personal // gracia -- easter conference 2015

As some of you may know from us talking about it last year, the whole week of Easter is celebrated in Honduras. Mostly everyone is off from work and goes on some sort of vacation or on a trip to see family that lives further away. Within GCLA, we celebrate "Semana Santa" (Holy Week) with an annual Easter conference that takes place from Wednesday to Friday in San Pedro Sula. It concludes on Friday, as Good Friday is the major celebrated day of the week (rather than Resurrection Sunday, as it is for us back in the U.S.).

The annual conference is really big; it gathers together various people from the over 30 churches in the network. 

This year the conference was called "Gracia" (grace). We especially enjoyed talks about how God can work in our lives when we live in humility, about how there comes a point in every lost person's life that only grace can truly save them, and much more. Obviously, grace is an absolutely crucial topic for our faith.

While we could list out all of the things we did on our trip, we think it is more important to be real and honest about our week. Missionary life is far from perfect and sometimes would not even be described as good. Any missionary will tell you that your purpose in being here is God teaching you about all of the ugly in yourself just as much as it is you attempting to be the hands and feet. But sometimes we feel that people expect a lot of of us (and sometimes we even expect a lot of ourselves) and for that reason, we can easily get caught up in listing all of the things we did. It can often be a product of our U.S. "do, do, do" checklist mentality.

But we are broken. Yes, even especially missionaries. So not only did we celebrate that Christ is Risen, but this Easter we took extra time to take moments to introspectively look at all of the other blessings and examples of grace in our lives. We'd like to share those moments of blessing and thanksgiving with you.

1) When we traveled on Tuesday to San Pedro Sula, a dangerous city in Honduras, we had something unfortunate happen to us and were able to be taken advantage of because of the large amount of corruption that exists in Honduras with the government, police, people, etc.

But we clearly felt the hand of God protecting us every bit of the way. Also, we were never alone, and felt so loved on by the extended large family of Hondurans we were traveling with. Each moment of being with them was an extension of the love of Christ.

2) This year we did not have English translation like we did last year, but instead listened to and experienced every moment of the conference in Spanish. There were rapidly-spoken skits/plays, session talks that lasted at least 45 minutes each, and so many people to reconnect with from all over the various churches. Our brains were so exhausted at points, which the hot, HOT weather did not help.

But, quite literally by the grace of God, we were able to understand! We learned beautiful new songs that we actually understood the meaning of and could genuinely worship, rather than just trying to hum along. We pleasantly surprised many people as we were able to actually hold conversations with -- some that we hadn't seen since last year -- rather than just nod and smile, say hello, and say "I'm fine, how are you?". We took dozens of notes in a constructive meeting for all of the children's development centers (CDIs) and we are going home more educated -- even though it was all back and forth conversation in Spanish. God is so good!

3) We were busy and there was a lot more going on for us this year. We felt like it was not really a time of rest and "a week off", but actually a time where we would crawl into the bed at midnight and immediately fall asleep. There were times when we felt out of our element, not in control, and we were internally conflicted once again by cultural differences about various things. 

But, we spent some really good time with great friends, got to help out friends, and even help put on a birthday party. We felt more like we knew what was going on this time around, but more importantly we were able to accept that wherever our time was spent is not always our call. It's always a good stretching experience when you have to practice giving up control especially for us as North Americans.  I think that God could teach us all something about that.  

Happy Easter everyone! We hope that you end the holiday feeling just loved, cared for, taught, and guided by Christ as we did.   

personal // better late than never! EOYR for 2014

The first two weeks of this new year have really caught me off guard! I was not prepared to start the new year and all that it entails yet! Part of the reason is because we were home in Virginia visiting family until January 5th and actually got back to our own apartment in Honduras on the night of Jan 6th. So, I sort of pretended that the new year didn't start until Jan 7th. So in my pretend world, 2015 has only been around for 6 days. :) So maybe you all can pretend with me that this post isn't THAT late?

Last year Jamey and I did a "End of Year Review" post in the beginning of 2014 and I have sincerely loved getting to go back and read it and see all that made up our year in 2013. Mainly because I have a very bad memory and everything starts to run together for me after a while. So, I didn't want to miss out on the opportunity to do it again this year and talk about 2014.

So here we go! Our End of Year Review for 2014. 

What did you do in 2014 that you had never done before?
- We learned a language.... like, actually learned it! For the first few months we were just making out what people were saying to us and nodding and smiling. Responding with "yes", "no", and "I don't know". Cognate words (words that look and sound the similar in different languages) really helped us to get started. Then, we found the "sabor" (flavor) of the language. We enjoyed that much more! Finding "flavorful" words that mean a lot in Spanish really helped us to get our point across and now, though we will always be learning more, we actually enjoy speaking in Spanish! Check one off the bucket list!

What are you most happy about completing?
- Building www.totalwater.org -- the website for the ministry Jamey began in partnership with GCLA, called Total Water. This was one of the biggest things (besides starting the ministry, of course) that we completed this year and it truly was a labor of love. We have so much respect for people who work in that industry and are constantly designing new things. It's amazing and really hard to do!

