Our Panama Trip

The time came for us to renew our passport visas to give us another 90 days in Honduras.  This time our trip took us to Panama!  We decided to fly this time, which was less adventurous than driving to Belize, but was still quite a process!  (5 planes, plus airports in 4 different countries when all was said and done!)  

We only had two days there, and only saw Panama City, so please don't consider this post as anything definitive about Panama!  Our first day we took a taxi ride up a big hill in the city, where we had great views of the city, the canal, and some wildlife.  I'd been hoping to see monkeys, but they were hiding.  We did see a "mountain rabbit," a beautifully colored gigantic caterpillar, and some gorgeous butterflies.  The views of the city were pretty cool too.

Next we went to Albrook Mall, the largest mall in Central America and 13th largest in the world.  It was extremely crowded, even on a Monday afternoon.  Too much noise and commotion for my tastes, but we did kill a few hours there.  We went bowling, rode the carousel, and then went to dinner.  

The next day was the big event!  We got to ride a boat half-way through the canal.  (The full trip would have been too many hours on a boat for our kids and too much money for our budget, so I had to let go of my perfectionism and settle for half-way through.)  We rode from the Pacific entrance to the center, going through three locks that raised the boat up a total of 85 feet--from sea level to the level of the man-made Gatun Lake.  This was all built just over 100 years ago, and it's really amazing to see how it works!  

New locks are also being built that will be able to handle the modern "Post-Panamax" gigantic ships, which are currently too big to fit.  These new locks are supposed to open in April, and we saw them laying the dynamite charges in preparation for blowing up the temporary dyke that holds back the water.  

I tried to add a video, but it was too big.  If you'd like to see the locks in operation (gates closing, filling with water), click HERE.

The next day we flew from Panama to Costa Rica to El Salvador to Honduras, and ended the trip with  the 2+ hour drive back to our house.  A lot of travel for a short visit, but definitely a cool experience!

December Newsletter

Merry Christmas from Honduras! December has gone by quickly, and it's hard to believe Christmas is just days away!  Especially since it's still 80 degrees on many afternoons!  Honduras has many of the same Christmas traditions that we have in the States . . . similar songs, Christmas trees, red and green decorations, giving gifts, and celebrating the birth of Christ.  There are some differences though, the biggest being the use of fireworks!  Since November the sound of firecrackers and fireworks surrounds us every day.  And the boys in our family have joined in the fun, taking advantage of being in a place where fireworks are legal and cheap! La Providencia had its Christmas program last week, and it was really fun.  I (Erin) had been working with each grade to prepare a Christmas song (singing and/or playing recorder).  It was really neat to see them perform after all those weeks of work!  There were also skits and dances, and the families all seemed to have a good time being there with their children.  (Check facebook for lots of pictures!) On Friday night was the La Providencia staff Christmas dinner.  This was a very special (and funny!) time that we all enjoyed.  At the dinner, we welcomed the new couple, Edis and Patricia Rios, who will be joining La Providencia as parents in the third house! Speaking of the third house, it's almost finished!!  Some of the latest pictures are below.  And the fourth house will be started very soon.  It's an exciting time for Heath and Ethan to be a part of La Providencia's building crew. It's time to renew our visas again, and this time we'll be going to Panama for a few days.  While working out the details of these trips is anything but simple, we are looking forward to seeing another country and the once-in-a-lifetime chance to visit the Panama Canal! School resumes January 4th, and we're excited that we'll have several visitors from the States in early 2016. Please continue to pray for La Providencia:  for the parents and children who will live in the new house, for the students at the school, for the children who live at La Providencia, for the people of Siguatepeque, and for strength and joy for all of us who work here.  Praise the Lord that He is keeping all of us in good health and giving us strength for one day at a time.   We appreciate each of you very much. Have a blessed Christmas and a wonderful 2016!

All He Wants for Christmas . . .

