Whew....it's a busy time of the year!

It is hard to believe that it is already the middle of March. The reason we haven’t posted a blog in so long is because it is my turn to write it. I am not a writer, but would like to keep you updated on our service here in Honduras. I would also like to thank you for your continued prayers and support. We believe that the Lord hears our prayers. Living in Tegucigalpa, rated #6 in the world for highest crime rates (http://borderissues.us/2010/01/21/8-of-the-worlds-most-dangerous-cities-in-latin-america/), we believe that we have been protected and safe because of your prayers. Speaking of crime, just the other day, as our bus pulled up to drop us off for the weekly grocery shopping, about 50 yards away there were two men wrestling and playing with a gun. Early in our stay here, we stood and watched a dead body being pulled from the river. Nearly everyone on our street has been robbed at some point during their stay here including the house right next door. Weekly, we hear of kidnappings. Some students have body guards who pick them up from school and go with them anywhere off the school campus. This is normal life for many in Honduras. We pray that we don’t become numb to the violence and crime, but value each precious life that God has created . We praise God every day for keeping us safe. We also rejoice in the safe return of a student’s father who was kidnapped for over two months. He was very weak and lost a lot of weight, but he is alive. Praise God! I don’t mention these things to provoke fear, but to thank you for praying & let you know that your prayers are making a difference.

On a lighter note, we have participated in many festivities in the last few months. In January, our church had a wedding celebration. Four couples were joined in marriage on that happy day. Many couples in Honduras don’t get married because of the expense. Couples may live together for years or migrate from one relationship to the next, producing many children along the way. Unfortunately, there are many single mothers here in Honduras. In an effort to encourage marriage and obedience to God’s Word, our church works together to provide a wonderful ceremony and potluck. It was such a blessing to see God’s people serving one another in this exciting event.
Click here for wedding photos

The teachers and administration of ALP went away for their annual “Teacher Retreat” at Lake Yohoa the last weekend in february. We were able to bring our children to this event. We enjoyed times of worship, teaching from God’s Word (led by Mark & Serena Dunbar – career missionaries in Honduras), fellowship, and fun. We came away from this retreat with a renewed sense of purpose, a challenge to minister to our students, and a common goal and unity among the staff.
Click here for retreat photos

March 2 - 6, we traveled to San Pedro Sula, a 6 hour bus ride from Tegucigalpa, for a national soccer tournament. Pinares was one of three teams from Tegucigalpa who qualified for the tournament. Bryan coaches the juvenil (11th & 12th Grade) boys soccer team who ended up placing 4th in the tournament. This was an event of great pride for Academia Los Pinares. It has been many years since they’ve had a boys soccer team qualify for the tournament. The Pinares girls team also participated in the tournament. The girls and I took a few days off from school to accompany Bryan and the teams. We enjoyed the pool at the hotel and the hot and humid temperatures.
Click here for San Pedro Sula and Soccer Tourney photos

After many hours of preparation, the “Family Fun Day” was a success. Each grade in the secondary has carnival type games to raise money for their class. Bryan and I are advisors for the 7th grade class. This is a first for us, so it has been a learning experience (especially with my lack of organizational skills). We had a “Sponge Toss” and “Go Fish” game. I had the pleasure of getting my face soaked by a few wet sponges. The girls enjoyed ice cream, face painting, bouncy house, games, prizes, and Maddi got her nails done.
Click here for Family Fun Day photos

The Lord has been challenging me with two themes recently.

