Highlights From Honduras

We've got lots of catching up to do! I've been waiting to share my experience in Honduras with you but have been having technical problems with my blog. Finally, it seems that I may have found a way around them. 


The mission to Honduras was incredible. We spent 2 weeks ministering in 2 cities, Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula. I've tried to capture some of my most memorable experiences into short stories. The first is about a girl named Yensi who I met on our first day at a girl’s teen detention center called Mujeres Adolecentes. 


Our team was hosting a craft making bracelets. We passed out the materials and watched as the girls happily started on their jewelry. All but one. 

Yensi sat at the corner table with her head resting  on her folded arms, staring past the beads and string. I made my way over, sat across from her, and in my broken Spanish  asked if she needed help. Without looking up, she said no. Fumbling through our language barrier, I asked what was wrong and understood only one word of her response. “Triste”. It was enough. One of the few words I remembered from high school Spanish class. Triste means sad. 

I called a translator to help me continue talking with her and found out more of her story... Yensi was 14 years old. She was in the detention center for protection. The police arrested her mother on drug charges and found Yensi had been sold by her mother to a man for sexual purposes in order to feed her habit. Yensi lived with this man for 3 months before the police found her. She spoke very stoically about this until she explained how much she missed her sister. That’s when the tears came. Her 12 year old sister was living with an aunt and Yensi desperately wanted to see her.

I tried to comfort and encourage Yensi with the scriptures that tell of God’s love for her, that He sees all, and that He has a purpose for her. She quietly listened as the translator shared my words. I prayed with her asking God to reveal Himself clearly and have His way. After we prayed, the girl next to Yensi began helping her make the bracelet and the translator and I  moved on to  check on the other girls.

Her story echos in my head and heart standing in stark contrast to the tame life I live. I am reminded that the light shines brighter in the darkest places. And Yensi has been in terribly dark places. God’s grace and healing power are magnified in the deepest pain and the most heinous sin. That is my hope and prayer for Yensi. That she would embrace the magnitude of God’s grace and healing through His son. 

The good kind of busy...

I classify my busyness into two categories. The "good" kind is when my time is accounted for with meaningful, productive activity where, at the end of an exhausting day, I collapse into bed confident that every opportunity recognized was seized. The "other" kind is when I collapse into bed wondering how I could spend an entire day on Facebook, Hulu, and blog surfing can be so exhausted without anything to show for it. Recently there have been more good than other which explains why the long delay in updating the blog.

I am working on 3 projects this summer that have been tiresome but rewarding.  In 2 weeks I head out with a team from my church to Honduras on a mission trip. We'll be visiting orphanages and partnering with a local church to do outreach. In August I'll be leading worship for a women's conference here in Newport News. Since this venue is a pretty big deal, we've devoted lots of time for preparation and rehearsals. Finally, in the midst of everything else, I am working on another recording project. This project is much more organic and has a lot more of my fingerprints on the process which means there's lots of learning on my part!

During this season of putting feet to my recent ideas/dreams/goals I find it imperative that I stay focused and intentional with my time which means, most likely, sporadic blogging. I give a holler here and there to let you know I'm still around. Until then, enjoy the start of summer!