Sorry that it has been a little while since we have written-we had issues with our internet. Everything should be sorted out now! George's visit to the dentist was good but he's not done yet-he has two more visits. Elias is doing great! He just enjoys playing and being outside. Please continue to pray for the political situation here in Honduras. It is greatly affecting the people. Here in Copan the people are struggling because there are very few tourist so the people aren't making money. At the school that we attend they are cutting back the hours of the teachers. The people already have so little. Please pray that the people will know that God is sufficient for their needs. 

We love you guys and appreciate your prayers!

The Park

This afternoon while George went to the dentist, Elias and I went to the park. While I was sitting there a bird pooped on my shoulder......and thats all Im going to say

July 21

Kara has been keeping the blog posted single handedly, so I thought I would relieve her and talk about some of the things that have been going on.

Things are going great here in Copan.  School is going good and I think we are learning alot.  I had to go to the dentist last Friday.  I have never been a fan of the dentist, so needless to say I wasn't thrilled about going to one in Honduras.  He is a nice man who speaks enough broken English to inform me that I may need a root canal.  I have never had any major dental work done (well there was this one time... porcelin tooth) so the thought of a root canal by a fellow Honduranian is a little scary.  I go tomorrow at 6:00p.m. for the preparation work.  After he looks around he will determine if it needs a root canal or just a filling.  The main reason I wanted to tell you guys about my upcoming adventure is because of what we talked about at the end of my visit... the price!  He gave me three prices.  One for the root canal, one for a filling, and the last for extraction (if I wanted the easy way out).  The root canal costs 2,500 lempiras, the filling costs 400 lempiras, and the extraction costs 300.  In dollars that is roughly $132 for the root canal, $21 for the filling, and $16 for the extraction.  I know what you may be thinking and no he does not practice dentistry out of the trunk of his car.  

On a more serious note, God demonstrated His protection and Goodness to us yesterday. Elias and I were playing outside, as we normally do, waiting for Kara to get home from school.  I was looking over some vocab cards when all of a sudden Elias came running around from the side of the house screaming. He was using both hands to hit at his back desperately trying to get something off.  He was getting stung by wasps.  He had never been stung before yesterday and he got stung 6 times on his back.  We thank God for His protection and that Elias didn't have any allergic reactions.

Kara and I want to thank you for your prayers and support.  We ask that you would continue to pray for our Spanish.  It is coming along well because of God's grace and your prayers.  Also please continue to pray for Kara's teacher.

We love you guys and miss you.

George

"When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son or man that You visit him?"  Psalm 8:3-5.

July 17

We just got back from a walk into town. It is a very small and cute town so it is very easy to get around. We have water in the house again! We didn't have it all week. It makes me very thankful for plumbing. But we did learn that taking baths out of buckets isn't as hard as it seems. God has been so good to us. He has shown us that He is more than able to provide and take care of us. He is such a great God! 

Did somebody say Big Mac?!

Last night before bed George and I were looking at the internet together. We looked on facebook and our blog and then I showed him Mrs Debbie Stevens blog (if you havent read this, you really should!-debstevens.blogspot.com) There is an entry, not to long ago, about a big mac from McDonalds-and that got us thinking! Now here where we are in Honduras there are no McDonalds or Burger King or any fast food places. So last night we laid  in bed thinking about the perfect food day. 

Kara's perfect food day

Breakfast: Chick-fil-a chicken biscuit with waffle fries and a lemonade 

Lunch: A whopper from Burger King with a caesar side salad and sweet tea from Wendys 

Dinner: Wasabi (located in the Town Center) with steak, shrimp and lots of the special sauce!!

George's perfect food day

Breakfast: two country ham biscuits from Bojangles with a large good cup of coffee

Lunch: He narrowed it down to three places: Two slaw burgers and a cherry lemon sundrop from Blacks BBQ (only in Gastonia), or a Big Mac hold the fries and substitute with another Big Mac! biggie size with fries and coke or Chicken bacon tacos from Chilis with corn on the cob (the one that is soaked in butter and melts in your mouth!)

Dinner: Yasabi (in Myrtle Beach) with steak and shrimp and lots of the special sauce

Ahh...just thinking about it makes my mouth water!!

July 14

As you can see, we had a very relaxing weekend. This weekend we also had some time to talk with Amanda (the woman whose house we are staying in). She is a teacher at one of the schools near Aqua Caliente. She has to travel an hour to work and an hour home on a bus everyday. There are three hundred students in the school but only six teachers! She teaches kindergarden and has 48 students. Can you imagine trying to teach 48 little ones? It is a big problem here in Honduras-there are alot of students but not enough teachers. While in class they get a thirty minute break to eat lunch. Where Amanda teaches, the people are very poor. Before all of the presidential issues, the president gave schools food for each student during this break. Now they receive none. So most of the students do not get to eat. Amanda says that the students will come to her during the day and tell her that they are hungry-but there is nothing she alone can really do about it. In the past Amanda has bought her whole class shoes and toys but the director of the school gets mad because there are not enough for all of the students. The schools are very much in need here in Honduras. It is a very difficult situation because there are so many students and so much of Honduras is poor. Especially with all the political stuff going on now. For instance, here in Copan the people rely heavily on tourist but there arent near as many here as there usually are so the people are really struggling. It effects everyone here-the hotels, the stores, the restaurants, the taxis, even the school where we go. Please continue to pray for the political situation. Although there arent anymore riots in the cities, the government is not stable and organizations have threatened to stop imports and exports from Honduras-this would devastate the country. Please pray for the people of Honduras that they will find their hope in God alone. Please also continue to pray for my teacher-Yessenia. She is a very sweet person and is a great teacher but she does need salvation. She is also pregnant-the baby is due around the end of October. Also George and I are looking for a church that we can be a part of. It is difficult now because we dont know enough Spanish to follow along but please pray that God will direct us there. We love you guys!

