And anyone else that wants to read. We have been getting lots of questions lately about what people can bring us and what we would like to get when the group comes on Thursday. I have decided to make a list here, and if you so desire, you may pick a few items and pack them in your suitcase. 

1. Pens/pencils/crayons/markers

2. Gum

3. Paper (Construction or just regular white printer paper)

4. Tape (scotch tape, masking tape, duct tape)

For the next few entries, please do not rush out to the nearest Barnes and Noble and spend a million dollars, just if you have magazines you don’t want anymore or books you don’t want anymore, bring them.

5. Jim Faber likes to read, so bring him some books. 

6. Any sports magazines or books (Jd is a sports nut, so any used/discarded sports books or magazines would be enjoyed by him)

7. Magazines (I like to read Real Simple, Runner’s World, Shape, People, and any other magazine you think we might want to read)

8. Children’s Books

9. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

10. Pretzel M&M’s (I want to try them)

11. Mike and Ike’s, DOTS, gummy bears, sour patch kids (just some of our fave candies)

12. Band-Aids/ Neosporin/ General First Aid things

13. Ibprofen

14. Hard Candies (Jolly Ranchers, Butterscotch, Peppermints, ect.)

15. Batteries

We are really excited about your visit and looking forward to a great week of serving the people of Danli. Thanks in advance for giving of your time to help our cities and further the kingdom of God. 

Love you. Miss you.

If you grew up in church, like I did, I have found a website made for you. Or, if you like to mock things, like I do…I have also found a website for you. This website mocks, questions, and just plain make hilarious the ridiculous crap that churches do these days. From playing dumb songs the last night at camp, buying off brand cookies for VBS, putting a coffee house in your church,  to adding ridiculous words instead of using regular ones (i.e. worship experience instead of service), this site discusses it all. Please, check it out. www.stuffchristianslike.net

One of my favorite posts:

If you don’t know who Psalty is then you didn’t go to vacation bible school in the 80s. Psalty was like the Michael Jordan of vacation bible school characters. It’s hard to tell in that photo of him trying to maul that poor girl, but he was basically a big, blue Bible that through some freak chemical truck spill on the highway had come alive. OK, I made up that last part. The songs were pretty tame, the design was not that creepy and overall, Psalty was an alright dude. The funniest thing for me though was that one year our VBS leader decided to put on a live Psalty play. She had her teenage son in blue face paint in a costume. He hated God and watching him sing, “have patience, have patience don’t be in such a hurry,” was a thing of beauty.

I have a student in my class named Dilieth. She is a wild one, always messing around and things in class. About a month after school started, she came to school one day and showed me her new “pet”. She had caught a roach and put it in a Pringles can. I was grossed out and we had a long talk about how nasty roaches are and how we never, ever, ever, ever, ever touch them, we only step on them and kill them. 

She hadn’t really brought anything too weird to school, until today when she pulled this out of her backpack…

 Yes, a side view mirror. I laughed so hard. And then, when JD came in my class later, I laughed again. And then when I decided to put this post up, I laughed so hard I was crying. Oh man, what the heck. I mean, seriously, a side view mirror?!?! So random.

I have been diggin’ this song lately. It’s U2 “Window in the Sky”. I enjoy the truth in it, especially seeing what happens here. The only reason Jd and I are here in Honduras is because Christ came into our hearts, gave us His grace, and loved us unconditionally. His love is the reason we love. His love is the reason that children here His truth every Sunday in our church, His love is the reason why we gave up convenience, His love is why we continue to pursue this language. It has nothing to do with us, and it is not of our strength. He loved us first, and that is why we love now. When I look at the faces of the children in my class, when I see Arturo and Ruth laughing with the people at church, when I see Jd joking with the kids in His class, I think “Can’t you see what love has done?”. 

