During my time here in Honduras, I've spent a lot of time with Jim's wife, Francis. I really didn't know her at all before I came here, only having met her twice (i think). She is an amazing woman who truly loves God. The more time i spend with her, the more I admire her desire to live as God would have her live. Whenever she makes plans, she is quick to mention, "God willing," as she seems to always remember He is in control. I noticed this more as we made plans and they didn't work out for reasons beyond our control. Every time we leave the house, she prays as we sit in the van before pulling out. She prays frequently throughout the day. It is wonderful to see her sitting in the corner by the window in the living room each morning, reading her Bible and reflecting on what she reads. When we visited the villages bringing foods, it was amazing hearing her reminding each family we were only working as the hands of God, that he is the Provider. She loves those people very much.

She's told us about her life growing up, her life before she was a Christian, when she met Jim, and when Honduras Ministries was first beginning. She is a very strong and wise woman. She works hard to save money so they can continue in their ministry. She works so hard for hours each day to keep their property clean, I don't know how she does it each day. She is a fantastic example for her daughter, for me, and for all Christians. i appreciate her so much, and will remember her example always.

Thinking about the example Francis sets for me reminds me also of all the other Christian women that i look up to and appreciate so much. My mom also works hard to take care of us and has given up a lot for her family and to continue to minister where she is needed in the church. My grandma works hard always to take care of my grandpa worked with him in churches and at a church camp for many years. She is prayerful and cares deeply about everyone she meets. Two women I've known all my life, but really only started to appreciate in the past few years, and certainly still don't appreciate enough. Thank you for the example you've set.

There are countless other women who have encouraged me and whose faith i have admired. So many of the ladies at LifeSpring have set examples for my sisters and I and encouraged us. The friendships they have, and how they live life together is so amazing to see. We've known Jennifer and Ashlie almost since we moved here and as i get older, i have seen what amazing women of God they are. There are also many Godly women in Joplin, like the dorm mom from my freshman year, Mama Judie (who raised her kids on her own after her husband left her), my life group leader, Linda Lawson (who was crazy busy during the school year, but made time to cook for us and with us and to encourage us. Even more, she is currently battling cancer, your prayers are appreciated!), women at C0llege Heights (my church in Joplin), Katie (who knows how to live in community just as in the Bible and work to reach the poor), my current RD, Susan (who was an RA for years and has so much insight into serving and encouraging girls) and all the girls in my dorm who encourage and love each other so much. Marisa and Lauren and my roommate, Tasha, have all encouraged me, listened to me vent, and prayed with and for me when i need it.

All of these and so many others (i keep thinking of more, their are too many to list!) have impacted my life greatly and driven me closer to God. Again, i want to make it clear, that, while i admire each of them so much, the most important thing is that their lives point toward God. Their lives give Him the glory. And that makes me admire them all the more. Thank you for the example you have set and be encouraged that the way you live your lives gives God glory!

One last thing. When i first came here, i was reading (well, sorta. more like listening to, it was an audio book)the book Forgotten God by Francis Chan. One quote has become my prayer each day. He wrote, "I don't want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit." As i follow the example of these amazing women (and i only listed the women, there are many men whom i admire greatly too), I grow closer to this goal.

This is kinda long, maybe slightly random, but i figured i kinda have a captive audience, so i might as well write what i have been thinking. Although, you're not really captive, because you can choose to read it or not. Anyway, just some thoughts.

Prayer Request:
-encouragement for each of the women who set such Godly examples
-that i can show my appreciation for these women who i so admire
-that i can grow live my life in glory of God as they have.

5 weeks can sure fly by...

Well, my last full week is here. I have 9 days left in Honduras before I head back to KC on August 3.

This week has been pretty quiet, going about our normal routines. I’ve been going through the medical inventory, trying to make sure it’s ready for the team that comes in September. This week, I have bagged literally thousands of pills of acetaminophen and ibuprofen into baggies of ten pills. But I feel like I’m being more useful, so that’s good. This week I plan to continue going through everything, making sure pills are bagged for the health clinic’s pharmacy and making sure the counts taken in April are still accurate.

