CHRISTMAS!

So Christmas here was AMAZING! It went really really well! On the 24th we had our special service and we had refreshments and we made a bunch of cupcakes and had chips, sodas, coffee and the youth and children performed. The drama ended up coming out awesome and their spirits were in the right place with the perferct emotions and expressions to get the point of the drama across...it was very powerful! My little kiddies sang their 2 songs and they were so dang cute...everyone loved them and they had a lot of fun singing too ;) We sang Christmas songs and the had a service and just when it was over and we were getting ready to start going to the different houses the lights in the whole village went out! YES they were ALL completely out and it started to rain slightly :( They came back on briefly so we went to the first house and then they went out again haha...so we had tamales by candelight and when we figured they weren´t coming back on we went back to the church...however we brought about 10 of the youth back with us and everyone had coffee and hung out and watched a Christmas movie and eventually the lights came bak on...it was a very different Christmas Eve for them because they´re used to not sleeping and going everywhere, however everyone had a really good time! It was especially different for us because it was the first time we haven´t been with our family and having our anual Christmas Eve party but it was definately a good experience and we had a lot of fun!

On Christmas Day we started cooking for that night early in the morning...Bessy had already prepared the food to go in the oven the day before so it was pretty easy. I made frensh toast for everyone...that was amazing by the way haha...and we called my family and got to say Merry Christmas and talk for a little while. It was a pretty relaxing morning, we had our coffee and just hung out before we had to go and get Donna and Jim from the airport :) We knew it was going to be hectic in the afternoon trying to get everything finished so we were trying to relax beforehand. We picked them up from the airport and my mom and Dad had sent 2 big boxes with the rest of the presants that we couldn´t find here and a bunch of stuff for the kids. No one could help us wrap becasue the gifts were for everyone so we had so much work to do in only a few hours. We didn´t get home until around 3 and everyone was coming over for the big dinner at 5. We had already wrapped about 60 or 65 gifts and we wrapeed 1 more box of gifts and then had an entire box of toys, big things of candy, dress up stuff, etc..this box was like the jackbox! haha We also had another huge box full of brand new Hotwheels cars in the packages that was about 70 cars and then a ton of brand new beanie babies and toys. We finsihed everything just in time to get ready befroe everything started and then got the food ready for the service. The church was set up with big tables in red table cloths and the youth had decorated the church for Navidad previously. It was really pretty and it all looked really good. We had a small service of singing and the kids performed again for Donna and Jim so they could see it and we had some people that did special songs for the night. We brought in all of the food and we had stuffed chicken, vegetables, rice, a specail potato salad that one of the ladies made and later we had 2 huge cakes, 1 vanilla and 1 chocolate. It was so much food and everyone had a ton of stuff. Later when everyone was having cake we brought down the 2 huge boxes of toys and had all of the kids line up from smallest to biggest. We let them take 1 toy or candy (these weren´t pieces of candy, they were like goody bags haha) and go to the back of the line. They went throught the lines until every single last piece of candy and toy was gone and there was nothing left. All of the parents had huge piles of toys in front of them keeping them for their kids and the children were SO HAPPY! They said this a first for the church to see kids happy at Christmas so it was a huge blessing to be able to do something special for them and give them toys and presants..the parents were really excited too and were all seeing what their kids were picking out because they can´t afford to give their kids gifts, so you could jsut tell on their faces how much of a blessing it was to them as well ;)

After the service we had all of the ¨Church¨ members and people we had presants for pile into Bessy´s house where we had all of the gifts around the tree. There were so many of them but we handed out presants out 1 by 1 and everytime someone recieved a gift they all clapped haha...everyone waited until the end and then all at once they opened their gifts. Some of them got clothes, or babies, the ladies got creams and sprays etc, and the men got a new dress shirt and a really cool tool my dad sent from The states...overall it was a really great night! The people were so happy with the gifts and it was VERY special to them. Here getting gifts at Christmas is something that just doesn´t happen because the money just isn´t there...so for them to all get a presant that was picked out just for them was a HUGE deal ;) Bessy said that this Christmas was very different than anything that they´ve ever experienced and that the everyone was really happy and it was a huge blessing to the church...being able to experience Christmas here with these people and seeing the differences was such a huge blessing fir my sister and I and we had so much fun preparing everything and then getting to see their faces when it was all finished. Our lives are forever changed ;)

