Bitter Sweet

Hi everyone,
Well, here I am, sitting at home in my Honduras soccer jersey (they play Puerto Rico tonight). It feels a bit strange to be honest. I'm sitting here thinking about the path I have chosen and the paths I could have chosen. I could have spent my summer here in Gridley, working at the pool and reconnecting with old high school friends whom I love dearly but have not seen in a very long time. They have moved on with their lives, as they should, and I am no longer really a part of them. Our lives are each very different now than when we all graduated together.
I could have spent my summer working at Miracle Camp, as a couselor. That is what I have been planning on doing since I first went to camp in third grade. I started praying for my future campers when I was 16 years old. I loved working at camp last summer and met wonderful people who have become very close friends of mine. They now have another summer together under their belts, this time without me. They will have memories together that I will never have.

All of this got me thinking about future choices I will make. I feel called to missions. I felt in my element while working in the mountains handing out food and clothing and sharing God's love with a group of hurting people. This is what I want to do with my life. What other sacrifices will I have to make? What other opportunities will I lose out on because of taking this path?

Now I say all of this knowing it is worth it. I would not change a single thing about this summer. I feel a little bit wiser, a little bit older, and a lot more in love with my Lord who has the perfect plan for my life. I have no idea where I will be in ten years, or even a year for that matter, but I will continue to pray and be sensitive to the Spirit's leading in my life. I hope to have many more adventures in the years to come.
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of you faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
-James 1:2-4

I want to thank you all for your prayers and support throughout the summer. I loved all of the emails and messages and words of encouragement you would tell my parents to pass along to me. If you are interested, I will be speaking at church (First United) this Sunday. I will be sharing pictures and stories and answering some questions. The church service is at 9 and I will be speaking directly after it.

God bless you all and I can't wait to see everyone!

The Feelings are Mutual

Hi Friends,

Once again, I apologize for the long break between blogs. Internet has been a little tough to get a hold of lately.

Well I am down to my last week in Honduras. I am incredibly sad. Although I am ready to get back to school and see friends, the thought of not knowing when I'm going to see my new friends here again depresses me. Unfortunately, this has been a trying couple days for me for other reasons as well.

Pastor Guy and Angie (the director and his wife) are gone right now on the Mosquito Coast leading a Medical team on a trip. That's great for them and I ask that you keep them in your prayers, but this leaves me with their two kids, ages 6 and 9. I have moved into thier house and become mom for 11 days. Because of this, I can no longer hang out with friends at night or go on mountain trips. This makes me a little sad since it is my last week. I feel like I've already had to say goodbye to everyone and now I'm just trapped in a house waiting to leave.

Now don't get me wrong, the kids are great and I'm doing alright, it's just different. If anything, this experience reinforces my thoughts on settling down at a young age and how I just don't think it's for me right now. I enjoy my freedom.

You're probably confused by the title of this blog. What feelings am I speaking of? Well poor Dakota and Jewlisa (the kids) miss their parents terribly and I've realized I could feed them cake and ice cream for every meal and allow them to watch tv all day and they would still not be happy with me, I'm not their mom. I can respect that. So here we are, three people stuck in a house all wishing to be somewhere else. Awesome.

I will be with the kids until the night before I leave. I ask for prayer. We all need patience and understanding of where the other one is coming from. I would also ask for some kind of chance to fellowship with a few friends before I leave. Since moving into their house I have had two girl students I have gotten to know come up to me in tears needing help. I can't give them my full attention and that kills me. keep them in your prayers as well.

I look forward to seeing a lot of you in about a week. I love you all! God bless!

-Katelyn

Tree of Life Ministries

Hi Everyone! I'm sorry it has been so long. I have been super busy and when I do have free time I've been trying to soak up as much time as possible with friends. I only have 22 more days! It's really sad. I wanted to write a little more about Tree of Life Ministries:

"In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." -Revelations 22:2

Tree of Life's slogan is Find a Need, Meet the Need, Change a Nation. I want to break that down for you a little bit more.

