Honduras June 2008

I know we are way behind on blogging and we have a bunch to catch up on, but I want to blog about our trip to Honduras.

Once again, I am at a loss of words to say. How was our week in Honduras? Amazing, wonderful, peaceful, God-directed, and so much more. The story of our trip began several weeks before we left for Honduras. The airport we normally fly into in Tegucigalpa was closed because of an airplane crash at the airport at the end of May. Our only other option to fly in was into San Pedro Sula, which is a 5 1/2 hour bus ride up and down the mountains of Honduras. So we landed about 3 on Saturday afternoon. It was a very long day as we did not arrive at the shelter until after 10, long after the boys had gone to sleep. On the way, we stopped at a Honduran Buffet called Bongos. It was quite an experience as we all seemed to remember that meal long into the week...

Sunday morning we got up very early to the screams of the boys waking up. It was so amazing to see them all again. They had grown so much. Moises was there and I got a big hug first thing. I'm not sure if he totally remembered me, but we were good friends not long into the trip. Church was wonderful Sunday morning, we had a great time with the boys. After church we headed to the streets of Tegucigalpa to meet some of the kids on the street. We had buckets and buckets of fried chicken, and after getting their bellies full we talked to them about God. It was great, the kids are so beautiful. They were all very malnourished, not very clean and a lot of them were on drugs. But we were able to talk to them and send them off with lots of food, that they can bring to their friends or family. After the streets, we headed to the grocery store, to buy the food we were going to deliver during the week. Over 100 bags each of rice, beans and dried milk were purchased. After about 10 full to the brim carts of food, we were ready to go.

The rest of the week was very similar. We would do the food ministry in the morning and then go to the farm in the afternoon for a small building project and to do crafts and spend time with the older boys. Those were wonderful days. We split up into teams and brought food to most of the houses in a community called Monte Redondo. It is where the Farm is located and also where Noah's Ark Baptist Church is. We got to meet the great people in this community, bring them food, pray with them and tell them about the church at Monte Redondo. It was wonderful to meet so many people. Everyone was very welcoming and warm. They all invited us into their homes, and as poor as they were, every house was clean and every person had a wonderful smile.

In the afternoons, we played with the older boys. We did Spray Tie Dye, made duck tape wallets, they showed us how to make bracelets and we had a fantastic Silly String fight.

There are so many stories I want to tell, but I can't get them all out right now. Moises and I got to spend some very special time together, again climbing the trees. He loves to climb and eat whatever nut or fruit grows on the tree. Most of them were not recognizable to me, but he loved them.

I also met a very special boy named Samy. I had heard of Samy before because he was a part of the ministry and then left about a year ago. The ministry finally found him and now he was back. He lived a very hard life while he was gone and his mother was murdered during that time. Now he and his brother are in the ministry and doing great. He came and sat by me at church on Sunday, and after that we sought each other out every day. We spent lots of time reading, he would read in Spanish, I would read in English, then he would read the English with me. They boys have a real desire to speak English and be able to communicate with the teams they meet.

Chad got very attached to a boy named Saul, he is 13 years old and a trouble maker! He and Chad had a great time together. He will have to post and tell you all about his time with Saul. It is so amazing that we can spend hours with a boy and barely say a word. There is a huge language barrier, but it doesn't matter. We laugh and hug and play and don't even have to say a word.

I love Honduras. I love everything about it. I love the mountains, I love the valleys, I love the smells and the sights. I love the people and I love the children. The children are so beautiful. The people are so gracious and thankful. It is a country that is very wicked, with human life not being valued at all. But, there is also a light in Honduras that is burning brighter and brighter. As people begin to help others, street children become educated, men of God who know how to live and treat their wives, as the gospel of Jesus is spread to every person, you can feel and see the changing of the country.

I am so privileged that God has allowed me to be a part of this ministry now and for many years to come.

One of the couples who went with our group, brought a video camera and the below link is a short video with clips from our week. It is only a couple of minutes, but it shows a little bit of everything we did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHvU_RcvDGw#

Thank you so much for all of your prayers, your toys and your clothes, they were all distributed and it was wonderful to have them all. The kids and parents were very grateful.

Me and Moises

Handing out toys during the food ministry.

Chad and Saul

Sleepy Toys

Most kids need something to hold on to or have in their bed to go to sleep at night, preferably something other than mommy or daddy. Andrew and Daniel have always had their little bear blankets.

Recently, Daniel has started sleeping with The World Book Encyclopedia: Q-R Volume. I don't really know why. Maybe he is trying to gain some knowledge by looking at it in the last few minutes of light before he goes to sleep or maybe the thought of reading an encyclopedia is so boring that having it in his bed puts him to sleep. Who really knows? The other night he ripped out several pages, so we may have to put a stop to that. (I guess he really didn't want to learn about Quebec, eh?)

