Greetings everyone!

First of all, I wanted to point out, that baliadas is actually spelled baleadas (I think I am right this time...thanks also to my good friend Cody for helping point that out to me!)

It has been an exciting past couple of days!

First of all, on Friday night, after I posted my last blog John and I went out to best pizza place in Central America (so John claims, though it was pretty tasty...I do not have enough Central American pizza experience to contend John's claim, so I will defer to his authority) and we happened to run into Bishop Santos, the Bishop of Santa Rosa, and Padre Efrain, the Pastor of Dulce Nombre Parish. They sat with us and it was really great getting to know them and I am looking forward to working with them more throughout the summer.

Yesterday, John and I went out to one of the rural villages for a sector meeting (the parish is divided up into sectors, and these sectors each contain a group of villages) which happens about once a month. The meeting started with singing and then reading and discussing or Scipture. Then the meeting followed. A wide variety of topics were discussed (John helped me understand what was going on, because it was hard to follow because of there rapid speech and many people talking at once). It was great to start really meeting the people of the parish. They were very warm and welcoming.

On the way back from the meeting, we had quite the adventure. The four wheel drive on our truck went out so we had to attempt to travel mountainous gravel roads (with lots of steep inclines) with only front wheel drive... we struggled over many hills, had to back up and get a running start at a few, and some I was not sure if the truck was going to make it up...but after some stuggle and multiple attempts at some hills, perseverance triumphed and we made it all the way back to Santa Rosa with only front wheel drive (a minor miracle if you ask me, so it's encouraging to know that God is with us :) haha

Today we celebrated Mass out at the village of Banaderas (I'm not sure how to spell that) so I got to experience my first Honduran Mass. That was quite the experience and truly something beautiful! It was amazing to experience the Christ-filled life and love of the people. They were especially warm and welcoming to me and seem happy I am here, despite my slow Spanish. I am beginning to look forward to spending more time with the people in the villages.

Tuesday, I will be going out and staying in a rural viallage (the village of el Zapote) where I will stay until Saturday. Saturday, there will be a big encuentro de deportivos (basically a gathering of many youth from the parish to play sports and games...most likely futbol, or in the United States more commonly known as soccer), and following that will be the big Vigil for Pentecost, which seems is going to be a pretty big celebration! I'm looking forward to that, and I'm hoping my Spanish will greatly improve by the end of the week as I will not have John around so I will have to think and speak in Spanish constantly!

I will not be posting anything until at least next Sunday, as I will be out in the village for most of the week! I do want to thank you all for all your prayers and support already, they have been a great blessing as I can already see God at work! Know I am doing my best to pray for you as well, and I hope this summer is a time for you to pray and reflect and grow, and to experience God more fully in a deeper way!
Keep up the prayers, and I will keep you in mine!

In the Peace and Love of Christ,
Kevin