Break from Spanish

This is a little something I made on Sabbath while I was at the retreat. I made it out of palm leaves and roots I pulled up from out of the sand. I needed a break from absorbing Spanish during church so I came over to the lake front to relax.

A Weekend of Tranquility

Two weekends ago I went on a retreat with the church to an amazing park about 2 hours away. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen and it was no ordinary park but more like a water park/zoo. There were pools, water slides, and all kinds of animals I had never seen before.

The Honduran Flag

I must say, they do have a very beautiful flag.

Market Place

Here I am, chilling at one of the market places in downtown San Pedro Sula. This place was amazing! They have so many unique and beautiful peices of work. The place seems to be packed full of everything you could imagine and many things you probably haven't imagined.

Night Lights

Unfortunately my photo gallery web site won't be up for about a month because of some domain name problems so I decided to throw a few pictures up here on the blog. I found an interesting outlet to let the creative juices to flow in these abstract photos.

Words to Think About

To get good at something, it's better to do that thing many times well than a few times perfect.

The floor looks much more dirty when the light shines on it, but at least you know where it needs cleaned.

Be yourself. If you don't know who that is admit it and be patient.

Record it, you won't get it back the way you found it and you may not get it back.

Look Before you Cross

It was Friday night. After a pleasant evening worship and meal with some relatives of the Guifarro family, we were all walking back to the house. As we were making the short walk back to their house, which is right next door, I witnessed one of the most traumatizing experiences I've had. There was a German Shepard looking dog that was just kind of wandering around in the road. Out of the corner of my eye I saw headlights coming and thought the dog might.....but no - BAM!! The dog walked right out in front of a taxi that was moving very fast. I could fill in more details about how the dog flew through the air into the ditch but I'll spare you. I couldn't believe I had just seen something so awful right before my eyes. I hope it died quickly because I hate the thought of suffering. I guess I'm not to desensitized because the event was pretty jolting for me and it will probably be burned in my memory for the rest of my life. Even if there was a bright yellow "Dog Crossing" sign on the road it wouldn't have done any good. The roads in Honduras are a dangerous place to be. To bad the dog had to die for me to be reminded of that again.

Tenacity

I'm so glad it's Friday. It's been a long week and I sure look forward to the weekends. It's been a good week though. I've been experiencing more of a confident spirit that I thank God for. Teaching is bringing out a part of me that I feel I've been missing - an inner strength that stands firm through the raging wind and rain like a man. When I'm in the classroom everyday, I have to focus on keeping order. Discipline is so important and I have to be firm with them to keep them in line. Either I control the classroom or they control me. So, I've been learning how to be firm, to raise my voice and command attention. In many ways I've seen myself as more of a passive person, avoiding conflict and keeping peace at all costs. But deep down inside, I've known that there is something more, an aggressive tenacity that has been waiting to express itself in the right way. It's like life has been screaming at me to grab it by the horns and fight for my life but I've been afraid that I'll hurt myself or someone else in the process. I guess that's part of growing, learning from life and discovering yourself. I'm gradually finding more of an experiential balance between the power of the will to enjoy life and the power of God's grace that enables that possibility in the first place.

I've been asking God to help me really enjoy the kids and the process of teaching them. I have seen God answering my prayer and I am really thankful for that. Teaching is what I'll be doing down here for quite a while and I want to be able to enjoy every bit of it. I think being able to enjoy the process of anything is so important. Like learning a new language. I enjoy getting on my computer everyday and learning new words, working on my accent, and then putting what I've learned into practice. If I didn't enjoy that, it would be total misery trying to learn a new language. All I would be thinking about is the day when I would actually be able to communicate fluently and that day probably wouldn't come as soon if I didn't enjoy the process.