Bienvenido y Copan Ruinas

Week 1:

                I arrived at the airport at 11a.m. along with about half the interns. There are 10 of us from around the world. It’s very interesting to think that people who are so different (we have different homes, lifestyles, hobbies, ect.) were brought together to minister to children in Honduras because we have two things in common our faith in God and our interest in Latin America. While we waited at the airport we ate our first authentic meal, Baleadas. Baleadas are similar to quesadillas. They are tortillas folded in half with frijoles y queso in them, but the cheese here is a little different than back home. It is salty and sweet and looks like sour cream when it’s melted but has a little bit of a grainy texture….it’s hard to explain!! Some of the interns aren’t very fond of it, but I don’t think it’s too bad!

                Once all the interns arrived we drove to Copan Ruinas which was about three hours away. Copan Ruinas is a touristy town because it is right by some Mayan Ruins. Because of the tourism the economic level is very diverse. There are wealthy hotel owners and bankers and there are poor street venders. The population is about 7,000 so it is a small town and everything is within walking distance. We definitely get a workout every day!! J There’s a central park in the middle of town and from there everything is within about two blocks in all four directions. We’ve learned if you need to go north you go uphill and South is downhill…it’s pretty easy to remember!

This first week had been orientation, a lot of team building and preparing for camp to start next week. It has been a nice transition instead of jumping right in and not knowing what to do they have given us a lot of time to get to know each other, the staff, and the youth.

There are two camps, Camp Joy and Camp Peace, which are generally the exact same except for their locations. Camp Peace is in Santa Rita which is about a ten minute drive away. At each camp there are four different classes Bible, cooking, art, and discovery/science. I was assigned to Camp Peace and am the cooking teacher along with my Lider Joven who is Rita. Rita is fifteen years old and from Santa Rita. A Lider Joven (Youth Leader) is basically an interns partner. They help prepare and teach the class. One Goal of UPH is to help children grow up with hope and experiences that will help shape them into leaders to change their families’ future. A lot of the Linder Jovenes were campers at one point and now they are leaders at camp and hopefully someday they will be the interns and directors.

Blair, one of the founders of UPH gave a devo and talked about the importance of interactions with children. Some statistics he said are there are over 7 million people in the world and 2 million of those are kids (don’t quote me on that, I didn’t write it down when he said it so it may not be true…but something like that). And before the age of 13 a child can be impacted enough to change their path or direction and have hope for their future. After the age of 13 though it is more difficult because he/she has become, I guess more engrained into their minds of who they are and what they can be good or bad. One quote Blair used was “Every encounter with a child is a divine appointment”. Its our job at camp and everyone’s job really in their daily lives to always be positive, encouraging, and smart about what they do and say when a child is around because children are so moldable. Blair also referenced Exodus 2 when Moses was saved by Pharaoh’s daughter. Moses could’ve been eaten alive by crocodiles, drowned, killed in anyway but she saved him and raised him as her own and because of that he was able to do amazing things and fulfill God’s plan for him because he had Faith. At UPH they strive for what Blair calls “moses moments” when you encounter a child and see the unfulfilled future they have ahead of them but with the love of God are able to change that childs future and give them hope!!

I could go on and on about so many more different things but this post is probably long enough. Please continue to keep us all in your prayers. Pray that we can be light to those children at camp next week and go out and experience your own “Moses Moments”