This past week I learned a lot about myself and what God has been trying to teach me. We went into a very impoverished area of Honduras and cleaned out a home so that a few people might be able to live in a sanitary home. The house was very basic, 4 walls and 2 doors. No bathroom or kitchen, nothing. I started to realize just blessed I really am. I have been taking so many different things for granted. For example, just the simple idea of electricity. We went to bed that night with electricity and in the morning it had been turned off. I asked someone who lived there when it would be turned back on, they just shrugged their shoulders and said, “Who knows?”.
Another thing that I have learned is the simple act of quality time with someone. For the last few weeks, I have spent time with a four-year-old child with special needs. I really enjoyed spending time with him, whether it be playing trucks with him, helping him drink a juice box or whatever it was that he needed help with. I could really see the joy and excitement in his eyes. I wish so much that there were more opportunities to continue to be with him. I learned that spending time with someone can really make someone’s day.
Something else that I know that God has been trying to teach me on this trip is to work on expecting the unexpected. For such a long time I have always been so intent on always knowing exactly what will be hapening and when it will done. But so much of the culture in Latin America is based on being spontaneous and having plans changed at the last minute. I still have times where I am frustrated with plans changing, whether it is in our ministry or in my life. But I have started to realize that God really does have a plan for what he wants me to do in my life and my time in Honduras.