What song will always remind you of 2014?
- Just like last year, we just can't pick ONE single song. And so, we have categories yet again. :) Pop favorites: Shake it off by Taylor Swift and Ghost by Ella Henderson. These two songs were on repeat many a time in 2014, and were also often played when we needed a sing/dance break in the middle of our days! Country genre: Sweet Annie by Zac Brown Band and From this Valley by the The Civil Wars. Both had melodies that were soothing and sounded like home. And lastly, we would normally included a category of Christian music, but it just so happens that most of the Christian music we listened to in 2014 was in Spanish. So I'm not sure whether to call this section Christian or Spanish, but nevertheless they are: Gloria en lo Alto by Christine D'Clario and Eterno Amor by Hillsong.

What was your favorite meal?
- We probably ate our own weight in Honduran Empanadas this year after our friend Tania introduced them to us and then Lesley started making them for the kids at the Danli Children's Development Center. It was the number one most requested meal by the students and they would keep coming back for more leftovers until there were none left... but also always sent one or two home with Lesley to give to Jamey. :) In our home, homemade pizza was a definite favorite. Lesley finally perfected her pizza crust recipe and Jamey declared it better than Digiorno Pizza. He's sweet, huh?

What was your favorite TV program?
- Lesley: Grey's Anatomy; Yes, she started it in 2014 and made it through the 9 seasons that are available on Netflix. And can't believe she never watched it before now!!
- Jamey: Reckless; This was another Netflix find, but introduced to us by Jamey's mom. It's first season aired as a summer show, and was set in Charleston, SC. We all adored it, and then went to see when the next season would start. We found out that it had not been renewed and cried our eyes out. We want another network to pick it up!! Long live Roy Rader.

What was your favorite film of this year?
- Well, we didn't see many of the movies that came out in 2014, to be honest. But, we really enjoyed the ones we were able to see, which was Divergent (caught it on a plane ride. Yay free movies on Delta flights!) and The Hunger Games, Mockingjay Pt 1. Yes, we realize there are some similarities between these two and another 2014 movie, The Giver. But we liked them all! Hopefully eventually we will catch up on the movies we missed in 2014.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2014.
- People are people, no matter the language, country, or culture. Also, DO NOT buy a fridge without a full-on separate door for the freezer. It's a mess.

What are you most grateful for this past year?
- Internet access and modern advances in communication for missionaries! We could Skype with friends in Swaziland, Africa y'all. That's just too great. And we know that people who moved overseas years ago did not have these technologies (and some still don't!) and we are so incredibly grateful for them.

What restaurant did you eat at most often?
- Every Saturday night, we get out of church between 8pm and 8:30, depending on our responsibilities and how much we chat. Then we are super hungry and go get Baleadas at one of the church deacon's stores just like half of the church does. So, you could say we went there a LOT. Also, Pizza Hut. It's the one American chain restaurant in Danli, Honduras and sometimes we wanted U.S. food.

Did you attend any weddings or major personal events for friends and family in 2014?
Yes! Jamey was a groomsman in Josh and Louisa Hammett's wedding in July 2014.

What did you wear most often in your closet?
- If we're being honest, Jamey often looked like a Target employee through a lot of 2014; he really loved to wear a combination of a plain red t-shirt and khaki shorts. But, his newest and most used addition to his "look" were his glasses, which he'd never really been accustomed to wearing regularly, but came to love! For Lesley, she finally gave in to a life-long fear of wearing extremely light colored jeans and bought a capri pair from Loft, which she wore ALL the time. (Hey, the fear was a result of being a 90's baby, okay? We were put in some pretty terrible outfits.) Also, she lived in sandals permanently (even during times she probably should have been wearing tennis shoes.) We live in permanent summer!

What did you really, really, really get excited about?
- Our rug in our living room. It's a small 8x5 rug that we found for like $30 in Tegucigalpa, and it has brought so much happiness to us and people who visited our apartment! You always, always wear shoes inside in Honduras, so this little spot is the one place we take our shoes off and rub our feet on. Once, we had teenagers from another city staying with us and they admitted to having stayed up for hours the night before just walking all over this rug because it was so soft. haha!

Also, Lesley probably got unreasonably excited about school supplies in 2014, but after a school supplies drive we did for the children's development center, we realized just how much having supplies changes everything!

Where did you feel most connected to God this year?
- Sunsets. Danli, Honduras where we live has some wonderful pink and orange soft sunsets that we really love. But really anywhere we were, we always took a moment to just be still and know during the sunsets.

What was a memorable gift you gave this year and who was it too?
- All of the memorable gifts that we gave this year were small things but that meant a lot to someone else. We found vanilla and cherry Cokes for a friend who had always wanted to try them, and he felt really special that we remembered him and got them for him. We also found someone who was willing to give shoes to one of ours students who's only pair had burned in a house fire. When we visited homes, we gave crayons to the little kids and sat down to draw pictures with them. Things like these were the most memorable!