When you're really determined to get some money from the "tooth fairy" as soon as possible, 

there's no limit to what you'll accomplish . . .

November Newsletter

NOVEMBER NEWS FROM THE RUNKLES

This past month was filled with many adventures . . . flood clean-up, a Central American road trip, two of our kids' birthdays, and continued busy days working at the school and the construction site. As most of you read in our last update, there was a big flood in Siguatepeque in October.  While no major damage was done to the city's infrastructure, many people lost possessions, several families lost homes, and a few people even lost their lives.  The picture on the left below is the pile of belongings that were pulled out of a house in town.  (The wooden structure there is the actual house.)  Most of the wood was ruined and had to be pulled down; inside, the floor was only mud, so everything was destroyed.  This house was right next door to the house of one of our Spanish teachers.  Our Spanish teacher's house is much more sturdy.  While much of their furniture and belongings were ruined, the house itself was OK.  We were thankful to be able to join a group of people who went to help with these two homes--throwing out the trash and cleaning up the house.  Several of the nearby churches worked tirelessly for many days to help those who had lost so much.  And many people donated clothes, furniture, and money to help.

Work on the new buildings continues.  Heath, Ethan, and occasionally Jesse, join the Honduran men in this important project.  The roof of the house is underway, and we're excited to see the progress! Erin is into the second quarter of the school year and is relieved to finally have almost all of the nearly-100 students' names learned.  Each music class is preparing a song for the Christmas program, and the 2nd graders are making progress on their English.  A few hundred new books have been given to the library, so work is being done on getting those into the system, and we're eagerly awaiting the new bookshelves to hold all the new books! To read more details about what we've been learning and experiencing during our first three months here, you can read Erin's blog. Ethan celebrated his 12th birthday with 12 hours in the car, as we started our road trip to Belize!  Jesse chose balleadas (a Honduran filled-tortilla meal) for his 10th birthday dinner. We enjoyed a "forced vacation" to Belize to renew our visas.  It was exciting to see Belize, as well as Guatemala, and we enjoyed some fun family time!  Thank you for praying for us!  Read more about it on Erin's blog. Special moment from the classroom:   This week I (Erin) was talking with one of my second graders about our family, and she was asking questions about our daughters' adoptions.  She is one of the children who lives at La Providencia and is in process of being adopted by her family here.  She was telling me that she and three of her siblings are also adopted.  It was cute because, while I already knew which ones were adopted and which were biological, she had to really think about it and correct herself a couple of times.  Adoptive parents get lots of questions, but she asked one I'd never had before:  "Do you like adoption?"  Of course I answered "Yes!" She nodded and said, "I do too.  I love adoption!" Such a sweet reminder of why La Providencia exists, and of why it's worth it to be here helping.  Thank you so much for your prayer, encouragement, gifts, and financial help.  You are truly a part of something that is making a difference--a huge difference--in the lives of children like Carolina, and something that matters in eternity.  Thank you so much.

The First Quarter

One-fourth of our time in Honduras is finished. On one hand, I feel like we've been here forever! On the other, it seems like we just arrived. Time is a strange thing. Before we get any father into our stay here, I want to take time to reflect on these first three months and write about what I've learned so far.

I feel like these beginning months have been mostly about me . . . how I'm adjusting, how I feel, what I've learned. I want our time here to be more focused on others, but so far it's been just trying to keep my head above water in my new responsibilities and in a new place. It's kind of like how flight attendants tell you to put on your own oxygen mask before helping others. I think I've finally got mine on correctly now and can start helping others. But so far it's been just trying to get myself functioning. I'm learning that I'm not as adaptable as I thought I was. When I've gone on short-term trips to other countries, I think I've done a pretty good job of adapting to the surroundings and adjusting to the way of life. But that's only for a couple weeks at a time. Living somewhere else is a whole different ball game.

