Front Page News!

It was so fun to watch the kids open the newspaper this morning to see their home on the front page. They were really excited and so was I! Check it out!

A home of second chances: Dale House gives struggling youths skills for life in family setting | setting, life, folder - Top Stories - Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

also check out the article about George

Dale House staff, residents wonder what they'd do without director | house, dale, director - Others - Colorado Springs Gazette, CO

First Month Reflections

I knew this job was going to be unlike one I have ever had, but I don’t think I really understood the caliber of working at the Dale House Project.

I can honestly say it has been one of the toughest months of my life: adjusting back into the USA, moving away from my family and adorable niece and nephew, watching Allan get on an airplane to go 1,675 miles away, missing Honey Cate's birthday party, being away from my family during my Daddy’s head injury recuperation, learning my way around CO Springs, trying to understand what exactly my job entails, figuring out how to build relationships with these kids while having to be like a parent and hold them accountable, and just wrestling with feelings of loneliness/confusion/insufficiency in the midst of knowing this is where the Lord has called me.

There is so much hurt present here at the DHP. Just to name one…the average number of different “system” placements a resident at the DHP has been in before coming to the DHP is 13! Can you imagine living in 13 different places, with 13 different people “taking care” of you? And that’s just the average. I am learning so much about the value of consistency and parenting being here. What a rare and special gift I have in my family.

Amidst the sadness, there is success: a kid enjoying decorating staff members, or getting a small present from Santa during our celebration of Christmas in July, a kid getting a job at Denny’s, a kid showing off their skills at the skate park, a kid sharing a poem they have written about the hurt they have encountered in their life, a kid praying at dinner time, a kid turning down the music in the car to talk to me, laughing with girls before bed time, a kid teaching me how to play a new game of dominos (but getting beat all the time!)

One of the great aspects of the DHP is the emphasis placed on community. The permanent staff encourage and demonstrate the importance of caring for each other and they care for us so well. Every Monday and Thursday we meet as a whole staff for devotions and prayer. I love this time together to hear from each other and learn from each other. We also took a 6 mile hike UP Pike’s Peak (14,110 feet above sea level and the 2nd most visited mountain after Mt. Fuji!) We had to stay together. My boss said “If you want to hike it quickly…it will be here tomorrow!” The goal was team unity and team building. I just love that aspect! I’m also super pumped that my awesome friend Stephanie Pitt is here with me to share in this experience!

There is so much more I could write about, but I’ll leave some for later! Thank you so much for your prayers and support. I am eager to receive more of the Lord this year and just yearning for his presence to be a real, constant thing for me. I am so convinced of the power of the Holy Spirit and desire to live in that. I am also sure that the Lord wants to fill the spots where I feel empty during my time here and I want to allow Him to do that! I read this from Henri Nouwen this morning, and it just seemed perfect for what I am feeling now.

Our Poverty, God's Dwelling Place
How can we embrace poverty as a way to God when everyone around us wants to become rich? Poverty has many forms. We have to ask ourselves: "What is my poverty?" Is it lack of money, lack of emotional stability, lack of a loving partner, lack of security, lack of safety, lack of self-confidence? Each human being has a place of poverty. That's the place where God wants to dwell! "How blessed are the poor," Jesus says (Matthew 5:3). This means that our blessing is hidden in our poverty.
We are so inclined to cover up our poverty and ignore it that we often miss the opportunity to discover God, who dwells in it. Let's dare to see our poverty as the land where our treasure is hidden.

Answering the Call

It is hard to believe that about a year ago, we were getting on a plane to begin an adventure in Copan Ruinas, Honduras. It turned out being an awesome time of learning, growth, and deepening of our relationship with Christ. I am so thankful for the opportunity I had to be there!

In January 2010, Allan and I began to discuss plans for the next year…where we would be, what we thought the Lord wanted us to be doing, etc. Allan had been working on applications and interviews for medical school and was waiting to hear back from a few school before making a decision while I was wrestling with the idea of going to the Dale House Project in Colorado Springs, CO. My brother worked there about 8 years ago, and I had had the chance to visit and absolutely loved how the life of Christ was lived out so vibrantly every day. I felt like the Lord was calling me to the DHP, but that would mean being far away from Allan, my family, and my new niece and nephew!