This past weekend, we had been planning on going to the Mayan ruins of Copan with Juan Carlos’ family. However on Wednesday evening, Francis got the call that his 10-year-old daughter, Daniela, was being taken to the hospital because they were afraid she had Dengue, a fever carried by mosquitoes that can be fatal. I guess the hospital released her that night to be cared for at home, then we didn’t hear anything for the rest of the week. This morning after church Daniela came up and gave me a hug, and said she was feeling better. She still looked pale and very tired, but she was smiling her and acting like her normal self. Thank you for your prayers for her, she is a very special girl and I thank God that she is okay!

Thank you also for your prayers for my encouragement, especially on Sundays. This morning was better than the previous two Sundays have been. I was still ready to go back to the house after spending more than two hours trying to understand Spanish, but I was not as overwhelmed and sad as I had felt before. Thank you for all your prayers.

This week Jim comes back and we will hopefully got to Copan with him this weekend. I might also have the opportunity to go with my friend Kystelle (a friend from OCC who is also in Tegucigalpa this summer working with a ministry) for a day and work with their ministry. I also want to finish the medical inventory stuff, and achieve some of my goals for Spanish-learning for the summer. I think the week is going to fly by. But I’m going to try and do a few more updates this week to get all my final thoughts out. I’ve been thinking about the poverty and the different cultural differences the whole time I’ve been here and finally might be able to put together my thoughts and feelings and other reflections from my time here. I was going to in this post I thought, but it is longer than I expected it to be.

So again, thanks for your prayers, keep them up please!
Prayer Requests
-Jim’s safe travel to Honduras
-Daniela’s continued healing and recovery
-that I will be even more productive for the ministry this week, and serve the God’s purpose for bringing me here this summer, learning everything He has for me to learn while I’m here

here are a few of my favorite pictures from the past couple weeks:
Nicole, Andrea and I in a huge tree in a small town called Ojojona
sorting and bagging the medicine for the medical clinic
Krystelle and I, two gringas in Tegucigalpa!

Hello friends! I just realized I haven't updated this week, so i don't know that i'll get 3 in, sorry. This week has been kinda slow ministry-wise. We've had mornings full of Spanish lessons and afternoons full of errands with Francis, so not a whole lot of free time.

I've been working a little with the medical inventory, organizing, bagging pills for the pharmacies they run with the medical brigades, and checking the count. It's been kinda slow, but at least i have plenty to do! I've gone through all the big stuff and have mostly pills and small items left. Nicole takes a break from her stuff to help me sometimes, so that's nice too.

Francis got a call this evening from Juan Carlos, saying they had taken his 10 year old daughter to the hospital because she had a fever. There is a disease here carries by mosquitos call "Dengue" that starts with a fever and is potentially fatal. I'm not sure about the treatment for it, but i know there are two different kinds and one is more dangerous than the other. Juan Carlos was concerned that his daughter, Daniela, has Dengue. Please keep her in your prayers. She is a happy, funny, sweet little girl. I have gotten to know her since i've been here because she speaks very good English, and she is amazing. And she comes from a fantastic family that is the perfect example of a Godly family.


Daniela, getting ready to eat her massive taco when we went to lunch with her family last week. And she ate almost the whole thing!

week 4 is over already!!

Sorry I'm kinda late on the week wrap-up post this week, i had a busy day yesterday. I can't believe i only have about 2 weeks left here!

The rest of the week, after the food distribution, was pretty laid back. I’ve put the finishing touches on the Twitter page for the ministry (HONMinistries) and posted directions on the previous blogpost for how to get the text message updates. I’ll work on tweeting more once a day or so to keep people updated about Honduras Ministries. If you have any other good ideas about how to get the word out about us, let me know!