What was a fun surprise you had this year?
- We were pleasantly and hilariously surprised with our Honduran friends' obsession with a pumpkin spice candle from Walmart that we were sent in Lesley's birthday care package. It is to the point where if friends are over, the candle MUST be burning and be in the "special spot" for best smell distribution throughout the apartment. :) Also, finding chai latte mix in the capital city. That was a really big win for us!

Looking into 2015... what does it hold for you?
- Total Water project construction,
- More mission teams this year than ever before,
- An intern living with us,
- Jamey's parents visiting Honduras (and first time ever leaving the U.S.!)

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!

right now // just one of those (stretching) days

Lots of our normal expat life changes, we have gotten used to: not drinking tap water, not flushing the toilet paper, and not always understanding conversations with too many people speaking our second language all at the same time. But what we've still had a hard time adjusting to are tasks that used to be so simple for us to do, being very difficult and overly complicated because of language barriers and cultural differences.

We learned a saying at our missionary training, and that was "it's not bad, just different."  My wife and I have definitely had to repeat this to ourselves multiple times during our first 9 months here. 

One of the biggest "simple" tasks that has caused me the biggest frustration and stress since being here happened just the other week with our car. We realized that we had an oil leak and the car needed to go into the car shop. Thankfully it wasn't a very big leak! In the U.S. this wouldn't have been a big deal, I would have taken the car into a shop that I trusted, asked them to fix it, waited for it, paid and been on my way. This wasn't exactly the case here.

Thankfully we have a very good friend who owns a tire business here who I called to take me to a trusted mechanic. When we showed up, it was very much a hole in the wall little place, parts laying everywhere, old broken down cars, no roof, dirt floor. It was not really a garage, basically a piece of land filled with junk to the side of the owners home where they use regular ol' car jacks to jack up the cars whenever the need to get underneath for anything! I was a little nervous at first and I know that sometimes the "hole in the wall" places turn out to be the best places. I just trusted my friend! 

They looked at my car and discovered it pretty quickly that it was a washer that had broken that was causing the oil leak.  He told me it wouldn't take very long to fix, but my "frictiones" were worn down and needed replaced. I could NOT figure out what he meant by this and every time I asked my friend and the mechanic what it was, they would say it again but only faster, which was not helpful to me.  I even texted Lesley and asked her to translate the word for me I was so anxious about it.  It's a really difficult place to be in mentally when someone is looking at something as big as your car, wanting to do something to the functionality of it, and you cannot understand at all what is going on. I have not learned a lot of words for car parts just yet!

Once I finally figured out what "frictiones" meant (which is break pads), I agreed to have them replace those too.  I knew that it was getting close to time for replacement, but in the commotion of everything that morning, I had forgotten to ask them to take a look at those. And honestly, if I had taken a second to really think about it "frictiones" sounds like friction which then would have made me think break pads! But, I didn't take the time to think about it before freaking out in my head. Definitely a moment where I felt like God was trying to teach me a lot in this area! After figuring all of this out, I thought it was going to be no time before I was out of there, fix the washer and replace the break pads, but again I thought wrong.  God had more learning experiences planned for me.  The next few steps of the day consisted of:

• walking 5 blocks to the bank because the car "shop" doesn't accept debit cards
• having the ATM go out of service when I get there 
• convincing the teller at the window to allow me to withdraw with only my debit card and ID
• continuing to not understand everything in the car conversation or be told everything
• the mechanic going to every parts store in Danli to find the washer but not succeeding
• paying the mechanic to go around to all of the parts stores to look for the part
• multiple phone calls to parts stores in the capital city of Honduras for the washer

Four hours later it was determined that we would wait on the parts store from the capital city to bring the part later that afternoon around 2PM and I would come back to pick up the car before closing. So I then go home and wait for a phone call that didn't come until about 4:30PM saying that my car was ready. I walked to get the car and everything was fixed and good to go! Gracias a Dios! I was even able to have a conversation with some of the workers about what brought us to Honduras, our ministry, Jesus, our church and where it's located, and I invited them to church.  It was definitely an opportunity given to me in God's perfect timing.  Because if the opportunity for this conversation had presented itself during the morning, I probably wouldn't have seen the opportunity because I was so wrapped up in what was going on.  

This reminded me of two verses, one is 2 Timothy 4:2 which says "Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction."  The other is from Colossians 4:5 which says, "Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity."  These both reminding me to seize every opportunity that God puts in front of me to be a witness and and example for Him.  It was amazing to see the difference between the morning and the afternoon. 