We´ve been having a really good time this week just hanging out with everyone and fellowshipping. Sunday we said bye to Donna and Jim and then Sunday night we all went to another church that is friends with Ague De Vida. They were having a specail Navidad- New Years service and were having a dinner and having music. The youth performed their drama for them as well and everyone loved it. We said it was New Years Easrly becasue we all wouldn´t be together on the real day so we counted down from 10 and everyone celebrated and went aorund the church hugging eachother. I just kept laughing because It wasn´t the 31st yet but it was fun and we all ahd a good time! Tonight we´re having a special service for New Years Eve and then we´re going to Bessy´s brother´s house for dinner. All of the youth are coming over around 10:30 and then staying for the rest of the night. We´re hanging out and having snacks and apprently there are a bunch of fireworks and people makes these dolls )tey´re everywhere) and everyone blows them up on the 31st haha...so it should be a pretty eventful night! haha

We just found out that on the 12th, 13th, and 14th we´re going back to the mountains (remember my blog about the chickens kicking my seat haha ) to teach vacation bible school. They don´t have people there to teach them the gospel and you have to cross a river to get there but it´s very important that we go. It´s going to be very challenging, but it willl be our last trip that we´ll take while we´re here and one last experience and lesson to learn. They don´t have running water, lights or electricity so it´s going to be very difficult...however we´re going to get to spend 3 days jsut with the children teaching them and playing games and doing something special for them that will bless their lives, so it shouldbe exciting! Pray for us!

We have 1 more month in Honduras and nobody wants to talk about us leaving...someone brings up the date and they just say we still had 30 days and we shoudl just stay. it´s going to be the hardest thing to leave here because we´ve made really good friends and hgave falllen in love with everyone here! They are so special to us and it´s going to be so difficult to go....however we know that this isn´t the last trip that we are going to make here but the first of many and we have a new family in Honduras that we will continue to see and comunicate with! Pray for our last month here and for my family back home. Getting so close and knowing it´s this month is just making it harder for us...and we miss everyone at home and our family a lot so it´s just getting harder. We´ll be home soon and we miss you guys so much! I love you all thanks to everyone that helped made this Christmas possible and for your continued support and prayers!! We love you guys!

Love,
Alisa and Amber

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Can you believe that it's 6 days until Christmas Eve!! Things here have been so busy lately trying to get everything ready for next week...this morning we had music practice for the children and we put motions to Jingle Bells.they're doing 2 songs, Deep, which is a song that we do at my home church and then Jingle Bells. teaching little kids a new song is hard enough, but when you're teaching a song in a different language it's a definite challenge :) haha We've been really stressing practiving in their homes so they won't forget and today when they came in you could tell they had been practicing! They did so good! It's going to be really cute when they do it for Christmas Eve!!

Then, this afternoon we have drama practice with the youth. At Tuesday's practice we fianlly finished the "Lifehouse Everything skit" all the way through . it was hard getting to that point and gettign the timing and everything to line up correctly but we finally did it and we were all really relieved! It's turnign out really good and it's going to be a powerful witnessing tool for the youth to use. It's a good testement to exactly how God is with us and how even after everything we go through and the mistakes we make God is always with us. He is ready to pick us up and dust us off and all he desires is for us to have is a personal relationship with him. If you have never seen this drama you can go to http://www.youtube.com/ and search "h20 performs lifehouse everything skit" and you can watch my home church middle schoolers performing the skit. It's POWERFUL!!

This week has also been very busy because we've been doing all of our Christmas shopping as well. We have a lot of kids and youth to shop for with BIG needs but a very specific budget...so emotionally it's been very hard on me. My spirit just wants to buy them everything they need and not have to choose between pants or shoes but unfortunately these are choices we've been having to make. They are going to be so happy to be getting a gift this year...and for me it's so much more fun to shop for people that you know it's jsut going to bless their lives and they really are in need. It's been fun getting to pick out something that suits each one of their personalities and know how special it will be to them :)

Last Saturday all of the youth went to Ojojona, which is another pueblo thats really pretty about 1 hour from us. We all fasted and went to a top of a mountain and sang songs and prayed for eachother and read form Corinthians about what Paul write to the church. These youth have problems that we couldn't imagien dealing with at such a young age, but Paul write that this life is temporary and every struggle we go thorugh on this Earth we will be rewarded in Heaven for...as bad as it seems now it's a small price to pay for the eternity that we will have...and to remain pure at heart and the bride of Christ ready and waiting for him to return...it was so powerful because it gives them hope..they struggle and have so many problems but they know that God is in total control of their lives and it's such an amazing thing to see youth so strong. We were supposed to go back tommorow but all schedule is so jammed we canceled the trip. Saturday we have all 100 of the Mission of Mercy children coming to the church and we're putting on a big day for them. We're having music, games, dramas, speaking, candy and cookies...etc. It's a day to minister to these children, a lot of whom do not already go to church so it's a busy day for Agua De Vida...it's going to be a lot of fun tho!!