1) Salt and Light and the “lukewarm” Christian
Salt: Matthew 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”
“You are either being corrupted by the world or you are salting it.” George Truett
There is no middle ground.
I’ve had to sit and ask myself, which one am I? I know that there have been seasons where my life didn’t look much different than the world. Am I adding salt to my surroundings & those I am in contact with? Does my life add flavor or is it bland? How can we be “salty”? “The Christian life is a matter of living out a God ordained life, fulfilling God’s ordained function. If I neglect to do this, I have no value in the kingdom of God.” Kay Arthur
Lord, give us courage and strength to be salt and light in this dark world.
Light: Matthew 5:14 – 16 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
“You cannot walk in darkness and continue to claim a share in the Lord Jesus. You can’t share fellowship with Jesus if you are walking in darkness. Light doesn’t fellowship with darkness. Light dispels darkness. The two are incompatible.” Kay Arthur
We are just a vessel created to allow Christ’s light to shine to the world. Am I allowing Christ’s light to shine through me or am I hiding it? Am I afraid of what others will think if I boldly proclaim Christ’s love? What is more important to me, obeying Christ or what people think?
Lukewarm: Revelations 3:15-18 “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”
Jesus wants all or nothing. There is no middle ground. I was convicted by the chapter “Profile of the Lukewarm” from Francis Chan’s book Crazy Love. Many of those profiles hit too close to home.

2) Do Not Worry
Matthew 6:25 –34 – I won’t write this all out.
Matthew 6:33-34 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things (food, clothing, drink) will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of it’s own.
1 Peter 5:7 “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.”
Anxiety and faith are incompatible. If I am worrying, I am not trusting in Him. If I am worrying, I’m sinning. If I am worrying, I am calling God a liar. I do not want to do this. God says He will take care of me. If I believe He is the Creator of the universe, the All Sovereign, powerful, loving God who cares about the sparrow, then I must believe that He will provide for all my needs. What are my worries? Are they too big for God? Am I trusting Him with my life?
I find it interesting to see that the word for worry in Spanish is “preocuparse”. How fitting when the fears of our future preoccupy our minds. I was starting to worry about next year. What freedom to know that the Lord knows where we’ll be next year. He knows where we will work, live, serve, etc… My burden has been lightened as I handed it over to Jesus. He cares. Just absorb that for a moment. The God of the universe cares for you.

This is probably our longest blog yet. I get excited about God’s Word! Let me wrap up this post with prayer requests and praises.

Praise

- We thank God for you and your faithfulness in praying for us.
- Praise God for our health and safety.
- The ALP juvenil soccer team that Bryan coached placed 4th in the nation.
- Family Fun Day was successful.
- The ability to view each day as a blessing from the Lord.
- We’ve had adequate financial provision.

Prayer
- Our neighbor Timmy Wood (age 4) swallowed wart medicine and is in the ICU. He has been in the hospital for 2 days so far.
- Timmy’s father hit a motorcyclist on the way home from the hospital. The motorcyclist is okay. It has been a very rough few days for the Wood family.
- My 4 secondary choirs are singing in the Music Festival March 25-26.
- Maddi has a skin issue that she has struggled with all year.
- Our water tank has a problem. We have been without water for an evening and morning about 3 times a week for the last 2 months. Now, the country is rationing water, so there will be even less. Please pray that someone will figure out the problem with our tank and be able to fix it.
- Continued safety.

2011, here we go!

Now that the tinsel has settled from all of the Christmas activities, I finally feel like there is some time to update our blog. While we were unable to return to the states for Christmas, we really enjoyed the relaxing time here in Honduras. Kimberly's sister, Mel, joined us here for about 9 days. It was fun hosting our first visitor from the states and showing her the sights here in Tegucigalpa. Being from Montana, Mel wanted some warmth and sunshine so we returned to Amapala again for four days to enjoy the beaches and 90 degree heat. The excitement during our trip peaked when a large scorpion came trotting out of our bathroom right before bedtime. Needless to say, the girls went screaming out of the apartment we were renting. The scorpion was dealt with but getting to sleep proved to be a bit more challenging that night.
Click here for photos of our Amapala trip

Before Christmas break, our school participated in something like "Operation Christmas Box" and we blessed the students at AFE with gifts. Amor, Fe, y Esperanza (AFE) is a ministry/school here that serves children who live at the city dump. Their families are very poor and live off what they can gather from the trash. AFE was started to give these kids some hope, education, and skills for a future outside of the dump. We chose five AFE students to bless, spent a few weeks buying gifts for them, and were able to deliver the gifts to them in person. It was a heartwarming event for all of our staff and for our daughters as well.
Click here for photos of AFE

