Forgiveness mixed with a little encouragement

By Katie

Things have slowed down a bit with the front porch gang lately. I attribute it mostly to HEAT, HEAT, HEAT! It's kind of like January in the Midwest; no one wants to go out too much beacause the weather is disagreable.

The other day I had one girl show up, after waiting without anyone for about 45 minutes. Both Briana and I were hot and tired, so we sort of went through the motions of class. That day we read a short story about how Jesus asks us to forgive people up to seventy times seven times. She asked a few more questions than normal and drew some connections to her own life. At the end of the class, she asked if she could stick around and draw on the board. I said yes and headed out back to do some laundry. After a few minutes she called me to the porch and showed me this picture that she had drawn representing forgiveness.

Sometimes we are blessed in small ways like this. We're reminded that what we do does have an impact, in spite of that fact that we're hot or tired. There's power in the story of the gospel that can speak for itself.

El Boquerón Youth Hike

By Matt

On a recent Saturday we took a hike with youth groups from the church that we attend (La Mora CRC) and the CRC in nearby Cofradía. It was Jorge’s idea from the get-go (he is the president of the CRC youth of Olancho). Jorge (or Jorgito, if you prefer) suggested that we get some youth together and hike up the beautiful canyon of El Boquerón to the village of La Avispa to hold a church service up there. We were all for it!

The morning of the hike we woke up to rain, but it looked like it might clear off. We prayed a lot for good weather, and God really blessed us with a beautiful day. We arrived at the trailhead with a group of 14, most of whom had never been to the canyon before. At the beginning of the hike we talked for a little bit about what a beautiful gift God gave us in the creation and how as Christians it is our responsibility to take care of it. The hike was a great example of the contrast of how beautiful creation can be, and also what can happen if we don’t care for it. For the first few hours it is beautiful tropical forest with huge trees, beautiful birds, and impressive rock formations. The group loved it! Some of the guys were scurrying around like squirrels all over the rocks. Katie got a little wet crossing the river. A few of us had more experience hiking than others. Some of the girls were hiking in bare feet, but they weren’t even the slow ones! The women of Olancho are TOUGH!

After following the river for a couple hours we took the path up the side of the mountain to La Avispa. As we emerged from the canyon we passed by some banana plants. This was a sure sign that we were near the “cave of the tiger” where an older couple live in a cave. The group was both excited and nervous to meet them because there is a rumor that they really don’t like it when people pass by. We spoke to the wife for just a little bit and then moved on. From the cave the hiking was pretty flat and we came out into large areas where the forest had long since been clear cut to make room for crops. It was very hot and dry in this stretch of trail. It was a good example of the consequences of not caring for the creation very responsibly.

We arrived in La Avispa after almost 4 hours of hiking and ate a quick lunch at the pastor’s house. From there we headed to the church and the people began to show up. The church was packed! At least 70 people showed up.

We had a energetic worship service and I gave a little pep-talk about how God gives us the strength we need to meet the challenges he puts in front of us. This was mostly directed at our group of 14, some of whom were pretty tired and not looking forward to the hike back.

God gave us the energy to make it back and we arrived before dark back at the truck. All of us had a great time and the youth were asking when we were going on the next hike. It was a great day, but we arrived home very tired.

Student Showcase

By Katie

We had a Mother's Day program yesterday and the kids all sang "Lord I Lift Your Name on High" in English. After lots of practice it turned out well, so I thought I'd share it with you all. It surely would have been more pleasant to listen to if the cd had worked, but instead the poor children had to follow my out-of-tune lead. Oh well, being in-tune matters a little less here, thank goodness.


We've also been working hard on English greetings lately. Many of the students are excited to use the greetings with me even outside of class. Here is a video of a kindergartener named Nathaly talking with me in English.

Getting to work

By Matt

I've had a few different jobs in my life, and getting myself to work has taken several different forms over the years: Dirt bike, napping in the sleeper part of a semi, car rides of varying distances, and in Minneapolis, biking (even in the winter). But this past week I had one of the most interesting "commutes" to work I have ever had.
The Diaconia cars were already spoken for for the day, and David and I needed to get to the community of La Avispa. There are basically two ways to get to La Avispa; one is a bumpy ride in a pickup truck around the mountains, through a pass and backtracking through the next valley to the north (1.5 to 2 hour ride). The other option is a foot trail that follows the Olancho river up a steep canyon called El Boqueron (1.5 or 2 hour hike). We decided to hike up the canyon, much to my delight!
We crossed the river a few times and then ran across a fellow traveler. He is a young man and happens to be the pastor in training for the Baptist church in La Avispa.
We followed the trail together, crossing the clear waters of the Río Olancho several times. It was incredibly beautiful! There were amazing lilies, huge cliffs, beautiful rock formations, tropical birds, and caves. I am told that the Honduran government is in the process of making this area a national park.



As we continued up the path we passed by the famous "cave of the tiger", where a man and his wife have set up their homestead in a cave. We bought some really flavorful bananas from them and kept on hiking up to la Avispa.
The reason for our trip to La Avispa was to meet with an agriculture group, train them on how to grow and use the Moringa tree, and check up on how their Moringa nursery is doing. Moringa leaves are packed with vitamins and protein, and are good for humans and animals. We brought some leaves with us to make into a sort of stew with sausage and potatoes. It was really good.

At the home where they prepared the moringa stew for us someone had caught an armadillo and was planning on butchering it (they say the meat is pretty good). I did see armadillo meat, but I don't think any of it ended up in the stew!

The moringa nursery was doing fairly well. We have had some trouble with seed germination (I think the seeds we bought are old) but around half of them had sprouted and produced nice seedlings.

After our meeting Roldan and Arturo showed up in one of the Diaconia vehicles. We helped them with their meeting which involved all of the community. They are working with the people to create a "plan for community transformation" which is a big document that contains all sorts of statistics about the community, history, levels of well being of the residents, and helps organize the felt needs of the community. Through this process the community decides together on their major priorities and how they will work together to make those things a reality (for example, we need running water, let's organize a water board and start raising money and making plans for a water system, etc.)

After the meeting we left with Arturo and Roldan. In the end I think the foot path is the best way to get to La Avispa. It is nice that I was able to get to know the way, because Jorge, the president of the Olancho CR youth board, wants me to accompany a bunch of young people on a hike up to La Avispa. The plan is to put on a big youth-oriented worship service up there and then hike back down some Saturday in May. I'm looking forward to it!