We also have a lot more shopping to finish up and a very short time to do it in :) next Wednesday for Christmas Eve we're having a big candle light service where the childrean and youth will perform and then on Christmas day Donna and Jim come into town and we've palnned the big meal for the church on the 25th so they could be here for it as well and so they can see everyone getting their presants. It's going to very different for us to be away from our fmaily this year and we're missing home and everyone a lot..but we're also really excited to be able to experience Christmas with them and to see something different that what we're used to...I've heard theres NO SLEEPING and you travel to everyones houses all night so it should be different and exciting! haha :) I hope everyone of you have an amazing Christmas with your families and keep Amber and I and our family in your prayers. It's going t0o be hard to be away so just keep us in mind :) We love you all and thank you so much for your continued support! We're making a difference in the lives of the people here and we couldn't be doing it without you! We love you guys...MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Love,
Alisa & Amber

MY MOMMY WAS HERE :)

Sorry I haven´t blogged in a while, we´ve been really busy here and getting to the internet is sometimes a problem. So on the 14th Donna cam into town and my mom came with her and surprised us!! It was AMAZING...Amber and I saw her int the airport and we all just started crying..we were so shocked! HAHA Having her here with us was great and just what we needed! She got to see the village that we live in and meet everyone and they all loved her! We set up crafts for the kids and had a lot of fun with them. On the 20th and 21st we had camp for the youth and she got to coem with us. It was in Tulonga which is about 2 hours from Reynel Funez. Marilu is another missionary that was here with us for 3 weeks from Florida and she led adn taught at the camp, along with Yensel, one of the older youth who led all of the activites and games. We were split up into 3 groups and throughout the camp we had a military theme, complete with roll call at 5 AM...yes it was crazy! haha We learned about being a spiritual army and competed against eachother in different activites and dramas. It was just our group at the camp and it was a good time to get away from everythingand relax and fellowship with eachother. Marilu taught on the spiritual gifts and to not worry about the world and whats going wrong around you, but on what God has for you and how ot be spiritually strong. It was exactly what we all needed to hear at that moment. Trying to leave camp our 2 vans both got stuck in the mud road and I felt like it was our mountian trip all over again....minus the live chickens kicking my seat of course :) With everyone´s help the girls pushing the one van and the boys picking up the other we finally got them out and were all on our way! it gave the end of our trip some excitement!

My mom stayed with us until the 25th, Jordan came home the 26th so she had to hurry and get back for him and for Thanksgiving! We were both sad we were going to miss Jordan´s homecoming and our first holiday away from our family...however we LOVED our Thanksgiving here :) We cooked stuffed chicken, vegetables, mexican rice, desserts and everyone in the church came for a specail Thanksgiving service and stayed to eat with us. They all tried to creat the holiday for us and make it really special and even decorated all of the tables with harvest decorations and flowers. Marilu gave the specail sermon and then I explained the tradition behind the holiday and how it began. After, I said what I was thankful for and then we had everyone go around the room and say waht they were thankful for. The loved it and got really into it...I´m pretty sure they´ll be keeping up with the Thanksgiving tradition from now on :) haha All of the youth sang at the end and we had a mini talent show, it was SO much fun! Even my littel kids got up and performed their song ¨DEEP¨ from my church back home that we´re teaching them. (Don´t worry mom I got it ALL on tape :)

We had a Saturday sale with medicines and clothes and we sold everything. Amber adn I baked cupcakes to sell and people were coming just for them, they went so fast we had to end up turning people away..so I think from now on it´s going to be a regualr thing for us! We didn´t have service on Sunday becasue they were having an election here to pick who will be running for president. We had to take Marilu to the airport Sunday and we were all sad to see her go...she was a lot of fun for the 3 weeks that we had her here, plus she tried to translate for us as much as possible which helped a lot :) HAHA

We´ve started teaching the kids songs during English classas well to get ready for Christmas time so we´ll have a little show to perform :) We also showed the youth the ¨Lifehouse Everything Skit¨and we are about to start teaching it and then the youth do it for the Christmas service as well. November went by really fast and we´re into December we have 2 months left in Honduras. While we´re missing everyone at home so much , we´re already dreading having to say good-bye to the people here at the end of January. It´s going to be so hard. We´re so accustomed to seeing them everyday and them being apart of our lives. It´s going to be very sad to see it end!

This month is going to a very busy one with Christmas coming up and WE STILL NEED YOUR HELP! If you would like to help sponsor a child this Christmas please refer to my previous blog ¨Operation Christmas Honduras¨

Well this blog is long and I need to get off but we miss you guys so much! It´s ahrd to be away from everyone but we know God brought us to Honduras for a purpose and at this moment we are meant to be here and are very content with that. We love it here :) I hope everyone at home is doing good. Please keep us in your prayers, these last 2 months are going to be more cahllenging that the first. We love you guys!!

Love,
Alisa & Amber