Honduras, Here I Come!
- Posted by under Travel
- Thursday February 28th, 2008
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An exciting opportunity is ahead!
The college ministry at my church is planning a short mission trip to Honduras over Spring Break. I’ll be leading a team of 9 college students for one week. We’ll be working with a local missions organization, helping out with construction on site at a seminary and doing some community work in local schools.
I’m so excited about this opportunity. I’ve lived abroad (in Germany), but I’ve never visited a country in Central America before. This is going to be a great opportunity to be challenged, and I’m anticipating that God will do great things. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of stories to tell when I get back! Don’t worry, you’ll be the first to know.
See you on the other side!
End of week two: Week two had a lot more chances to actually get my hands up than week one did. All of the experiences have been adventurous and I’ve learned a few things this week: Always have a book for when assignments are boring and you don’t need to interpret, having jumper cables in your car is a great idea, fake confidence can go a long way! 
The more compliments I get on my interpreting the more I am convinced of the amazing quality of Bethel’s program and the great gift of God that He’s able to work through me in whatever I do, even when I’m interpreting.
One Year Older!
In other news….I’m one year older. I was a bit nervous about having a birthday so far from my family and friends, but it turned out to be amazing! Moses and Sadie were gone for the whole weekend, so I spent the evening of my birthday alone at the house, but most of the time was spent reading e-mails, cards, opening packages and talking on the phone with friends. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so loved when I’m so far away from everyone. I also don’t think I’ve ever received so many cards in my WHOLE LIFE!!! So…..thank you. You are all so wonderful and such a blessing to me. You have no idea how beautiful it is to realize that love reaches beyond any distance. Even when I make a crazy move to Oklahoma, tons of cards and calls still manage to make it to me on my birthday. Thanks for reminding me that I’m loved.
In still other news, I’m REALLY enjoying the house church that I’ve been attending here in Oklahoma City. It’s extremely small, but they are so welcoming it’s unbelievable. I think that’s the way all churches should be: so friendly, welcoming and enticing that you can’t help but want to come back to see all the friendly faces again the next week. I’m so amazed at how God puts little things in my life to remind me how constant and active He is. Wherever I go, He’s already there, preparing things for me to learn, people for me to meet, experiences for me to go through. What a crazy beautiful God He is who orchestrates my life.
First it’s taking the kids to the hospital, now its bringing the hospital to our room!!! One of my student’s mom is a nurse and so I had her come in and draw my blood in front of the class, since we are studying the thing the pumps our blood all over our body this week…THE HEART!!! It was so funny, because they couldn’t believe that I was going to get a “shot!” hahaha…we were trying to show them that just because you see a needle it doesn’t mean you have to be scared, its not bad! We learned why you have to get your blood tested sometimes, and how you can give lots of blood away to save other people and still live!!!
I haven’t died……yet.
I don’t have the time this second to really give you details (or even vague references of the past weeks). Please know that I am very well and very busy. The school work has actually one of the less demanding things in my life.
I’ll give you more news in the week to come. As a small bit……guess what! I’m auditioning for a play tonight. The play is called “The Shape of Things” It’s a little bit different and definitely makes you think. I just really want to be in a theater production again so we’ll see how it goes.
‘kay bye!
The past couple weeks we have been learning about the body, and last week we studied the skeleton and organs, so I thought it would be cool to take my kids to see the radiology department at the hospital! We went on Friday afternoon, and it was so awesome! My kids absolutely loved it and it was so neat to their reaction to all of it. One of them even got a chest X-Ray (even though the film was already prepared…they didn’t know:) The best part was looking at all kinds of crazy films and seeing some pretty nasty breaks. One guy feel of a motorbike and landed right on his kneecap and split it in half! Another guy had his femur completely break away in 2 places!!!! It was a great experience for all of us, and I my kids know now why God created doctors:)
”I feel like I’ve been driving for half the time I’ve been in this state”
I successfully survived through week one and for the most part it’s been really fun! It feels like I’ve already had so many new experiences, but I’ve only been in Oklahoma for 7 days. Some of these experiences include: Having car trouble on the second day I was here, visiting Moses and Sadie’s house church, figuring out that my agency and my house are on opposite sides of the city, experiencing some educational interpreting, getting lost on the way to a medical observation and spending almost an hour to get to an appointment 20 minutes away only to find out that the client wasn’t deaf and didn’t need an interpreter after all (fun times!). I feel like I’ve been driving for half the time I’ve been in this state Oklahoma City is an incredibly large and spread out city so this means a lot of driving for me as I’ll be observing and interpreting all over the city. This is a picture of me and my new best friend: the HUGE map of Oklahoma City.