Sundays seem to be getting harder for me. Church services are nice but they are long and I don’t understand very much. Francis and Andrea translate the general idea, but it is still kinda hard. Getting to see people is fun, especially as I know more of them, but there are still few that speak English. Church is sometimes when I get really homesick, because I miss my home church very much and can’t wait to talk to all of them about my experiences. After church we usually go out to eat them sometimes do other things, when what I’m really ready to do is go home and relax. But overall, I’m doing ok. Since I got used to the language barrier, I haven’t felt as stressed. Some days have been harder because I’ve missed some family get-togethers and getting to see Nathan and Erin (my brother and sister-in-law) and Natalie and Rl(my sister and her fiance). But, like I said, I’m doing pretty ok. I haven’t felt as homesick or out of place as I thought I might feel coming to a place I don’t know for such a long time. I also got to see a friend from OCC that’s here with another mission yesterday, and it was really helpful to get to talk to her. I haven’t said much about how I’ve been feeling since I’ve been here as I’ve been going through these feelings, so I thought I would let you know, since you’re my prayer network! Thanks so much for all the prayers, I appreciate them so much!!!

Prayer Requests:
-the little homesickness to subside so I can enjoy rest of my time here (especially sundays)
-the families in Tegucigalpa and Lepaterique that we brought food to this week
-Jim, as he is still away in the States getting his hand taken care of
-safe travel this coming weekend, we get to go the Mayan ruins of Copan!!
-that I will be helpful to this ministry and the Martin family while I am here, I feel like this week especially I haven’t done as much as I should

Thanks again!!!

how to follow Honduras Ministries through your cell phone

If you'd like to receive text updates from Honduras Ministries on your phone, follow these directions to receive our Twitter updates.

1.Text “follow honministries” to 40404

2.If your cell phone is not already associated with your own Twitter page, you will get this response: “Welcome to Twitter. Reply with ‘signup’ to begin. Already on Twitter? Reply with your username instead”


3.If you don’t already have a Twitter, reply “signup.” You will technically be signing up for a Twitter, but it doesn’t mean really anything. The only notifications you will get will be from Honduras Ministries unless you add others.

4.The response will be: “Great you just need a username. This is how you’ll be known on Twitter. Reply with the username you want to use”

5.Reply with the username you choose. Anything really works, as long as it isn’t taken. If it is, it will ask you to choose something else.

6.You’ll get a few text messages in response, including the latest Tweet from HONMinistries. Then you’re done. You’ll get a text each time HONMinistries updates Twitter.

More Food Distribution (40 families is a lot!)

We've gotten the rest of the food bags taken to their homes in the past two days. Yesterday Joel, the pastor for a church in Choluteca that lives here in Tegucigalpa, drove us to the homes of 2 more families that Honduras Ministries provides food for and we dropped 9 bags off at the church offices to be distributed from there.

Today Juan Carlos drove us to a small town about 2 hours from Tegucigalpa (with another name i can't spell) to bring food bags to 2 more families. The roads were rough, but the view was beautiful. Both families had gardens full of banana trees, coffee plants and more. We came home with a grocery bag full of big limes and a bag of huge, delicious blackberries. We've met with 4 very nice families in the past two days. It is so amazing that i get to be here, meeting these people, being used to bless and serve them. I'm so grateful to be part of God's family and family in Christ with the people i have met!


Lolita and her husband with Nicole, Francis and I. They are so sweet. Lolita is almost blind, so her husband takes care of her each day.


bringing food to Doña Victoria today


praying before we left to head back to Tegucigalpa today. It is powerful to hear Juan Carlos pray. I can even understand some of it!

Prayer Requests:
-thanks for our safety in travels while delivering food
-thanks for drivers willing to take time to help us distribute the food
-the families we've delivered to, that they know we are simply tools God uses to provide for them, for their health and safety
-also, i've been kind of discouraged lately. Sunday i was really missing everyone at LifeSpring and wishing i could be there. I would appreciate prayer for encouragement and remembering that i am here doing God's work
-today marks the half way point for my time here. Please pray that i will continue to help the ministry here and faithfully do what needs to be done.