Find a Need:

Honduras is one of the poorest nations in the western hemisphere. Many small villiages deal with deadly parasites, no electricity or potable water, and disregard all medical and dental needs. There are no churches, no leadership, and a sense of hopelessness. School past the 6th grade is expensive and hard to reach. Most just stop going. This sense of hopelessness is then passed down from generation to generation.

Meet the Need:

Tree of Life is working to correct this vicious cycle continuing in families. They do everything from bringing food and clothing to mountain villiages, to offering Bible School to new pastors, to planting churches, to supplying villiage elementary schools. They also hold leadership and pastoral conferences and lead American medical teams into remote villiages. Tree of Life's way of meeting needs is as diverse as the needs themself.

Of course they also have Plan Escalon. This is where I am staying and where most of my work has been. Plan Escalon is a school for kids from 7th grade to 12th. They come on scholarship which they fill by working at the school everyday. The boys cut grass and do different building projects while the girls cook and clean. It's a great way for them to earn their education.

Change a Nation:

Revelations 22:2 talks about how the very leaves of the tree were doing the healing. This is the heart of Tree of Life Ministries, to equip the people of Honduras to change their nation. Pastor Guy, the director of Tree of Life, has always said that if anything ever happened to him where he had to leave the country, he wanted Tree of Life to be able to run without him. And it can. They have raised up Honduran leaders that now basically run the ministry. By educating these young people, they are giving them hope and a chance to go back to their villiages and make a difference. By doing this, God willing, the next generation will have a different outlook on life and will be filled with the hope that only comes from Christ. It's a beautiful process.

So that's a little more about Tree of Life. On a personal note, I have a few prayer requests:

1. I have a head cold. It's not bad, but it makes speaking Spanish even more difficult.
2. English classes-some days are good, some days are terrible. So it goes, I suppose.
3. I will hopefully be traveling to the mountains either tomorrow or Thursday to deliver some food and clothing. It's always an adventure, but well worth it to talk and have fellowship with the mountain people.
4. As always, continued prayer for Tree of Life and what they are doing. They need energy, discernment, and patience. Tree of Life was not set up to have immediate rewards. It's a slow process of building relationships and showing God's love to a group of people who feel like the rest of the world does not care about them.

That's all for now. I'll try to update it a little sooner next time. I love you all.

Learning How to Teach

I am now in my second week of teaching English to the staff and leaders here at Plan Escalon. I teach a class at 9 o'clock and 12 o'clock. As you can imagine, this has been a challenge. Except for dance, I have never taught a day in my life. Now I'm teaching English in a language I am just learning myself. Yeeeah.

Needless to say, some days have been better than others. To be frank, it has been frustrating. I want my students, who are also my friends outside of class, to learn a lot, but at the same time I want them to have fun while learning. It's a difficult balance. I have been making them memorize their favorite verse in English, learn a certain amount of verbs a day and practice speaking English in conversation. 9 and 12 have quickly become my least favorite parts of the day. I don't want that. I have other jobs here, but teaching is my main one. I want to enjoy it if possible.

So I have spent a lot of the last week and a half in prayer. What am I supposed to do? How can I use my gifts to teach these adults? Yesterday, I woke up with the answer. I love to teach dance. Why is that? Because it's interactive. I have never been one to learn by sitting and listening to lecture, so why would I think I would teach like that?

This morning, my class took a field trip. I took them out around campus and just talked. We discussed what we saw. Rocks, trees, buildings, anything and everthing. I then took them back to my kitchen where we talked about potatoes, cabbage and knives. They were so exicited to be doing something other than memorizing verbs from a dry-erase board they made me a Honduran breakfast. It was wonderful. I love Honduran food or "comida Hondurana".

To sum it all up, God is faithful. I really believe the eureka moment I had yesterday morning was not my own thought but straight from God. My students said they learned more today than all of the other days my class combined. I am learning how to teach. Or better, I am learning how I teach. It's a good feeling.

