Coming Home

My time here in Roatan is all coming to an end in 3 days until Harrison and I come back in August after we get MARRIED! It has been sad but exciting all at the same time. I feel like I have been able to have a lot of closure with the kids I have been working with, both in French Harbour and at the Children’s Home. In the past several weeks I have seen the children learn how to work together, speak encouraging words, talk to God, hear from God, how to be a servant, and most excitingly to learn how to love. It makes my heart so happy to see kids who have never had a great example of any of these things are now great examples to other people. Some people might question whether my time here has been worth it, what if the children forget everything you taught them after you leave. That is what is so awesome about doing God’s work. All I have to do is plant the seed, and God will bring that into full fruition. God doesn’t need us to transform lives but he invites us to be a part of this amazing experience. One of the most exciting things I hear from a child at the children’s home was that she heard God speak to her. She came up to me and said “Miss Kendall I heard God talk to me last night! I was afraid and having bad dreams and God told me not to be afraid and to hold onto my bible while I slept.” Wow! Talk about powerful stuff. This 8 year old heard God speak directly to her. So many people haven’t ever experienced that and the Lord is clearly molding and shaping her for big things in her future. My last night at the Children’s Home we all went to Wendy’s for a celebration. Wendy’s is a BIG deal here so the kids were super excited. It was so good to see the kids being children and for our last time together to be one of laughter and playing. These kids have left such a lasting impact on me and my heart.  I will miss them A TON.

A couple weeks ago, Martha and I started having a girls program with some of the girls from French Harbour. We decided that the boys are being reached out to, but no one is reaching their hands out to the girls. Girls here have such a different life than boys and have different expectations. Girls are expected to stay at home and don’t have much opportunity to leave the house, while boys are roaming all over the island hitching rides and what not. We only knew one girl in all of French Harbour. So we told her to bring four friends on Monday’s. We were eager to see if Marba would actually keep her word and show up on time. Marba did come and bring four friends……….a hour late. Better late than never, right? Well over the past couple weeks it has been so obvious how working with boys and girls are so different. We already had “girl drama” among the girls. So Martha and I are trying our best to work through these problems and move on. Yesterday we walked with a bunch of the girls all around French Harbour. As we walked it was so amazing to have more girls come up to us and start walking, then we would run into some of the boys from the mentoring program, and they would walk with us. I am beginning to feel more comfortable in French Harbour as  I come to know more and more kids. And it is great because with kids there are so many connections to their parents, cousins, sisters, brothers, etc. You get to know everyone! Sadly, I am leaving and will not have another Monday with the girls, and we are not quite sure where this program is going. However, we do know that these girls need mentors, someone to help them learn about self respect, responsibility, forgiveness, and respect for others. It’s amazing how just spending time with someone can impact them.

Recently, God has been providing like crazy for the mentoring program.  Martha had been spending so much time and money going everyday to STAR COPY to print out materials for tutoring. We both came to the decision one day that life would be easier if we had a printer. Low and behold, one day a mission team decided to donate a bunch of clothes, craft supplies, and a PRINTER! It was a great day! It has also been so awesome to see God speaking to people to donate money to the program. Over $1,000 dollars people have given to us to help continue the outreach in French Harbour. That money goes to supplies, food, soccer balls, etc. It is so good to see people wanting to support what is happening in these boys lives.

As far as my life has been going, God has been leading me into interesting places. It’s funny, the deeper you go with God I am realizing the less control you have. It has been kind of scary for me to think about coming home and not having a job to come back to, school to start in the fall, or a paying job to come back to here in Roatan.  I look at all these things and I instantly start to freak out. And then I realize, God has provided in amazing ways ever since I have been here, and he will continue to give provision. It has been pretty hard to feel like my life doesn’t have much direction, especially now that I am coming home. However, it is exciting because I know God has things planned for me when I get home. One of those things being I am going to overcome my hatred of running by running an 11k with my best friend Kaylee.  I am super excited about coming home and spending time with everyone and eating some real food. I cannot wait!!