Before we came, I knew there would be challenges, but dealing with them has been much harder than I expected. It's kind of like when we adopted for the first time—I knew ahead of time that it would be difficult, but I had no idea what that meant until I lived through it—months of depression and feelings of disillusionment, and experiencing like never before how desperately I need my Savior. Moving here hasn't been quite as intense, but pretty close. I think the biggest shock to my system has been the loss of my feelings of competency and independence. For example, at home I feel like I know what I'm doing—in my career, at my church, in running errands, in managing the household, etc. Not so much here. At home I drive wherever I need to go, at any time and without anxiety. Here, I know how to go to about two places, and only in the daylight. At home, I pay the bills and do the shopping. Here, Heath does both because doing either one brings me more stress than I can handle. At home, I can communicate my needs and talk about my feelings and share whatever information I want. Here, I'm like a toddler trying to speak, but I still have adult-size thoughts I'm trying to share, and an adult-sized desire to be polite and friendly, so it's very frustrating! I think that once again God is chiseling away at the pride and self-sufficiency that are so much a part of my comfortable American life, and showing me (yet again) that I cannot do life on my own. I desperately need Him, and—even more humbling to admit—I need other people! There's no self-sufficiency left when you need help doing even the most basic things. The friendships we've been making here are a huge blessing, both for the relationships and the practical survival help!

Something else I've been noticing is not as “spiritual” but is quite interesting. In reading a lot of adoption literature, one of the things I recently learned is that when the brain feels too much fear or anxiety, it loses its higher functioning abilities. I've seen this in Tabitha if I push too hard or start to show frustration (in things like teaching math or correcting her behavior) she will shut down and be unable to think rationally at all. The anxiety makes it impossible for her to learn or remember or think straight. Well, I think I've been experiencing this myself lately. While I'm not normally a fearful person, the experience of living in a culture I'm not used to and having a job where I don't feel competent produces a lot of underlying anxiety. I don't always realize it's there, but I find myself struggling to think straight and having difficulty remembering things. The ongoing stress and anxiety definitely take their toll, and I need to make sure I find ways to relax and reduce stress on a regular basis, if I want to have a chance of accomplishing anything!

Honestly, these internal struggles have filled most of my thoughts and taken most of my energy for the past three months. As humans we often think we're going to go and do “such and such,” but the Lord has His plans of what He will be accomplishing. And many times I find that it's more about what He's doing in my own life than it is about what work I'm doing for Him.

Which brings me to another of my first-quarter thoughts. What is a “missionary?” Is there really a difference between the “missionary” and the “regular Christian?” Before we left home I didn't really think of us as becoming “missionaries.” Missionaries are those really spiritual people who go throughout the world preaching wherever they go! They're on fire for Christ and are extremely passionate about evangelism. I'm none of those things . . . not “really spiritual,” not equipped with a personality that really gets “on-fire” about anything, and evangelism scares the stuffing out of me! And yet, most people consider us “missionaries” now. We're invited to all the “missionary” events here, we're introduced as “missionaries,” and most people in the States think of us as missionaries as well, even if just for a year.

I guess people use the term to mean someone who is in full-time “Christian service” (whatever that means); usually, but not always, living in a culture other than their own; and dependent on others for their financial needs. We're in a different culture, and we're dependent on others for support, but beyond that things are pretty much the same. We still have the same strengths and weaknesses as before, we still struggle with the same sins. Becoming a “missionary” hasn't magically made me any better at evangelism, or more consistent in my prayer life, or more full of compassion, or any of those things. I do hope that God is using this experience to change me in all of those ways, but I'm not any more holy than I was back at home, or any more spiritual than those who serve Christ in the USA. We are ALL called to be in full-time Christian service. When we go back home, we won't be finished serving Him. No matter where we live, we are supposed to be devoting our lives to His service, worshiping Him through every aspect of our days, sharing about Him with others, seeking to know Him more. We don't have any more or less responsibility for any of that based on where we live or where we work or who pays our salary.

