Pondering

I mentioned to Peter the other day that I needed to write a blog post, but since we are sort of in a holding pattern as far as things go, I didn't really know what to write.  He suggested I go through the blog I kept during the time I lived at the orphanage and see if I could post any part of it over here, just to give a sense of that trip to this new group of friends.  I spent a couple of days revisiting my first journey to Orphanage Emmanuel.  That trip was so challenging.  Those of you who walked with me during that time will recall the challenges, although some I did not even recall until I read my record of them on the blog.  The part I chose to post over here was from after I got home.  

I had been home 10 days.  What I found when I returned was that I missed the kids like an amputation, and I had such a hard time readjusting to normal life once I came back.  I had spent 8 months in full time ministry, four of those months out of the country, and I had to come back and start working almost immediately.  Also, I was sick.  I have a dust allergy that surfaced while I was in Honduras (remind me to get Allegr.a for my trip), and it took me 7 months of being home to get well from the immune shock my system went into to.

But back to this blog entry.  I was reflecting on my time there, still wondering what it all meant (truth be told, I still wonder what it all meant), and this is what I came up with:

As this season ends and the next begins, I look for one thing as the constant in it all, Jesus Christ.  My circumstances will change, but He never does.  And I thank God for that.  People have been telling me that I will continue to see the effects of this time for the rest of my life.  I know I have seen fruit already from my time there, from the deepening of relationships that occurred while I was there to the reduction of the power of want in my life, and I will continue to see fruit in the months and years to come.  Something life changing, eternal occurred there.  And it was worth all the lice, all the exhaustion, all the frustration, everything.  I recall the day I arrived there, and was standing in front of the airport, God gave me a sense of peace, an assurance that I was right where I was supposed to be, and I still have that sense of peace about it.  I know that I went there out of obedience and I fulfilled the task that God put in front of me.  I didn’t do it perfectly, but I did it, and He will honor that.  That’s all I can possibly ask.  I don’t regret a minute of it, and I feel as though I know God better for having gone.

If you are so inclined, you can read the entire entry by clicking HERE.

I'm thrilled to be bringing my daughter to the same place that meant so much to me then and means so much to me now, to be introducing her to the world of loving others in the name of Christ on foreign soil.  

We have bit more to raise, we are having a yard sale at our church on Saturday and a few people have asked how much more we still need, and I am fully confident of God's provision for the rest of the trip.  Blessings, blessings, blessings.  :)  

The next post I am going to ask Peter to write, about sending his precious wife and daughter to the mission field without him.  It'll be a good one.

Look what came today!

Oooh she was pleased as punch to get it, too!  She looked at every page, scratched the inside covers and I eventually had to take it away from her to keep it safe.  She just wanted to carry it everywhere.  And, in classic form, when I asked her to give it to me so I could put it up, she said, "But its mine!"  She did NOT want to part with it.  :)  Much sooner than I expected it to come, it's here...and that is one thing marked off of my list.  Yay!

This and that

I just called Olivia into the room and asked her to tell me about our Honduras trip, and she said to me: "We are going to Honduras.  We're gonna bless the mission trip and we're gonna bless the orphanage and we're gonna pack food for the plane.  We're taking two planes.  Honduras has special mosquitoes, if they bite you you'll have a virus."

We went to the foreign travel immunization clinic at the Alachua County Health Department  the other day.  Thankfully (praise be to God) Jared and Celia were gracious enough to keep the littles so Olivia and I could go alone.  The woman we had the consultation with spoke to us for an hour (!) about things ranging from benzo (something or other) wipes to buy, anti-malarial medicine, and vaccinations.  I am currently having to decide if I should get my 2nd Hepatitis A shot (I got my first before I went but never returned for the booster - those are expensive shots!).  We got Olivia's Hepatitis A but have to go back for one more for both her and I (I can't remember what it is and I'd have to actually get up to go find it. ha!).  I'd have taken a picture of her getting her shot but I was too busy restraining her.  Literally, full body restraining.  Can we say traumatic???  There is no convincing her that it will be just a moment of pain.  She starts stressing about the shot as soon as she figures out she's getting one.  

On a happier note, I did (finally) get the passports sent off last week.  I was waiting on having the funds to do so, it was quite expensive to do.  We took some pictures of us getting pictures, the ones of me, Olivia took.  :)  She's a natural, as you can see.