Aqua Caliente

school and Aqua Caliente

First week of school complete!

We have finished our first week of school! Our heads are spinning but we have learned alot. We actually remembered more than we thought (praise the Lord)-although we still have lots and lots to learn! George is doing very well-I have alot of studying to do! The language is alot of memorization-so please pray that we will be able to remember and obtain what we have learned. The internet here at the house is somewhat slow and will randomly kick us of line, so it is sometimes difficult to write on the blog and upload pictures. But we have found a very cool cafe where the internet is free and fast. We are able to talk to our families via Skype there! 

As I was saying before-school has been full of new information floating in our heads so we needed a break (yes, even after the first week)! So today after class we went to a place called Agua Caliente. It is about an hour from the city up the mountain (again it was a very bumpy ride). There were two other students from school that went with us. When we first got out of the van we werent sure what to think. There were a couple of big concrete "pools" with a few people swimming in them. We were all thinking that it wasnt worth the ride. But then we were taken across a swinging bridge that hung over a raging river! We then went through a tunnel carved from rock and taken up stone steps. We kept walking down the path and came to different pools of hot water. These pools were made out of stone from the mountain. It was beautiful! It was like in a rain forest tucked away in the trees. The first "pool" that we came to was designated for a mud bath, the next was a natural foot massage- it was a circle of water around a big stone in the middle, one half of the water was cold and the other half was hot, as you walked around the stones in the bottom would massage your feet. There were other pools that were like saunas and there was also a waterfall to be used for a natural back and neck massage. All of these pools were filled with natural water from the mountain. This water was very hot-you could smell the sulfur from the water. There were waterfalls flowing from one pool to the next. Words cannot describe exactly what it was like but it was beautiful and very relaxing! We had great family time. I am going to try to post pictures tonight or tomorrow so you can get an idea of what it looked like. 

I ask that you would continue to pray for us as we learn the language. Also please pray for our relationships with our teachers. George's teacher says she is a Christian but my teacher is not. Pray that we will be encouraging and share the Gospel through learning spanish. God is so good and continues to show us that. We pray that you guys will have a great weekend. We love and miss you!

Copan Ruinas

We are in Copan Ruinas! (and when I write that please hear the "Im so thankful to be alive" in my voice!) :) It took us about four and a half hours to get from Siguatepeque to Copan-some paved roads & some not. But there were ALOT of mountains! There were times we couldnt see the road ahead because of a big mountain in the way-that is how curvy the curves were! We were dodging potholes, cows, other vehicles and people! But I am so thankful for Jarmon, he really knew what he was doing! It was a crazy ride! Elias slept part of the way and the other part he was having fun being thrown left to right while standing in the back floorboard (but dont tell our moms!) He again did really well for the trip. He loved looking at the animals and calling out "big truck" or "motorcycle". God has truly blessed us with Elias-he adapts pretty well to any situation. Although it was a crazy ride, it was a very beautiful ride. The mountains were amazing-literally mountain on mountain. And there are people everywhere! There were houses on the side of mountains and I wasnt sure how they got up there or how they were even built there. Psalm 50:10-11 kept coming to my head because there were cows all over the mountains to. It was very humbling thinking about all the people and how God knows each of them and where each live and what their day is like. Isnt He a great God?
Today we walked around the city and hung out with our host family. Our family is great-it is just a woman and her ten year old son. He and Elias are already playing well together. The lady, Amanda, has fixed us some true Honduranian food-wow do I have alot to get used to!! It has been good but definatley different! The city is great-it is small so we can walk everywhere. There is a square in the middle of town and everything we need is close to it. Mr Gene was right-there is a great ice cream place too! (and yes we have already tried it on our first day!) We went to church with our host family tonight. We shared communion together. The service had to be cut short because of the curfew the government has put into place. Please continue to pray for the political situation-it could get rough for the people. It was very crazy in Tegus today. Please pray that the people will come together peacefully and that there will be no more violence. God is in control
We start school tomorrow. Please pray that we will learn the language quickly and well. We love you and are very thankful for your prayers!

Update

Again we are in Siguatepeque for the weekend. Our internet connection is great here! The group from Raiford Road flew out this morning. We had another great week of ministry! There was only one day that we were not able to do a school ministry because the government has shut down the schools until the ninth of July (as of the last we have heard). But we still had a great time. It was a small group but we got alot accomplished! When we weren't out in the community we were painting and working on the Property. The workers there have done a great job and we were glad to be able to help. 

As many of you already know-there is unrest in Honduras right now. Alot of political issues. It is mainly seen in the big cities. Here where we are there are more check points and a curfew that is in effect but not a major protest like they show on the news. I do ask that you would pray for Jarmon, Karina, and George. They had to go into Tegucigalpa today to take care of some business. From what we can see on tv, there is alot going on there. Please pray for their safety and that everything will get worked out.   

Elias is still doing great. Him and Evis' boys and Jarmon's kids have played alot together. Elias loves the Property. There is so much to do, like taking walks and throwing rocks! He has done so good, we are so thankful for the prayers. We are planning on driving to school tomorrow-Jarmon will take us there. We will start classes Monday. Please continue to pray that we will learn the language quickly and well. 

God has been so good to us. We are so thankful for all of the prayers and encouragement! We should have great internet connection in Copan-so I will be able to write more often. We love you guys!