The Depth of God's Love....

~This is a wild, beautiful story,  a long and interwoven tale of God's love that to me is just incredible. A story that demonstrates His power and His desire to draw us to Himself, to love us, to want us, to be there for us no matter who we are, where we are from, or what color our skin is. Our past, our language, our heartaches and ultimately our forgiveness and hope are all within God's reach!

  While in the Spanish Institute of Honduras for two and a half months this summer we had a pretty awesome, pretty cute, and totally fun teacher, Gabriella. She was my first friend in Honduras, cheery, energetic, loves the Lord and taught Spanish excellent (without speaking a word of English). Her classes and stories were a blast! She fell in love with the Snyder's and we all fell in love with her.

 So now that I'm home we message back and forth and one day three or four weeks ago she told me she has a sister in NYC and can I help her. Her situation was that she was living with her older brother who was busy with school, work, married, etc., etc., and he was moving and wanted her out by January.... She had no place to go, knew no one in the city, speaks no English and had no options except living in a Shelter, or back to Honduras. (Poor thing!!!)

  Marcela came to the states recently for medical help for her little daughter, Naidelin (17 months old) who has spina bifida and kidney trouble and a few others things that would make living in Honduras very difficult, because without proper medical care she will die and this, Marecela told me, was why she was afraid to return to Honduras.

  I spent so many hours night and day thinking, praying and trying to figure out how we could help this girl in some way.... prayed, concocted plans, asked questions..... we texted a ton and talked on the phone- she was so lonely!! Where could she go? I wanted to take her in immediately but we have little room.... where could she live and if we had a place how could she afford it? And what about hospitals and doctors and, and........ the questions were endless.

  Desperate I called our neighbor, a long time friend of ours from a neighboring church, and on the spot after hearing her story he offered to pay for an apartment for her!!!!  Here. Close by so we could be involved in her life, and be here for her. I was thrilled!!!

  He searched, I called around to multiple places- Nothing came available and then what I thought would work, at last minute fell through and meanwhile her brother decided she should leave sooner and bought her a ticket for today- stress. Two days before she arrives and no house. I slept very little that night wondering what kind of mess I had just got into and prayed, God if you want her to come here, give her a place to stay.

  It just happened that this spring friends of ours moved to Buffalo and have an empty apartment, fully furnished that they have been hoping god would use to minister to someone. They heard about Marcela on Tuesday evening, and Wednesday she had a place to live and tonight Juli and I drove out to Buffalo and met her at the Train Station.

  Marcela is so sweet, her baby beautiful and I already fell in love with them just chatting the past few weeks. She is only 20, abandoned by both her Mom and Dad all her growing up years and that's why she loves her baby and is doing so much to keep her healthy. She told me she wants to be there for her daughter and take care of her. She doesn't want her to grow up how she did.  Listening to her I just wanted to cry.... it doesn't even seem fair, we've been given so much!! And she does not know the Lord. I am so thrilled, so excited to watch God reaching out, loving her, and putting all the pieces together. This Christmas, give love, the way you'll be blessed is beyond amazing!!

( Hopefully they will come to church now and then. I told her I have friends who want to meet her and she's happy to meet you- brush up on your Spanish)

Anything for a Fiesta...

Here in Sigua and especially at the Spanish institute we tease the teachers that they do anything for a fiesta.... birthday, late birthday, someone coming, families leaving, like this night, anything! They are the best, and Mike and his family very gracious hosts. Thank you all!

 

 Playing uno and singing in the classroom after the fiesta

 

 Everyone LOVED David:)

Gaby put a picture up on FB off him with her & she had 70 likes by the next morning!

 

And the following... just enjoying time with Gaby....

 

 Our two teachers- Gaby & Sindy

 

 Besides teaching, her second profession is also a beautician!

 

 Typical day in Class.... Gaby leaning on the back wall waiting for us to copy down assignments, then checking our paragraphs over our shoulder.:)

 

 

Riena.... Gaby's cousin and another super awesome teacher at school.

 

 Games in the yard with the entire school was so much fun! Here we played a game of backward charades where the whole group had to act out a picture and their one team member in the chair had to guess it. Guy in blue is blocking the chair.

Yarely wanted to take him home....

 

It's a wonderful life!

Pictures to update you all....

 

 One morning I found this beautiful little fellow on the rail outside our bedroom window.

 

 Last weekend Mercy learned to sew- and she did amazing!!

