Well, I know I have yet to put a video but I made one it was just too big load onto my computer... I am going to try and make one though this weekend since our trip to Rotan, aka the beach, has been canceled... Anyway I will make this short because I have to be up at 445 in the morn to help take Paul to the bus station so yeah... :( Okay the first picture is of the inside of the orphanage we work at and what ever your first impressions are it is actually not as nice as this most of the time, they just have people coming tomorrow to through a party for the kids so they are getting it cleaned up. The little girl in the other picture is one of the special needs children we are working with. She is probably around 4 years old and she can't really talk or really seem to understand when we talk to her but on top of that she can't walk due to some sort of cerebral disease. She is a very beautiful girl it is neat to think that there isn't a day that goes by that Jesus doesn't think of her (check out Psalm 139:17-18).

God is doing some great things and I will be putting up more blogs because there is so much to talk about. Pray for me please because I feel God laying on my heart to preach... Not necessarily long term but while I'm here. I've been worrying about it cause my Spanish isn't good enough to preach but then it dawned on me... "Why do I feel I have to do it Spanish?" Lydia can translate cause that is what she does... Pastor Paul even affirmed it and I hadn't said anything to him. When I say preaching I don't mean in a church but rather with small groups of kids and the orphanage and the school. I will be praying tough for the right time and I think God will guide us into it. Anyway I'm learning what it means to work in a team even though at times I find it very hard.

Well, I love you guys and even if I don't know everyone who is reading these. If you do read my blog and you don't officially "follow" me on the blog please comment somehow and let me know. It's good to know that you are because it encourages me to keep going. It is hard work, not like anything I've done before. The kids we are around are the very center the love of God but they are the very product of the fallen world we live in. The ends of the earth is where we are to take the gospel and I can tell you there is no one left after these little ones in that pecking order.

Hello there come estan? How are you in Spanish... Today was a great day we all went to church for the first time and it was quite exciting and not much different from a normal Pentecostal service in the US. My Spanish isn't the best in the world yet so understanding the preacher wasn't the easiest task ever but the whole experience was great because I knew we were all worshiping the same God and the same Jesus Christ. What a beautiful picture as people from different walks of life come together and seek the same loving and life giving Savior. As the service was ending I felt God lead me to the alter just to meet with Him not for some crazy experience. I've found there are times when God calls me to the alter not for weeping and sobing repentance but just to meet with me in a way that is more special than staying in my seat. Though talking to God in your seat is not bad I think it is wise that if He wants to meet you at the alter there is a purpose (somtimes that purpose is to dismantal a prejudice you might have against people who go there...)

Anway after the service we came back and met with the children's ministry leaders to discuse ways of going about the ministry they have put together for the church (I think i mentioned it in my last blog.). The meeting was entirely in Spanish so Lydia had to do most of the translating but I was able to keep up just not really offer imput other than the occational nod of my head... Their heart is so on fire for what God has placed in them to do and that passion is spreading to me. I have felt for sometime now a draw toward children... Not in the sense of children's ministry but more just in the way they think and worship God. It's like when a child speak all I can do is smile and see God speaking through them. I do love children and even more so I love how God lives through them so easily.

The last thing I want to leave you with, and I don't know if this speaks to anybody but it does to me but... Today I had a sudden revelation that I want to return to my first love. That is, there was a time when I sat around thinking about God and the love he has for me and the love I have for Him... For some reason I have turned that love into striving and toiling, trying to keep my head above some self induced waterwark that continiues to rise with my efforts. Jesus really does want to be with us and when we truely grasp that we will stop thinking so much and just be.
When we are truely in the presence of the Lord we will not worry about today or tomorrow but we will simply focus on his love for us and live out our love for him and thereby do the exact thing we were meant to do. Anyway I have a ton of thought which are going through me head and I won't go through them all but know this. Our life is simple. Jesus loves you. He especially loves you. Our non-motivated response is to love him back with everything we are. If we truely understand that Jesus loves us we will be able to completely love him. If we lose our independance, which we've gained by separation from God, we will gain our independance in Christ. All I'm saying is we won't have freedom until we submit to the love of Christ. After all he sumbitted to us and that is what relationship is, putting the needs of others before ours with the trust that they will do the same.
Bye!

Well, this isn't a video, i'll put one up later this weekend but I wanted to put something up to tell you guys that we are doing great and God is already a work! From left to right my team is Ivie, Nay Nay, Me and Anna. Another girl on our team, Lydia, who is the spanish queen has been here before and is helping us new-bees learn the ropes. We've been here for two full days and so far we have taught english in a school, or escuela, in spanish. We walked in and immediately we were thrown into a class and were going through a lesson book. I was placed in a class with kids ages 8 to 12 roughly 2nd grade. A few of the kids learned english and were showing actual comprehension of the material. Of course they were a little ancy because i think they were in the class for nearly an hour and a half.
Today we the most draining of the two. We arrived at an orphanage (more like a prison for kids) at 8 o'clock and were greeted by a 9 year old boy who had somehow lost all his clothes and was running around stark naked... it was funny for me but the four girls were a little awkward. This orphanage is not one where kids come who have no parents... in fact they probably do just not good ones. And because this is Honduras the physical abuse which these kids have gone through would have had to be extremely bad. One boy had been shot in the face with a gun, most girls had been involved in prostitution and several had burn or knife scares. It was very sand and the fact that they had little supervision made the whole atmosphere evern more desparate... There is so much to tell you and i guess ill leave it for a video later on.
Please pray for us continously because God has great things in store for the children here. He loves them as much as the child who is closest to you, and that love is everything that He is. a few things to pray about which I will talk more about later is a children's ministry we are starting which as the potential to effect, long term, children ministry in all of Honduras. Also Lydia and I will be partnering up with a psychologist at the orphanage to begin a class for the mentally handicap. As of now these kids do not have a class of their own so they simply run free all day long. Neither of us have worked with special needs children before so this will stretch us,
thank you so much
I Love and miss you all
Michael

first impressions...

Well, it is 12:39am on tuesday morning only hours before I begin the 2 leg journey from Atlanta to Miami then San Pedro Sula Honduras! I want to thank everyone who has kept me in their prayers and also those who were able to give finacially to this trip. I do not consider this my trip but i consider it God's work so in your giving and my recieving it was God who got the glory! Please continue to keep me in your prayers for I feel God laying heavily on me for not only what he is going to do through me and my team but in us as well. we all works in progress and the Lord is not finished with us yet. Thank God! most of my blogs will not be typed out but i plan to use video as the main way to share experiences and thought... please feel free to comment and add feed back but at the very least please please please pray as the Holy Spirit leads you.
Thank you so much
In Christ
Michael Simmons