The shackles are undone
The bullet’s quit the gun
The heat that’s in the sun
Will keep us when there’s none
The rule has been disproved
The stone it has been moved
The grain is now a groove
All debts are removed

Oh can’t you see what our love has done
Oh can’t you see what our love has done
Oh can’t you see what our love has done
What it’s doing to me

Love makes strange enemies
Makes love where love may please
Soul in its striptease
Hate brought to its knees
The sky over our head
We can reach it from our bed
If you let me in your heart
And out of my head

Oh can’t you see what our love has done
Oh can’t you see what our love has done
Oh can’t you see what our love has done
What it’s doing to me

Oh oh oh oh
Oh oh oh oh

Please don’t ever let me out of here

I’ve got no shame
Oh no, oh no

Oh can’t you see what love has done
Oh can’t you see
Oh can’t you see what love has done
What it’s doing to me

If we were in Texas, we would be deciding where to spend our fourth, or more accurately, deciding what pool to spend the fourth at. We would be getting excited about fireworks, bbqs, swimming pools, red, white, and blue clothing, and all the other fun stuff that comes with celebrating the independence of the United States of America. This is the first holiday that is celebrated in the United States and not in Honduras that has occurred since we have lived here. So, please eat a rib, drink a beer, swim in a pool, and watch some fireworks in honor of us. We wish we could celebrate with you! And, don’t worry, we aren’t missing the fireworks, I heard eight gunshots today, so if I close my eyes, I can almost envision the brilliant glow.

In other news, today when I was running, a cow pooped right in front of me as it was walking across the street. I took care not to step in it, and while avoiding the pile, a car drove through another pile the cow left and it splattered all over me. It was still warm. And it was gross. 

We have been here for five months. I have been teaching kids English for four and a half months. I sometimes wonder if they hear me at all, or if they are even learning. And, because I am afraid of people, I worry that their parents will hate me if they are not fluent by years end. But, sometimes things happen that remind me that they are learning, they are understanding, and that, perhaps one day, they will speak and be fluent. Today one of my students, Enil, came up to me at the beginning of the day to tell me that “My pencil at house”. Yes, he had forgotten his pencil at his house, and wanted to tell me in English, so he thought up how to do so. I was so proud of him and the way that he used his mind so well. He is a really sweet boy, and I am so proud of him and glad that God put him in my class. What a great kid!

It’s that time again, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, it’s exam time in elementary school. I thought it would be different this time. I was prepared. The kids have been writing reviews and study guides in their notebooks for a week. I have been diligently checking and rechecking work and making sure all the kids copy everything. I have been very diligent in taking grades and making detailed notes about them. I even typed up a study guide. 

However, once again, it was not good enough. Parents called and complained that the kids did not have a study guide. I had them write one on Monday for each subject and gave them one to study. The principal made my aide spend an entire day typing a new one. I don’t know why. One parent called and complained that her child wasn’t taking notes and no one was checking them. I looked in her book, saw her notes for every day for the past three weeks, and saw my initials written next to them, because I checked them. Then, I got my tests all ready, and I was set. Until, I was told that one test didn’t have enough questions, and another had two many, and another had too many of the same type, and the kids didn’t know how to do one test. They know how to do it. We have been working on it for weeks. Just because the principal doesn’t understand grammar and phonics in English doesn’t mean that the kids can’t do it.

I am beginning to think that this is the way this country works. That no one plans for anything, checks anything, and then, when it’s go time, everyone freaks out. So, no matter if I plan ahead, it won’t do any good because whatever I do will just need to be redone. I am not a “fly by the seat of your pants” kind of person, and some how I am supposed to survive in an ENTIRE COUNTRY OF PEOPLE WHO NEVER PLAN ANYTHING! Lord, give me grace not to punch someone.

By FREDDY CUEVAS (AP) – 1 day ago

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya accused the United States of being behind the 2009 coup that ousted him, in a letter released Monday on the first anniversary of his ouster.

Zelaya, who now lives in the Dominican Republic, has given conflicting accounts on what role the United States allegedly played in the coup, in which Honduran soldiers hustled him out of the country on June 28, 2009.

He has alternately praised the policy of the U.S. government on the issue, and also criticized Washington for not pressing harder for his reinstatement.

