Honestly, I love my kids. All 24 of them are so amazing in unique ways. But as a class, things have a tendency to get out of control very quickly. So when they do, and when they decide that it’s time to start being disrespectful toward themselves and each other, I have a simple but effective solution: we declare. Together, we declare who we are in Christ. We declare it out loud so that we hear ourselves say it. We list off things that God says about us and who we are as His sons and daughters. We declare that they live with love in their hearts for themselves and each other. We declare that they are made in His image and therefore deserve respect and dignity. We declare that we are all sons and daughters of the King and therefore we bring His Kingdom wherever we go. We will declare all kinds of things… and we declare them until we believe them.

Five weeks ago I moved to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and I have spent the last 5 weeks trying to learn how to become a teacher. I’m working five days a week from 7am – 3pm, standing, lecturing, shouting, reminding, collecting, grading, laughing, crying, and demonstrating. Let me just tell you… I’m exhausted! Yes, I know, this is just the life of a teacher in any nation, but MY GOODNESS I am just tired all the time.

I’ve actually never been to Honduras before and only know anything about it because one of my best friends in the mundo (Erica Clampitt) has been a missionary there for a year and a half. But beyond her stories about the beauty and the frustrations, I’ve got nothin. However two weeks before I returned to the States from the Race I received an email jokingly asking if I knew anyone who would want a job teaching a difficult 5th grade class at a bilingual school in Tegucigalpa, the capital city of Honduras. Well, my answer for that was quick and obvious: Me. I was 100% interested in that job.

This month my team has been working at Asha orphanage where we teach English and Bible to 13 precious boys 6 days a week. This small orphanage is on the outskirts of the city and is run by an amazing couple Sam and Bayula who are raising not only these 13 boys, but their own 4 month old daughter Gladyss as well.