Did you happen to notice the red line on the thermometer?  It has literally JUMPED since my last update.  We have gotten about $700 donated in the last two weeks.  We are SO close to meeting goal...and still have a yard sale to do!  God has been so good to us in providing so quickly, and I feel so blessed, and Olivia does too.  

If you are praying, please pray for the following:

• That all of our funding would be provided, ours and the other people going on the trip.  I am only one of 70 people raising funds for this.
• That our hearts would be prepared for the trip in all the ways God knows they need to be.
• That God would prepare specific people for us to connect with and bless during our time there.

Thank you, again, for journeying with us.  :)

Let's talk about money!

I figured I'd just get right to the point.  Y'all know me...and you know that's what I'm about.  :) 

So far, we have been given $355 by generous donors.  I feel so blessed and loved that people are actually opening their wallets and gifting us their money.  Matthew 6:21 says that where your treasure is, there your heart will be also, and so I know that hearts are with us on this journey, and I am beyond grateful.  I love that you guys love us.

This will be my only post on the finances, other than to update you on the amount collected at intervals, most likely through the use of the handy-dandy thermometer on the right hand side there.  

So, here is the run-down on how to best support our mission.  :)

First, if you pray, please pray!  God has sovereign control over all the finances necessary and I believe He is going to provide all we need.  I want to be dependent on Him throughout this process, and prayer is the way that happens.

Second, if you cannot, or do not feel led to give, please don't!  I understand that not every mission is supported by every person, and love that you're reading along and following with us even if you have no intention of giving!

However, if you do feel led to give, and have not yet, the rest of this post is for you!  

• If you want to do a tax-deductible donation, you can do so two ways. Either:
• Send a check to Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters, 75 Mae Johnson Way, Andrews NC 28901 and be sure to put Steinmetz Honduras in the subject line.
• Go to Causes by clicking HERE. This donation goes directly to Snowbird and they know its for us.

• If you are not interested in tax-deductible and don't want to do an internet payment, you can send me a check. Email me at michellestz78 at gmail (dot) com and I will message you our address!
• You can donate cash when you see me!
• You can order from a fundraising catalog I have...lots of cute Christmas stuff, decorations, cards, wrapping paper, etc., and I get to keep 50% of your donation!
• You can donate stuff for a yard sale!  Check this out!!

All that stuff is crammed into our dining room, waiting for a yard sale!  Yikes!

Okay, I think that about does it, unless you have other suggestions.  We are trying to think of as many ways as we can do bring money in, and so I may mention something else down the road, just to let you know what we are up to, but there will not be another post dedicated just to money.  I figure once is enough to beg. Ha!

Pictures!

I wanted to do a post of pictures, to give you a visual of where we are going.  These are all pictures from the 4 months I spent at Orphanage Emmanuel!

These are four of the girls' houses, the ones that are about 15 to a house, with an older girl(s) in charge.

Me and three of the girls during a special party/gathering. On occasion, I was able to pull ten or so girls out of their houses at night to just spend time with them.  It was a very neat way to connect with them more deeply.

Nap time at the toddler house! Crazy!

The toddlers all in a line. 

Another party/gathering.

The girl in the blue shirt - Zully - and the girl in the yellow shirt - Yenni (Jenny) - are two of the girls that I have maintained contact with over the years.

Q & A - 2nd Edition

Welcome to the second part of my Honduras Mission Trip Q&A.  :)  I forgot to answer one question that pertained to Olivia on the last post, so I will start with that one today and then move on to questions about the orphanage itself.

1.  What will Olivia do there?

• Mostly, Olivia will play with the kids.  I am going to look into having her eat all her meals with them one day, and also to help in the kitchen duties, which is what I did when I was there, but since I am not in charge of this trip, I don't know if that will pan out.

Now onto questions about Orphanage Emmanuel.

1.  Where in Honduras is this orphanage?

•  The orphanage is in Guaimaca, Honduras, which is about two hours northeast of the capital city of Tegucigalpa.  I found a picture for you!

2.  How many children and staff are there?

• According to the orphanage web site, there are currently 460 children and 24 staff.  This number does fluctuate, though, as new children can be brought quite often.  There are also a fluctuating number volunteers there.