While “regular” people may have the same responsibility to serve Christ that “missionaries” do, being here has indeed given me an greater appreciation for those in “full-time missions.” Just in these few months I've been able to see and experience some of the challenges and difficulties that they face. It's also helped me realize that they are just “real people.” They don't have super powers that make it easy for them here or make them perfect Christians. They're real people who are willing to serve Christ in a way that's different and “abnormal,” but real people nonetheless. And I hope that after we go back, I'll remember what it feels like to be in a strange land, far from home, not always sure about what you're doing, not always confident that you're succeeding. And hopefully I'll be better at praying for missionaries, and supporting them—not just financially, but with communication and encouragement. They're not Super-Christians; they're fellow members of the body of Christ who need our support.

I think being here has also opened my eyes to things I take for granted. I've been to several countries and always come back feeling so grateful for the comforts and conveniences we enjoy in America. This time is no exception, and I'm sure I'll be more grateful than ever for certain things when we get back! At the same time though, I hope that I'm getting closer to being content in any and every situation. Just as physical exercise is good for strengthening the body, I think the “soul exercise” of living in less convenient circumstances is good for strengthening character. It's interesting to see that there are happy people and miserable people no matter what country you're in and no matter what material goods you have or don't have. We can choose to live in gratitude and contentment—or choose not to—no matter what our situation. My goal (which I have a very long way to go to attain) is to rejoice in the Lord always, no matter the circumstances. Being here is a strength-building exercise on the path to that goal.

One last thing that has been neat during this first quarter is to see our relationships with the people here growing and changing. When you come on a short-term trip there's a tendency to become enamored with everyone and everything here. It's an intense but shallow friendship. When you live here, the novelty wears off and the people are just people. The longer we're here, the less awareness of “us” and “them” I have. Sometimes I forget we're not the same nationality or race, or even that we speak different languages. With a few people, we're developing friendships that I'm sure will last for many years. My view of the Honduran children has gone through several levels as well. When we visited, it was “oh those poor sweet little children.” Moving here it quickly became “oh those little devils who make teaching so difficult!” And now, as I've adjusted to the classroom and am getting to know the kids individually, it's more like, “Oh my precious students. Even though they're difficult sometimes, teaching them is quite a privilege, and I'm pretty sure I'm learning more from them than they are from me. What a blessing they are!”

While these first three months have had their share of difficulties, I do feel very blessed to have this opportunity. I know our family will be stronger, our worldviews will be more accurate, and our lives richer because of it. Praise the Lord for the gifts He gives, and the grace He provides every day.

Central American Road Trip

Living in Honduras without going through the official residency process means that we have to leave the country every 90 days to renew our visa.  And we can't just cross the border and come back.  We have to go to a non-neighboring country and be there for at least 72 hours.  Translation = forced vacations!

For our first trip we decided to go to Belize.  It's the closest, and supposedly easiest, country for these trips.  Most people take a ferry there, making the trip not that long.  But the days we have off from school didn't line up with the Honduras ferry schedule, so we would have had to first drive to Guatemala, leave our car there (there's no vehicle ferry), pay for 6 of us to take the ferry and then be stuck without a car in Belize.  So instead we opted for . . . The Central American Road Trip!

Now, those of you who know me, know that I love a good road trip.  The kids and I drove almost 4,000 miles last summer, and I loved it!  So, what's a measly 800 miles, especially with two drivers?  So we made our plans.  For the most part, our plans worked out.  But there were plenty of opportunities to prove the verse, "The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps."

We originally thought it would be a 9-12 hour drive, based on Google Maps' estimate plus figuring in the likelihood of bad roads, border crossing delays, highway robbery, and the like.  Two days before leaving, Heath was fortunate enough to find out that Google's recommended route included a non-legal border crossing!  There's only one place between Guatemala and Belize where we could cross legally and get our passports stamped (which was the entire purpose of the trip).  So with the new route, the estimate became 12+ hours, with no time left for bad roads, border crossings, or robbery.