As weird of an object as that is for a child to sleep with, it isn't the strangest thing that one of our kids has used.

When Blake was a toddler, he started crying one night and nothing would calm him down. Any of you who are parents, have faced one of these nights. Any of you who are not yet parents, it is coming. Anyway, Blake would not stop crying. Jaime got up and tried everything to get him to stop. She held him, rocked him, sang to him, gave him a pacifier, and let him cry a bit more from his crib, but nothing worked. She then woke me up. I held him, rocked him, sang to him, gave him back his pacifier and let him cry some more from his crib. Since none of those ideas were working, we tried some different things. We pushed him around our house in his stroller, let him watch VeggieTales, read him stories, offered him something to eat, offered him something to drink, let him lay down in our bed with us, changed his diaper, checked to see if he was running a fever, and finally drove him around the town for about an hour or so in the car. Nothing would work. We were tired and in a very bad mood.

Finally, that moment of "I can't take any more" came and we put him on the floor crying and he started stumbling through the house. We followed him and he walked to the refrigerator. At this point, we opened the door and offered him anything out of it as long as he would go to sleep or at least stop crying. Blake reached in and grabbed the bottle of maple syrup. It wasn't even the Mrs. Butterworth shaped bottle, which is shaped like a person as most of you know. It was just a plain ol' bottle of syrup. Once he had it in his hand, he stopped crying and walked back to our bedroom and wanted to climb in our bed. Needless to say, that night, me, Jaime, and Blake slept the last couple hours of the night in our bed with a bottle of syrup. At least the cap was stuck on good. None of us woke up sticky in the morning, however after a night like that, we would not have cared.

Blake's Baptism

Last Sunday, Blake was baptized! It was a wonderful day. He got baptized at Hunter Street at the 9:30 service, his good friend Hunter was baptized the same day. Another good friend, Riley, was baptized at the chuch picnic the Sunday before. (Which I intended to blog about but never did, it was a wonderful day with friends (friends is not a strong enough word, family is more like it), great food and finished off with Riley's baptism in the lake.. An amazing day!!) Back to the baptism, Blake was so excited. He came down the baptism steps in front of the big church and he was smiling. It was so amazing to have all of his family and friends there to witness his profess his faith and follow Christ in baptism. We were all so proud.

Afterwards we headed to Ed and Sallies house (Hunter's parents) to have a big party for a three boys. We had some more wonderful food, barbeque, homemade ice cream, the works. Ed spoke to boys about the importance of the day and also the importance of the people who were surrounding them. They all had a room packed full of people who love them and are going to support them as they grow. It was wonderful day and one I will never forgot and one I hope the boys will always remember.

Blake, we are so proud of you and love you so much!!!

Aloha

Aloha makamakas!! For all of you who don't speak Hawaiian, that means "Hello friends". Normally our blog is mostly about the kids, but as the oldest of the Echols kids and at times, most immature, I wanted to tell about something that I had gotten to do recently.

Thanks to Jaime, who I like to refer as the "greatest wife ever", I just returned from a week in Hawaii. I went to visit my longtime friend, Heath, who is currently living on the island of Kaua'i. It was a full blown guys week and did I mention that it was in Hawaii. (I couldn't remember.)

It was a blast. On days that Heath had to work, I spent a lot of time sitting on the beach and balcony staring at the waves rolling into the bay and also snorkeling. A few days into the trip, we were sitting on the beach and seen a shark attack a turtle in the spot where we had been snorkeling a few days previously. Needless to say, that really ended my snorkeling trips for the rest of the time that I was there.

We toured the whole island. We seen the old sugar cane mills, sugar cane and coffee fields, several waterfalls, Menehune Lake, and most every beach that we could find. Some of my more favorite things that we done were going up to Waimea Canyon, the dinner Catamaran cruise to view the Na Pali Coast, and touring the North Shore side of the island.

Here are a couple pictures from Waimea Canyon and the Kalalau lookout.

Here are a couple from the Na Pali Coast.

Here is a good shot of a beach on the North Shore. The cool thing about the North Shore side is that the beaches run right next to the road. You pull the car off to the side of the road, open the door and you are standing on the beach. They also are not very crowded as you can tell. This picture was taken on a Saturday.

