"I LOVE MY LIFE" - Riley Hayes 11 years, 362 days old...

That is a direct quote.

This from the boy who is now, as of 10:28 this morning, 12 (TWELVE) years old.

Oh. My. Goodness.

Isn't he cute?

I never would've expected him to be living "this" life that he loves. For goodness sakes, he's lived in three different countries by now. He's watched us make choices based on what we feel God wants for our family as a whole and not primarily by what we desire in and of ourselves. He's reminded me a few times of that 'from the mouths of babes' phrase when I've been a doubting Thomas.

He's able to make friends with people from different walks of life and strike up conversations in two languages.

He loves exploring. He looks upon new places as an adventure to be had.




Creatures = bliss; in his definition of course.

He assumes everyone would like to hear about his latest find. He'd rather not bother with hanging out indoors. He's learning that his choices will shape his character (that's a lesson we're all working on...). Perspective. Life lessons that seem overwhelmingly crucial to me lately.


On the subject of life lessons...

The kids spent last week at a camp for missionary kids in Honduras, living it up. This was our kids' (and mine - but we won't dwell on that...) first experience with camp. When I was growing up, CAMP was a four letter word - and not a good one. We left the US before I even had to think about sending off my children ALONE for a week at a time to trust them to practical strangers. To trust them to drink enough water, BRUSH THEIR TEETH, change their clothes daily, and behave themselves.

It's about time right?

The drop off on Monday went smoothly - just a few 'oh my goodness I'm going to be without you' looks from Natalie and Janelle. Of COURSE Riley promptly got out of the truck, dumped his stuff off and went to see what interesting things (creatures and the like) this new environment held for him. I did manage to find him again to kiss him goodbye but the look of SHEER BREATHLESS ANTICIPATION of what the week could hold was priceless. Parting words of 'May God bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you' and 'Don't forget to brush your teeth every day' were said and off we parents went.

Fast forward to Saturday morning pick up. 6 DAYS later. I was excited to see them again and hear all the news of things I had no part in. Snuggling girls, smelly boy, big smiles, scratches and bruises, new friends, great mentors, encouragement for their walk. Wow. I'm grateful.


Then the crowning moment.


I was getting to meet one of the camp directors for the first time (they weren't there yet when we did the drop off...) and he launched into a story about Riley. Apparently at some time around the middle of the week the group was off at a local waterfall carousing. Riley was running through an area with no concept of others either around him or listening in and announces at the top of his lungs and to no one in particular,

"I. LOVE. my. life.!!!"

Even though he hurts pretty darn bad from throwing himself around and running 5 million miles an hour for the last week - he LOVES his life.

Does that ever do my heart good. :)

My son - here is my prayer for the rest of your life. The CAMP part where I will have less input (Control!!! YIKES - you scare me kiddo.) and only a vague idea of all the things you're doing.

2 Peter 1:3-8 His (God's) divine power has given you everything you need for your life and godliness through your knowledge of him who called you by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given you his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self- control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (emphasis mine)


May you continue to build your character house on the grace and knowledge of Jesus and LOVE the life He has given you, in whatever path HE has before you. It's scary but I hope and will be looking for that look of SHEER BREATHLESS ANTICIPATION for what it can hold for you and your relationship with your Heavenly Father.


There are lessons I can learn from your wonder and excitement for what God has in front of you, even if you didn't brush your teeth those last couple of days at camp due to an incident with the bug repellent and a certain toothbrush.

With tons of love for my wild one,

Mom

when the earth shakes and the sky falls

Life is pretty simple here. More for the native Hondurans than for us, and especially for the people in the small villages that pepper even the most rugged reaches of the landscape. Many of these villages have no road access at all, nothing more than foot-paths that wind through the trees and over the hills and valleys. Quite a few still have no electricity. The people in such villages - 'aldeas' they are called in Spanish - eek out a living of a few dollars a day doing what they can, growing corn and beans on steep mountain hillsides and live lives of absolute simplicity - unimaginable simplicity to most Americans. In the aldeas, fields are plowed and wagons pulled with oxen and houses are built of adobe mud bricks with no foundation; roofs are clay tiles - 'tejas' - laid (not nailed or screwed) on a framework of wooden slats.

Such low-tech building techniques prove to be particularly problematic when, for example, the area is hit with a sizable earthquake, like the one we had here last week. While block houses and more modern buildings were spared notable damage (we are a couple hundred miles from the epicenter), the rustic houses in the campo and the aldeas are quite susceptible to earthquake damage. Today Allen Sowers and I spent the day visiting one of the areas hardest-hit by the earthquake, an hour and a half from Gracias. In the single town we visited - Tablones, Lempira - we saw over 20 houses that were either destroyed or damaged beyond repair, and a sizable percentage of the other houses in town sustained more minor damage. Damage to the houses generally involves the tejas on the roofs falling in, and walls cracking and, more seriously, collapsing. The pictures here were taken today, Monday, several days after the quake, after most families have started cleaning up and rebuilding.

We delivered food and blankets to the 22 houses we visited in Tablones, and left more for another 25 or so families that had reported their houses destroyed to the county government; we'll quite possibly make a few more such deliveries in the coming days. We are also working on raising money for cement and re-bar to allow those rebuilding their homes to put a cement footing under the house, and, confirming that, a cement band around the top of the adobe walls - standard building procedure here for those who can afford it. None of the damaged buildings we saw today had any of these improvements. All donations sent to us denoted for earthquake relief will be used entirely for such projects.





Kind of a side-note - this earth oven is very common down here, and is what everyone in the villages cooks on. They are made of the same adobe mud the house is made of, and are built into the house. They are wood-fired. This one has a chimney to vent the smoke outside, an improvement over many here.














This is temporary housing built after the earthquake to house a family whose house was lost; the elderly gentleman at far right and his wife now live here, along with several others. The tarp says USAID, an American aid organization that works here.


















































'Tejas' - the roof tiles. The ones that didn't fall are removed and stacked on the ground to be re-used.