We had paper directions printed out, but most roads in CA don't have names, so the directions said "turn left" or "turn right", but that's as helpful as it got.  We didn't think about our phones early enough to get international cellular service activated, so once we left Honduras we only had phone help if we were near a wifi signal.  But hey, my sister and I at the ages of 14 and 18, drove from Illinois to Oregon by ourselves in the days when no one had cell phones, and we thought nothing of that.  Surely this little trip would be fine.  AND...did you know there's a GPS app you can use even if you don't have cell or wifi?  My genius husband found that, and it's good he did or we would probably still be lost somewhere in the mountains of Guatemala!

We left Siguatepeque at 5:20am.  It's not really safe to drive at night in CA, because of crime as much as because of the immense potholes and the unmarked speed bumps at random places meant to demolish the vehicle of any unsuspecting drivers.  The sun sets around 6, so we set out on a mission . . . no time to stop and smell the roses . . .or, uh, palm trees.

The drive out of Honduras was uneventful.  Beautiful scenery coming through the mountains, no problems with anything.  We made good time to the border, and managed to go through the emigration process and get officially out of Honduras with no bribes, and no problems with removing ourselves or our vehicle.  Thank the Lord!  We crossed into Guatemala and were looking for the Immigration Office on their side of the border, but we didn't see anything.  Did we miss it?  Are we illegal immigrants?  Will they let us back into Honduras?  These were the thoughts running through our mind for about 10 miles, until finally we saw a tiny little cement building, about the size of our living room, and a little 10" rusted and faded sign saying "Immigration."  Wow.  Good thing we didn't blink!  We stopped and took care of getting our passports stamped and paying a small entrance fee.  We didn't have any Guatemalan money, so the man had to go outside and ask his friends if anyone had Honduran Lempira so he could give us change.  Then we were on our way again.  Things were going great!

Shortly after noon, about a third of the way through Guatemala, the traffic stopped.  There are no super highways, and most roads are only one lane in each direction, so we didn't think this was so unusual.  However, when people started turning off their engines and getting out and walking around we got slightly concerned.  We had a deadline and hundreds of miles to go before dark!  This was unacceptable!!!  Now if something like this happened at home, we would probably just take a different route.  But according to the GPS there was no other route!  So we sat there for about 4 hours, debating whether to keep waiting or to try to find a hotel.  Of course, before we left I had researched our hotels and had chosen safe, somewhat comfortable ones.  Finding a random hotel by driving around the area was not in my plans!  But by about 4:30 we realized there was no other option unless we wanted to spend the night in our car.  So we back-tracked about an hour and managed to find a hotel that looked decent.  It was tolerable, but it turned out to be the most expensive and worst quality of our whole trip!  We had dinner, and squeezed our family into a room that slept five.  Good thing our girls are small enough to share a twin bed.  The stay was mostly uneventful, except for the fireworks.  Fireworks are a big thing here.  People set off home-made ones for every occasion, so we frequently hear them in the middle of the night and usually sleep through them now.  However, this night in Guatemala, I'm pretty sure the next-door neighbors were firing off a cannon!  It happened at least three times . . . just as we started to doze off into sleep, BOOM!  An explosion that almost shook the building jolted us awake.  20-30 minutes would go by, and then BOOM!  Again.  Not the most comforting feeling when sleeping in a strange place.

stuck for 4 hours; at least we had movies to watch!

cozy quarters at the first hotel

We survived the night and resumed our journey in the morning.  After driving a few more hours we made it to the border with Belize.  This border crossing was much busier than the other, but no one official gave any directions.  Thankfully, some boys wanting to make money from the tourists hang around to assist us clueless people.  They directed us through the steps of stamping our passports, having the car sprayed for bugs, paying the fees, and going through Belizan customs.  Did you know English is Belize's official language?  It was quite shocking to see and hear English all of a sudden!