So, I applied to work at the DHP but was at first told that no more positions were available. I was so confused because I really did feel that the Lord had given me a great desire to work there. I began looking for other options, but nothing really seemed right. A few weeks later, the DHP offered me a position starting July 15! It was perfect! The Dale House “ reaches out to delinquent, neglected, and abused teenagers who cannot return home.  Within the context of community living, our goal is to teach these youth the skills necessary to live independently.” If you want to read more about the Dale House, visit http://www.thedalehouse.org/.

 

After that, Allan decided to go to MUSC, located in Charleston, SC, even though my sister-in-law offered to fix him dinner every week if he chose WFU in Winston-Salem! He begins orientation on August 19. I am excited to see him start school. The Lord has blessed him with so much talent for learning, and I am excited to see how the Lord will use this in his life. I know he is ready to get back to school too!

 

After a week at the beach with my family, Allan and I made the 3 day trek out to CO. We were so humbled and inspired by the incredible hospitality offered to us along the way. Many thanks to the Baileys and Johnsons for so willingly opening their home and making us feel so special and loved. Once we were out of the car (YAY!) and in the Springs, we were able to do some fun things like visit the Garden of the Gods and the Air Force Academy (the picture is for you, David!)                               

 

 

As we begin this new year, we are excited to see what the Lord is going to teach us. No doubt it will be hard to be many miles and several time zones apart, but we realize the importance of obeying Christ. We are changing the title of the blog to “answering the call” because of the way we have felt the call of the Holy Spirit on our life, and now, we are beginning to respond to it. (And we are going to have to answer each others phone calls :) ). His words have been clear and un-ignorable. It is our desire to follow the call of the Lord and share with others that call. 

Thanks for sharing your lives with us!

The road home!

After the visit with Allan’s family, we had planned to travel through Nicaragua and Costa Rica for two weeks, arriving in NC just in time for the annual Hill/Craft beach trip.

Well, the Lord had a different plan, which turned out to be better than anything we could have planned! Because of a few slight (now resolved!) problems with Allan’s passport, we were forced to spend a day and a half in San Pedro Sula awaiting his passports arrival. San Pedro isn’t exactly the place you want to wandering around, so Allan and I chose to spend our day and a half wisely by wandering around safe malls. We visited 2 different malls and literally spent alllll day there: two meals and a movie!

This dog (yes, it is wearing a diaper and has a doggy-wheelchair) helped to keep us entertained as well as the giant soccer ball! We also got to go see Toy Story 3 (highly recommended! I cried!) in 3-D for $3.50. Awesome.

We decided we had spent enough time in San Pedro waiting for Allan’s passport and thought it would be best if we just went back to Copan to get it ourselves (someone was supposed to be sending it on a bus). Going back to Copan was such a fun thing to do. We got to see almost all of our friends again (because Copan is SO small!) and pretend we were tourists! We are so thankful to the IMB missionaries to let us stay at their house, fed us, let us play with their awesome daughters, and just so willingly offered their time to us. This was one of the small ways the Lord provided for us during this time.

During our time in Copan, we found out that the passport was in fact not there and decided that we should probably go to the capital, Tegucigalpa, to request a new one. We were discussing this plan at a restaurant and one of our Honduran friends, Josue, overheard our plan. He was excited to hear we were going to Tegus. He immediately called his mother and begged that she meet us at the bus stop and let us stay at her house. WHAT? Seriously, Lord, that would be too awesome? A free, safe place to stay in Tegus (also not the kind of place you want to wander around) AND a ride? Come on!

And it happened. Ms. Bessy met Allan and I at the bus stop (which was an hour late and made her an hour late for work), greeted us enthusiastically, drove us to the US Embassy, told us how to get to her work place, and reminded us not to eat because she had fixed us dinner! Seriously?! This was too good to be true. She had a beautiful house with internet and international phone that she let us use to call home. We could not have asked for a better set up. Thank you Jesus.

Turns out the embassy was closed that afternoon already, so we would have to wait until the next morning. Bummer…we thought. Over dinner that night with Ms. Bessy, we found out that the passport was in Copan and was going to be put on the Hedman Alas bus (because it serves as the UPS for Honduras!) the next morning! PTL!