Also, here’s a picture of Moses and Sadie, it’s from awhile ago when I came to visit over thanksgiving, but they look the same. They have been so sweet! I think it’s going to work out great! Already I’ve been helping out in the kitchen quite a bit and spending time talking and getting to know them. They are very kind and amazing people.
Thank you for all your prayers as I’m still very much getting used to this transition and all the adventures that are coming my way. I’m learning that an interpreter is ALWAYS on the go and must be extremely flexible as it seems you never know what you’ll walk into and your entire day could change in a matter of minutes
Well I feel bad about the whole thing, but the fact is that this hasn’t been one of my priorities. So I am very apologetic. But as the song goes, “It’s too late to Apologize.” Thanks One Republic. ANYWAY!! I have been getting so much learning this semester already it is pretty nuts. And it’s crazy too :).
Unfortunately, I am forced to make this a short one, but I do have some things to ponder:
Have you ever noticed how fast time flies? I mean who actually is to blame for this phenomenon? I think that I have found the answer in the form of this question: Who invented seconds?
Next: Have you ever noticed that the weather is pretty crazy in Indiana. Maybe you haven’t, but it is! (sometimes).
Finally, what’s your one thing? What is it that you are willing to give up for Him?
Just some things that I have been pondering lately. I hope that you find this in a good state and that perhaps you can join me here and have a real conversation about the topics previously questioned.
In His Grace,
Geoff
“I haven’t worn my shoes for the past 2 days”
First of all, I would like to say that I haven’t worn my shoes for the past 2 days. Nor have I worn sandals. For the people that know me that is a big deal. Even during the summer at home, I usually have house shoes on or shoes and socks. But for the past few days, I have walked around the Bible College barefoot. That should tell you about the weather here.
Heading to Waitangi
Anyway, this past week we went on another journey. This time we headed north to Waitangi. (As a warning, I might be spelling these words wrong, but even if I do spell them right, you wouldn’t know how to pronounce them, so I guess it doesn’t really matter either way). We left on Sunday and were gone until Thursday. On our way out we stopped at Auckland for a few hours, while Brent and Matt, picked up Tim’s stuff from the airport. Tim came from Bethel for this week, so that he could film us for the chapel video. His luggage was all late and that meant his camera was also late. We walked around town and ate at a nice restaurant, where they served us water in large glass bottles, and everything cost 12 bucks.
Our drive was about 3 hours to Waitangi. I slept most of it. During our first night we stayed at this holiday park, which basically means campsite in American. Our group rented out three cabins that were really nice. All of us, 5 guys stayed in one. The campsite had nice trails and an open area where we played football. Because we had to wait for Tim’s stuff, we got there later than we had hoped, so we didn’t have much time to really explore. Our group made tacos for dinner. They tasted really good the first time through.
Perfect Push-Ups
After dinner and dishes, Ryan, Jesse, and I decided to do our perfect push-ups. Okay before I go any farther let me explain to you what a perfect push up is. Ryan brought these things on the trip, because he got them for Christmas. They are basically two handles that you set on the ground and they spin. So think of it as doing a push up, but you are holding on to a bar, and you have to spin this bar 90 degrees ever time you go up and down. These push up things, come with this schedules monthly work out program, that we have been following. Jesse and Ryan are using it to get huge muscles; I’m using it to get in shape. Well, that is what the perfect push-up is, and let me tell you this: it is HARD. According to the guide we have to do about 120 push-ups every other night. Back to the story. We washed dishes and got ready to do our push-ups. About halfway through I threw up. Threw up while doing push-ups. Ha. The tacos did not taste very good anymore. (Yes I still do the perfect push-ups, every other night, just not right after dinner.) For the rest of the evening we played summer camp games, like sword (finger) fighting, the push game, Indian leg wrestling, and the look up look down game. These are still as fun as they were in junior high. If you want to learn how to play them you can ask Claire, because she should know what I’m talking about.