God taught me a lot through this day and experience including:

• Patience being the most important - Colossians 3:12
• To open my eyes and be aware of the opportunities He puts in front of me, and take them
• Trust Him in all circumstances even with the most simplest of things (this one is hard for me!)
• "It's not bad, it's just different" and God created each person and culture
• My challenges in the field are experiences that God is using to make me a better follower of Him

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.

personal // a year in review... {happy 2014!}

What did you do in 2013 that you had never done before?
well. moving to a developing country is our "easy answer"; but ALSO, Jamey saw the Rocky Mountains for the first time, Lesley traveled internationally by herself, and Jamey rode the Intimidator 305 at Kings Dominion multiple times in a row (anyone who has ridden it knows that's an accomplishment!).

What was your biggest achievement of the year?
having a conversation completely in Spanish with no translator AND becoming 100% fully support raised and getting released to assignment!

What are you most happy about completing?
TWO huge moves in one year! The first was moving out of our first married home, and packing up everything that was his, hers, and ours together for the first time. But the craziest part was packing it all up to be left for four years! It's hard to know what you will and won't need between now and then. ;) The second move was mastering the art of packing everything especially crucial into just 5 bags and getting them all to another country. When we got here, we then had to do things like purchase appliances! We had never done that before even in the States!

Goodbye Warrenton, Va and Covington, VA -- HELLO Honduras!

What was your biggest failure?
We learned that Jamey can't even make baked spaghetti unsupervised when the prepared noodles, sauce, and cheese are provided for him... thus proving Jamey's need for his wife's cooking.

What song will always remind you of 2013?
Okay, let's be real. Since both of us are answering this question, there is no way we could only answer with one song. Here's the list: Songs that hit close to where we were with our faith this year: "Oceans" by: Hillsong and "Whom Shall I Fear {God of Angel Armies}" by: Chris Tomlin. The country songs that absolutely remind us of home and represented country music right this year: "We Were Us" by: Keith Urban & Miranda Lambert and "Southern Comfort Zone" by: Brad Paisley. And the fun song that we listened to more than any other song this year and still never got tired of: "Catch My Breath" by: Kelly Clarkson. (And let's just say that that song made Jamey's year.)

*disclaimer: we know that two of these songs debuted at the end of 2012, but they sure had a good run in 2013 too. :)

What was your favorite meal?
Our first time going to our new favorite restaurant in the South, TUPELO HONEY CAFE!!! Lord have mercy!

The best sweet tea, biscuits & blueberry preserves we've ever had, along with a perfect
meal of mac & cheese, asparagus, bbq pork, parmesan corn-on-the-cob and sweet potato fries! 

What was your favorite TV program?
Both of us: Friends (of course) because we've made our way through all ten seasons in the past year because Jamey got the whole set for Christmas 2012 in order to take it to Honduras with us. No gift Lesley has given him has ever paid off more. :)
Jamey's: Last Man Standing (because Jamey's dad got him hooked)
Lesley's: Castle (because Jamey's mom finally succeeded at getting her completely hooked)

What was your favorite film of this year?
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire; because it was way better than the first one, because it blew our minds, because it inspired us to finally read all the books, and because we got to see it in theaters in Honduras in English!

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013.
If saying goodbye hurts, it just means you loved well.... AND always where shoes, even inside, in Central America. (This is something that we are not quite used to yet, but we have finally decided to comply with.)

How had you positively influenced a child this year?
Lesley taught one of her nanny kiddos, Scarlett, to read (yay!) and now is moving on to teaching this sweetie, Bryan, his first words in English because he wants to learn so badly!

Scarlett (left) with her first 50 sight words that she could spell immediately just from memory;
Bryan (right) with his first page of English words that he asked to learn.

What are you most grateful for this past year?
Getting to spend some time at home before leaving the country, and especially the time we got to spend living at Jamey's parents house. Lesley even came to love all of the family pets in her own way and cried to leave them. :)

What restaurant did you eat at most often?
Chickfila .. Jamey would make us wait to eat until he found one of them while traveling for support raising! And the we also had to hunt one down while in Colorado so Jamey could get his sweet tea fix. (Mission accomplished!)

Did you see any art shows or theatrical productions this year?
We finally had time to go see our first play as a married couple that wasn't produced by the local middle school! We saw the stage production of Steel Magnolias at one of the oldest community theatres in the country on our one year anniversary trip. It was awesome! (And Jamey liked it too.)

Did you attend any weddings or major personal events for friends and family in 2013?
Yes! Three weddings this year, and one of us participated in each one of them. First we had Jenna & Brandon's and Alex & Nicole's, that Lesley was so excited and grateful to be the wedding coordinator for! Then Jamey was one of the groomsmen in Matt & Allison's summer wedding. Also, we returned to Blacksburg to see some sweet friends graduate from the a-ma-zing Virginia Tech.

Three wonderful weddings that we LOVED being a part of!!

Did you have any surgeries this year?
Jamey had his wisdom teeth removed! And he tried to convince Lesley the whole way home that she didn't know the right way to drive us back to our apartment in Warrenton. Too funny.

What did you wear often in your closet?
Jamey: His $10 dollar  gray shorts find at TJ Maxx that he never took off again.

