When Life Shows Up

I walked beside my brother (Gideon) down the aisle as everyone starred on. It was his wedding day. I was his best-(wo)man. It was a beautiful day full of laughs and beauty, but it was only the beginning of new things to come for the Bishop family. 

One month later came little Zoie Marie into the family, brother Caleb and wife Jessica's first baby. She has been a wonderful joy! But that's not all!!! 

After traveling more than 36 hours, sister Rochelle and one and half year old Dylan finally landed in Portland from Uganda Africa, greeted by family. 

While our family is busy growing and changing, I am continuing to see what God has for me. As I am here in Oregon, I know I am first to serve my family as best as I can. I am also serving with my Pastor's ministry, helping in the office with various projects. 

My plan is to head to Guatemala next spring for a couple months of language learning. 

God is so good! Let's praise The Lord for our families, let's remember to thank him everyday for His goodness and faithfulness. 

Amen! 

Living For

You know that moment when you're in that moment with God and everything seems so perfect and you make a little comment, or so you think, and God kind of just slaps you in the face? It was Sunday, really enjoying worship, but in my head I wanted to be in Guatemala, and The Lord asks me why? If he's the same here as he is there why would I want to be there? What am I really after? Fun and adventure? Other cultures? Or am I after Jesus? What am I living for? 

I realized that it's ok to miss the people I love in other countries and miss the culture, but I am living for Jesus and wherever he is, is where I want to be. 

Jesus is the goal. Not missions. Not adventure. We are here for Jesus. 

So I ask you: what are you living for? 

Waving Goodbye

Fernando and I waved through the gate at the bus. We were saying good bye to the rest of my team, who were headed to Guatemala City to fly back to the states. I on the other hand would board another bus to head back to Honduras for a couple of days before heading stateside. Graduation had come and gone. We had said our final good byes and hugs and kisses. It was time to move on. There were relationships that had been made that will last a lifetime. Ten weeks had flown by, but I can still remember the first day, passing through the city at 6 am just as the town was waking up. 

For every season there is a time and the season of Guatemala has come to an end, the next season is of rest and family and friends. I wish learning came to an end but it doesn't so I will be ready with an open heart and open ears as The Lord leads me into the next step. One step at a time. A lamp onto my feet. A light onto my path. 

Rainbows

A large rainbow crossed over the gray clouds and I smiled, it had been a perfect day, it was the first day I felt that I actually lived in Guatemala. 

After a morning of menial tasks such as laundry and cleaning, it felt normal to just pack a lunch and head down the road to the lake with the youth we had befriended over the last five weeks, to hang out and enjoy the sun. It was also the first time I didn't feel like a foreigner despite the language barrier. We usually have each event planned weeks ahead of time and involves only our group of six; this event didn't require a formal title or leader, there was no debriefing at the end, and no one seemed to watch the time. 

When the kids jump all over you and splash water in your face, you don't mind because they yell your name in their little Spanish accent and it's all worth it. Some how, beyond the odds, we've crossed over an invisible line into their world, it's a line some missionaries never step over. We've become family, despite our skin colors and languages, there is complete acceptance. I can't take them out of their world and its not what God wants me to do, but I can step into their world and even though they may still have go back to a rough home life, the rainbow in the sky is a promise to us that He goes with us. 

Maiblene

Tu eres princesa you are a princess. Maiblene's face lit up as the truth of that statement hit her. She was a princess of God. It was the second school of the first day, and the first time we had been to this school, when the spirit of God moving among the children's hearts and they encountered the fathers love. For so many of these kids here in Guatemala they are rarely told who they are and have no idea what God actually thinks of them. In this fatherless nation they are hungering to know a father. We poured ourselves into two full days of preparing a skit, lesson and songs to teach these kids that Dios es un Papa Amoroso. God is a loving father. We sweated in the summer heat and fell into bed each night exhausted, but it was do worth it to see this little girls face when she encountered the truth. There were many mistakes and lots of broken, mispronounced Spanish, but in the end the kids still loved us and God still poured out his spirit upon them. There is no junior Holy Spirit and the same spirit that lives in you lives in many of them now and they are forever changed by the Fathers love. Maiblene is one eight year old little girl who now knows she is special In the eyes of God. The truth has been spoken and his word will not return void.

Walking without Fear

As the Pastor showed us his scares, he recounted their stories, the persecution that he has gone through for the sake of Christ. Ixobel (ee-sho-bell) is a sub city in Poptun where our ministry focus will be for the next seven weeks. This place use to be controlled by violence and Christians were the target. You couldn't sit in the front room of your house with a group of people without someone throwing rocks at you. 

Pastor Mynor (our contact there) was very excited to have a prayer walk around the city to declare the goodness God has for that place that was once controlled by witchcraft and violence. Not long ago the local pastors would plan prayer walks in the middle of the night and walk quietly to avoid the persecution and physical danger. From their sacrifice and perseverance the violence has fallen. So last Thursday with loud speakers and a parade of believers we marched down the dirt roads in broad daylight declaring to the powers of darkness, who thought they owned Ixobel, that the King of Kings had arrived to reclaim his people. 

