Goodbye Guatemala, Hello Honduras

Well, it's official, I've finished with my time at language school in Antigua, spent about 15 hours (broken up by a night in Copan) to La Ceiba, and on Monday I will arrive at the Finca. If I could describe my emotions about finally making it to the place where I will be living for the next two years it would be PUMPED!!!
Since my internet access is going to become a lot more limited, I wanted to take a minute to show some of my pictures from my time in Central America so far:

An early morning picture taken from my rooftop in Antigua:

A crowded market in Chichicastenanga: 

 View of Vólcan de Fuego erupting in the distance:

The other missionaries and I hiking in Semuc Champey: 

 A marching band celebrating Independence Day:

 Two of my fellow missionaries and I dressed in Ropa Típica (do we look Guatemalan?):

The stereotypical Antigua picture taken from Cerro de la Cruz:

Ruinas at the church of San Francisco in Antigua:

Honduras at last! Mayan ruins in Copán:

I have already been blessed with many great adventures in Central America, however, I am very excited to make it to the Finca and start doing what I came here to do. Please pray for me as I begin my time as a missionary at Finca del Niño. The next time I write, I'll be at the Farm!!!

Vaya con Dios... Corriendo

Last Friday we participated in a Guatemalan Independence Day tradition known as the “antorcha” or “torch.” As a sign of their independence there is a tradition of running a torch from Guatemala to Costa Rica. It is also a tradition for schools to have their own “antorcha” running through nearby towns and on Friday our school participated in this tradition (above is a picture of me running with the torch) with a 15K run (of which I may have run about half of and carried the torch for all of five seconds). 

The run reminded me of some advice which Sarah Swafford, my Resident Director my freshman year at Benedictine (she's pretty awesome, she has a website now http://www.sarahswafford.com/, and she was on EWTN), likes to pass on in regards to finding your future spouse, “run with God and then see who is running beside you.” This advice always makes me want to literally run for some reason and while I was running on Friday I reflected a lot on what running means in my life. 

Running is a sacrifice, I don’t like doing it, but I’m usually happy that I did afterwards. I remember one time I was running with a group of girls at Benedictine and one of them said she wanted to offer up our run for someone and asked us who if we wanted to offer up our run for anyone. Since then I always offer up my run for someone as a way of uniting my sacrifice to Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and praying for someone in need. Running builds community, if I don’t have someone else running with me I won’t do it but if I tell someone I will run with them most of the time I don’t back out. It’s also a great opportunity to get to know someone better, I’ve often had great conversations while running, especially when we pray and offer up our run together at the start. Running is a time for me to reflect on my relationship with Christ. Thanks to Sarah Swafford, I now associate running literally with metaphorically running towards Christ and often while I am running and thinking about how much my legs hurt I turn my mind towards Christ “am I running to him in my life right now? how fast? how much do my legs hurt?” 

So as I was running this 15K (it was all downhill so don’t be too impressed), all of these things were going through my mind. The group running with the torch would get ahead of me and other people would fall behind so I was stuck in this awkward lonely running by myself state and my legs would be hurting and my lungs would be burning but then I would pass some Guatemalans walking along the street or sitting outside their house and they would cheer for me, and it seemed like they would always cheer louder for me than for the group in front of me, maybe because they could see the anguish on my face caused by the running, or maybe because it looked like I was even more tired than I was because my pale gringa face gets really red when I run. In my run to Christ these people represent the Saints, up in heaven cheering me on, giving me the little extra energy I need to keep running and to smile while doing it through their intercession. Sometimes, I would get tired of running by myself or think my legs couldn’t carry me further. During these times I would hop on the bus that belonged to the school and ride it until we caught up with the group up front (hence why I only ran about half of the 15K). In my run to Christ the bus represents Christ and the sacraments. Sometimes our legs can’t carry us anymore, but during these times Christ carries us. When I got on the bus I would be handed a bag of water to drink. The water was like the Eucharist, replenishing me, giving me strength. Sometimes on our run to Christ we get lost or weighed down in sin and we need the sacrament of Reconciliation to lift off that weight. Sometimes I would get impatient or frustrated with myself because I couldn’t keep up with the faster people in the group. Likewise, sometimes we get impatient because we feel like we aren’t becoming holy fast enough. It’s important to remember that virtue is build one step at a time, through faithfulness to the little things. Little by little we grow and maybe the growth is so small we don’t notice it but eventually, step by step, with the help of others, the Saints, and Christ, we are 15K farther down the road and we’re running faster and faster. 

