Storytime with Lucky

Sweaty hand on sweaty arm. Smiles. Evening cuddles. Bloody shins. Mosquitoes. She sits beside me and listens to the soft murmurings as I speak on the phone in a language she cannot understand. She stands, then stoops to eat a fruit loop dropped in the sand.  Mother says there will be no food tomorrow.  Then the crunch of gravel and whining of wheels as the bicycle fades away.  Only me and the loud silence of my thoughts remain.

A group of us walked to the neighboring village of La Sabana to purchase some fruit and stopped at an ice cream shop on the way back.  Justin overpaid by 3 Limpera (the equivalent of about USD$0.13) and the next morning received this thoughtful note.  I'm thinking she needs a different translator though. 😏 Thanks and a thousand arguments.

Do You See Me Now? --- Proverbs 21:13 Whoever shuts their ears to the cry of the poor will also cry out and not be answered. --- Do you see me as I jump into your arms?  Watch me laugh as I sprint across the courtyard! Do you see me? Do you see me as I swing?  I can go so high!  My dirty little feet can almost touch the sky! Do you see me? Do you see me as I slip on down the slide?  It is fast and it is fun. Do you see me? Do you see me eat the candy?  The taste is very fine.  My grinning mouth is smeared with sugar. Do you see me? Do you see that courtyard?  There is trash all over.  Criss crosses from the rain cut through sand to reveal the muddy dirt. Do you see it? Do you see the swing?  The chains are rough and rusted and only the sun-hot metal frame of the wooden seat remains. Do you see it? Do you know that the slide is cracked here and there and there?  It cuts my arm a bit. Do you see it...

Trekking through muddy pasture trails, behind concrete village homes and through barbed wire fences, dodging the soggiest spots in a near vain attempt to maintain dry shoes, we made our way to the “jail cell” situated behind a sugar cane field about a half mile from our dorm.  An 8 foot tall barred and bolted concrete room containing pipes and electrical wires, we hoisted ourselves on the cement roof. Now standing above the sugar cane, we had a full view of the surrounding valley. Mountains dotted the skyline; the clouds encasing the nearest while blurring the distant ones. A cool breeze skurried through the tops of the cane and ran through our hair, cooling us and peacefully whisking away the heat and stress of the day. We sat there on the roof for 40 odd minutes, filling the quiet with stories and issues from the day and the semester.  Beckoned home too soon, we returned home to just miss the sunset. I munched on a stick of cane on the walk home. I will see the sun...

“Beware!  He is coming!  The man is coming with a machete!  Close the door!”  They laughed pointing at an old man some distance away.  Not taking them seriously, I glanced at the man down the street, glanced at the boys and then went inside my dorm. “Close the door! Close the door!  The drunk man is coming!”  They hollered as they dashed in the neighboring kitchen house, slamming the door behind them.  I did not close my door, but grabbed my laptop as I had intended and walked back outside to sit in the rocking chair to type this up. I had only just seated myself when sure enough, a man walked around the corner of the kitchen house waving a machete, yelling angrily.   A torrent of angry Spanish fell from his lips as he expressed his evidently machete-grade annoyance.  I understood a scattered word or two but “Dos ninos!”, or, Two boys!,  was repeated more than once.   I calmly remarked, “No habla Espanol.” ...

Today I arrived in Honduras. The past year has been such a whirlwind, but the past month has made that whirlwind look like a gentle summer breeze. Thus, as the story on how my trip to Honduras came about has ill been told, I tell it now. It seems a fitting first post to this blog. I've been struck most by how God has brought me through this year, and how he has weaved so many components together to bring me to where I am today. It has been an incredibly frustrating year for me. I've been chomping at the bit for months. Impatient and frustrated. I did not utilize my time well. I did not even come close to making the most of every opportunity. I did not fight with purpose. My attitude in 2016 could well be likened to a leashed dog sicced in a room on a herd of cats. Lots of scrambling and yowling and frustration but no one really doing anything except burning a lot of energy, leaving everyone as tired and frustrated as before. Not entirely knowing what I was doing at...