Immersion

We climbed into the already packed van and waved good-bye to the only link we had to the rest of world. We were on our way to Poptun for the first time in a public van full of strangers, we were packed in Guatemalan style and the heat didn't make it any more comfortable, but we pushed away our American mind set about how things should be and embraced our new culture. This was immersion week; we are spending the next seven days with a family we had never met and that don't speak the same language as we do. The three guys were dropped off at one house and us three girls continued on to Pastor Mynor's house to meet his wife, Sylvia and their two boys, Fernando and Danny. God is good, the other two girls who were with me spoke Spanish so I was able to get by with their help and my Spanglish.

Each morning after breakfast (beans, rice and eggs), we would walk down the dusty dirt road, the sun already hot on our backs at 7:30am, to the dirt floor church for our morning classes. Each afternoon we had LAMP (Language Acquisition Made Practical) where we worked with a Spanish (only) speaker and learned different phrases, then continued out into the community to practice what we had learned. It was strange to walk up to forty something people and say a couple lines in Spanish than move on, but it stretched me and that is part of the goal here at the internship, to stretch us and get us out of our comfort zone.

Poptun is the community we will be working in for the next eight weeks, to bring what help they need and try to encourage and unite the church for the work of the kingdom. There is much work to do here, but God has a plan and we are just a small part of making that happen.

Hope

It seemed like routine ministry (nothing with God is routine) go pray with people and see God move. Our team, six Americans, six natives, walked up to the house, Pastor called out the greeting and we were ushered into the living room. 

It had a dirt floor and a couch, there were sheets hung up on string to block off a corner for the bedroom and little else. We knew before going in that this young thirteen year old girl who went to the church we were with was having a hard time at home. Her parents were divorced and she loved with her mom and step dad who were not believers. 

We asked the mom for prayer needs and her story was translated to us that she had returned home last night to find her husband had attacked her daughter. She had grabbed the machete and would have killed him had he not ran away. The girl started to cry as the story was told and I went to her and wrapped my arms around her. We began to pray over the home and as I prayed for this girl my heart broke. God moved something inside me and I began to feel her pain, all I could whisper to her was "It's ok. Esta bien." 

I hugged her good bye and walked out of the house and didn't stop. I didn't look back. I didn't wait for my team. I walked down the dirt road and the tears flowed out of me. I didn't stop until I got to the church about five hundred feet away, and I got real with God. In the bible it says that we can approach his throne with confidence. I marched right up to that throne and pounded on his chest and cried and cried. All he said was "It's ok." 

While I can't understand everything, I learned that our only hope is Christ. If we don't let to and trust him to make justice, we will become angry and bitter. My God is a big God and a Good God. My hope is in him. 

Walking the Streets

The line was long, we were in the back, but here that doesn't matter to much when you are waiting for a taxi, because as soon as the right one rolls up to the side, the first person in gets it. I had been to San Pedro Sula downtown several times before, but this was the first time I had walked the streets. I was here with Miss Liza, the 3rd grade teacher I am an assistant to. She had wanted to take me to see the streets of SPS. SPS is known as one of, if not the first, most dangerous city in Central America, but I wasn't to worried because the lady I was with would scare anyone straight. For a woman in her fifties she still had fire and spirit. We walked most of the way around the downtown part of city, but at one point we wanted to grab a taxi, we saw one parked at the curb with its doors open, so we hopped in with the other passengers and took off. My western mindset had me smiling at how strange this experience was, yet how normal it felt. I love to see new cultures and different ways people live life, because it gives me a new view of God. These people represent another side of God. If you've ever been to another country and seen the big cities, they are very similar. People walk the uneven sidewalks, vendors sell various ítems, cars honk and traffic looks crazy, there is a very bad odor that fills your nostrils, but when you really look at it, when you stop seeing it through a forgieners eyes, when you stop comparing it to the place you come from, when you start to really see this is how people live, this is their life and it's a beautiful thing. That's when you can experience it for what it really is, how they really are. I leave Honduras for Guatemala in four days, and this may be the hardest move I've had to make. My heart is here, this is home.

He's God

We, me, my two amazing Honduran friends, our host and Miss Audrey, all sat around the long table. We'd just finished dinner, which was typical Honduran goodness, pupusas and nachos, topped off with a scoop of ice cream. With full stomaches we did what any typical group of girls would do, started chatting, well actually Miss Audrey started talking and we started listening. She started with one story, which led to questions, which led to more stories and we started to get a picture of her testimony, life before God and present with God.
She's a grandma, strolling her way to fifty this year, but "a four year old at heart", you could tell this to be true the way she chatted on and on and bounced from subject to subject. Her words captivated me, she took you with her by her words, you were a fly on the wall as she told of her jail experience and how God has changed her life. By looking at this woman, you never would have thought she has the story that she does. She experienced so many things, plenty of which she didn't share with us because of the sensativity of the information for our young ears and hearts, which only drew us in all the more. We all sat with our eyes wide open, mouths on the table, we didn't know what to think. I've heard peoples testimonies before, I've heard crazy stuff before, but I've never head anything like what this woman was sharing. It was just amazing to see what God did for her, even when she wasn't serving him.
God isn't a formula we can figure out. He doesn't fit into a box, because this woman's story goes against what I thought God only does and only doesn't do. But God does what he wants, when he wants, because he's in control.
It was my privaledge to have Miss Audrey stay in the same house with me. (She makes amazing Cinnamon Coffee by the way). The other morning as she was sharing how some people had prayed over her hands because one arm was longer than the other, and she had me hold out my hands as well, only to discover that I also had this issue (something I'd never seen or thought of) and so she proceeded to pray over them. I looked at my hands and the shorter one had become significanly longer than the other one, but then I looked again and they were even.
God does whatever he wants whenever he wants to, He's God.

