Being uncomfortable is something that we all have to deal with at sometime in our lives. To avoid it is to put off the inevitable. I am definitely not doing anything ground breaking but it is great to finally get out of my comfort zone. The first day we got here, the frustration with being alone and unable to communicate with anyone droves us to the brink of insanity. Luckily, we had two students from Oklahoma that spent a few days in Canchias before we got here. We have absolutely no idea where out project is going yet. We were told that in Honduras things go a lot slower. I was prepared for things to run slower but I wasn’t prepared to deal with the extreme frustration of not knowing what we are doing.
The camp that we are staying at this time is a discipleship school for young ministers to learn and serve the community of Canchias. The first day we kept almost entirely to ourselves, Americans on one side of the table and Spanish speakers on the other. That evening, we went to a service (un culto) in Canchias that in run by the students at the discipleship school. It was completely different from anything I could ever experience in the United States. Of course, it was difficult listening to the sermon and singing any songs but I listened patiently. The next day, we still quite didn’t know what was going with our project, but, we helped the staff and students garden and pull weeds. We started to get to know the students and push through our difficulties with speaking Spanish. Afterwards, we went with few of the guy students to play soccer in a nearby field. Milena, our girl teammate, came with us which grew a decent sized crowd. The crowd was absolutely intrigued that there were three Americans playing soccer with Hondurans (We sucked.) The crowd kept cheering for the players to pass to the “Yankees.” At one point one of the more chivalrous students asked Milena if she was tired (Estas cansada Milena?). It has become a running joke between all of us (Cansada sounds like casada which means married.) Our friendship with the students has grown a lot. Yesterday, we watched the soccer game between Chelsea and Spain. The students have nicknamed me Memo which is a nickname for Guillermo which is a translation of the name Guillermo. Last night, a group of 13 Americans came to start working on projects in Honduras and will be helping us out. After all of us, my team, the students, and the 13 Americans, ate dinner, myself and my team hung out with the students. It seems so strange to me that we actual chose to be with people that we couldn’t communicate well with over people who spoke English, but we were just so much closer to them.
In terms of the projects we are starting on, the Model Home Project is going slow but we got started on a project to connect two tanks that are on the camp site where we are staying. Chilo, our boss, constantly told us that we need to slow down and that we were working to fast (Descanzo!). Our work day was four hours in the morning, a two hour break for the Siesta, and then one more hour because it was going to get too hot. Absolutely hilarious considering the American work ethic. We will be working with the Americans that arrived yesterday to finish the project. I have lots of questions because of my engineering mindset, but I don’t quite know how to explain myself. I am working hard to struggle with my Spanish. Everyone appreciates our efforts to speak to them in Spanish and to teach them little bits of English (which we all agree is much harder than Spanish). It was funny talking them about Spelling Bees and that you had to be a genius just spell, write, and speak.
Easily the most difficult part of being here is the difficultly with communication. I am so glad that this experience has been able to open my eyes to the vastness of God’s kingdom. The students at the discipleship school are amazing people that work hard to serve everyone around them. They love each other and us so well. There is a completely different culture between us but there is only one God. When I go to the services they run, even though we don’t speak the same language, we praise with one voice. I was telling one of the students, Wendy, that I look forward to the day when we can speak perfectly when we are with God. Please pray for them, they are amazing testaments to God’s grace, power, and love. Truly His kingdom reaches far and is in the hearts of the ones who believe in Him.
I recently realized that communication is based on common experiences. The only reason that we are able to communicate to each other what an apple is, is because we have tasted, seen, and experienced. We can like it or dislike it but we know what is to do both and understand each other. Everyone has experienced the joy of having a conversation with someone who they have everything in common with and the difficulty of talking to someone they have nothing in common with. We are meant to be in relationships, it’s what we were created for, to have a relationship with God and each other. If we are meant to have relationships and to know how people are, then we need to focus on what we have in common. What is the only thing we have in common though? We were all created and all need love and forgiveness, of which God is the source for both. He created us in His image and no matter who we are, we will always have that in common. God is the source of unity for mankind but we chose to leave that behind and that caused a rift between us and God and between each other. Jesus came to bridge that rift with His sacrifice and the forgiveness that comes with it. We find our true identities with Him and real relationships with each other through Him.
Pictures to come letter
