It's been forever, but I just had to get in the blog zone again, this time  about my experience in Honduras this past week.  Every summer, I head down there with a group from our church we spend 11 days building houses, feeding the poor, visiting hospitals and children's homes and sharing the Good News.  I enjoy all of those activities but most of all, I really love working with the children's homes.  We usually do VBS or carnivals at the children's homes and I end up wanting to take one of the children home (which is impossible unless you are a citizen).  This year I spent 3 days at a place called DIDASKO (from the greek "to teach") and absolutely fell in love with the place.  DIDASKO is run by an awesome Honduran couple named Jorge and Rose.  It is one of the only homes run exclusively by Hondurans (most of the rest are funded by and directed by Americans).  Anyways, the first day I got off the bus and there was this small group of girls about 9-11 years old, invited me to a game of "keep the ball away from the gringo" which was quite entertaining for them, and quite exhausting for me.  After that I got out my notepad and started drawing pictures and writing the words in spanish, and then they would take turns doing the same, so they learned some English, and I learned more Spanish.  This continued into the next day I was there, so I have a note pad full of simple phrases and pictures.  The last day I was there, we were setting up to do a big carnival for the kids and that group of 4 girls came up the hill carrying some gift bags and with much excitement, brought them to me.  I was absolutely speechless.  I have done this for 7 years and have never had this happen.  I would never have dreamed of or expected folks in this extreme poverty to give back so abundantly.  I just about broke down right there and fortunately, I had a translator right next to me, because in addition to the gifts, the each had written very nice letters thanking me and asking me to never forget them.  The gifts were very thoughtful, they were stuffed animals (the same kind we were drawing and even in the colors we were learning) and a hand made cloth with hand stitched Winnie the Pooh on it.  It was priceless, and I was quite sure that these were not "re-gifts" because we had instructed our team not to give out toys and stuffed animals until later that day.  You could tell it was right from their hearts and if you could read the letters it would bring you to tears (just ask my "weepy" translators who read it to me several times).  I always say that I think I get more out of these trips than what I give away, and this year I have experienced that truth more powerfully than ever.  So, Thank you my God and Savior for your love, for your precious children at DIDASKO, and to Evelyn, Estephanie, Maria, and Leticia, I love you all very much, I will never forget you, and pray that we will see each other again in the future, if not in this life, then the next. 

Had an awesome time at Winterfest this past weekend.  It was one of the best ever.  Got home and got sick actually started getting sick on the trip, but bronchitis and sinusitis hit me with a vengeance the last two days.  Thank goodness for amoxicillin.  Gonna try to make it to church tonight to share with the kids how awesome God is while we peer through a sweet telescope at Saturn and hopefully see some of the eclipse. Enjoying hanging with Don, in our new Life Transformation Group. Can't wait to see what God is going to do with us.