You Say You Want a Revolution?

Greetings Friends and Family,

I just wanted to write a quick note to all of you who have been reading the news about Honduras.

First of all, I am safe. The capital, where most of the action is taking place, is around 4 or 5 hours away from where I am. It's very peaceful here. If not for the news, we wouldn't even know something was going on. Just to make sure, we called the Embassy to make sure I and another group of Americans that are here for the week are indeed safe. They said yes, that we all just fine. Tree of Life also has contacts in the government that are prepared to protect the ministry as a whole.

For the most accurate news on what's going on, go to google and type in "Wallstreet Journal News On Honduras". They seem to have the best and most accurate.

I am very thankful for all of your prayers, but rest easy, I am safe. I would love it if you would pray for Honduras as a whole right now. I don't want to get into the politics of who is right and who is wrong, it seems to be much more complicated than that, but no matter what we are making history right now, and I feel privileged to be apart of it.

In other news, my English Classes have begun. They are going well. I teach at 9, 12 and 6 everyday. I really like it. More on this later. I love you all.

God Bless,
Katelyn

Whew, What a Day

THINGS I EXPERIENCED TODAY...

• A 4 o' clock alarm clock.
• A two and a half hour car ride one way.
• A two hour and 15 minute hike up the side of a mountain.
• My first energy drink. It was gross, but really did the trick half-way up the mountain.
• My first moment of satisfaction with my Spanish. There is a very sweet older boy student here at Escalon that went with us today. He's harmless and actually quite helpful as he pushed/pulled me most of the way up the mountain today. I only have one issue with him. He knows a lot of English, but will sometimes say things about me in Spanish he thinks I can't understand. He never says anything mean or crude, it's just his little trick on me. I have been ignoring it for about a week now. Well today I called him out on it...in Spanish. He was shocked and a bit embarrassed...about the reaction I was going for.
• A very interesting bathroom...enough said.
• Aches and pains I didn't know I could have.
• A breathtaking view.
• A one hour and 15 minute RUN down the mountain. If you walk, you will topple over head first and probably not stop rolling till you hit the bottom. This would be where I lost a chunk of my big toe. I'll manage.
• A wonderful group of people that have become self-sufficient at the top of a mountain. They are what made it all worth while.

Thank you for your prayers and thoughts. There is no way I could have done this without God. At moments, I thought I was going to die. It was, by far, the hardest thing I have ever done physically. I'm proud to say that though I was not the first girl up, I was no where near the last. Would I do it again?...talk to me in a few days.

Ain't No Mountain High Enough to Keep Me From Getting to You

Well here I sit, at 7:45 at night, thinking it's about time for me to go to bed. Why? Because I need to get up tomorrow morning at 4.

Tomorrow I am going on my biggest adventure yet. I will be climbing/hiking up a mountain for 2 1/2 hours, helping build a house for a pastor that lives up there, and then climbing/hiking down that mountain all before sun down. Yep, it should be an interesting day. Originally, I was supposed to stay the night in the mountain in the villiage, but plans have changed and I will be making the trek up and down in one day. I have been told it will be one of the hardest things I will ever do. Awesome. And I mean that. I had the choice to go on this trip and I decided it was an opportunity I didn't want to pass up. I'm going to be meeting and visiting with people that only get visitors if they climb up a mountain. How crazy is that? These are unique people who have created a life on the side of a mountain. Not only that, but they have also planted a church on this mountain. How cool is it to think that while we are in the states worshiping in our big churches, there are maybe around 10-15 people on the side of a mountain in Honduras worshiping as well. God is awesome.

I would really like your prayer tomorrow if you think of it. I know I won't die or anything, but it will be pretty difficult to keep a good attitude about an hour and a half into the hike. There will be almost 20 of us making the trip. I would ask for safety for all of us.

Thank you for faithfully following my blog and commenting and emailing. It brightens my day to know I have so many people who love me back home. God bless you all.

