Another beautiful day dawned in Honduras when we get to go to Ciudad to teach the kids and paint with local volunteers. Today the 7th-11th grade sponsored students and some of their families came to paint alongside us in the afternoon.
The English classes have been small due to COVID precautions (Honduras is at 3.3% vaccinated) which has been a little sad because we love interacting with all of the students. On the other hand, we were able to not only engage teaching English at a deeper level, but really get to know our students. They were so kind and respectful. While they were shy and nervous to speak sometimes, they courageously stepped up to practice. These students are FABULOUS and we’ve had so much fun interacting with them, playing English language games, encouraging, and competing against each other in a few of them!
During our lunch break, Pastor Hector, the pastor of Cristo Resucitado Methodist Church in Ciudad, came to share his story with us. It’s an incredible story, similar to that of Jonah, where God kept calling him to be a pastor, and he kept saying “no”. There were many people in his life that encouraged him to take this path and once he said “yes” to God’s calling, he’s been all-in working hard to minister to the local church and community. It’s a beautiful story how God works through people to grow His kingdom.
The afternoon was a day with some serious painting – between the incredible number of volunteers and our small team, we didn’t finish, but got far in painting the building – and still took breaks to interact and fellowship with each other. It’s been a fun week where we’ve laughed so hard our faces and stomach hurt. We got to meet and chat with our sponsored students and their family, some of us got to teach our sponsored students English, and some got to paint alongside their sponsored students. The week isn’t over yet, but we are already filled to overflowing with joy!