The next morning we went to buy bus tickets for Nicaragua that left at 5am the next morning. We then headed to the Hedman station to pick up the passport. It wasn’t there. So we waited. It didn’t come. :( We asked the employees and they finally discovered it was coming on the 7pm bus but the parcel area closed at 5pm and we would be unable to get the passport that night. That was not an option, however, because we had bus tickets leaving at 5am the next morning! We had to get the passport. We explored our options and finally bribed one of the employees to meet us after hours to give us the passport. We didn’t know if he would show, but his name was “Salvador” (Savior) so we were hoping that was a sign!

We went to the bus stop at 7pm and there he was, package in hand. Allan and I gave him all the Lempiras we had left and joyfully ran to meet Ms. Bessy (who had driven us to dinner and then to meet Salvador!) We couldn’t believe we were holding the passport!

So we made it!

We left at 5am the next day and arrived in Nicaragua!

Nicaragua was beautiful. Unbelievable hot and humid, but beautiful. We went to an old European-style town called Granada, and then caught a bus with this guy and his cotton candy (below) for Ometepe Island. The island if formed by 2 volcanoes! While there, we went on a nature walk and saw real monkeys just hanging out in trees. It was quite a sight! It actually left me speechless because I was so excited!

After Nicaragua, we crossed into Costa Rica and headed to a small town called Montezuma followed by Monteverde. Montezuma was a beach (but not the kind of water you play in unless you like being crashed by 8 feet waves). We hiked to a beautiful waterfall and went on a boring nature walk. We thought we would see animals, but it was just a lush forest. It was pretty, but just a lot of green over and over again! We spent most of the time playing with Jenga blocks in the welcome center :)

Now, Monteverde had some wildlife! There was a sloth that lived outside our hotel and we went on a sweet night-tour and saw all sorts of creatures, included the insect that looks like a leaf! That is his wing. God is super creative!

The trip was fun, but I think the thing we learned the most is that the Lord truly is always with us. He so faithfully provided us with everything we needed, and the best of that in fact! We learned more about the importance of hospitality and just how important it is to make someone feel welcomed and cared for!

We left the Spanish speaking world on July 3rd! It was crazy, exciting, and sad all at the same time. I will miss it, for sure, and hope the Lord has Spanish in my future, whether it is overseas or not. I am thankful for the time I had there. I am also so grateful for the USA and clean tap water, air-conditioning, ice, chick-fil-a, the ability to flush toilet paper, and more than one choice of cereal!

We just thought this sign was funny. English is hard.

The Visit

Ahh yes. The family's visit to Honduras. Well, the original group was supposed to include Mom, Dad, Emily, Adam, Sarah, Abby, and myself. However, due to intensive, preliminary diving practice in a murky pool with detritus and hairballs floating about, Dad contracted a rather severe ear infection. He complained about hearing loss, pain, the usual, but it was dismissed as more urgent matters persisted in preparing for the trip. Finally, the day before the planned flight down there, Dad went to see the doctor to clear him for diving, and instead of a warning to be careful- you know with his heart history and all, the doc told him about his ear infection and that he definitely couldn't fly the next day and shouldn't dive for at least 2 weeks. Well, needless to say, he didn't come. Let's move on.

Well, the rest of the group got down as planned as Abby and I were waiting for them at the San Pedro Airport. We rode over to Copan in a private bus making the customary stop at the Texaco. (pronounced tex-AC-o).

Rainy season! Rolling into Copan is easier said than done in the afternoons when it rains at 4:30 on the dot, every day, for about an hour, but real hard, for a little bit. After dropping off our luggage, our first stop was to get a legendary smoothie from Picame. These things are ridiculous- one of the things I'll miss most. We started getting one every day after school, except on Tuesdays when it was closed. Everyone loved the 20oz pure fruit with coconut milk $2.50 smoothies. Then we went back to Abby's apartment, which sat behind the restaurant to pack some things and wait for Miriam and Carlos Humberto (my student) and a surprise they were bringing...