Waitangi Treaty Grounds
We left early the next morning, and headed for the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. This is the birthplace of New Zealand as a nation. The treaty grounds are where the native tribes signed a declaration accepting British rule. We walked the grounds and looked at all the monuments and museums set up to commemorate the start of the nation. It was fun and informative. Seeing the change that this declaration brought was very interesting, and the weather was beautiful. After our tourist journey, we headed out to the neighboring town, Paihia, for some quick shopping, we were going to be back there in a few days so I didn’t buy anything yet.
“The fish looked like rockets, as they zoomed past the fronts of our kayaks”
At four o’clock on Monday, we headed out to our boat. We were going to take a 22 hour cruise through the Bay of Islands, and the boat was about to leave. The cruise was great. The boat was called “The Rock,” and had been a redesigned car ferry. There was a top floor for sleeping and a bottom floor for partying. If you have ever seen The Office episode called “The Booze Cruise” where they have a party on a boat, it was just like that minus the booze of course. We fished off the side of the boat, played cards, shot at a fake duck dragged behind the boat, and that was just the first day. At night we went for a night kayak ride. The water, where we dropped anchor, was charged with all this algae that absorbed the UV rays during the day and would release them if stirred up. So as we paddled through the water we left trails of light in the water. The fish looked like rockets, as they zoomed past the fronts of our kayaks, it was really neat. We went swimming in the water after everybody came back from kayaking. The water glowed around our bodies, it was really crazy. After swimming, Jesse beat me in chess for six straight games. It was a little disheartening. After being rocked to sleep by the waves, the next day of the cruise was even more packed than the first day.
“I just sucked salt water”
We began with breakfast, and shortly after that we had the opportunity to go snorkeling. I had my underwater camera, thanks Ms. Craig, and was off to catch some sweet pictures of sea life. I got nothing. There were maybe two fish that I saw and my breathing snorkel was broken, so instead of sucking air, I just sucked salt water. I took pictures of the other people in the water, because they wanted to give a picture to their moms, but I still have 17 pictures left for a better day. To recover from my losses the night before, I challenged Jesse to a holding-breath-contest which I won with ease. He even has a pool in his backyard, sucker. As we got out of the water the rain started to come down. The blue skies had turned to gray and the clouds seemed to dash our plans.
Bay of Islands
We pressed forward anyway heading to one of the Islands. This area was known as the Bay of Islands, because of all the small islands that dot the coastal line. We headed to a bigger one where we hiked up to the top. The view was spectacular even thorough the cold rain and brisk wind. I hope Tim got some footage, because according to Brent this was supposed to be our money shot. The fog covered most of the near islands, but the mist made it look almost storybook, as the islands poked out of the fog and the green grass seemed almost unreal. It was a cool experience. We ate soggy lunches on the island.
As we returned to the boat, we had a chance to play some more cards, but most of the girls took naps. The boat headed towards port, and we had a chance to eat sea urchin eggs. In the U.S these eggs cost $800 a kilo, and we got them for free. They were good, and after rolling them on our hands, they tasted like salty fish. I would eat them again, but probably not for $800. We waved bye to our crew, and set our feet on dry land again.
With sea legs, and our bodies still rocking, we spent the evening at a backpacker hostel-type thing. It was really cool because it had a pool, movies, nice showers, a kitchen, and the beds only cost $25 dollars for one. We washed the salt off of our bodies, and took it easy playing the same games we played at the campsite a few nights before.
Wednesday, we took it easy. Well it was supposed to be easy. I took that day to buy most of my New Zealand souvenirs, and that in itself was very stressful. I enlisted the help of my friends and was able to pick out gifts for all my family and Johanna. Hopefully I will have enough room in my suitcase to bring them back We stopped at another waterfall for lunch. The Whangeri falls, I think they were called. They were very beautiful.