 

 This would be the little church we go to every Sunday in Lejamani...

 

 Sunday School.... can't help but love those deep brown eyes and adorable faces...

 

 Emi has a buddy

 

 Chillin out....

 

The town of  Lejamani - its right by the church, about and hour from here

 

 The new bus in town- they seriously paid a bus fair to ride in this cattle truck just like it was a bus!

 

 Every weekend we WIND through the mountains on crazy S curves, with a crazy driver and it's enough to make you sick, but the mountains and beauty that surrounds us makes it worth it.

 

 SURPRISE!! Ha we got him good-

Monday morning Gaby brought in a cake and all the students sang.:)

 

 "Quiere usted sus vecinos"- learned to give directions in espanol on Wednesday this week

using  the game do you love your neighbor.... the teachers LOVED it!! We played for over a 1/2 hour with most the afternoon students and teachers. 

 

 Building sentences!!

Gaby gives us a red card- an expression of time and a colored verb card and we have to make a sentence.

Ejemplo: "En este momento ustedes estan comprediendo mis palabras."

At the moment you are comprehending my words.

 Shopping at  Del Corral

 

 Everywhere we go we bring piles of tracks-

just to and from the grocery store we could hand out 400-500

 

 Singing in Spanish...

We sang quiet because it wasn't very good!

 

Playing Quiere usted sus vecions?" with our teachers last night. It was a riot! And a great way to interact with our spanish company when we have a very limited vocab. Gaby is in the pink, Jessica  in next to Mercy, with her daughter in the green beside her, and Gaby's Mom is next to Emi.

 



 Listening-

we had to translate back and forth for the kids and teachers so we'd all be on the same page

 A cinnamon roll recipe Emi wrote out for Gaby a few weeks ago...

 

In front of school.... it sure is beautiful here!

Miss you all. Keep praying for the Snyder's, that everyone will learn the language and God will guide and direct them to exactly where he would have them.



  ~This afternoon after school we took the kids and walked down to the Mennonite store. We found out its really quite close to us if we just walk the back streets instead of going way out and around on main roads. They have the best huge cinnamon rolls (we had some at school yesterday during our break) GOOD cheese (eh eh Juli!!) and soft serve ice cream. O yummm.:) They also have a nice pile of Spanish books, kids books, school books and Bibles.

  ~ On our way home from the store, happily licking our melting cones we came upon two women and a little boy, the one lady pushing a huge broken down old rusty wheel barrow with an almost flat tire. It was piled high with fire wood and apparantly  heavy. She would run along pushing it, then prop the tipping side with a board before sitting down to rest. Mateo offered to push it for her. She was grateful. So there we were walking along this dusty street. Matthew(Mateo) with the loaded wheelbarrow, the ladies and boy and Jillian  beside him and then the rest of us trailing along behind. Ocho cuadros- 8 blocks she had to go. Then an older lady and little girl were pulling another load of wood. They stopped to talk to us, asking if we went to Mikes school and what are names are etc.. I love the interaction with the people! It made our day to help them.:) The man of the family or friend, whoever he was came along after 3 or 4 blocks and with a smile took over the load.

The First Impression

The second story here is beautiful!Every day we soak up the wonderful breeze from this barred glass sliding door/ window that overlooks the town. Somehow our room has become the hangout for more than just the big girls.We are so glad to be here, I guess these little guys are too. 

(Same window, from the ground with Nikki behind the camera)

But to tell of our flight, this is David en route to San Pedro. Life is good. We made the flight in a nick of time, found the one child's lost passport and arrived safe and sound. God is good.:)

 Hello Honduras!

 (1500 pounds of luggage... needed a truck in addition to the van. Those airport guys sure got a kick out of the 28 totes that clogged the baggage claim, had to be put through customs, and loaded)

 * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 Our first day OUT of our prison, I mean mansion, on Wednesday, we walked about five miles exploring the town of Sigu. So many people eagerly took the few tracks we had on us, I wished we had a backpack full!

 We were thrilled to find a market around the corner and this little place where we bought the most yummy tortillas with cheese for lunch. We ate with our fingers.... which may explain the stains on Em's skirt because I was not very neat.

 Spent a day at the Horten's.... They spoiled us with a fabulous american meal 

and wonderful southern hospitality.:) 

 The view out our bedroom window.

A cute little bake stand in the mall. Joanna I took this for you!