Baleadas

I couldn't think of anything very interesting to write so I descided to write about the most amazing food that you can ever eat in the whole world (ok, maybe only in Honduras but still amazing). It's called a baleada (Ba- lee- ada), (balas in Spanish meaning bullets). There was a story that I heard about how it got it's name: there was a woman who use to sell them on the street and one day there was a shooting near that place, so people started to say that they should go eat where the shooting took place, “I’m going to the baleada (literally: shot woman).

Ok so a baleada... the closest thing that I can compare it to for my Western friends is a bean burrito (but they are still worlds apart). It's so much more! You start with a tortilla, get those store bought ones out of your head, and don't even think about Taco Bell. This tortilla was made five minutes ago by a woman who put the flour together and smacked it around with her hands within an inch of it's life. It's sort of like fresh bread kind of good. Then come the beans (almost any Latin American staple). They are smooth as wáter (really Brown wáter). You add cream. (It's a specail kind of cream with a name that I can't spell). It's like sour cream. Then some cheese that is crumbly. You have all of this wonderfulness together (of course there is so much more that you can add to this goodness... eggs, chicken...ect). You take your first warm bite...it melts in your mouth... and slides down your throat.... you can't help but smile and close your eyes, savoring the goodness.

You're in love. You've fallen in love with Honduras.

Travel...Travel...Travel

This past week was Semana de Santa (or Holy Week aka Easter Week aka Spring Break). I was given the privilege to travel with Aderemos, which is the worship team here at MUNA. They have a vision to travel to each of the 18 states in Honduras at set up worship alters in the capital of each state. So the days were set up with worship workshops and then at night we would go to the local park and set up all our equipment, pull out the guitars and invite the people to come and worship God with us. As you may know I have no musical ability at all, but I was excited to go as a guest and see more of Honduras. I think that even though I didn´t know how to worship, I learned a lot about worship and a lot about who God is and that worship isn´t about me, but about him.

We also got the chance to go on a zip line that was HUGE! and yes I passed up the chance because my nerves got the better of me. A little regret, but only a little. It was also very cold because we were in mountains, and 60 degrees may not seem too cold but I think I have adapted to the normal 90 degree weather that I was freezing!

Overall it was a wonderful experience with a lot of great memories and building greater relationships. It´s amazing how much you can communicate even when two people don´t speak the same language. (My Spanish is improving at the rate of a turtle, by the way.)

Bless Your Socks Off

When I first arrived in Honduras, I was touched by the way the people welcomed me into their homes and lives. I felt very blessed by all the people and especially the school that I am volunteering at; they have always gone above and beyond what I would consider hospitality. They should just put up a sign: ¨Welcome to Sunshine, we will bless your socks off!¨ This morning I was blessed with two gifts from people here at school, and this all happened before 10 am! Then I was given a special prevailedge to speak to some youth and share my testimony and encourage them in the Lord. It was awesome to see them worship the Lord and recieve as well as give. THEN as if my day wasn´t perfect enough we went to church in the park and saw people get saved and danced in circles until I thought I would fall over and was covered in dust! Best way to woship God! These people love God and there is no stopping them from worshiping Him..... ....... And God has allowed me to come and experience this... it´s like a little kid who built a project and he´s so excited to show his friends, he says ¨look! look! look what I´ve made!¨

The New Normal

Ok!

So I am offically starting a blog for all my adventures as a missionary. I was inspired by reading the blog of another missionary and her realness and maybe this can inspire someone else to BE REAL. Not make everything out to be great when it´s not and just being honest. So here we go.

Havening been in Honduras for about two months I am learning to do things as they do, ¨when in Rome...¨and so there are somethings that were a little strange to me when I first arrived.

Examples:
• Wearing bug spray as if it were perfume
• taking a cold shower
• eating beans and tortillas for breakfast
• wearing a sweater because it´s in the 70´s
• not stopping at stop signs
• always having a thin layer of dust...on everything
• squishing bugs
• encountering a cochroach in the bathroom at least once a day
• being kissed on the cheek by everyone
• being smothered with hugs everyday
• being starred at because of my white skin and blue eyes
• wearing a scarf when it rains
• saying ¨How are you doing?¨... even if you've already asked that person the same day

There are many more but hopefully you see a little of the things that I live with, in a good way, these things are so natural to me that I don´t think twice about them. I love Honduras and the people make it an easy life to live here.