Food Distribution

We distributed food on Thursday! We went to Choluteca, La Fortunita, Los Humos and Cerco de Piedra. It was fun getting to talk to a few of the families and very interesting to see how they live. It looked exactly like the commercials you see on tv for charities or pictures from World Vision or Compassion International. When I started to think about how they live everyday, it is so different from my own life, here in Tegucigalpa and in the US in KC and Joplin. They have small homes with dirt floors, no running water, no electricity. I wish I could have spent a little more time in each place getting to know people, although I couldn’t do much since I didn’t speak their language. Here are a couple pictures and the stories of people in them:


This is one of the ladies Honduras Ministries provides food for in Los Humos. I don't know much of her story, but I will remember her forever i hope. When Francis said we were going to pray before we left, the woman began to walk towards the church building, apparently thinking that was the only place we can pray. Francis call her back and explained to her that God lives in each of us, not in the church building. The church is a house where we meet, nothing more. God is in us always. The whole day, it was awesome to hear Francis explain more about the character of God to people so they could understand how he changes lives.


This is the site in La Fortunita that Honduras Ministries currently owns and is fundraising (i believe) to build a church on. They have already built a beautiful church in Cerco de Piedra, wired with electricity so the church can worship at night too. The people in La Fortunita have not place of their own to worship, but meet outside, unprotected from sun and rain.


handing out food in La Fortunita


Us with Umberto, the first person Honduras served in the Choluteca area. They have been bringing him food for 10 years. He is blind and makes beautiful hammocks for a living. He is a wonderful, prayerful man. He told Nicole and I that he has two new people to pray for everyday. He loves God very much.

Prayer Requests:
-the people that we brought food to, that it would nourish them and they would know, as Francis explained to each person we talked to, that it is from God and only through God are we able to do what we do. That each person would would truly know God and His love
-for Umberto, who is having some health problems with his hear, if i understood correctly
-for Francis, she has had a stressful week, between getting the van fixed, multiple problems with the water system here at her house, and Jim being gone so she has to take care of everything. She is an absolutely amazing, Godly woman who works very hard to serve people. I respect and admire her very much. And that Nicole and I are able to help her out in any way she allows us.
-for Jim as he is in the US, that his hand can heal, and he can come back soon

and the continuing requests that i can be useful and serve God well here in the Tegucigalpa and serve the ministry well, and for language learning!

Food Ministry

So I guess I’m supposed to post here about three times a week. I’ll try to do that. But honestly it might end up being more like twice. I’m really going to try for three though, even if they’re short notes with a few prayer requests.

The van is broken again. There is something wrong with the alternator and the electric locks. The locks just make a whirring noise when you try to lock them, then pop back up. It’s a good five minute battle for each lock to lock. Jim thinks that is what is wearing the battery down so that we have to jump start it every time we use it. He said if we can get that fixed, the alternator will be able to wait until he gets back in a few weeks. Having no vehicle right now is inconvenient because we’re trying to get the food together to bring out for the food ministry. Francis’ brother took us this afternoon to buy food, but he has a small car, so we had to make 2 trips. If the van isn’t back in working order by Thursday, we’ll have to borrow rent a car to go to Choluteca.

We’re getting ready to bag up the food to bring the families now. We had 4 carts worth of food! It will help feed 40 families for the month. It was a group effort finding all the food and getting checked out, and I think they were probably happy when we left. All that food (again, enough to help feed 40 families), and it was less then $500 though. Not a whole lot when you think about it. Nicole said it came to around $13 per family. It’s very cool that we’re able to do this for them, but also sad that they can’t even afford so little.

So that’s what we’ve been up to today, besides the normal Spanish lessons and such. Spanish lessons are getting harder because we’re learning more about how you use each word. Some of it involves verb tenses that we don’t use in English or one verb in English is two words in Spanish that you use at different times. It’s all very confusing.

That’s all I have for today. Here are a few prayer requests:
-the van is fixed and able to make the drive to Choluteca and the other towns to distribute food, or for other means of transportation to be provided at a reasonable price
-the families that we’ll distribute the food to, for their health and safety
-safety in our travels this week
-Extra help for Nicole and I to understand those speaking Spanish to us

I also have some ongoing requests that I listed on the last post and will list again:
-that God will use me to do His work while I’m here, especially when it isn’t glamorous
-that I will be useful to the ministry and worth everything they’ve spent on me
-thank God also for the generosity I have experienced from Honduras Ministries and the Martin family who have taken very good care of me!
-that Nicole and I will not be overwhelmed by learning Spanish, but able to learn it relatively easily
-for Honduras Ministries ability to reach Hondurans with the love of God

Thank you all very much. I will do my best to keep you all updated as often as possible!




collecting the food



buying enough coffee for 40 families



all the food, waiting to be bagged for the individual families

My first week and a half

Hello! Sorry it’s been awhile. To be honest I haven’t had too much to report. But when I think about it, I can still tell you guys what we’ve been doing (although it isn’t action-packed) and list some prayer requests.

