Fun in the sun!

The first quarter of the school year is now over and we're rapidly headed into the holiday season. For Kimberly, this means that the choir class rehearsals are limited before the Christmas concerts. As any performance-based teacher knows, it never feels like you are ready but things generally do fall into place on the big day. For me, this time of year is busy for seniors completing college applications and scrambling for scholarships in order to pay for college. There is no such thing as "in-state" tuition for these students so finding financial resources to help cover college costs is often the deciding factor of whether or not to go to the states for college. I also start coaching high school boys soccer this week. The girls will also be starting up ballet lessons in the next few weeks. There aren't many extracurricular options for elementary kids here so they (and we) are looking forward to this new opportunity for fun and exercise. Please keep us all in your thought/prayers as we enter this new season.

Some of you may wonder what our mission is here? Well, although this is a private Christian bilingual school, the main reason that many families send their students here is for the opportunity to learn English. They don't mind that it is a Christian school as long as their student is taught in English and has the opportunity to some day go to the states for college. Although Kimberly had high hopes of serving single mothers in some capacity and perhaps will be able to in the future, our main objective is to serve the students at Pinares and be a light to them and their families. This is fresh on our minds as we are in the midst of spiritual emphasis week here at the school. We are blessed to be surrounded by a wonderful staff who share in this mission.

On another note, we were able to take our first vacation here in Honduras. It was nice to see more of this beautiful country. The weather was fantastic (85-90 degrees) and the time for rest and relaxation was even better. We continue to praise God for providing a car for us so that we could take this trip to Coyolito (near Amapala on the Pacific coast). It was a 3-4 hour drive on paved, gravel, and dirt roads. My ability to dodge potholes is becoming an artform. While in Coyolito and Amapala, our eyes were opened to the fact that even in "touristy" areas, the poverty is still prevalent. Case in point, Bernabe, our "captain" for the weekend, has lived his whole life in the area surviving as a fisherman. He was telling us that it has been a hard life with little opportunity to make a living. When asked about his family, he proudly spoke of his daughter who now lives in Texas working at a restaurant for $200/week. We might see her financial situation as poor and deprived but to Bernabe, she had "made it" and was well off. Hmmm...perspectives. Bernabe was happy to take us by boat from island to island in the bay for the weekend knowing that this may be one of the few times he could earn money this week (or even this month). Below are two links to photos of some bugs, insects, and zoo animals here in Honduras and photos of our weekend getaway. Although we do miss our friends and family, we don't particularly miss the weather. 80 degrees every day here in Tegucigalpa is treating us just fine. We hope you are all doing well!

Bugs, insects, and zoo animals
Trip to Coyolito and Amapala