Peace and Greeting from
Honduras!
I
pray that this letter finds you in good health and good spirits as we prepare
to celebrate the coming of our Lord. I had hoped to write this update on my
journey here a year ago, but have not been able to find the words to write to
you until recently.
I
have told many people that I hope this was the hardest year I will ever have to
go through and I would like to explain why. I was not prepared for the drastic
change in sight, thoughts, emotions and heart that God had waiting for me here
in Honduras. My thoughts in coming down were: I love children, I almost know
Spanish and I want to serve. Never in a million year was I expecting to experience
the range of emotions that comes with working in a children’s home and
declaring “Place me where you need me!”
They
did in fact place me where they needed me and it happened to be the last place
I or anyone else pictured me: in a school. For anyone that knows me really
well, you know that I have been ready to be out of the educational system since
my second year in high school. I constantly felt God pulling me to what I felt
was something more: something that I couldn’t learn from being in a classroom.
As always when sure that I knew what God didn’t want me to do, it turned
out to be exactly where he needed me. My year teaching Math, Computers and
English was difficult to say the least (My students would most likely have some
other choice words). After many lessons
learned (more by me than the kids, I’m sure), we all made it out alive with
only a few scraped knees. All seven of my ninth graders made it through, and
most of them will be able to continue their studies. In Honduras only a sixth
grade education is required, so graduating from the ninth grade is already a
huge accomplishment. Please continue to pray for all of our children in our K-9
school. Living in a rural part of an undeveloped country brings challenges that
I would have never been able to fathom while in the United States. We hope that
by providing these children an education we are not only supplying them with
knowledge that will help them later in life but also providing them with a
space in which they feel safe, where there are people that they know care for
them. I feel so blessed to have been able to meet so many children this year
that have truly changed my way of thinking and of seeing the world.
Although
I may be eternally grateful for them, I’m sure many of my students were
relieved when they heard that I would be switching jobs for my second year in
Honduras. A few months ago I was asked by Direction to be in charge of the
girls apartment of our Phase II program. What this basically means is that I
moved 3 hours away from the rest of the Farm of the Child to live in the city
of La Ceiba with three lovely seventeen year-old girls. In an adjacent
apartment my male counterpart, David, is living with three teenage boys. (If
only David and I were about 20 years older we could be mistaken for the Brady
Bunch!) It has been over a month now that I have lived in La Ceiba, and I must
say, “mom duty” suites me a little bit better than teacher duty. (I think it
may have to do with being left in an empty kitchen to make all the bread my
heart could desire.) The girls, pictured in the attached photo, are three very
unique and beautiful teenagers. I have already called my parents many times to
beg their forgiveness for being the youngest of three teenage daughters that
they had to live with for multiple years. Although they may be the most mature
seventeen year-olds you will find, they are still teenagers and have their fair
share of moments. (As do I, being a 22 year-old. Our moments simply manifest
themselves in different ways) In the short month that I have been here I have
already felt so blessed to be the person waiting for them when they come home
from school. I am the one here to hear about the bad day at work. I have the
privilege of making their lunch everyday, and making sure that all of their
schedules are in order. I get to surprise them with Coke and extra-buttery
popcorn when I know it’s been a bad day. I get to interpret the many different
forms of scoffing that is the answer to most of the questions that I ask. I am
the last person they will live with from the Farm of the Child. Next year each
of my girls, Nolvia, Nelly and Marina, will be graduating from high school and
will the leaving the Farm of the Child to enter into Phase III (real life).
Each one of us will require an overabundance of prayers this year but I am more
than certain that God knew what He was doing when he brought us into each
other’s lives. I am overjoyed to be able to have the opportunity to be in these
girl’s lives in such a profound way.
I
would like to thank each and every one of you for being in my life and
helping me on the path that led me here. If it had not been for the love and
encouragement that I have received from all of you, my family and friends, I
know that I would never have been able to witness the beautiful miracles that
take place here.
Blessings
all over you,
Sara DePhillips
Pictured:
(Left to Right) Top: Nolvia, Angel David, Arturo
Bottom:
David, Marina, Nelly, Sara
Not
Pictured: Wilmer and Carlos (recently moved to Phase III)
