9/30/08

The day of our one month anniversary started off early in the morning with Circle. Circle is a 7am (or sometimes earlier) gathering of the kids where they sing and have a mini bible study. We began our first day in the schools. Terrez works in "el colegio" (the middle school) and I work in "la escuela" (the elementary school). Right now we are assisting the volunteers who are teaching English. The younger kids that I help with were pretty rowdy, but manageable.

Our theme for the mission trip that God gave us is "Stretch." And so far, He's been doing just that. Working in a school is not something that I'm used to or ever imagined doing. In this educational system, the staff highly suggest being tough, but that's really hard when I don't know all the words to say. So, I have to depend on God to provide the words to say. And that goes beyond the walls of the classroom. In all situations God has to be the one to speak through me.

9/26/08 (Day 1)

We arrived in Tegucigalpa in the afternoon after a very hard landing, lol. We were pleasantly surprised to see a taxi driver holding a sign with our names printed on it. He drove us to the store where we realized how much we missed Walmart and even Kroger. The price of groceries were extremely high, even on the non-imported stuff. We spent around $160 on initial needs and still need to do more shopping. 

After the two hour taxi ride we arrived to our FIRST apartment as a married couple. The apartment is way beyond our expectations and we even had a welcome committee.... the first to greet us was a big black hairy tarantula. Candice looked to me to be the "man" and get it out. I looked to her and used scriptures and motivational words on how she needed to conquer her fears..."God gave us dominion over nature," " for He did not give us the spirit of fear" and etc. only to avoid admitting my own fear. 

So we looked at the ugly thing and tried to recruit one of the kids or volunteers to get it out but that didn't work. Then we created a plan that I would use the broom to sweep it to her and she would use the mop to push it in the grass. We weren't able to build up our courage enough to do so. When all ideas and plans were exhausted, I called on a staff member and he swept the DEAD tarantula (lol) out of the apartment.  

If that wasn't enough... Candice unhooked the curtains and was greeted by a gecko... we couldn't take any more so we had to call on the Lord, cause we knew that if this day was a prophetic view of days to come, we would not last. So we listened to Pastor Cunningham's sermon, the need for endurance, and returned hesitantly to our living room to watch a movie.

As you can see it has been an adventure so far but God reminded me this morning that anything worthwhile won't come easy. So we are tackling day two, BY FAITH, that we will not only be able to endure but to daily experience His love and spread it to others. 

We love you ALL and are so excited about what God has in stored for our "adventure" as well as yours.

Be blessed,

Terrez and Candice Thomas