Zip

I made the most of my two days in SPS last week. On Monday, I worked on the alumni album and interviewed Ovidio Flores, a former MCCer, about his experiences with MCC during the 70s-90s. I'll use the content in my series of four articles I'm planning to write in honor of MCC's centennial this year by sharing stories from the 4+ decades that MCC has had a presence in Honduras. On Tuesday, Elieth and I tried to pick up our residency cards at migration but were told that the person in charge of printing them had been on vacation... So we'd have to come back 😅. I also reviewed the recording of Ovidio's interview, taking notes for the first article in the series.

The MCC board has come up with a four-part strategic plan for the next five years, so as it is the beginning of the 2020-25 cycle, we needed to get together to brainstorm how we can focus on these points in the Honduran context. We'd decided to have these meetings in Gracias, Lempira, so on Wednesday, we braved the 5-hour bus ride out there.

The SPS cohort makes it safely to the hotel!

3pm pizza lunch while we wait for Kara and Keyla to make it to Gracias from Tegus

Thursday we got a comp day for the work we would be doing on Saturday, so Elieth, Keyla, Kara, and I decided to catch the half-hour bus to La Campa to enjoy the highest-up canopy (zip line) in Central America!

Wheeeeee!

Friday and Saturday we had our work meetings. We took time for devotionals and life sharing; Sarah prepared a particularly lovely devotional and reflection time on Saturday. Here we are reviewing the driving forces of displacement in the Honduran context and brainstorming action strategies for how our team here can best “Increase the capacity of the church and other partners as they support and equip vulnerable people, especially people who have been uprooted and displaced,” as the MCC text reads. We did the same for the other bullet points you see in the linked article. The reps will use our input to finish crafting the plan for this country's program over the next five years.

Impulsores de migración

On Saturday evening after dinner, we went to the aguas termales (hot springs) close to town. It was a great way to wind down from the meetings and get all relaxed before hopping back on the busses on Sunday. Our bus only took 4.5 hours back to SPS, so that was nice.

Sometimes it feels good to get back to a normal rhythm #Don'tMindIt'sMonday

Fabric

After Christmas, I worked the 26th and 27th alone in the office :(

But then Keyla came to spend several days with me in SPS and Tela (which literally means fabric, if you were confused by some of Facebook's automatic translations)!

It was so relaxing to get away to the coast for a couple nights and finally make it to the beach. I felt like I was tardy for almost letting 2019 pass me by without getting to the ocean when I live only an hour away, but Keyla had never been to the seaside before! I really enjoyed sharing the experience with her.

The pier was the perfect beach-walk destination

Hermanas

We were back in SPS to spend New Year's Eve watching movies, video chatting with our families, and watching fireworks at midnight with my host family.

Keyla headed back to Tegus on the 2nd, and on the 3rd I headed to the national annual Mennonite youth retreat with Valeria and some other members of the youth group. 

Friday afternoon there wasn't much of a program, so we got to hang out on the lawn and get to know people. Over the course of the weekend I connected with Carol and Marlly, two former MCCers who have participated in the IVEP and YAMEN programs. I had interviewed them previously over WhatsApp for the alumni series I'm working on, but it was great to be able to meet them in person and chat casually.

Saturday morning, we rode on some tricked-out school busses out into the campo for our service trip which was highly different to what I'm used to when it comes to service. We went out in groups of five to different houses in the community, read them a Bible story, and gave them a bag of food. The family we shared with were attendees of the local Catholic church. I read them the Emmaus Road story (which had been the topic of the previous evening's sermon) and shared a sentence or two about how walking with Jesus helps take away my sadness, and one of my group members prayed for the family before another handed them the bag of provisions. And that was it 😅... definitely a new experience, but now I can say I've read a story to a complete stranger... in Spanish!

Valeria and me on the way to the campo

The whole group of jóvenes

I enjoyed Saturday afternoon's workshops and was happy to hear the theme running through them of having our walk with Jesus be more discipleship rather than just performative Christianity (which is what I might have categorized the morning charity as).

The weekend was pretty exhausting because of having just gotten back from traveling to Tela, the late and early hours (and the schedule not being made known to us more than one event in advance), and the size of the group... but there was some great content to the worship services and workshops so I'd say it was worth it to go. But I was definitely grateful to get back to a normal (and productive!) week in the office the week of the 6th-10th.