As for who is running beside me a.k.a “my vocation,” that is not a concern for me right now. I have two years in Honduras which I’m going to use to run towards Christ and when the time does come, that man is going to have to run really fast if he’s going to keep up with me. 

Poverty

One thing that the other missionaries and I have been asked to reflect on in the weeks leading up to our arrival at the Finca is poverty. Poverty is something which is easy to encounter in Central America but often we forget that poverty does not only consist in the physical sense but also there is spiritual and emotional poverty. Mother Teresa often talked about these types of poverty, she reminds us: “There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives - the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find them. Love them.” 

Poverty is not something reserved for those lacking money, we each have poverties in our own lives and recently I have been reflecting on the poverties in mine: 

1. I am poor in my ability to speak (especially in Spanish). Sometimes when I get frustrated with the mistakes I make while speaking Spanish I have to remind myself that I often make errors when speaking English. 
2. I am poor in my ability to work with young children. Put me in front of a group of children under the age of twelve and I really don’t know what to do with myself, I’ve been slowly learning though. 
3. I am poor in humility (and many other virtues). Some virtues come easier than others. 

(To name a few) 

One of the challenges we are asked to accept at the Finca is that sometimes we will be asked to do things which require us to use our weaknesses rather than our strengths, sometimes our primary job for the year might even be one of the things we feel we are worse at. This is contrary to what we have been taught most of our lives, which is “figure out what you are best at and study that” or “figure out what you enjoy doing most and work on that.” Believe it or not I am excited to get away from this mentality and discover how weak I really am during my time in Honduras. After all, when we recognize our weaknesses we also realize how much we require the help of others and how much we need to trust in God. It is also important for us to remember that not all weaknesses are bad, Jesus reminds us:

 “Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven...” Mt 5:3-11 (RSV) 

Often we who have so much lack what is most important: Love. I didn’t come to Central America to find poverty, as Mother Teresa reminds us, we can always find people who are lacking in love, beginning in our own families, but I hope that during my time here I can learn to recognize what poverty really is, beginning with my own poverty, and I challenge you to find the poverty in your lives, in your friends, and in your families, and combat poverty with love. 

"The deepest desert is the human heart when it looses the capacity for listening, speaking and communicating with God and with others." Pope Benedict XVI

What Am I Doing Here???

Can you believe it’s already September??? I can’t!!!! Speaking of which IN LESS THAN A MONTH I WILL BE AT THE FINCA!!!! (24 days, not that I’m counting)

Last weekend we had our New Missionary Retreat with two current missionaries, the co-founder of Farm of the Child (the story of her and her departed husband’s journey/mission is beautiful and I wish all of you could hear her tell it in person), the director, and one of the Franciscan Sisters from the Finca. I officially feel like a missionary and I CAN’T WAIT to get to Honduras. Last week I said that I would try to give you a snapshot of my weekly schedule in Antigua but recently I have decided that what I am doing here is less important than what I am here to do. 

So what am I here to do? 

1. I am here to be a missionary, to bring Christ to the people who I meet. Of course, in order to bring Christ to others I have to first have Him myself so in order to prepare myself spiritually for my time at the Finca I am trying to make it to daily Mass and adoration as much as possible.
2. I am here to learn spanish. The reality of what it means to be entering into a bilingual community in less than a month really hit me last weekend during our retreat. We had some reflections in english and some in spanish throughout the weekend. One of my main priorities right now is to practice spanish as much as possible before I have to use it all the time. 
3. I am here to be a friend. I am currently in Antigua with four other missionaries who will be with me the entire time I am at the Finca. Right now we are getting to know each other through praying together, playing cards (this includes inventing our own ridiculous card game), attempting to speak spanish together, laughing together, traveling together, and sharing the struggles of being far away from home together. It is important for us to get to know each other now so that once we are at the Finca we can work together as well as have more time to get to know the missionaries who are already there. 
4. I am here to serve in whatever way I am needed. One of the other things we talked a lot about on our retreat is a willingness to serve not only with our strengths but also with our weaknesses. I am already getting a taste of that as I am volunteering at a school for poor children in Ciudad Vieja (a nearby city) a few days a week. My weaknesses are working with children under the age of twelve and speaking spanish and they are certainly being put to use. 

I hope this give you a better idea of why I am in Antigua as well as what I am doing right now. The other missionaries and I are going on a missionary bonding adventure to Coban this weekend. Please keep us in your prayers as we continue to learn spanish, get to know each other, and prepare (physically, spiritually, emotionally, mentally) for our arrival to the Finca.