Lesley: She finally caved and bought her first pair of Crocs for Honduras. They are even more comfortable than walking barefoot! 

What did you really, really, really get excited about?
Lesley: launching our blog and getting a lot better at learning to do it AND a years worth of recipes recreated successfully -- there were some big triumphs in that category this year!
Jamey: our family beach vacation in July. He talked about it for months before and then when the day came to leave for the beach, we're pretty sure we could not have left early enough in the morning for Jamey's liking.
Both of us: finally making it back to Lane Stadium for a Hokie football game as alumni!

Our family vacation at the beach!

Where did you feel most connected to God this year?Just the feeling of being surrounded by other missionaries and hearing so much from the Lord at Mission Training International.

What was one memorable gift you gave this year and who was it too?
Actually successfully giving Jamey's dad a surprise retirement and 60th birthday party without him knowing about it AND creating his big present of scrapbooks of all of his newspaper clippings from over the years, all right under his nose!!

What was a fun surprise you had this year?
This is so random, but we were moving to Honduras just 5 and a half weeks before Christmas, so we weren't planning on purchasing a Christmas tree because we were going to be putting a new house together and buying so many basic necessities already. However, we were pleasantly surprised that because we bought a love-seat and two stuffed chairs for our living room area, the store here gave us a free 4 foot little Christmas tree and a gift card for a some ornaments for it. We have enjoyed it so much that we just don't want to take it (or our precious Christmas wreath) down!

Looking into 2014... what does it hold for you?
1 // Living Water International will be joining the team in Choluteca and Jamey will be working alongside them
2 // We will be "hosting" the Virginia Tech annual mission trip in March for the first time from Honduras
3 // Finishing our language and cultural studies in Choluteca, and moving to Danli, Honduras in the spring
4 // Attending our first big GCLA conference as missionaries in Honduras (during Easter!)
5 // Our second wedding anniversary! :)

personal // christmas 2013

On the week of Christmas, we made the best plans. Instead of staying in Choluteca, where we currently live and having a quiet little Christmas in our apartment (because our friends would also be out of town with their family), we decided to travel too! We went on a little adventure to see all of the other friends that we have in Honduras, including our beloved friends at the church we feel called to be working with very soon in Danli.

One wonderful early Christmas present we were given was we actually got to travel and see ALL of the other friends we have in Honduras -- while making a transportation switch-over in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, we got to meet up with our dear friends Jim & Sonia Bridge, whom we got to know while at Mission Training International, for an hour and a half! God is so good; He provides gift after gift for us daily. How wonderful that we were able to meet missionaries that would be serving in the same country as us; how wonderful that we would also be blessed enough to see them for CHRISTMAS!

Getting to see our missionary friends, Jim & Sonia, in Tegucigalpa before heading to Danli. 

Some of our best friends from Danli, Luis & Belkis, had invited us to stay with their family for Christmas. We've stayed with them on previous mission trips. It was such a delight! They picked us up in Tegucigalpa after our three hour bus ride there, and we talked the whole drive home. It had been almost two years since we had spent time together! We could hardly believe it had been that long, because it didn't feel like any time at all. When we arrived in Danli, we immediately began helping the family run errands and prepare for our Christmas celebration; we had just one day after we arrived to get everything ready because in Honduras, they celebrate on Christmas Eve night -- with a big Christmas dinner at about 8:30pm with celebrations lasting into the night. At midnight, people all over set off fireworks and hug each other rejoicing. You're up until at least 2am, if not longer, and pretty much everyone eats Honduran nacatomales and torrejas. Actually, we had a lot of torrejas for several days before and after Christmas! (It's a dessert of cinnamon bread cooked down in a sweet leche sauce. Yum!)

But, on the day before Christmas we had a really important job to do: drive all the way up to the top of a mountain (a very, very bumpy ride, might I add) to a farm to select & retrieve our huge pig to be prepared for Christmas dinner. Our friends had joked that that they were going to make Jamey catch and kill the pig. Thankfully for Jamey they were kidding. :) Here's some pictures from the absolutely beautiful top of the mountain -- we sincerely wish these landscapes were our 100% all-the-time-real-life.

We had to add the pictures of the turkeys from the farm because these two enjoyed chasing Lesley around the farm that day! And their "gobble" hilariously sounded EXACTLY like Hokie game days in Lane Stadium.

Just one view from the top!

The "lagoon" where the tilapia live and grow!

Our silly "little sisters", Lia & Mimi, enjoying some hammock time while waiting on the pig to be done. haha!

Luis grilling half a sack of corn-on-the-cob for Christmas with lime and salt on top! 

After all of the fun on Christmas Eve night, there is a lot of sleeping, cleaning up, and eating leftovers. For us personally, we woke up just before 8am to make sure to video call with our families and siblings! Lesley's grandma in particular thought that video calling was something extremely "nifty", giggled the whole time, and used the call as a "show and tell" time. Then we used the rest of the day to get really good at new card games we were learning from our friends! The family asked Lesley to make lunch that day, with a special request -- her version of spaghetti :) Unfortunately, it hasn't been perfected using Honduran ingredients yet. But it was good to practice again and to get to serve them in that way.