But Monday’s letter said flatly: “What we suspected at the beginning has now been confirmed. The United States was behind the coup.”

The U.S. Embassy in Honduras did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Zelaya’s letter did not offer any specifics of what the United States allegedly did. He cited what he called “the public support the United States wound up giving to the coup.”

The United States refused to recognize the government of interim president Roberto Micheletti, froze U.S. aid to the regime and pressured Honduras to allow Zelaya to return to office.

But Zelaya claimed “the Honduran people are faithful witnesses to the role that the economic interests of the United States played in this tragic event.”

The United States is the largest source of foreign investment in Honduras and accounts for much of its trade.

Zelaya suggested that his administration’s ties to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his plans to convert into a civilian airport the Soto Cano military air base — which U.S. forces use, but do not control — may have played a role in U.S. hostility to him.

It is not the first time that Zelaya — who maintained contact with U.S. officials during the coup and even traveled to the United States in a bid to be reinstated — has changed his view on the U.S. role in the nine-month-long coup.

In September, when the United States cut off all aid to the interim government that replaced him, Zelaya said “it is gratifying that the United States has taken a strong position against the coup.”

But in a letter published June 11, he claimed that members of his own Liberal Party “conspired with the oligarchy and the Pentagon to remove me from the political scene.”

Zelaya angered Honduras’ business elite in early 2009 with a campaign to rewrite the constitution. When Zelaya ignored a Supreme Court order to cancel a referendum on the plan, soldiers flew him into exile in his pajamas at gunpoint.

Current President Porfirio Lobo was elected in November and took over from the coup-installed interim government in January.

Zelaya has said he wants to return to Honduras, but he faces charges of abuse of authority and other alleged crimes, which he claims are part of a political persecution against him.

I know this may not be the most important thing to blog about but I feel that I need to discuss it with someone other than JD, because he is a boy and he doesn’t care. I am contemplating a major haircut. Since moving to Honduras, my hair has become a struggle for me. I do not blow-dry it anymore, because, once I get a workout in and get a shower, it is literally time to walk out the door. I put my makeup on in the car. Anyway, as a result of this, my hair has become quite cumbersome. It is either up in the morning, or wet and down and then dries and looks nasty. 

Another thing that is causing my hair demise is that I acquired highlights right before we moved and, although I love lighter hair, the highlights have caused my hair to be  little more dry than usual, so add that to the constant sun and humidity, and my hair is one hot mess. 

So, I am thinking a blunt bob that hits juts below my collarbone with some side swept bangs. It will be a major change, seeing as how my hair currently comes down to the middle of my back. 

Now, if I were in the states, I would just call someone up I know and get a haircut, but things are a little different here. First of all, there are about a billion places that cut hair, so I have to choose one, and then I need to find someone who can translate for me to go with me so that nothing get’s lost in translation. So, this may be a bit of a process. Not to mention that everything takes a long time here, so it could take three hours to get a haircut, five if I want them to style it.  

Here are some haircuts I am thinking of:

Yesterday was a hard day. Today, however, has been significantly better. Jd is still ill, so I went to church by myself this morning. And, amazingly, I wasn’t bored. I didn’t understand what we were talking about, but I still wasn’t bored, which is a miracle. After I got home, JD and I turned on the computer just in time to receive a Skype call from Courtney and DJ! After we talked for a hour or so, Jd and I watched some TV, and then he took a nap. 

I have decided to make a list of things I am thankful for today, so enjoy, and try to think of what God has given you.

1. Our electricity is on today, and it was not on all day yesterday.

2. There are TV stations in English to watch.

3. Our internet is fast, efficient, and keeps us in touch with the world.

4. Courtney and DJ called!

5. The sun is shining today!

6. We have enough food to eat and enough clean water to drink today, and many people do not.

7. It’s almost July, which means it’s almost August, and then almost September and October and November and then we get to visit Texas!

8. My face is finally clearing up from a majorly bad breakout I had a few weeks ago.

9. Hillside Community Church is coming in a few weeks.

10. Jesus came to save sinners, and for that I am forever grateful.