2 chronicles 7:14

I’ve started getting in the swing of things and I’m really enjoying my time here at Emmanuel. My amiga, Katie, got here today! She was supposed to come with us on Monday, but her passport expired a month ago but she didn’t realize it until the day before we left, Sunday. So she ended up coming today with a group from Georgia, it’s great to have her here! I’m learning a lot of Spanish and it’s so fun being able to use my new Espanol skills to communicate with the kids more and actually start to build relationships with them!

My friend Olivia and I have the responsibility to shower 10 special needs (between the ages of 8-14ish) girls twice a day, once at 6am and then again at 4pm. It is truly a growing and humbling experience. I never thought I would be doing this, but I would not have it any other way. Spending time with these girls and seeing them joyful truly makes my heart happy! I really like getting to serve the girls in this way, its very different than what I had ever imagined. We shampoo their hair for them and most of them have lice so that is kind of gross, but I’ve learned just to accept it! I figured it's more than likely that I am going to get it and I've decided I'm okay with that. I'd rather get it and be able to hug these kids than be paranoid and avoid their hugs haha! Good thing I have lice killing shampoo, because that will probably come in handy soon! We help wash and dry them off, they have it down to a precise system so that made helping much easier! In the special needs houses they have 5 older girls that normally take care of them, but we are just helping now. I love watching them serve each other and truly care for one another. The girls in those houses have such servant hearts it is so amazing and encouraging to watch.

During the day I work with the special needs kids. We typically stay in the yard during school hours, because they do not go to school. Sometimes during the day we will take them on little field trips to different areas of the orphanage. Its fun to do different things with them! During the day we just play on the swing set/ kick the ball/ just play with them. Yesterday one of the older girls that just helps the special needs kids gave me a Spanish lesson which was so helpful. I’m learning so much Spanish. I now know 4 phrases that mean “I don’t know what you are saying because I don’t speak Spanish”! I use those a lot haha!

So part of working with special needs that we started yesterday is horses. We are going to start taking some of the kids to pet/groom/ride horses twice a week. We took our first group yesterday and it was precious. Some of these kids are great around horses, for some of the kids being around the horses is such a great thing for them. It was so fun to be a part of that! After we let the kids pet and groom the horses. Two other girls and myself stayed down at the barn and cleaned up a.k.a. scooped manure (as I was doing it I said “my dad would be so proud of me right now” hahah) and cleaned out the stalls and started getting the barn ready. We have 4 horses…Amore (“love”), Pharone (“pharo”), espirite (“spirit”), and grumpy. We will eventually teach the kids to ride the horses! We feed them 2 times a day in the morning and in the afternoon. I am so excited to work with the horses. It’s cool how God works because I really wanted to go back to Camp Winnataska so I could work with the horses, but who knew that I would be working with Honduran horses…so much cooler! Hahah. I’m really looking forward to doing that everyday.

This past Wednesday we had church and it was absolutely incredible! It was awesome singing worship songs. We would sing a song in English and then we would sing it in Spanish. I think it is so amazing that our God is so big that people from all languages worship Him! They talked about how important prayer is in our lives, and I think a lot of times I overlook/underestimate the power of prayer. But I am working on making that a bigger part of my life and using it more to communicate with God more. He also talked about humbling ourselves, and that was just a great reminder of the way that we are called to live our lives.

One of the weirdest things to me is how much all of these kids love Disney! I know Disney is played in most countries, but it still baffles me! They always ask me to sing High School Musical or Hannah Montana. I always sing and dance for them and just act silly. Whenever they see me they say “Hola Loco!!” and then giggle! I love making them laugh and glad I can do it in that way considering I don’t speak Spanish. But I love it more everyday! It’s been really fun to also get to know the other Auburn people better too! That is all for now because I need to get sleep!

“By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35

Adios