Week One - Youth for Christ Camp

Beautiful Mountains in San Pedro Sula

Day four already! We have been working hard at the Youth for Christ camp in La Entrada. We are working with a youth group from a Christian boarding school in South Dakota - and we are having a BLAST! We came to the nearby town today to access the internet and go to the bank to exchange some money. We will be staying at the camp through Sunday morning and then heading off to our next destination! We don't have long to post - but here are a few pictures from our last few days in Honduras!

Youth For Christ Camp Dog - Hershey
An Aussie like our Macie Moo - he has been attached to our hip!

Shoveling dirt to make a wall near the Youth for Christ main building

Daniel and Laramie - AKA "Cowboy" from SD :)

Preparing VBS stuff for this week - we have had 50 kids come to the camp
from a village where families live on less than $1000 annually.

Daniel and Rick - our "boss" :)

This is from earlier today - we moved tons of stones from the creek
at the YFC camp to fill in the trenches for the roads coming in.

We will hopefully be posting again soon - I have tons of other pictures that I want to share but this trip to town was very short ... so I left you with a few of our favorites :)  We love you ALL so much and we are so thankful for your love, prayers and support.  Please continue to pray for the Lord to put a hedge of protection around us while we are here - physically and emotionally.  Neither one of us have been sick yet - knock on wood ;)   Some of the team members have been down and out with stomach issues - even our bossman  ... guess we are just the lucky ducks!

Love you ALL! 

1 Peter  3:15
 But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,

Safe and Sound :)

We are safe and sound in Honduras! We landed about 11am (Honduras time) and we have been running around ever since. The Lord has been in so many details ... even in this first day! It is amazing to see Him at work - down to the little things!  I can't wait to share more later!

We are both just full of peace and excitement to see how things are all fitting together. The nervousness and anxiety that we felt before the trip is all gone ... and all that is left now is LOVE, PEACE, JOY, HOPE! We have really enjoyed getting around the area today - having to communicate with the locals and giggling at ourselves as we try our best to "fit in". FYI - I feel like I am an alien ... the blonde hair definitely draws attention ... I truly was the only blonde in the entire city mall where we ate lunch today. And for the record - for those of you that know Dano well - he found TERIYAKI CHICKEN for lunch ... enough said! :)

We love you ALL so much and we can truly feel your prayers. The Lord has already done GREAT things in our hearts ... we are so honored that the Lord handpicked us for this journey! Who would have thought that we would be diving head first into the mission field - for TWO MONTHS! We are ready for what the Lord has in store - and can't wait to share it all with the ones we love the most!'

We are heading to the Ruins tomorrow for a 5 day stay - I am hoping that we can post some pictures from our first few days from there!

THANK YOU for your support, love, prayers, and encouragement. PLEASE leave us comments or shoot us love through an e-mail. It helps us to keep on keepin' on! LOVE YOU!

Made it through security:)

Just got through security and waiting at the gate!! Let the journey begin!! :)

Adios Amigos!

We are heading out in about 8 hours!  I can't believe it is finally here.  I'm not sure when we will be able to post again ...  right now we are trying to get last minute things in order and situated before resting for a few short hours.  We will be heading to the airport around 4am  -  so 4 1/2 hours from now!  AHHH!

PLEASE pray for safe and smooth travels for us. 

If you want to keep in touch, our emails are laurampeal@gmail.com and joseph.d.peal@gmail.com    We would love to get some love and encouragement from home while we are stepping out in faith! 

Thanks so much for all of your support ... ready or not ... Honduras here we come!

SO close

We are SO close.  It is crazy to think that we are down to our final days before the trip.  Time has really flown by – and we are leaving the country in 4 days!  AHHH!

We have been super swamped with last minute errands.  Not to mention that the last day of school is tomorrow so I have had all of that to finish up, too.  I am so excited for that moment when we step on the plane and realize that this is REALLY happening!

This was my favorite moment of the week.  We had a pretty bad storm come through on Tuesday evening.  There was strong winds and hail.  Not going to lie - it was a little scary because it was looking tornadic.  But this is what came after the storm :)

Not just a rainbow - but a double rainbow. I was one happy girl!

I'm sure that I will post at least one more time before we head out.  We have a great weekend ahead of us - farewell dinner with friends tomorrow night, my parents are coming in town tomorrow night, and church Sunday with all of our family.  I just know that the Lord will bless us with sweet fellowship! 

Please continue to pray - especially for safe and successful travels on Monday!

Stretching Myself

We found this video last night of the tribe in Honduras that we will be ministering to.  This is the part of the trip that I am most nervous about … when you watch the video you will see why!  It is a three hour drive from where we will be staying, 2 of those hours are on unpaved roads.  Then, we will park the vehicle and have a three hour hike/ horseback ride through rivers and up the mountain to the tribe.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nALM5IV4zoU 

Please pray for me … Daniel is so excited he can hardly stand it.  I am VERY excited about delivering the message of HOPE in Jesus to an unreached people group.  I am just really nervous about the thoughts of being that far “out”.  I am fighting my flesh – and reminding myself that the Lord is my strength and my shield!  Only 11 days to go … can’t believe it’s almost time!

If you have any advice for us... or pointers on what we will need being that far out ... please leave us a comment and share!  We are going to try to take some MRE meals (I'm sure Daniel never imagined having to eat those again) and non-perishable foods so that we will have something to eat.  Not sure how long we will be doing this ministry during our 2 month stay ... but any advice/support/comfort is very much appreciated!

The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.