On our way home we stopped at these famous restrooms. They were decorated really nicely; the walls had stained glass and bottles in them. But in the end it was still two stalls and a few urinals. Not really that special. That was our Waitangi beach week. It was really fun, and the picture should help you understand all that we did.
http://bethelcollege.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2012746&l=a0ecf&id=62401250
It was nice and relaxing, but now I am swamped with homework. We only have a few more days before we head out for our final New Zealand traveling, and then Australia. That means that I have two days to finish all my homework for the first half of this semester. It is going to be rough, but I don’t regret not working on it the past week, because I came on this trip first of all for the journey, to experience another culture first hand, not sit in my room and do homework all day.
Thanks for reading, Reed
I’m finally settled in Oklahoma and I feel like I’ve had the theme song from the musical Oklahoma running through my head for the last week (which is hard because I only know the first line)
I feel like I’ve already had lots of adventures and I haven’t even begun the internship yet. Dad and I traveled to Kansas on Thursday and spent a few days with my sister and other family. Then on Saturday I traveled the last leg of the trip by myself. This morning I visited Moses and Sadie’s church with them. The people were so friendly! After church, Sadie and I went driving I wanted to find the way to the agency I’ll be working at and it was helpful to have her along. She was a good tour guide of the city 
On the way back, I started hearing a weird sound like my car was bottoming out or dragging something. Sadie also noticed it, after I told her to listen to it. We decided to look after we got home and sure enough there was a piece of metal hanging from under the body of the car. Moses, being the amazing man that he is, said he would look at it for me. So we got the car up on ramps, crawled under and figured out it was some kind of shield on my muffler. Between the two of us, we wired it back in place with a few hangers (It made me think of all swartzendrubers and hopefully it will stay. I’m sure it was quite a site. Moses and I were both laying under the car on opposite sides and Sadie was kneeling in the front to take a picture. It made me laugh, but I’m glad they were willing to help and hopefully the rest of my adventures won’t include car problems.
Tomorrow is my first day of work!
Thank you to all of you who have been and are praying for me.
I KNOW that it’s making a difference.
We just finished our unit on the 5 senses and disabilities and it was s blast. Friday we did all kinds of activities where they had a handicap they had to overcome. We laughed so hard, but really took time to appreciate how lucky we are to have all 5 senses!!!
I finally took my braids out, and holy cow did it feel good to finally wash my hair after 3 weeks, but now I feel bad because so much of it fell out!!!!! I loved it though and will get it done again in a couple weeks!!!
This last week our group traveled out to Waitangi. We had plans to relax, go on an overnight cruise, shop, and visit the treaty grounds (an historical spot in NZ). We left Sunday morning and drove to Auckland to eat lunch. I really wanted to eat some Kababs or some other authentic NZ food, but I had to break down and get Burger King. We walked around and had some free time to shop. We got a poster of Heath Ledger for free and we now carry it with us wherever we go….in memory of him….some girls on the trip were very attached to him. After we left Auckland we drove 2-3 hours to get to our campsite. That night we played Mafia, ate and did some worship. The next morning we woke up and drove another 2 hours to Waitangi.
The next day we met at the ship dock and boarded our cruise ship…well it was more like a barge in the water. It was an old car carrier that was converted into a party boat!!!! The cruise was really fun it took us out to the Bay of Islands. The crew was fun, nice and especially easy on the eyes…Our first day on the boat we got to shoot a gun off the back at a toy duck in the water. We then got to fish off the back. I caught six fish. I really wanted to catch a shark or a dolphin but it didn’t happen, oh well, next time! In New Zealand they have this “tradition†where you have to kiss the first fish you catch. I was not prepared for this, but gave into peer pressure and laid a big one on my first fish. Afterwards my lips tasted salty…it was delightful. The rest of the evening was spent eating, playing cards and hanging out. That night I signed up for the night Kayak. This was one of the coolest things we’ve done. At night there is a sort of algae in the water that glows as a defense mechanism. So whenever you put your paddle or hand in the water and move around a green sparkly glow appears!!! I felt like tinker bell with pixie dust! We kayaked out to a coastline and then came back. It was a little scary, I have this on going fear of getting eaten by a shark; however, I survived the trip. After we got back we went for a lat night swim. Sleeping was a bit of challenge. My top bunk was extremely close to ceiling. DANGER!
