Visitors are truly such an amazing gift to our Finca community, as they bring such an inspiring joy and passion that can sometimes be lost in the busy day-to-day living at the Finca. On Ash Wednesday (March 2nd), Emma’s parents and a former missionary from three years ago named Ruthie arrived for a visit! A few days later, another former missionary from Ruthie’s time named Kassidy also arrived for a visit with her boyfriend, David.
Emma’s parents and Ruthie actually stayed in CST with the missionaries, so they pretty much did everything that a missionary does! They ate the majority of their meals with us, attended most of the spiritual events in the Finca church, and spent A LOT of time with the kids, especially Ruthie because she speaks Spanish PHENOMENALLY well and has such a phenomenal relationship with so many of the Finca kids from her two years here. Kassidy and David stayed at TBay, a Canadian resort about a 5 minute walk down the beach from the Finca, because there was no room in CST, but they still spent the majority of their time at the Finca.
We had so many FANTASTIC conversations with our visitors, and it was so insightful to learn more about Emma’s family and about the Finca from when Ruthie and Kassidy served here. We also had many fun game nights with them, especially playing Codenames and genuinely enjoying each other’s company. Marv, Emma’s dad, consistently made me laugh every day with his wittiness and pure humor, and he picked up our only rule as boys in CST very quickly: BOYS ALWAYS STICK TOGETHER WHEN YOU LIVE WITH FIVE GIRLS!
Visitors are also incredibly awesome for our Finca community because they often organize fun activities for our kids that are outside of normal daily life. On Friday, March 11th, we went to an AMAZING posa with our missionary community, Ruthie, Kassidy, David, Casa 5 (our oldest girls at the Finca), and Casa San Valentin (our oldest boys). A posa is essentially a fun swimming area in the river, and they greatly vary in size and how fun they are. On this day, we went to objectively the best posa in the surrounding area, which was about 45 minutes away from the Finca. This posa has an enormous swimming area, an incredible number of huge rocks to climb on, a small waterfall, and a ledge that you could jump off into the river that was probably about 40 feet high.
Since we left the Finca immediately after school ended at 12:45pm, we also packed lunch to enjoy together at the posa. Ruthie bought baleadas and pastelitos, two of my FAVORITE Honduran foods, from a woman in a nearby community that she knew from her time at the Finca. THEY WERE ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!! We returned to the Finca about 5:30pm, and it was truly a day that I will never forget. It was such high-quality time with our oldest kids at the Finca, our missionary community, and our visitors from the United States.
The following day on Saturday morning, our missionary community embarked on another INCREDIBLE adventure with the boys in San Valentin! From the middle of the campo at the Finca, you can see the top of one of the tallest mountains in Honduras, and it is a popular hike in the area to adventure to the top. Many former missionaries have successfully made it to the top of this mountain with Finca kids in the past, but the boys in San Valentin have never hiked it. We left at about 5am on that morning, and there were 12 of us in total, including two of our Honduran watchies (or security guards) for security reasons in case anything was to happen on our adventure. AND WHAT AN ADVENTURE IT WAS!
This hike was fairly strenuous that took about 3.5 hours to hike up and about 2.5 hours to hike back to our car, and it was roughly 10 km (or 6 miles) to the top. Regardless of the time it took, IT WAS SO FUN AND SUCH HIGH-QUALITY TIME with our missionary community, the boys in San Valentin, and our watchies at the Finca!! Once we finally reached the top, we shared baleadas that I bought from a family in a nearby community and taqueritos, which is the most popular brand of chips in the area.
We also simply enjoyed each other’s company while embracing the GORGEOUS view from the top, despite the occasional cloud cover that momentarily blocked our visibility. After roughly two hours of enjoying the view, sunshine, and food from enormous rocks atop this mountain, we started the journey back to the car. I, unfortunately, don’t have any pictures of the views from the top of this mountain without the kids in them (which we aren’t allowed to post online), so you will just have to take my word for it that it is ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!
Zulena, the founder of the Finca with her late husband, Vincent, is also visiting the Finca right now, and I am constantly amazed at her love that she has for this place that we call home! She is the president of both the Honduran and United States’ board of directors for the Finca, so she is INCREDIBLY busy with meetings during her 3-4 weeks at the Finca. However, she never is too busy to stop and chat with our religious sisters, missionaries, and our kids at the Finca, and her consistent love and passion for the Finca is unbelievably inspiring.
The onsite director of the Finca, Maria, decided to step down from her role as director for personal reasons effective March 31st, so please pray for the next step in her life journey! She has served in her role as director with incredible passion, love, and encouragement for three years, and her smiling presence will be greatly missed at the Finca.
Please also pray for the next director of the Finca, which is an enormously important and powerful position for the well-being of our kids. The search for a new director is currently underway, but please pray for the future of this amazing place that has captured my heart in so many ways.
Please know of my prayers for you, and please reach out to me for any special prayer intentions.
GOD BLESS!