3.  What structure is used in the orphanage?  Family style, boarding house style, live in parents, rotating nannies...

• I'm not quite sure what to call it...there is a toddler house, where the littles live (I believe up to age 6), then they move into a house, that one older child is in charge of.  I'd estimate there are about 15 to these houses.  They bunk in the rooms together, usually the older one in charge has her own space. 8 years ago when I was there, this is how things were run. Its possible there have been some changes made.  (If there is a SWO person that is reading this than can confirm, correct or clarify any of these details, your input is welcome!)

4.  What is the expected future for these children?

• This is a tough question.  Some of them will return to the streets.  When I was there we got a 9 year old girl in that ran away days later.  Some of them will always run back.  The orphanage provides education (when I was there it was up to 8th grade and they were working on high school - again, its been awhile since I've been there and these are details I haven't kept up with as well as I could have) so they will at least be schooled, whereas if they were living with their parents that is not a guarantee.  Some of them go to Bible college in Costa Rica and other places.  Some of them stay on and assist in the running of the orphanage. A few come to the US and go to college.

5.  What is the hoped for future of these children?

• Personally, I hope (and I think I am in line with the orphanage itself on this one) that the children will become Christians during their time at Orphanage Emmanuel and take the gospel into their country and live as light and salt among their people. 

6.  Do they necessarily speak Spanish, or are there other languages used?

• They speak Spanish, but English is taught by the school and by the groups and volunteers.  I worked with one girl on her English during the time that I was there.  There is also some connection to Denmark there, and I served with at least 6 Danish volunteers while I was there, so the children get exposed to Danish as well, but really they mostly speak Spanish.  This is one area where I could use prayer.  I am trying to cram language preparation into my days right now.  Haha.

7.  How does the local church interact with this orphanage?

• There is a pastor from one of the local churches that is involved with the orphanage.  When I was there, David Martinez, called "Papi" by the children, did all the preaching in the orphanage's church.

8.  What is the long-term impact of this trip on the orphanage?

• There are two parts to this answer.  Snowbird takes a trip to Orphanage Emmanuel every year, providing a consistency of involvement.  They focus on strengthening the children in their understanding of the gospel, growing the ones that are already Christian and evangelizing those that are not, they work and play alongside the children, and just seek to give them attention.  This is vital to the kids and provides something that the staff and volunteers alone are not able to do with the ratio of staff to children that there are.  So the long term impact is measured more by the consistency of Snowbird returning and the relationships that are developed there, and obviously the eternal implications of the gospel being proclaimed.  
• The second part is more personal.  There are three specific girls that I have been in contact with since I left there.  As recently as within this month, one of them has expressed that she misses me and wishes I could come back and see her again.  She recently got married and had a baby and lives with her family at the orphanage.  Another sends me a letter back with one of the girls that visits with Snowbird every year.  And the other I chat with on Facebook sometimes.  I believe that these girls will be encouraged and strengthened simply by me coming (I hope that doesn't sound arrogant!).  I have a friend that visits me with frequency, and it means the world to me because I really don't have the ability to pick up and go see her.  I treasure our visits and thank God that He allows that for us.  I think it will be the same for them.

I think that pretty much wraps it up for now.  I'm not afraid to run another one or two of these, so if you did not get your questions in or answered, please feel free to email.

To update you on the financial outlook, so far I've had many people express a desire/commitment to give.  So far, I've been given $125 out of the around $2,000 that I need.  I am not worried, our God owns all the resources in the world!  I am currently in discussions with several people regarding fundraising, trying to figure out the best way to go about getting this money together.  Please pray that God will provide for all our needs (and some of it soon!  :)  I gotta get these passports mailed off!)

Thanks so much for following our journey.  It really does mean so much to me.

Q & A!