Also on Christmas day, Jamey and Luis (the husband of the family we stayed with, who is a deacon at the church in Danli) went to the dump directly to take the trash from Christmas, so that they could also take extra food to the children that live there and share the Gospel with them.  This was definitely a very meaningful moment for Jamey.

During our week stay, we also were so glad that we went to the Danli church to see what has been updated since we were last there in person! We were so thrilled with and impressed by the additions that have been made to the children's nutrition clinic on site and with the stage in the main church building. It all looks SO great!

The new stage design (left) and the view from the new second story of the nutrition clinic (right). 

Lesley in front of the nutrition clinic, and Jamey with our tour guides,
Luis & his little shadow, Eimi (affectionately called Mimi.) 

We were so thankful for this trip for so many reasons; not only did we get the chance to spend Christmas with people who love and care about us so much (even when we were far away from home) and get to learn about Honduran holiday traditions, but we also were able to reconnect with God in a brand new way about His original calling for this to be our lives in Honduras. We were also able to have talks with some of the leaders about their vision for the future of the church and the communities in Danli as well as our future roles in helping to advance the Gospel in Danli. It was truly a time of rejoicing in Him. Also, as it would have it, we've officially been taking Spanish language lessons for a little over a month now and this trip served as almost a "end-of-the-first-month-exam" for us! This was both of our first trips to Danli with no translators and staying with a family where no one speaks English. Truly by the grace of God, we were able to make it the whole week with little to no confusion and with having wonderful conversations! Of course, it helped that it was two of us working as a team to listen carefully and "translate" in our minds, but we know that it sincerely helped our Spanish SO MUCH. You can't learn a language without practicing it, and there is no better way to practice it than to absolutely have to use it! 

Just a few last pictures we just really want to show (because we know you think that's the best part just like we do):

Jamey getting a LOT of driving experience in Danli! This photo was on our way to
 going to see one of the funniest people we know, Miguel! 

The view from hiking up on the side of the mountain where one of the huge cross statues
is in Danli early in the morning on the day that we left. 

personal // first stop: Choluteca, Honduras

As you all know, our “first stop”, or really our first home in Honduras is the city of Choluteca. Our move was the first time we had ever been to this city or this part of the country, so it was definitely been a great learning experience! Here’s a look at our first week:

Our flight path map on the way to Honduras!

On Monday, November 11, we started our day super early -- woke up at 3 am (after going to bed at midnight) and got to the airport by 5AM. We were surprised at the Roanoke Airport by two dear friends and NLCF staff members, Adriana and Jeanette, who came to see us off! Once we got to Atlanta, we didn't even have time to sit down because boarding started so quickly. Then the 3 hour flight to Tegucigalpa! Made it through customs just fine and all of our bags made it!!  Then our friend who works for GCLA, Frank (who has been serving as our translator), the missions coordinator from Choluteca, Levi, and one of the deacons from the church in Danli, Kike, were all there to greet us. We went to lunch and got delicious Honduran food right away (we hadn’t eaten yet, so we were hungry!) and then went to do some more on our residency cards process to further the process along. The ride to Choluteca took about three and a half hours. We were dozing off so much in the backseat of the truck because it got dark at 5:30PM and our bodies wanted the sleep they were lacking! But thankfully, just before then, we were wide awake enough to see this big opening in the mountain valley and the most AMAZING pink sunset. 

Pastor Geovanny's sweet dog, Maya!

For the first week here we stayed at the pastor's house, and his three sweet sons speak English and graciously translated for us when we'd get "stuck" with words in a conversation. We had plenty of Spanish lessons while at their dinner table! But for the first night, they took us out to get Honduran-style pizza: loaded with lots of ham, olives, shrimp and giant mushrooms. Crazy! Honduran Coca-Cola to go with, of course!  The Coca-Cola is different here because they use real un-processed sugar from the sugar canes they grow here in Honduras.  It is much sweeter!

The view from the orphanage and mission's house. 

Tuesday we got taken around to all of the projects that the church does with pastor from the church, our translator, Frank, and his wonderful wife, Emily, who is actually from the U.S.! The church here has several successful projects going on, and we are in awe of the outreach each one achieves. It was so helpful to be toured around each one of them to get a better understanding of how each project operates. We were also taken to community areas where the church has helped specific families and their individual needs. You can see pictures from one of those stories, here.

Our meeting over milkshakes :) 

Wednesday we were around town all day in stores, locating and pricing things we would need to buy for our apartment. While doing so, we were also given a mini "tour" of the heart of Choluteca, seeing the markets,  the church and the church's bilingual school, even a little museum AND a meeting over milkshakes! ;) On Thursday, we selected and reserved our new apartment in Choluteca. We could not be more blessed that the apartment just two doors down and in the same building as Frank & Emily was available.