What a Difference a Year Makes

Almost Exactly One Year Ago:
I was working at camp making great friends and enjoying "The Best Day Ever". (Camp people, you know what I'm talking about.) The end of the day included going to the movie "Wall-E" in the movie theater. A great movie, comfortable seats, popcorn, and great friends. An enjoyable experience.

Two Days Ago:
I'm in Honduras. Making great new friends and enjoying "The Best Volleyball Match Ever". It was intense. (we won) At the end of this day, 500 kids, many staff members and myself gathered in a big tent that serves as their church and watched"Wall-E" on a projector. A great movie, cinderblock seats, a bottle of water, and great friends. An almost more enjoyable experience because it included the joyful laughing of 500 hundred kids experiencing Wall-E for the first time. Priceless.

Kayleen?

Greetings from Honduras!

I am on day 5 already. Wow, it seems like I just got here yesterday. Not a lot has been going on the past few days. They made it that way on purpose. I am supposed to just sit around and do nothing for the first week here. By doing this I observe how things work around here and where I will fit in best. I still don't know for sure what I will be doing here. I will be teaching the English class three times a day, but I am expected to have other responsibilites as well. Which is great. I want to help out wherever I can. SO I am getting to know the staff and who I work best with. This will determine where I will work.

Now I haven't exactly been sitting around and doing nothing. I have been enjoying the company of the kids here at Escalon. The kids range from 13 years old to 19 years old. It has, of course, been easier to get to know the smaller girls right now and work up to the girls closer to my age. The better I get with my Spanish, the more I will be able to communicate with the older girls. For now, the younger girls are content with playing games with me and helping me with my Spanish. One girl in particular, Maylin, has been a great help. SHe's a beautiful 14 year old girl with a great heart and a real knack for teaching Spanish. We've spent many hours together looking at books or just walking around campus talking.

Now the funny thing is, I have, as most North Americans would, a tough time pronouncing a lot of thier spanish words and names. I can't even role my "R's" so it's been interesting. What I didn't expect to find is the Hondurans having such a hard time pronouncing my name. It usually ends up sounding something like "Kayleen?". SO now when I introduce myself I will say I am Katelyn or Katelina. They understand Katelina. SOme are now calling me Katelina while others are determined to call me by my real name. Last night, I went into my room earlier than usual to sleep. It's so hot here that all of my windows are open and I live right in the middle of campus so I here all the kids outside. It's kind of nice. But last night when I went in I turned on some music and started to get ready for bed. It started out real faint, but after a few minutes I started to hear, "Kayleen? Kayleen?" I turned off my music and figured out which window the mysterious voice was coming from. It was Maylin and she wanted me to come out and talk. It was so sweet. That was the first time I was invited by someone else to do something. I am hoping to hear my "Kayleen?"'s coming from my window in the future.

Prayer Requests:

• Dad flies back to the States tomorrow. Please keep him in your prayers.
• I will be on my own then. It's a little intimidating, but I'm ready.
• Continued prayer for the language barrier. I'm getting better, but still have a lot of work.
• Tree of Life Missions www.tolm.org

The Irony of Agua Buena

Greetings Friends and Family,

This is my second full day here in the beautiful country of Honuras. And I do mean beautiful. I am surrounded by mountains and everything is green and flourishing. I love it, not that I don't also love flat ground covered with corn and beans. Ha ha!