Kimberly and the girls were also very busy before the break with Christmas productions. Kimberly's choir performed well at both the elementary and secondary music concerts. She also directed our church choir for their annual Christmas play. Our girls all sang in the elementary musical and both Maddi and Clara had small speaking roles. Maddi was also on stage as an angel in the church play as well. It was a bit hectic for a couple of weeks but the performances were a fun way to kick off the Christmas season.
Click here for photos of the Christmas concerts/plays

Since both Kim and I really enjoy hiking and because Mel was in town, we headed up to La Tigra national park for a nice hike. We really haven't had a chance to enjoy the natural beauty here much so it was a fun (and tiring) afternoon of exploring. La Tigra is only 20 minutes from where we live and is a protected high elevation rain forest. We had a great time stretching our legs on the trails of La Tigra.
Click here for photos of La Tigra

Thank your for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers as we serve the students here at Academia Los Pinares. We hope that you had a fantastic Christmas and that 2011 is treating you well so far!

~The McNiels

Wishing you a Merry Christmas

Another ecard by Smilebox

Christmas is almost here!

Well, the Halloween and Thanksgiving festivities have passed since our last post and now we look forward to the celebration of our Savior's birth. Since we're not back in Bothell, the girls longed for something that felt like home so the pestering about getting a Christmas tree began a day or two after Halloween. The parental guilt of not going home for Christmas added to our inability to hold out until after Thanksgiving. So, two weeks into November, our little tree was already up. We bought a few lights, ornaments, and a fairly cheap 6-foot tree and the girls took delight in decorating it. Since the tree was a bit short on ornaments, we decided to cut up some cardboard boxes and make ornaments of our own. It is a bit surreal to celebrate Christmas when it is sunny and 70 degrees every day but don't in any way take that as a complaint.

School is bumping along as normal with kids (and teachers) anxious for Christmas break and music concerts just a week away. Kimberly has been preparing all of her choir classes for this concert since August so please pray that things go as planned and that the students will perform their best. Over break, Kimberly's sister will be coming down for about nine days to check out our life here. We plan to take her to all the main sights here in Tegus and then spend four days hanging out on the beach in Amapala. It will be fun to play tour guide to our first visitor and even better to have someone from home to celebrate Christmas with.

On Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, we had the opportunity to serve some less fortunate kids. There is a breakfast program at a small church in a rather poor part of Tegucigalpa that welcomes volunteers to help out. So, we packed up the girls and went with a few other teachers to help make breakfast and just hang out with the children. Our girls were fairly hesitant to go but after it was all done, they didn't want to leave and asked when we would return. It is such a blessing to see the joy our daughters get by serving others. We figured that a good expression of our thanksgiving would be to extend our time and energy to others. It was an enriching experience that we hope to do again sometime soon.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year! Here are a few photos of our fall party, Christmas tree decorating, Thanksgiving, and volunteering in Tegus.
November 2010 Photos

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

October is here already!

So, here we are in October and we can even feel the fall season in the air here in Honduras.  The last few days have been chilly (55-60 degrees) in the mornings so the Hondurans throw on their winter coats, hats, and gloves.  By the afternoon, the temps rise back up to 75 or so.  For those of us who are used to the lower temps, we appreciate the autumn chill as it reminds us of home.  While somewhat embarrassing to admit, I found myself scanning the pages of an October 2007 Martha Stewart magazine and reminiscing about October activities.  We hope you all are enjoying the change in seasons.  Here in Honduras, there really isn't a fall season so this little "cold" spell has actually been somewhat welcome.