Friday was a rest day for us, as we had been going non-stop since we arrived in Choluteca, and Lesley wasn’t feeling well. We did, however, attend our first small group meeting that night which was, of course, completely in Spanish. We didn’t understand much, but we did meet a lot of new people, wrote down words that we recognized during the lesson (to encourage ourselves), and the both of us even won a group game (in Spanish, y’all)! It was a good night.

Black sand and Honduran hammocks. Jamey was clearly exhausted from the week!

Saturday we were invited to go to the beach in Choluteca for lunch that was about 45 minutes away, with the pastor of the church in Choluteca and his family, and with one of the pastors from the GCLA church in Tegucigalpa and his family who was in town to visit the church. We rode to the beach with the visiting pastor’s family, and then spent so much time at the beach talking with them. They spoke some English, and their sweet kids were very proficient at English. They helped us with words we were curious about, and taught us some new ones! It was a great time, and we made wonderful new friends. We even received another Christmas invitation from them – we had already been invited to celebrate Christmas with a family in Danli & with a family in Choluteca before that! The beach in Choluteca was very different than any beach we had ever been too. We had both never seen the Pacific Ocean and had never been to a beach with black sand or a beach with a mountain view beside the coast! We were thankful for plenty of shade (and the Honduran hammocks) since it was VERY warm there. We also had the best shrimp we’ve ever had with perfect plantain fries!  

Edwin, our new friend that translated the church service for us!

That evening was our first church service at the GCLA church in Choluteca. This church is much larger than the one in Danli, and we (well, especially Lesley) were very impressed with their music and stage setup! We recognized several songs in Spanish, and loved when the chorus of a song would repeat a lot because then we’d totally have the hang of it then. J We were given a very pleasant surprise when the oldest child of the visiting pastor, Edwin, who is 17, offered to translate the sermon for us over remote headset. He knew we wouldn’t understand much any other way, and he also wanted to get more practice with his live event translation, so he graciously translated the whole thing even though he was very nervous! We were able to take an entire page of notes, which we promptly showed him after the service, to prove to him that he had done a marvelous job for us.

We spent that Sunday going around to various stores to purchase most of the smaller items we would need for our apartment (like curtains, plates, cups, and pots & pans), with our move-in date set for the next day! 

During our second week, we got all moved in to our apartment in town, which thankfully is near a lot of things, since we don’t have a car. (You can watch a tour of the apartment, here!). We can go to the store right beside us to get more filtered water jugs for drinking & cooking and the basics, which is great to have in walking distance. It has also already proven to be both extremely helpful and very fun to be living so close to our amazing friends. They are also being kind enough to let us use their washing machine while we are here so that we don't have to use the concrete washboard all the time! We seriously cannot say enough good things about how irreplaceable they have been to our quick adjustment to this new city, and to navigating living in Honduras in general! They have never been shy to any question, and have been so patient with us.

We spent the week purchasing our furniture and appliances, getting our internet and such things set up, finding a language tutor and unpacking. We moved in with just a bed, fridge, and a borrowed fan the first night, but quickly bought two fans the next day! The second day we did an intense cleaning of the apartment since it had not been occupied in several months, with some much needed help for the first half of the day. It felt so great to unpack! It was hard at first getting used to a new method and style of cooking, to a new grocery store with different items & everything in Spanish, and to a much heavier load of household chores all in one week, but we are starting to get the hang of it!

One of our first language tutoring sessions with Miriam (left);
 Using pictures in order to learn Spanish words, so that we don't use English in the process! (right)

On that Friday, we had our first Spanish language tutoring session in our home. It felt good to start learning! We spent the weekend catching up on communication with our organizations, ministry and prayer teams, and friends & family.

We are now into our regular schedule of language tutoring every afternoon for several hours, Monday through Thursday. It has been essential to have time to get accustomed to prepping our lessons for each day, which takes a significant amount of time. Because our language plan is completely learner-driven, we are responsible for preparing what we’d like to cover for each lesson! Thankfully we were given that incredible language learning plan handbook from our training at MTI!!

Thanks for sticking with us through this long update! We wanted to be sure to let everyone know what our lives are currently looking like this early in. Thanks to everyone who has been praying for our move and adjustment period! You are so appreciated! 

right now // make this place your home.

On this, the day that we are finally getting on that plane to literally change our home and place of residence, we are taking a lot of refuge in the calming, gentle, wonderful sounds of music. And there is a song we'd love to share with you today. 

Ever have those songs that touch you in a way that, to you, they mean whatever you need them to mean? Well this one has been that for us. It's called "Home" by Philip Phillips. Technically, we don't know the meaning of why this song was written or what the words were chosen for. And yes, it was debuted on the (secular) pop music charts. But in just listening to the melody and the lyrics, to us, it feels like it is from the point of view of the Lord, just talking to us. Ever since this song came out (in May 2012, have you!), it has felt like a "chin up, my darling child" sentiment from God, that He is saying,

"we'll get there, we'll get to Honduras, together, and I'll work it all out for you. It will even start to feel like home before I'm done. I'll do everything needed to make it feel that way for you." 