So much happened yesterday that I am going to have to just highlight the big things. Otherwise I could spend the whole day writing this blog. So here we go:

• The kids's day starts at about 5 o'clock. Mine...does not, but I do get up about 7 o'clock. That's pretty good for me.
• Dad and I got a great tour of Escalon, the school where I am staying.
• I got my first crash course in Spanish from a couple twelve year old girls here on campus. They were very nice and patient with me. I can now carry a simple conversation and name almost any animal in Spanish. They quizzed me on the animals for almost 45 minutes. It was intense, but a lot of fun. They are very sweet girls.
• They big thing we did yesterday was travel to a little villiage in the mountains called Agua Buena, which means "good water". The irony of this is, until recently, they had terrible water. Tree of Life has helped them find a spring in the mountain and channel it down to their villiage. Since the spring is above them, they even have a little water pressure. That's amazing for a little villiage of around 300 with no electricity to have water pressure. The journey to Agua Buena was not easy. We took a truck holding 5 in the cab and 12 more in the truck bed! That's not unusual in Honduras. The crazy part was the road up the mountain was dirt, narrow and steep. It was also full of potholes. It was a little scary, but they do it all the time. Not to mention the view was breathtaking. We were right on the edge of the mountain. It took us about 2 hours to get up. When we got there we had a meal with the people, handed out food and clothing, and had a church service. There is something amazing about worshiping with those you would not normally. It was an awesome experience.

Well, that's it for now. I don't want to make this too long. I acually want people to read it. I love you all and appreciate your continued prayer.

God Bless,

Katelyn

I'm Here!

Hola!

My dad and I have made it to Honduras! It is beautiful here...and quite muggy, but great none the less. I knew I was in a new and exciting place when I looked out the plane window and saw miles and miles of bananna farms. I've never seen such a thing.

Guy and Angie (the missionary couple who I will be working with) and their two young children picked us up from the airport. They are amazing people. I really like the ministry they have here. (I'll explain more of that in a later blog.)

So I was told today that I would be teaching an English class three times a day one hour each. Ahhh! This class is actually for the staff here on campus who want to learn more English. This is a great thing because hopefully they can, in return, help me with my Spanish. It is of couse a little frustrating right now that I can not communicate very well with the kids on campus. Hablo solo un poco espanol. I know I will get better, but for now there is a lot of sign language involved in my conversations. Ha!

Well that's it for now. Honduras has a big soccer match tonight and they are showing it on the big projector in a tent that also serves as their church. Soccer is so huge here that it should be an interesting night.

Haha! Dad just came back to the room I am writing in because he can't get into his bedroom without his reading glasses. The padlock numbers are a little small. I'm going to have to go help him.

God Bless,
Katelyn

Prayer Requests:

• My Spanish is weak. It's going to be very important that I get better.
• My English class. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed.
• I have a full kitchen in my house and am doing all the cooking for myself. I went and bought groceries in a Honduran supermarket today. I'm a bit nervous about this. It will be the first time I am completely on my own with cooking. It sounds silly, but it is a concern of mine.
• Continued prayer for my parents and their faithfullness in letting their little girl do this.
• Tree of Life Missions (www.tolm.org.)

Welcome

Hello friends and family!

Welcome to my summer blog where I will document my adventures in Honduras. I am very excited and cannot wait to go. God has been preparing and shaping my heart over the past few months in preparation for this trip. I can't say I feel totally prepared, and I don't think I'll ever be able to say that, but I do feel a peace that with God I am enough just as I am. That's one thing that has always amazed me about God. He accomplishes wonderful things through broken people like you and me. That's awesome and good news for us!

I am looking forward to keeping all of you updated and I really appreciate all of your prayer and finacial support. I would not be able to take this trip without your help. If you would like to contact me while I am in Honduras, feel free to email. My email address is katelyn.barnhart@student.indwes.edu.

Here are a few prayer requests:

• For continued spiritual growth and refining. There can never be too much.
• For safe travels. My dad and I leave June 10th for San Pedro, Honduras. It's about two hours from where I will be living. My dad will then be staying for about five days and then returning home to assure my mother that I will be safe.
• For my dear parents sending their youngest child and only daughter over to a place they have never been. They are, understandably, a little nervous.
• For Tree of Life Missions and their ministry. I would encourage you to go to their website and check out all of the amazing things they are doing down there. Their website is www.tolm.org.

God bless,

Katelyn (or Katie depending on who you are!)