Home stretch baby!!

Well, I’m in the home stretch. I only have one week left of class, plus a couple extra days. I will have my last classes on Friday and Saturday, meet with the Church at Las Casitas (the mountain town about 90 minutes away) on Sunday, and then Jorge will drive me to Tegucigalpa on Monday where I will catch a bus for San Pedro Sula. I will stay with a newly made friend in San Pedro that night, spend the day with him Tuesday and then go to the airport and wait for my 1:15 AM flight out.

The last 1-2 weeks has felt like senioritis all over again, with the anticipation of being done. I hadn’t even really thought much about returning until then. Though I am still enjoying myself here, being away since the end of March has caught up to me, and I am definitely ready to be back in the good ol’ U.S. of A. In the mean time, I still get to sleep with open air and a fan (that’s a good thing to me ), drink pineapple juice by the cupful, wear my new sombrero without getting gawked at (more than usual), and crack corny jokes in my English classes. I would include eating tons of Mango, but sadly, the season has ended. But that’s ok, star fruit, and some other fruit that looks like something from Fraggle Rock have taken its place!! I have never seen or heard of that last fruit, so I don’t know what to call it. Inside the weird outer part is some fruit that loosely resembles a grape, but its more gooey and has a big seed in the middle. Hopefully I can get a picture of it loaded.

In the time since I last wrote, the Hunter Hills CoC in Alabama, a church my parents were members of before they moved to Georgia, and others have been here to hold some preaching seminars and other various things to help people in more practical ways. Between those seminars, and Jorge’s truck breaking, I have missed quite a few classes in the past 2 weeks. 3 of my 5 classes are not actually in Catacamas, so I normally drive Jorge’s truck. But I have been able to borrow the truck of one of the preachers around hear to get to a couple classes on Fridays. My classes have been a blessing to me, and I think I can safely say that is a mutual feeling with my students as well. They seem to genuinely enjoy being in class, and also enjoy my relaxed format.

Some things to be joyful about: the three incredibly cute little girls that help carry my markers and dictionary and always give me a hug when I arrive and when I leave; leading a “train” of little kids around the EBH property (Hunduran Bible School) and making train sounds while their parents were in a seminar; working hard enough at manually mixing cement and gravel all day to damage the muscles in my hand so that my hand wouldn’t loosen up for a week; being invited to be hosted for an hour of food and fellowship with the family of three of my students in Las Casitas; having a coconut fresh from the tree for the first time in 14 years; an English class morphing into a dancing class at the end (just waltz and a couple latin dances I don’t know); being asked for advice from a 17 year old guy in one of my classes about a family situation and fumbling through understanding and speaking; enjoying many humorous and serious moments with Jorge, a kindred spirit; getting to share living space with Jorge and his wife and 2 year-old daughter (they moved into the Center a week ago); plenty of time to let some confusion in my spirit work its way out.

I am thankful for this time I have had south of the border. I have been able to share my skills, and I have been able to share my SELF. In the end, I believe the latter is what really matters. Skills can be found elsewhere if need be; but YOU are the only you, and only you can choose to share yourself. I’ve fallen in love with a ministry of presence, a casual giving away of yourself that is only possible as you begin to let go of fear. It is beautiful in a way I cannot describe, but that sets the soul free to soar to highest heights. Jesus set us free that we may have freedom. Freedom from what? I would say, freedom from “have to”, and replaced by “get to”. When you’re in debt, no matter what you pay, you still owe. When you’re free of debt, EVERYTHING you give, no matter how small, is a wonderful addition. Though I still clearly see selfish tendencies to hoard my time and energy, at this point those tendencies are embraced with mixed emotion, always accompanied by a sense of dissatisfaction with such selfishness.

If our lives were not so ordered, would God be free to order them? If our time was not so full, would we hear better how to live to the full? In a culture that moves fast around us, what does it take to slow down? In a culture that measures worth by production, what would it look like to truly value a person, or a people, for just being with them? I can’t say I have it figured out. But I can say that perhaps for the first time, I’m beginning to know that I don’t have to have it figured out. I believe it was Socrates who said, “All I know, is that I know nothing.”

A well-known American slogan/catch-phrase is that of the Nike Co.: “Just Do It”. If I may make a small suggestion with far reaching implications, I would say that a much better slogan would be, “Just be.” Joshua brought the Israelite people to a point of ultimate decision when he stated, “Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”. I choose to serve our great and loving creator God. The natural next question is, “How do I do that?”, and many people have proposed an answer. I choose to “just be,” and to do so with as few borders between me and the world as possible, and in that case, Jesus will just show up. I don’t know how he will do it. I just know he will, and the “how” is not on my shoulders.

Just be…..

Grace and Peace,
Bryan

The giant bee hive in the roof!!! I got stung on my finger yesterday and it is giant and swolen now.

Party for Bety during class at the Resource Center

Soccer at EBH with the kids during a seminar their parents went to.

Devotional with a translator on the second floor terrace of the Resource Center on the first morning the Hunter Hills group was here


Stylin' with my new hat!!

Posing with the three sisters who invited me for over to their families home for some food.

Helping load the last of the wet cement into this little house that will be the residence of a lady who was living in mud hut without a floor.

Building the classroom behind the church building in Las Casitas with another group from the States.

On the way to Las Casitas mountain town. Beautiful!!

Sample of how bad the road is on the way to Las Casitas

Swolen pinky finger from a bee sting!