June 22nd Hard Work!

I think because I have been posting on the blog late at night it is coming up with the wrong dates but today is June 22nd! I just wanted to clear that up.
With breakfast starting at 7:00 am, today had an early start. Once again, Andy and Janie did an awesome job on cooking breakfast for everyone. We had Honduran pancakes and watermelon! The group left the house at 7:45 to go to the New Life Deaf Church/Happy Hands School (they are combined in the same building). The women split up into partners and helped in a certain classroom. Happy Hands School is an elementary school for deaf Honduran children. They have kids from pre-k to 4th grade. Glenda and I worked with the kindergarten and 1st graders. I LOVED it! The children were all so sweet and excited for our group to be there. I have my fingernails and toenails painted with a design on them, and all the kids thought it was so amazing haha. They also LOVED my camera. I don't think they have ever really seen a digital camera before so they all wanted me to take their picture and show it to them. It was so precious. Although many of the children are probably behind academically, they are so eager to learn and all of them are fairly well behaved. One of the little boys in kindergarten (who I really fell in love with) had never before practiced writing or even signed the entire alphabet. So, I wrote my name on a piece of paper during play time and told him to copy it. He amazed me by being able to write it perfectly the first time! He was so excited and wanted to keep learning more letters. You know what I think is so amazing about this little boy? That a child his age would rather learn how to write letters from the alphabet than play with the other children. I just thought that was so touching to observe. A few of the Happy Hands teachers are deaf but the majority of them are hearing. All the teachers are so nice but when a child acts up, they are very to the point and strict. The teacher in the classroom Glenda and I were in spoke Spanish, and since I can somewhat speak Spanish I was able to communicate with her! ALthough the classrooms were very beautifully decorated and clean, the only problem was that there is no air conditioning and no fans in the whole building. The teachers have to manually fan the children with pieces of paper to keep them cool! I learned today that the money that we have raised for the mission trip will cover the costs for over 5 fans for the school and any other resources they need! God is so great! While all the women were in the classrooms helping, the men laid concrete, tore down walls, and helped with construction all morning. They all worked very hard to the point where every one of them had their clothes soaked in sweat! So when lunch was ready, everyone jumped right in line. Lunch was amazing (as always). After lunch, a new addition to our team was introduced. His name is Eddie Cassle and he is from Texas. We are so happy to have him on our team and he is such a great guy! Larry and I picked on him because he has a mustache that makes him look like a cowboy haha! The children then packed up their backpacks and lined up for the bus to go home. Many of them gave me hugs and kisses. It made my heart melt :) After that the group went back to the houses and took a very much needed nap (and for the men, a very much needed shower)! The day continued with loading up in the van and going to Union Christian Church where we met up with other leaders from the New Life Deaf Church. The team worked very hard for about 2 hours straight creating learning tools for the Happy Hands School such as fake, laminated money to help them learn how to count money, making letters to help them learn the alphabet and how to spell words, and many other crafts. After the cutting, tracing, laminating and drawing was done: we ate soup and tortillas for dinner, which was very satisfying. Then Kenneth and Eliza gave their prepared teaching on tithing (All of the people on our team are split into partners or are by themself to teach on a specific subject each night). It was Kenneth's first time teaching in front of people, so he was nervous, but they both did a great job! Kevin also shared a short bible story using a lot of visuals to help explain. Tonight ended with Manuel giving the closing prayer. I love the way he prays. He always closes his eys and meditates, just for a couple seconds, and you can tell he is really listening to God. Many have told me in America that we are such good people for going to Honduras and that we are going to change so many lives...Now, I have 2 things wrong with that statement. 1) We aren't the good ones, it is all GOD. and 2) Although, yes, we hope to impact people's lives here in Honduras, I truly believe that WE are the ones who are being impacted by the beyond amazing people that we have met. :) Goodnight

~Brianna Faith~