Update 1

I have not been able to fill everyone in since I have moved to Honduras. This was due to a lack of time when I did have internet and now due to a lack of internet. This post will be longer than what I am planning on posting in the future. But I hope that those of you who are interested will be able to read through the whole thing to better understand what is going on here!  

First, I am so thankful for those of you who have given financially to my move. I am overwhelmed by the amount of people who are praying for me. I know that my support system is growing and I have been realizing that this week.

My mom and I moved my stuff to Honduras on July 21, and here we are August 8. I have already been here 17 days! Last week I was able to spend time with the Family to Family team from Rivervalley. That was a wonderful week. We had a lot of high schoolers on that team. It was a special time for me to see kids that I had been ministering to all year stepping up and making their faith their own. God was so good that week. I really felt overwhelmed, I am not sure how much help I was. It was a process. I had to take everything in. My whole life was changing and for an internal processer like myself, it takes a lot of time to think about everything that happens. That being said, I had an incredible time serving the people of Honduras. I loved praying over people.

I thought that leaving the team was going to be a lot more difficult than what it actually was. There were many tears, but not nearly as many as I was expecting. And once I left them at the airport, I didn’t cry. And besides getting teary eyed here and there, I haven’t cried since being here. I KNOW that God answered my prayers for an easy transition. I have felt His presence every single day. It is a constant reassurance that this is where He wants me to be. That is absolutely incredible.

This week, I moved from the hotel into my friend Samira’s apartment. For those of you who do not know about Samira, allow me to fill you in. Samira is a director at Eternity Christian School where I will be teaching. She has graciously offered to let myself, and another American teacher, live with her and her son this year. Her son’s name is Essa. He is the cutest. Hopefully he will be in my K5 class this year. I am so glad that she and I have bonded as quickly as we have. She has been incredible at taking care of me and helping me get acclimated to life here in Honduras. I am very thankful for her patience and her humor. Samira and I moved on Wednesday into our new house. They were still in the process of getting it ready for us. The day that we moved, I got really sick (I am still not feeling 100%). That was a difficult day. And as I sat on my suitcase in my empty room with tears welling up in my eyes, I really did question what I was doing. The thought to buy a plane ticket home crossed my mind several times that day. It is hard to be sick in a foreign country especially when you are moving and your toilet doesn’t work. I was in constant communication with my mom and my dad that day. Thankfully they were able to help calm me down, as they kept trying to change the subject and remind me of the good reasons that I was there.

Yesterday, Thursday, Samira got a call that there was a home closer to the school that had the number of bedrooms that we need. She and I went to check it out last night. There was a peace in my heart and the new house felt more like a home to me. As soon as it is painted, cleaned and ready, we will be moving from our current home into our new home! God is so great at providing everything that we need.

So here I am in my new (soon to be old) house. I have realized that living without AC is easier than living without wifi. HA! How American am I?! I have also realized that cravings like Starbucks and Taco Bell is really real. I’m already thinking about how much I am going to miss the coolness of fall in Indiana. I will miss the colors changing and I will miss the excitement of football season starting (even though I don’t watch football). I will miss sweat shirts and bonfires. I keep thinking that any day now I can just go home, like I used to do when I moved out for college. This time it’s very real though and I am on my own (Alone in the Universe, Claire). That’s really difficult to work through.

I want to thank everyone who has reached out to me this week, just to see how I am doing and check in on me. It has been such a blessing. Once I get wifi, I will be able to talk to many more of you. I ask that you continue to check in on me and reach out to me. It is really something that I am going to need to get through this year away from home and it brightens my day and reminds me that I am loved and supported by so many.

Today (Friday), I spent a good amount of time with my Savior. I have been filling my mind with beautiful worship songs this week. I sing the same few over and over again, making them into a prayer. I love the peace that I experience when I am resting in the presence of God. It is a feeling that has been absent from my life for several months. I think with getting everything ready to move here, I put my relationship with Jesus on the back burner. Luckily, God’s grace is sufficient for me and He didn’t give up on me. I know that my spiritual life is in for an entire makeover this year as He prepares me to be the woman He has created and crafted me to be. My life verse the last few years has been 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 ‘But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.’ When I came to Honduras last year, right after a surgery, I was really weak and God kept reminding me of this verse. If I had it all together, I wouldn’t need Him. If I wasn’t in pain, I wouldn’t be in constant conversation with Him. If I knew what I was doing, I wouldn’t need to relay on Him for guidance. So you can see where He intervenes and makes Himself known in my life. I pray that my life is a continuous testimony to the goodness and the faithfulness of God.