Our days are pretty much the same each day. Get up early, go walking with Luz (our neighbor across the street/ Spanish teacher), come back around 7:30 (yes, that’s what time we get BACK. I’ve been getting up early!) and clean up, eat a delicious and nutritious breakfast and do some last minute Spanish studying before Luz comes back for our Spanish class at 9.

We study with Luz for two hours a day, 5 days a week. I think this week we learned more than 50 new verbs and learned 6 new tenses/ways to form verbs. It’s been intense. To be honest, Spanish is what has caused the majority of my stress thus far on the trip. Stress when I’m in an environment where everyone is speaking Spanish to me and stress as I learn Spanish because it is very hard to learn in such a short time! But I have already learned a lot, Luz is a good teacher.

After Spanish lessons, Nicole and I do some work for the ministry. She has been working on writing for some grants and some budget information. I put together some volunteer opportunities to be posted online at www.volunteermatch.org and we’ve already got a hit! If you’re looking for pretty simple ways to contribute, check them out! Search Honduras Ministries when you get to the site. We’ve also set up a Twitter for the ministry (HONMinistries if you want to follow. Soon I will post directions to get updates to your cell phone through text message.) and plan to look at the Facebook pages already established for ministry and narrow it to one that we will keep updated.

In the afternoon we either relax, do a little more work or Spanish homework, or go out. We’ve gone to the mall a ton, lol. I’ve been to the mall here more in the past week and a half than in the month I was home before I came. The grocery store is inside the mall and we’ve also had to go there to try to figure out how to get the iphone set up with service down here. So far we’ve had no success after visiting cell phone providers at least 5 or 6 times. Jim really would like to be able to update Facebook and Twitter from his phone, but right now there is a block on phone so it con only be used in the US.

I met several of the people that our team in April met, but only real fast Sunday after church. I was able to give Santos’ daughter Alison the gifts that Jennifer G sent down, and she loved them. She had a bunch of friends with her so they took everything out and looked at all the pictures. They had so much fun, and it was really cute to watch. Today we went to see Juan Carlos and got to see the youth center they have over there. I think it is an after school program. I really liked getting to see that. Tomorrow we’re going to see the family of the little girl that Don Hanson will be supporting.

So I guess I did have a lot to update you on. I need to write more often! Let me finish off with some prayer requests.
These first ones are kind of ongoing ones, that I would appreciate continual prayer for, but will probably not list each time:
-that God will use me to do His work while I’m here, especially when it isn’t glamorous
-that I will be useful to the ministry and worth everything they’ve spent on me
-thank God also for the generosity I have experienced from Honduras Ministries and the Martin family who have taken very good care of me!
-that Nicole and I will not be overwhelmed by learning Spanish, but able to learn it relatively easily
-for Honduras Ministries ability to reach Hondurans with the love of God

Here are a few that have come up recently:
-for Juan Carlos, who has been sick
-for the youth center that we visited
-for Oscar, the father of Honduras’ Ministries 40th family to support through their food ministry. We met him yesterday and brought him his food. He is a very kind and friendly man who is a new Christian that has overcome drug addictions and is letting Jesus change his life.
-Jim returns to the US Sunday to have the pin taken out of his hand and for some physical therapy. Prayers for his healing and also for safety on his trip back would be great.

Thanks everyone. I’ll try and update more frequently. I’ll post a couple pictures here, and more on my facebook in the albums (I’m having problems accessing the Honduras Team facebook page, so I’m not able to put them there). God bless!




Nicole, Andrea (my host sister, Jim and Francis' daughter) and I



Francis and Oscar