Finca Video

Here is a link to a really cool video that a student from the US made during his visit to the Finca.  It will give you a decent idea of what the Finca is like (kind of):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVb4lPHYAas&feature=youtu.be

Tú Pones Lo Demás

Sept. 1, 2013

As I´ve previously expressed through this blog, sometimes things don´t go quite as one might have planned here at the Finca.  Most recently we´ve had a bit of a personnel change here …and surprise! I’m a kindergarten teacher!  Sara, who has been a missionary here for 2 years, went home in July and recently decided that she will not be returning.  Sara´s father is very sick (please keep him in your prayers), and she decided to be with him and her family.  Sara’s job was living with and caring for our 3 adolescent girls who go to school in La Ceiba (3 hours from the Finca proper).  The girls will be graduating this November and are very much in need of someone’s guidance and support; so, after much discernment Allison our kindergarten teacher chose to move to La Ceiba for the rest of the her time in Honduras.  That’s how I became a kindergarten teacher.

While I could look at all of this as an undue burden or an insurmountable challenge, I have to be thankful for Allison’s generous response to God’s call.  I’m thankful for the kindergarteners' excitement when they found out that Profe. Kevin would be their teacher and for their daily hugs.  I’m reassured by my own patron saint of Kindergarten teachers, my aunt Mone, who I know is looking down and smiling. 

There’s a song that I heard during our communion service today that I remember being quite striking the first time that I heard it.  It’s called “Tu Pones Lo Demas” which would translate to “You Put in the Rest.”  The song talks about the boy with the loaves and fishes, the host of the wedding feast in Cana, and the Apostles as they fished without success, and God took the little, simple things that they had to offer and transformed them into miraculous signs of God’s generosity and love for us.  The refrain says: 

It’s so little, Lord, what I have to bring, It’s so little what I can give.  My work is the water that I want to offer, and my effort a piece of bread.  In Your divine hands I put it, and You, Lord, put in the rest. 

My time here is growing shorter.  My energy seems less and less, but what little I have I can offer.  I can trust that God will work through me and my community members so that His will might be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.  

Today was another testament to this fact.  We left for Mass in Trujillo this morning at the normal time as we do every Sunday.  When we arrived, there was a big parade going on because today is Honduran Flag Day.  We still made it to the church on time and sat waiting for Mass to begin.  Eventually, a woman of the parish got up and announced that Mass was canceled for the morning because of all of the noise from the marching bands.  This left us wondering what we should do.  Wait around with all the kids for 2 hours for another Mass? Go at night (potentially more dangerous)? Go back to the Finca and have a communion service?  The decision was especially difficult considering that none of the Franciscan sisters nor the director of the Finca are here right now.  

Finally, we settled on going back to the Finca and having communion service.  On the spot I agreed to lead it.  Of course, this meant that there was no time to prepare a reflection on the readings like I would normally do.  We quickly chose lectors and a Eucharistic minister and several of the tias put together the songs that we would sing.  I reminded everyone that we would need the help of the whole community to reflect on the readings.  When it came time for the reflection, several people shared, and it all turned out great.  As we walked back to the house, Ashley asked me, “Did you ever think you’d lead a Sunday service in Spanish?” The answer, “No, not really.”  God put in the rest.