Me, Mary Elizabeth, Caitlin, Sarah, and Kimberly outside of the orphanage we are at in the afternoons.
For the last month, these girls have been teaching English in the CTC and a local school. Mary Elizabeth and Sarah teach English to about 25 young adults while Kimberly and Caitlin are teaching to about 40 elementary school kids. This week, I joined Mary Elizabeth, Sarah, and Karla (our translator/friend) in teaching their young adult English class. For the past 4 weeks the students have been singing the praise songs "Joyfully" by Kari Jobe and "Starry Night" by Chris August as a way to practice their English. Tuesday morning was the first time I got to hear them sing, and I was blown away by how tanglible the Holy Spirit was in that tiny classroom. It wasn't that their voices were great or that they had their English down perfectly; It was the fact that in that moment I got a glimpse of what heaven would be like. Voices from every nation coming together to worship our One Lord. I had a huge smile on my face the whole song as I watched 25 of my peers passionately worship God in a language they were just now learning. It just reminded me of how big our God really is, that every day people all around the world are praising and seeking Him. It amazes me too, that although I had just known these students for a few days, I instantly felt connected to them because we were all united under Christ. It's moments like that where I can start to comprehend how huge and powerful the entire body of Christ really is!
Here we are with all the students on their last day of English classes. We had a goodbye party on Thursday and it was so amazing to see how much the students LOVED Sarah, Karly, and Mary Elizabeth! They decorated the classroom with balloons, made a huge cake, brough home-made burritos for everyone, and had tons of snacks and food to celebrate the last month. Coming in at the end of the class, it was neat for me to be able to see how much of an impact Sarah,Karla, and Mary Elizabeth's love had on their class.
Me with Daniel, Nelson, and Guillermo playing the guitar during the party. Everyone in their class was SO musically talented. They all sang, played guitar, bass, drums, piano, everything! These boys were amazing at guitar so I had them teach me a few songs :)
Karla, Mary Elizabeth, and I in front of the class. Karla was their amazing translator this whole month! They were so sweet for letting me try my hand at teaching English. I wrote the Bible verse on the board for that day and then let them take over the rest.
Caitlin, Kimberly, and our other translator Luis were at the elementary school. They taught the kids how to sing 3 different songs in English and their recordings of them are adorable! I admire those three for having that much patience while teaching such a huge class.
In the afternoons we went to an orphanage to hang out with the kids there. On my first day, some of the girls there were doing hair and nails so we got pampered by them! Here are the results of our stylish new hair- dos:
Cute right?
This week has been so much fun getting to hang out and serve with the Honduras team! First of all, I was amazed at how much English all their students knew in just one month! It was also very obvious what an impact they'd made in the orphanage already because all the kids just adored and respected them so much. I've really loved getting the chance to encourage these interns as I've seen all the places where they work! I know that sometimes you can't see that you're making any progress where you are because you're only taking tiny steps forward every day. But I hope they realize how much they have meant to their students and the kids. Just seeing their work has encouraged me to pour out Christ's love like they've been doing because now I see how Christ's love really can radically change any situation.
