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

thought of the day // june 16

source: www.water.org

right now // june 2014

Right now we are...

ENJOYING the rainy season in the mountains more than we thought we would! We weren't sure how "intense" the rainy season would be, but so far at least the downpours have been happening towards the end of the day and it makes the evening air feel and smell so good. Don't get us wrong, the rain comes down really hard when it's actually happening, but it's also fun to listen to.


LEARNING more places in town where we can buy things as locally as possible. We want to support the local economy, but more importantly we want to get to know this city like the back of our hand so that we can know even more of the people in it and form even more relationships. Thankfully, we have sweet friends who are sending us to their "best people" to buy things from. We're trying to learn the Honduran way of buying certain things at the "special" place to them. We know a few, but we still only shop about three different places. Our friends have told us that we still haven't found all of the best ones yet!


LOVING how much the CDI children are loving our new technique for our English classes. It's our own take on language learning that we were taught at our training at Mission Training International (for adults!), but we realized that kids can pay so much more attention to the funny words that you're saying (read: English words) when they have pictures and cards that they can hold and work with. Last week we made a sentence forming game out of the cards and the kids said "I can speak real English!".


FORGETTING to cut Jamey's hair. Somehow, we remember when he's out in public and looks a bit shaggy, but we always forget when we're at home trying to get other things done. Poor Jamey. Doesn't help that Lesley is nervous every time she thinks about cutting it (again). That might be helping her forget.


LOOKING forward to our trip to the States at the end of this month. It'll be jammed-packed busy, with a mix of work, fun, and personal errands, but we know anything will be a great time when we can speak 100% in our native language. (Well, we could have secret conversations in Spanish but our family might not understand us.) We're already contemplating ways to fit as much as possible in our suitcases again when we're on the way back!


HELPING to plan an event in Jamey's hometown to share about how people can become more involved with the children's development center that we work with here at our local church in Danli. We're so excited to be able to help out with this vision for gathering local churches in the Covington area to work together for this cause. Be on the lookout for more information about this event (happening in the first week of July). We'll be there speaking!


TRYING these new reusable paper towels to try to be more green + save money while living in Honduras. Sounds funny, I know, but they're made by the Clorox brand (so they must be legit, right?) and they can be used, rinsed, and reused up to twenty times. We're hoping for big things with these cool towels. There little to no recycling programs in most of Honduras except for 1) people burning their trash on the side of the road (burning plastic...ouch, my lungs!) or 2) people, mostly children, who "work" certain communities each day on that neighborhood's trash day to go through the bags of trash that were put out for plastic bottles before the city trash workers pick them up. They'll then go make a few cents for every bottle by selling them to a recycling company.

friday photo dump // may 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Larissa singing at church from Jamey Smith on Vimeo.