Thanks for the responses to the email I sent out requesting questions!  Here is where I attempt to answer some of them.  Remember -  grace, people, grace.  :)

1.  How did you happen to go see the orphans the first time?

•  During college, I had a scholarship that was sufficient to pay for a 4 year degree.  Since I goofed around and failed two semesters of college due to my drug addiction, I was a bit short on scholarship for finishing my degree.  In the fall of 2003, I had one more semester left of scholarship, and it occurred to me that I wasn't tied to school anymore for the time being.  I began to desire to serve people in a foreign country (specifically Spanish speaking - I just love the language).  Thinking that through led me to land on serving in an orphanage.  I believe that was a God-given desire, because summers when I was in college, I worked for a Christian youth camp called Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters, an extreme recreation camp, and this desire started growing in me after a fall trip to the camp.  When I went there for the Christmas reunion, I spoke to the wife of the assistant director about this desire, and she immediately informed me that her dad, the director of the camp, had just recently been in communication with an orphanage in Honduras and that they were wanting to begin building a relationship with the orphanage.  My funding fell into place, and I was the first missionary to go to Honduras from Snowbird - but by no means the last, or the one who stayed the longest.  I went from August to December 2004, and Snowbird took their first group there in December 2004.  They have returned every year, but due to my work of building a family, I have been unable to return until this time.

2.  What prompted you to include your daughter this time?

• Peter and I have a heart for missions, and when I was pregnant with Olivia, we discussed our priority of instilling the same in our children.  We pray, as a family, for the persecuted church in various countries (one time, Emma was asked where the circus was, and she replied that she thought maybe it was in Nigeria!), my brother and sister-in-law are going to the Dominican Republic to be missionaries, and Olivia says she's going to be a missionary when she grows up because she knows the love of Jesus (she also says she's going to be a mermaid so we don't take her too seriously, but we love that she even thinks of it as an option).  Instead of family vacations to Disney World, we want to take our kids to foreign countries (I'm not slamming Disney!).  We also plan to take them to the Dominican Republic in July 2013 and go back to Honduras as a family next year and every year, as the Lord allows.

3.  What are you hoping Olivia will gain from this trip?

• The answer to this question sort of flows from the last.  I'm hoping that she will come home with a sense that all the world is not like the United States, that all children do not live like her and her friends live, and that she really can go into the world into a different country or a different place in our country and live to make an impact for Jesus.  I'm hoping she will gain a more global perspective and understand more about herself and the world around her.  I know for myself, travel has greatly broadened my thinking.  When I took my first solo vacation, I went to Los Angeles to visit my sister, and it seriously changed the way I looked at the world.  I'm hoping to impact her heart, to develop a love in her for people that do not have as much as we have, whether that is material goods or spiritual opportunity. (And I'm hoping that if I give her some food she doesn't want, I can just say, "remember the kids at the orphanage?" and she'll feel guilty and eat it! Just kidding! Sort of. I don't want guilt. But I do want gratitude. I'm hoping she'll begin to develop a sense of gratitude for what she has.)

4.  What do you think Olivia has to offer these children?

• Pretty much the same thing I will have to offer them....love and attention.  The orphanage has around 460 children with about 24 full time staff and a variable number of volunteers at any given time.  They have school in the mornings and then they eat lunch, and in the afternoons, they spend their time together in groups (separated by boys and girls - last I was there, there were two girl yards and two boy yards) supervised by older children who have gained that privilege.  Its seriously like Groundhog Day.  The children love it when groups come to visit them, and they really love Snowbird.  The groups provide them with activities and attention that they will not otherwise get, alleviating a perpetual boredom. Another benefit will be their ability to see a healthy mother/daughter interaction. The orphanages in Honduras are sort of like our foster care system, most of the children have parents but they have been taken from their families.  Some of them will never leave the orphanage during their growing up years.  By bringing families to them, they have the unique opportunity to see something that they would not otherwise see, a healthy family in Christ interacting with each other.

5. Are you aware of other families that have taken kindergarteners on short term trips of this nature?

• Yes!  Actually, every year since 2005, Snowbird families have taken their children to the orphanage.  One of the girls that began going when she was a bit older than Olivia is preparing for God's call on her life to be a missionary to an unreached people group in India.

6.  Isn't it dangerous to take Olivia to Honduras?

• It could be (it could also be dangerous to stay here!).  But, we will go from the airport to the orphanage (about a 2 hour drive) on a bus that comes from the orphanage, and the orphanage itself is gated and guarded, with armed guards that patrol at night.  As I said above, the group has taken their children every year since 2005 without incident, so I feel that the safety is no more an issue than it would be doing anything else.  

Tomorrow, I will do another post addressing questions regarding the orphanage itself.  I feel that this one has gone on long enough.  :)  Please email me or comment if you have other questions or need clarification on anything.