SURPRISE!!! It was my mom's birthday, and Miriam made the BIGGEST (and probably most delicious) carrot cake I'd ever seen. It was sad though because we had to say our real goodbyes to them also, but before they left they gave us t-shirts with "Someone who loves me very much and lives in Honduras gave me this memory" (in Spanish) written on it. Miriam was so sweet and giving. They live in a dusty house on the street near Mayatan with their whole family, but she still sacrificed a huge chunk of her money to buy us these t-shirts just in an attempt show her gratitude to us. If we could have only explained that we already knew how wonderful she was....

After that, we went to Rudy and Dunia (my Spanish teacher) Dubon's house for a proper Honduran birthday party for my mother. Complete with pastelitos, cake, orchata, pinata, loud children, and candy this party was as tipico as beans in a corn tortilla. It was lots of fun, but the family was pretty tuckered out, so we headed down to the hotel at about 9:30. Another set of rushed, sad goodbyes.

The next morning Michel and his wife Marcela picked us up in their Ford Ranger to take us up the mountain to eat at Julita's, an organic (forget Whole Foods) restaurant where everything down to the coffee is produced on their land out back. There we were joined by Ivan and Henelda to eat the famous sopa de gallina and afterwards got a tour of the farm out back. Kinda looks like a family reunion, no?

Bird Park. I think the pictures say it all.

The following day, we went up to La so they could see what a Chorti Village looks like (even though it's one that's somewhat invested in by foreiners). We piled in a couple of moto-taxis up the hill. All of us got out and walked up the last part except for Mom (they insisted), but her's got stuck and almost flipped over twice! They ended up having to push it up...with her in it. Yet another teary goodbye...this time to Milton and Kinsey from 2A.

Later that evening after eating at Jim's and picking up a few guitars to take back to the US, we went up to Doña Nora Welchez's house for "coffee". Apparently coffee to Nora means freshly cut fruit, fresh bread, Jamaica tea, cake, coffee, then coffee+Kahlua. It was amazingly delicious. She even took us back to our hotel the Marina because it had started to rain. Well, by take, I mean she let ME drive her brand new VW Toureg down the pot-hole ridden, windy Honduran roads. I won't lie; I was a little nervous driving her car with her in the back seat. They have different driving "rules" down there.

The next morning we left at 5AM for La Ceiba to catch our ferry out to the diver's paradise Cayos Cochinos (Hog Cays). We got there fine and in time but we had NO IDEA of what was awaiting us on the ferry ride out there. I've been on the ferry to Roatan. It's a cruise boat. I've been on a ferry to Belize, it's a big boat. This was a skiff in 8+ foot ocean swells. Let's just put it this way- Sarah and I (who were in front) didn't walk right for about 5 days. Mom's pills in her suitcase were crushed into a fine powder that any mortar and pestle would be proud of. Most of us couldn't see the entire trip because of the constant flushing of our eyes with salt water. And the motor was completely out of the water twice.

But I guess it was worth it......

We did a total of 3 dives and then visited a village on a cay. This entire village was no bigger than 1 city block. Imagine being trapped in a space smaller than a football field with your entire family for your whole life. Even worse, I think this is the ONLY village I saw that did not have a soccer field. I don't know how they do it. (maybe because it's so freakin beautiful).

Summary: Copan: picturesque, relational, quaint. Cayos Cochinos: unique, relaxation, SCUBA.

So sorry you had to miss it Dad...we were thinking of you.

Sweet Revenge

Some of you may remember the video Allan posted of the Toucan attacking me….well, revenge is here. He’s a feisty little toucan!

English Church

During our time in Copan, we gathered with a group of other English speakers to worship on Sundays. It proved to be much easier to understand and people didn’t look at us as funny at this church as opposed to the Spanish-speaking churches where we were always tourists :)

 

I am so thankful for this group of people, the relationships we built with them, and the way the Lord brought us together and formed something so special. It excites me so much that they are still in Copan, loving the people of that town and sharing the love of Christ. We truly formed such a special bond with these people that was built on Jesus Christ. I was challenged and encouraged so much in my faith by being able to be around and learn from English Church. It is actually one of the things I miss the most about Copan! 

Pictured is Aisha, Blair, Rachel, Abby, Francisco, Megan, Jenny, and Allan!