One of the other great things the food. We stayed clear of the places that we could eat here and stuck with local eating places. The best was the Smith's Tropical Paradise Luau. It was more food than anyone can eat, but I tried most all of it. Of course the kalua pork was the best, but the teriyaki beef and sweet and sour mahi-mahi was good too. I also ate a Hawaiian sweet potato, which was purple, and a few bites of poi. Poi is sort of weird and I won't waste anytime explaining it because, I don't know that I can. Another one of my favorite eats was at Puka Dog. You may ask what that is and I will say that they only serve hot dogs and fresh squeezed lemonade. Puka means hole in Hawaiian. They cook the inside of their buns on some type of post and then they put the dog in the hole. You pick your type of dog (sausage or veggie), then you pick your garlic sauce (mild, hot, or volcano), then finally you pick your type of sweet relish (mango, banana, coconut, pineapple, etc). I had a sausage Puka Dog with mild garlic sauce and coconut relish. Possibly best hotdog ever.

The last day that I was there, we attempted to ride some waves with a boogie board. As amateurs, we were in way over our heads. The surf looked good, so we headed out to find that the waves were probably 8-10 feet high. Both of us managed to catch a few waves and it was awesome, but most of the time we drank more saltwater through our nose than anyone ever should. Our boogie boarding skills did draw the attention of some locals. There were some 11-12 year old kids who were making fun of us. We knew we looked goofy, so we joined in on the fun.

I had a great time and I must give the host/tour guide/cook/photographer at the Mixon Makai 5 stars.

Aloha!!

A Day with Hallie

Hallie likes to talk, as most of you who have spent time around her know. She isn't talking to hear herself talk. She is talking so that you can hear her talk. What most of you may not know is that apparently she knows it all too. I was at home with her one day last week and she just couldn't help but to share some of her wisdom. I wanted to share a few with you.

Hallie on driving.
Daddy, a speed limit is how fast you can go and not break the law, right? If you break the law, then the police will take you to jail. Mommy says that you drive slow. You don't want to break the law, right?

Hallie on hitting a baseball.
Hal: Daddy, how do you hit the ball hard?
Me: You have to swing really hard.
Hal: I will try to swing really hard, but I can't promise that I won't swing at bad pitches. I am only 5 and I don't really know which pitches are bad, so I swing at them all.

Hallie on God.
Daddy, God hates sin, but he does love everyone. Well, I don't think that he loves Satan. Satan tried to take over Heaven before the world was created. That is why God threw him out of Heaven.
(From a previous day) Refried beans are great, but God is better than refried beans.

Hallie on going to Kindergarden.
Daddy, I know that I have to go to Kindergarden because I am only 5 years old, but I am smart enough for first grade. I know all of this Kindergarden stuff.

Now we are all the smarter thanks to Hallie.

Light's Out

Andrew and Daniel have been out of their cribs for some time now and sleep in twin beds. They have adjusted to sleeping in their beds, but won't seem to go to sleep without me or Jaime sitting in the room with them. This has been ongoing for a while. Jaime and I alternate nights just to keep our sanity.

Last night, it was Jaime's turn to sit. We try, every now and then, to break them of needing us in their room, so she decided to put them in the bed and leave to see if they would stay in their beds and go to sleep. We do have a gate to make sure that they stay in their room. (They can open doors, even if they are locked.)

After she got downstairs, it was obvious that they didn't stay in their beds. We heard them banging on the floor, wall, door, gate, and anything else that they may have been colliding with while walking around in the dark. Eventually, we didn't hear them anymore, but not allowing ourselves to be tricked, we stayed downstairs a little longer.

When it was time for Blake and Hallie to go to bed, we all walked very quietly upstairs hoping not to disturb the potential sleeping kids. Blake and Hallie went to bed without a hitch. Next, I headed to Andrew and Daniel's room to check on them. As I went to step over the gate and into the room, I almost fell on my face as I tried to avoid the two little bodies that were cuddled up next to each other in the doorway right next to the gate. They were cute and hilarious at the same time. Here is a look at what I saw.

I guess when the warden calls for light's out and locks you up in the dark, you have no other choice but to go on to sleep.

The Kids in the Hats

The sun did not shine.
It was too wet to play.
So they sat in the house
All that windy, wet day.

Blake sat there with Hallie.
They sat there, those two
And Blake said, "How I wish
We had something to do."

Too wet to go out
And to wet to play ball.
So they sat in the house.
They did nothing at all.

They found their ball jerseys
And dressed for the game.
They were seeking to find
some baseball fame.

They turned on the Wii
And they started the play.
The Cardinals and Dodgers
Would play on this day.

No rainouts inside
Of the living room
The wind up, the pitch
Hallie connects with a "Boom!"

Hallie takes the lead,
But Blake comes back.
The Echols World Series
Is now in the sack.

The series ended tied
One game to one.
And now, at this time
All the baseball is done.