The next day was a bit different than the first. It was overcast and rainy. We had plans to snorkel and then dock at a beach for the day. As the rain picked up our plans changed a bit. Luckily the rain calmed down so we could still snorkel. SO I pulled on my wetsuit (I felt like a surfer) and plunged into the icy water. We saw lots of coral and algae. We saw a few fish and urchins, but I was too distracted by the extreme amounts of salt water that I was swallowing. I think I might of swallowed ¼ of the ocean, so when I got back on the boat I had a pretty bad stomach ache. As the waves picked up, the rocking boat did not help my situation. I felt pretty queasy when we were getting into a boat to take us ashore…I didn’t care all I wanted was LAND! We spent a few hours on the beach in the rain and cold (and cold I mean 60-65 degrees…not Bethel college snowy winter cold…sorry). When we finally got back to the boat I was about ready to puke. I spent the three hour trip back to the dock on the back of the boat, trying to get some air. I began to feel better soon enough. A little bit before we got back to land the crew cracked open the sea urchins they collected while we were snorkeling. In the USA, sea urchin eggs go for 800 dollars an egg. They let us try them for free!! First you take it out (it looks like a slug) and them move it over the back of your hand to get the salt off. You then slurp it up! It tasted like salt.
Waitangi is the equivalent to our Washington D.C. It is the place of the nation’s birth. We visited the treaty house and got to see some really interesting Maori artifacts. We would be in Waitangi for their, Waitangi Day (similar to the 4th of July). There were tons of people in the town getting ready for the celebration. When we got back to Waitangi we had time to relax at our hostile (a cheap hotel…not a scary horror movie). The next two days we shopped, slept in, and relaxed. One morning I woke up with five other brave ones and watched the sunrise. It was so beautiful and peaceful. For a while I thought we maybe missed it or perhaps the sun wasn’t coming up that day because it was light, but the sun never showed. But then it came, bursting through the clouds! It was magnificent. It was a great week despite all the sea sickness and car sickness. I learned to play euchre, cut my hair, and bought a shirt. Good times!
These next few days are our final study days. It’s a bit stressful because we technically have to have over half our work done for the semester by Wednesday….so I have to accomplish a lot. On Wednesday we leave for the South of the Island and then soon after Australia. The time had really flown by! I now have to go and read my day away! Thanks for reading…I know it was a long one! Happy Waitangi Day!
Dear Lord, Please help me on these test I have to take today. However, I realize I haven’t exactly done my part in the deal, so only help me however much you feel comfortable.
Thanks for whatever you can give me,
Amy
It’s official: I’m leaving for my practicum tomorrow at 5 am. For so long practicum has seemed like some far away thing: something I get to when I’ve been through more than 3 1/2 years of crazy hard interpreting classes, something I’ll do when I feel like I’m ready. I always thought that by the time practicum came I would feel ready…but that’s not exactly the case. I do feel much more ready than I would have a year ago, or even a few months ago, but the readiness is mixed with a fair amount of nervousness.
It’s so strange to think of all that I’ve been through the last 3.5 years: all the classes, all the tests, interpreting the play, all the interpreting assignments and interpreted chapel services…. And now, all that’s left is practicum. It seems unreal that I’m actually leaving and doing this thing that for so long has seemed like an unreachable feat somewhere far off in the distance. Well….all I can do is take a big leap of faith and GO!
Yesterday was our last interpreting class. I’m officially done with classes and labs for all of my college career! Here’s a picture of my interpreting class: the ones that I’ve spent SO MANY hours with over the past few years. For the next 10 weeks we’ll be all over the country: Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Cleveland, Chicago, Fort Wayne, Pennsylvania and Charlotte. Who knows the crazy adventures we’ll all be having….but I’m excited to find out
Well we have been back in school now for a few weeks, and Christmas break seems forever ago! I have been having so much fun teaching about the 5 senses, disabilities, and our body systems!