So we'd like to invite you to sit back, read these lyrics, and maybe even listen to this incredible instrumental version (that is enough to make anyone feel loved and provided for by God -- oh, beautiful music.).

"Hold on, to me as we go

As we roll down this unfamiliar road

And although this wave is stringing us along

Just know you're not alone

Cause I'm gonna make this place your home

Settle down, it'll all be clear

Don't pay no mind to the demons

They fill you with fear

The trouble it might drag you down

If you get lost, you can always be found

Just know you're not alone

Cause I'm gonna make this place your home"

We are so thankful for the gift of music that God has given us on this earth, and that it truly is art that can truly be interpreted by the beholder, the one listening and relishing in it. Do you have a "secular" song that means something very spiritual to you? If so, please share it with us in the comment section below!

Thank you all so much for all of your prayers, support, and love that has gotten us to this point. Thank you for believing in God's call for our lives no matter what. We'll let you know as soon as we can that we've made it safe & sound. 

If you'd like to hear the original signing of these lyrics, please click here.  

For other songs that are bringing us comfort & peace today,  here's a few more so you can listen with us:

"Oceans" by: Hillsong United

"What a Friend (We Have in Jesus)" by Chelsea Moon 

"Not For A Moment" by Meredith Andrews

training // a double weekend wrap-up & a birthday

We are loving Colorado and our time spent in community with fellow missionaries about to enter the field so much that we wanted to share about some of our other great experiences here outside of class while you wait for our "part 2" portion of what we're learning about at training. This Saturday marks the end of our training and the end of our cross-cultural training portion of the training. Be on the lookout after that to hear from us on all that we have learned from this second half of training soon!

Our second weekend in Colorado, we went on an adventure out to the Garden of the Gods -- a spot that everyone had told us was a do not miss! We went with our close friends we've made here, Casey and Keri. It was such a beautiful day and the sun was so warm coming down on us. The rock formations were awesome and we saw a lot of registered rock climbers enjoying the park, and even accidentally happened upon a wedding! Here are some pictures of the beauty: 

Then after lunch, we headed to this little town called Manitou Springs just to explore. We were quickly told by a local townie that there were 7 naturally carbonated springs full of different minerals that we needed to try while we were there! People have been drinking from them for hundreds of years because of the health benefits of the mineral contents, and each one of them tastes completely different.

Pictures from three different springs that we found & tried!

Well, since we were just along for the ride of whatever this town had to offer, we went off to find them! They were truly very different from each other just as had been described to us! Thankfully that sweet lady had also given us some little cups to use so we didn't just dunk our faces in. :) 

Lesley's birthday was on the following Thursday, but we can still count it in the double weekend wrap-up, right? Well, it was the deepest, most stressful day of our training but Jamey made sure we still celebrated it well! He had a surprise cake brought out at our community lunch AND took Lesley out for a dinner date complete with an ice cream run! It was so great to get our own little alone time away from the training center. 

Our new friends at MTI also helped make Lesley's birthday extra special as well! It was so amazing. They decorated our room door with signs, balloons, and gifts and were so, so gracious to us and showed us that they have been really been paying attention to things we like! They thoughtfully stocked Lesley up on her favorite candy, tea, a Spanish gift bag, AND got her a new Camelbak water bottle for Honduras since her's was breaking. It was such a blessing! She also got mailed cards and gifts from family, including a beautiful arrangement of flowers! She felt so loved and at home for our first birthday away from Virginia.

This past weekend, we intentionally spent time having a more calm down time since our lives will be getting much crazier and more fast-paced as soon as we leave training. On Saturday morning, Jamey spent time with 4 other friends tackling a really difficult 1500 piece puzzle, and Lesley had a ladies coffee & tea morning with her small group here to share our life stories with one another. 

We then went out to Red Robin for lunch to get Lesley's free birthday burger (and endless fries!!) and something wonderful happened.... 

...... our HOKIES were on the tv right in front of us! While we were in Colorado! It was wonderful! 

Later on that day, Lesley spent the afternoon babysitting for a couple she's gotten to know here that has four kids so that they could go on one last huge shopping trip to get everything they need to move to Niger. Jamey got invited to go play mini golf (where he got completely beat!), and we spent the rest of the day just resting our bodies and minds. 

We were overjoyed on Sunday when we found a church that we really loved with awesome biblical teaching. We and our friends left feeling so refreshed from the sermon; it was exactly what we needed, especially after the draining week we had. Then for the rest of the day, Jamey went on a hike with a bunch of the guys from our training class, and Lesley had re-doing nail polish party with some of the little girls & their moms, and painted a lot of tiny little polka dots on tiny little finger nails. :) 

We having been SOAKING in the wealth of knowledge we are receiving here, and we are so excited to share it with you in just few short days! Please be praying with us that our last days here will go well, as well as our goodbyes with our great new friends.