The reality of life here in Honduras is sinking in more and more as we experience things and hear stories about students at our own school. We are quite safe here at the school because we are outside of the city about 20 minutes but here are few things that we've seen or heard since arriving.  First of all, we attended a church service downtown a couple of weeks ago and on our way to the bus stop, a crowd had gathered at the edge of a river that flows through the city. I, of course, had to see what was going on and saw the police pulling a dead body out of the river...not something you see every day.  The kids asked about what was going on and it lead to a nice discussion about being smart and safe here in Honduras.  Another story I'd like to share is that of an elementary student here at Academia Los Pinares (ALP).  She was riding in the family car with her single mother last year when some guys came up to the car, shot both of them, and took off.  Unfortunately, her mother died yet she lived and has bullet scars on her neck as a reminder of the tragedy.  Since then, people have surrounded her with love and support and she has been able to continue to attend here at ALP.  My last story is of another student whose father was assassinated last year.  He held the position of drug czar here in Honduras.  One day after he dropped his student off at school, he was followed back into town and was ambushed while stopped at an intersection.  I mention all of these not to strike fear or cause worry but just to portray some of the differences in safety that people have to live with here in Honduras.  I urge you to truly be thankful for the general order and safety you experience in the states.  It's not like that everywhere.

On a more positive note, we recently purchased a used Honda Accord from one of the teachers here.  We were feeling a bit isolated without transportation so this car is truly a blessing.  Below is a slideshow of a few activities we've been involved in over the past month or so.  We are enjoying our time here yet do miss you all and think of you often.

Now we are in the swing of things!

Here we are, into our fifth week of school already.  It has been a whirlwind with trying to get the family settled in, preparing for new jobs, adjusting to a different culture, finding a new church, etc. but now it is finally starting to feel like home away from home.  Kimberly is teaching 5th and 6th grade general music as well as 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th-12th choirs.  While it has been difficult to adjust to teaching full-time again, she has mentioned how much she enjoys her job here.  There are two secondary counselors so my partner is taking on grades 7-9 while I'll be working mostly with grades 10-12.  This is the group I'm most comfortable working with so it is a great set up here. I must say that the job here is very different from working in the public school back in Washington.  I don't have to do any course scheduling and things are generally much more relaxed here.

The girls started off the school year fairly well too.  Amelia began kindergarten with Mrs. Hernandez and she looks so cute in her little school uniform (see photos at link below).  The class is taught in both English and Spanish until Christmas so she'll probably be the one to pick up the language faster than anyone.  She says that she doesn't understand what is going on sometimes, she still has a smile on her face and a positive attitude.   Clara started 2nd grade with Miss Hydeen and she seems to be doing quite well in class.  She's a bit more reserved than the others when it comes to meeting new people so she doesn't have many friends yet.  She has a few classmates she occasionally hangs out with but no one who she considers a close friend yet.  Please keep this in your prayers.  Maddi is in 4th grade with Miss Frasso.  All three of the girls' teachers are fairly young and "hip".  I'm not sure where Mrs. Hernandez is from originally, but she is now married to a Honduran and has lived here quite a while.  Clara and Maddi's teachers are ironically both from Michigan and I think this is their 2nd or 3rd years teaching here.  All the girls are being challenged academically as well which is nice to see.  They may not be too fond of it, but we like it ;)  Last Friday was "Day of the Child" so each classroom had a party with games and plenty of sugary food. The Honduran parents go all-out for this affair.  The girls wondered why we don't celebrate this back in the states.  I told them that when they come up with "Day of the Adult", we can then celebrate both of them back at home.  Independence Day is on Wednesday this week so we work two days, have a day off, and work two more days.  Viva Honduras!

For prayer requests, please pray for good health.  Maddi came down with a fever and runny nose last Thursday and has battled the fever all weekend.  Tylenol has helped keep it down but it seems to keep returning.  She did go to school today but looked exhausted.  I won't be too surprised if she ends up in the nurse's office.  Amelia seems to be coming down with a cough as well.  Please pray for healing for both of them and protection from illness for the rest of us.  Thank you and click the links below to enjoy some more photos of Academia Los Pinares and the open market downtown.

Academia Los Pinares
Downtown and the open market