hurting Spanish speakers ears! Our Spanish accents would be so far what it should be that they may even be unrecognizable to a native speaker. We are so thankful for being taught to make different sounds, and even taught a language of how to explain them, instead of blindly trying to figure out how to produce them later on in our Spanish learning.

Our training classroom at MTI. 

The second portion of our language training involved us being provided with tools of how to pick up on language, make what we are learning applicable to our real lives (for example, not learning a list of verbs all at once, but learning verbs in contextual phrases that we would actually use!), and how to make language learning our own responsibility, instead of simply relying on a teacher to do all of the work for us. Through this training, we have developed a plan, complete with very specific and practical activities & ideas of how to go about our language learning as part of our daily lives, incorporating it into everything that we do. The focus of these techniques is truly to consistently draw the language IN in multi-sensory and multi-entry ways. Sometimes we "do" to learn and remember, sometimes we associate, sometimes we speak, sometimes we just listen. It's awesome!

We had the great opportunity to practice a number of the learning activities with language tutors of various languages. Now, before you get the urge to ask, let us explain that we were not able to practice in Spanish specifically because it is practically impossible that they could find tutors for every target language of each missionary here at training! So we all got to try our hands at the languages of our helpers that are at MTI: Chinese (Mandarin), Bulgarian, Hindi, Russian or French. Lesley really felt like she picked up Hindi really quickly and Jamey had fun with his group learning Bulgarian! We also just felt like the activities really came off the page and into "life" by getting to practice them together as a small team. They are extremely effective and it is very encouraging to us to have these!

Lesley's Hindi language tutor. 

During this time of exploring language learning techniques, we have also been implementing weekly times of "Growth Groups" (small, intimate groups of about 4-5 people of the same gender) for smaller community & accountability, weekly times of personal coaching with previous missionaries, daily times of quiet personal reflection time (completely unplugged), and daily times of bringing our joys & thanksgivings to God. It has been really wonderful to work these new specific & intentional times into our lives as things we hope to continue doing even after we leave here.

Could you ask for a more beautiful homework spot?!!

Our weekends are times of free time, rest and sabbath.... and lots of homework to prepare for the upcoming week. :) The first weekend that we were here, we decided to just jump right in and get into the amazing amount of beautiful nature that is available to us here in breathtaking Colorado. We visited the U.S. Air Force Academy and went on a hike just behind it. Unfortunately, the intensity level of the hike was a bit more than we had expected and than had been explained to us. We still really enjoyed it, but it was really difficult because we were still getting used to the higher elevation here and it was REALLY steep both up the mountain and coming down. We had to be very careful the whole way, and Jamey often had to help short-legged, short-armed Lesley on the practically all-fours rock climbing we had to do! :)

Our Hike at Eagle Peak! Note the "mountain lions are a real danger here" sign. There was an eight step system on what to do if you encountered one. That's kind of a lot to remember if/when you're scared out of your mind.

But, no matter how difficult the hike might have been for our first week here, we really enjoyed getting to spend time with the group that went with us (including a 3 year old in a hiking backpack and an amazing 6 year old climber!) and of course enjoyed the view. You can enjoy it, too, below:

The view at the top of the mountain from both sides. :)

We've completely loved Colorado, MTI, and all of the amazing people. We've been able to have completely new experiences... including our first October 3rd snow!

Our October 3rd snow dusting :) It was like a high of 45 that day. 

Please be praying for us as we enter the second, and much more emotional, portion of our training here at MTI. For the next two weeks we are going to be exploring our own personal lives, as well as how to transition into cross-cultural living.

highlight // weekend wrap-up

When we do a "highlight" post, we love to feature someone in our lives that is making a big impact on us, on our ministry, and so forth. Maybe even just someone that we think deserves a little spotlight. Well, with a weekend (plus Monday) so jam-packed with people, seriously wonderful people, this post needs to love on more than just one person this time.

Here's a little more about our extra BIG weekend!

