Three Weeks Back in USA

Three weeks ago we flew from Honduras back to the US. It has been a busy, but restful time so far. We have spent a lot of time with family and been able to share about the work in Honduras multiple times. 

We were blessed with tickets to see Penn State play Nebraska (unfortunately we lost) and spend our first weekend back in State College with my brother, Josh, and his family. We were also invited to speak at Oakwood Presbyterian Church to share about what the Lord is doing in Honduras. It was great for me to get back to this church and see some familiar people since it is where I attended for part of my time as a student at Penn State. 

Outside Beaver Stadium

We have been splitting time between my parent's house and Ashley's parents house for most of the time we have been here and will continue to as we stay in PA until the end of January. We are thankful they live near each other (about an hour apart) and have space to house us. My parents even came to Ashley's parents house to eat Thanksgiving dinner together! 

Quality time with family

In addition to Oakwood Pres., we have been able to worship with two of our supporting churches, Zeltenreich Reformed Church and Trinity Presbyterian Church, since we have been here. We are realizing how special it is to worship through song and the preached Word with larger bodies of believers (in English). We really missed this blessing while we were in Honduras. It has been so encouraging to talk with people who have been praying for us and the ministry in Honduras and to see and hear their excitement as we share what the Lord is doing. 

Ashley sharing at Trinity Pres.

Trip to the Capital

About a week and a half ago we found out that we would not be able to do the paperwork necessary to keep our residency up to date here in La Ceiba. We would have to make a trip to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, in order to renew our residency card because the machine here in La Ceiba is broken. This was not exactly what we wanted to hear, because the trip to Teguc is about 6 hours in a car each way.

Dixi did not have school last Thursday and Friday because her school was being fumigated, so we decided to make the trip over these two days. It turned out to be a fun time as a family and Dixi got to experience some new things!

Thursday morning we got up early and made the drive. We arrived in Teguc with enough time to get to the immigration office and complete the paperwork necessary and we walked away with brand new, shiny cards that are good for another year!

Then we drove across the city to our hotel. We weren't sure what is was going to be like since we just booked it online.. It turned out to be fine and Dixi was beyond excited because she had never stayed in a hotel before. Also, she went into the bathroom and found a bathtub (not common at all in houses here). She could hardly wait until the evening to take her first ever bath in a bathtub.

Dixi w/ characters from Hotel Transylvania in mall food court

We found that there was a mall close to our hotel, so we drove there and it was like being in a mall in the US. It was three stories and had tons of stores that we hadn't seen in a long time. It was fun just to walk around for all three of us! After dinner we made our way back to the hotel, where Dixi was able to enjoy her bath, and went to bed on the early side because we had another long day of travel ahead of us.

On the drive back we stopped at Joya Grande, a zoo about halfway between Teguc and La Ceiba. It was about a half hour drive on a dirt road from the highway, but turned out to be totally worth it. We were able to see lions and tigers (no bears...) and monkeys and so many other cool things. Dixi and I were most impressed by the two hippopotami. They were enormous. We also got to feed the giraffe and Ashley even reached out and petted his nose.

Dixi timidly feeding the giraffe

After the zoo, we finished our drive back to La Ceiba and were happy to be home again. All in all it was a great trip. We got our paperwork done and we were able to spend some quality, fun time with Dixi and we all got to experience some new things! The Lord knew better than us that it would be worth it for us to make the trip when we didn't really want to do it.

Hey, what are you looking at?

napping tigers