Psalm 28:7

Refined

I have spent a lot of time reflecting in prayer this weekend on the last five years of my journey with the Lord.  I guess since we celebrated five years of marriage this weekend, it has been on my mind. 

Five years – to me it does not seem like we are even old enough to have been married for 5 years.  I kept thinking this weekend ...  "I wonder what I was doing this moment five years ago" ...  I have grown so much in the last five years.  The girl I was five years ago walking down that aisle is a complete stranger to me. 

While the Lord has worked on my heart and brought beauty from ashes in my life over the past five years ... I have learned a lot.

I have learned to praise Him in the midst of a storm because He loves me too much to leave me the way that I am.

I have learned to boast in Jesus alone - nothing compares to what I have in Him.

I have learned that no weapon formed against me will remain - and to bring praise in every season of my life.

When I find myself in the desert, I have learned to depend only on him to provide what I need. 

 When I find myself in the fire, I have learned to rejoice when I am being refined through the flames. 

 When I am in the middle of a battle, I have realized that I am a conqueror with Him so I can stand firm on His promsies.  

Now, in this season of the harvest and fulfillment, I have realized the urgency to share what I have learned from the other seasons to give hope to the hopeless and glorify His name!

 I am so thankful that the Lord has molded me and made me more like Him through these last 5 years.  My hope is that five years from now, I will see even more of Him in myself and I will be able to continue to be amazed at His power and grace!'

Here are a few pictures from our weekend ... thankful for time spent enjoying each other and reflecting on the Lord's faithfulness!  We enjoyed a dinner cruise Friday night, toured Ft. Sumter yesterday, and had dinner and played putt putt last night!  

Friday Night - Dinner Cruise in Charleston Harbor
(had to take a picture of the picture that we got - scanner is not working!)

Beautful view of the bridge!

Saturday - tour of Ft. Sumter

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire —may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

1 Peter 1:6-7 

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Colossians 2:6-7

LONG week!

It’s been a LONG week.  We had PASS testing at school for 3-5^th graders … so I have been in “PASS prison” in my classroom with my kiddos all week.  It makes for super long days … but my kids really did a great job of being quiet and patient.  I am so thankful each year when this week of testing is over!

I had to go and get my shots at Passport Health on Tuesday … $350 later I am ready to enter the country of Honduras!  Whew – that was definitely more than expected.  I was not expecting three shots to be that much … but we know that the Lord is going ahead of us and preparing all things!  We are trusting and believing that all of our expenses and financial needs are already taken care of!

I was so excited to get the mail today!  I found some cute luggage tags on Etsy … and I have been busting at the seams to get them!  How precious are they?

I found them online and she was advertising to make them for any state … so I thought I would give it a try and see if she could do some with Honduras!  Not only did she say yes … but she asked if I wanted scripture on them!  (Acts 1:8)

I could not be more excited about these!   We got 4 tags for $6 – and she added two extras in the order.  Check out her store on Etsy – it’s TOO cute! 

Grey Linen Shop

To end a crazy week … we are off on a Dinner Cruise in the Charleston Harbor tonight! J  So very happy to be celebrating 5 years of marriage with my best friend.

One last thing – we have new residents on our front porch J

Looks like we are BOTH going ... :)

It came today!  Thank you so much for your prayers … I was so happy to find it in the mailbox this afternoon.  Daniel went to visit his Granny overnight … so I sent him this picture to surprise him!

The passport was the last thing that needed to fall in place … other than the other ½ of the financial support! 

Since I had my passport and we only have half of our funding, the big joke was that only one of us was going to be able to go. But we are not sweating it – we know that God is in control and He is working all things together for our good and HIS glory!

We are planning to do nothing but focus on each other this weekend… as we celebrate our 5 year anniversary!  I am looking forward to a weekend full of surprises … not sure what Dano has planned.  I stand in awe of all that the Lord has done over these past 5 years - the BEAUTY that He has made out of the ashes!  Who would have ever thought that almost 5 years later to the day - we would be leaving on this journey?

With only 3 weeks to go, our time is really winding down.  We have our anniversary this weekend, a weekend of tubing/lake time planned for next weekend, and then that’s it!  I can hardly believe that 3 weeks from today … I will be posting from HONDURAS!

Will you join me in praying for a few things?

• Please pray that everything will wrap up smoothly with school for me.  The last day of school is the Friday before we leave ... so that will be a very busy week for me.
• Please pray that everything goes smoothly for Daniel as he wraps up things here with his landscaping business. 
• Please pray for traveling mercies and for everything to go smoothly on our way there (and back) ... but specifically for our luggage to make it to San Pedro.  We are taking some clothes in our carry ons bags just incase.
• Please pray for us as we prepare over the next 3 weeks.  There is nothing that the enemy would want more than to try to cause a divide between us.  We recognize that we are going to be tested and the next few weeks will be stressful and hard.  This journey includes very real spiritual warfare ... but we are praying it through and sticking together.  (Ephesians 6:12)
• Please pray for Rick and Kim Beck.  This is the couple that will be hosting us in Honduras.  Pray for their hearts to be prepared to minister to us.  Kim and I have been e-mailing back and forth this week ... and I already love her to pieces!  Fun fact - found out today that they have an Australian Shepherd and have been breeding them for 25 years!  Looks like Macie might need to take a trip with us soon!

Thank you for all of your support and prayers.  We have people tell us everyday that they are praying for us ... and it means more to us than you know!  We are so eager to get there and get this chapter of our life started.

You will keep in perfect peace
those whose minds are steadfast,
because they trust in you.

Isaiah 26:3