Just after crossing the border we stopped at a Mayan ruins site called Xunantunich.  First we drove the car onto a little hand-cranked ferry to cross the river.  The site consisted of HUGE structures that had been built by hand more than a thousand years ago.  Very impressive.  And there were no safety rules.  If we had similar things in the States they would have been blocked off, glassed in, law-suit proofed.  But here . . . climb to your heart's content!  So we did!  From the top of the biggest building it was an impressive view.  Beautiful!  And we managed to make it back down with all four of our children.  Success!

The rest of drive was uneventful.  Heath did all the driving, and he became very good at noticing the unmarked speed bumps, avoiding dogs and pigs and cows and people that were in the road, and not hitting any of the cars passing on blind curves.  We made it to our lodging--Jungle Jeanie's by the Sea.  It's a collection of little cabins in the jungle, right on the shore of the Caribbean Sea.  Very cute.  Other than it being extremely hot and humid and mosquito-ey, and the water being filled with seaweed, it was a nice place to stay.  The kids had a wonderful two days of swimming and kayaking.
















We also took a little mini hike through the jungle.  Supposedly jaguars and monkeys inhabit the area.  We didn't see any live animals (well, unless you count the swarms of mosquitoes), but we did see a footprint that we're pretty sure was from a jaguar.  It was fun to see all these new places, and we all enjoyed the break from the routine.

On the way back we had already planned to stay a night in Guatemala.  So we went to our pre-planned hotel, which was a very neat place to stay.  It's not a hotel really, but a collection of rooms and cabins.  There was no AC here, but they did give us a fan and mosquito nets.  The food was delicious here and reasonably priced, so that was quite a blessing.  We were going to take a hike up a mountain there, but the mosquitoes were more than I could take...even after dousing myself in OFF.  Heath and Jesse started to go on while the rest of us turned back, but soon the trail was just a mud path, going steeply upward, surrounded by jungle plants probably hiding creatures from Jurassic Park.  And it was getting dark soon, so they decided to come back too.

The next day we drove back without any problems.  The kids were excellent travelers, thanks to audio theater CDs of Lord of the Rings and Narnia.  It was good to get back "home" after being on the road.  Though not everything went according to my plans, God protected us from many potential dangers and gave us a mostly-enjoyable time.  And here we are, ready to start the next three months, with new stamps in our passports and new memories in our hearts.

October Update

October Already! It's hard to believe we're in our third month here already!  It's also hard to believe it's the middle of October!  Outside everything is still green and very much alive, and the weather is still warm.  The nights are beautiful though . . . cool breezes of fresh air through the open windows, and frequent HUGE thunderstorms. The La Providencia students have exams this week, meaning the first quarter of school is finishing up.  Teaching is still a big challenge for Erin, but it is slowly getting better.  Heath and Ethan continue to enjoy their work on the buildings:  the new house is coming along well, and the most recent addition to the school is getting its finishing touches.  All four of our kids are doing well here, and homeschooling is going smoothly. A medical and dental team were here this past week.  The students at the school all received a dental cleaning, and many children from the community had important surgeries done.  La Providencia does a great job of reaching out into the community to help people, beyond just the students at the school. Our visa is only good for 90 days, so we have to leave the country every 90 days to renew it.  We have a few days off of school later this month, so we'll be driving to Belize to spend a few days.  Please keep us in prayer for a smooth trip . . . safety first of all, also problem-free border crossings, and a relaxing time as a family.  Thank you!  We could also use prayer for wisdom in planning the other trips we'll have to take.  We have to go two countries away each time (not to a country that borders Honduras), and travelling within Central America isn't as easy or cheap as we had been hoping. Orphan Sunday is coming up on November 8th!  Find out if your church has anything planned, and if not, maybe you could be the one to start something!  See www.orphansunday.org to see what it's all about! And don't forget to "like" La Providencia on facebook if you want to see more pictures and read more about things happening here!