Saturday:

On Saturday, we finally got to see something that we have been planning for months come to life! Jamey and I joined forces with his mom to throw a super special surprise party for his dad for his retirement. Now when Jamey's dad retired from the local school system, he at one point in his career held the title of each the P.E. teacher, the tennis coach, the much-celebrated varsity basketball coach, and the high school guidance counselor... all of which made just about everyone around know him by name. And he still holds many other various positions! Yet he tried to quietly & quickly retire on the Tuesday before our wedding last year, so that no one would make a big fuss about it. Yeah, right! Like we weren't gonna do that!

The invitation to the surprise party!

So in conjunction with his 60th birthday this year, we decided it was time to celebrate both occasions and throw one amazing surprise party. And the most amazing part is that it WAS a surprise and we got one over him! Anyone will tell you that getting something past Jimmy Smith while being right under his nose is one very difficult task!

The party was themed towards his varsity basketball coaching days, with everything decked out in Alleghany HS colors, and with all of the pictures, yearbooks, newspapers, and awards he had collected over the years all pulled back out for everyone to see. And of course, you can't forget yummy food and lots of cake!

First, Dad's surprise as he came in; Second, his cake with the phrase he coined for his team;
Third, one of his best friends rolling out a wheelchair for the "Old Man". 

Jamey and I put it a lot of work over the past few weeks to help his mom get everything ready: I designed the invitations, we both addressed them & got them out, we did lots of running errands and shopping trips, even a DIY project or two. Lots of staying up into the early morning to work on things after Dad was in the bed. But the biggest amount of work that Jamey and I put in before the party was our birthday present for his dad; we went through all of his old newspapers that he'd saved but never been able to really look through because they were stored away in a box downstairs and created scrapbooks for him of all of his games and seasons in order so that he can enjoy them, and so that they are safely kept for him now. Needless to say when Jamey presented his dad with the gift at the party, there were tears from the both of them!

Thank you so much to everyone who came out to celebrate Coach Smith with us, and for helping us surprise him with a great night night full of memories and friends. We can definitely report back that he absolutely loved it and keeps talking about it!

Sunday:

And then if we hadn't had enough excitement for one weekend, it also just happened to work out that we were throwing another event on the next day! We hosted an Open House for our ministry team members and close friends to come and visit with us one more time. Since we will only have about a week at home between Colorado and Honduras, we have had to say all of our final goodbyes to everyone except our immediate families before leaving for Colorado. The Open House idea was great for that, so that we could bring everyone to one place and serve them so yummy food, too! 

We wanted to say a huge thank you to the 35+ people that came out on Sunday, and for those who couldn't make it that sent their thoughts & prayers. We felt very encouraged and rejuvenated afterward, and loved getting to see each of you again! We have SUCH an amazing group of people on our ministry and prayer team!

In case you missed it, here's a little peak of Sunday's Open House. The weather was absolutely beautiful, and an almost mountain Fall-like feeling, so we pulled together the lawn furniture to the front yard and hosted the party on the front porch. Aside from having an excuse to try out this adorable cheese and grapes sunflower, I also served a double batch of my family recipe for Yum Mexican Chicken Dip straight from the crockpot, and there wasn't a spoonful left to speak of at the end! 

Monday:

On Monday, my best friend Caroline was sweet enough to spend her day off from work driving all the way from Lynchburg, VA to come see us in Covington ... and help us PACK! That's what I call a great friend!! Caroline spent the day catching up with me, then first helping me decide on what to pack for our training in Colorado (since the temperatures will most likely be between 35 and 75 degrees any day, it was a hard decision!), and second helping me inventory and pack up some of the piles of things that is already laid out to go to Honduras with us. And on top of that, we also found the time to try our hand at making homemade cheez-its (um, awesome) and make a yummy dinner of fajitas & homemade queso dip!

Homemade Cheez-Its! And only 4 ingredients :) 

Bonus... today, Tuesday, Sept. 17: 

Today is Jamey's dad's actual birthday, and he is currently enjoying his homemade cinnamon sugar covered pecans his coworkers made for him, and is about to enjoy a homemade crust chicken pot pie we're making for his dinner tonight! Can you tell we love food around here? :)

We also just ended our "sending" phone call with GCM, GCLA, and NLCF to discuss our final expectations and preparations... more on that later!