I have been remarkably blessed during my time at the Finca to have AMAZING missionary communities to simply do life with in this children’s home in rural Honduras. Everything from eating to playing to working to praying to cooking to cleaning is done in community in Casa Santa Teresita, and I have realized that this way of living inevitably leads to lifelong friendships. My first community of 7 in CST certainly wasn’t perfect, but we had so many amazing times together and shared so many genuine laughs and joyful moments. My second community of 3 in CST was literally incredible, and I will forever be grateful for Natalie and Kenna and how they continue to impact my life today.
Community life is not always easy, but it is ALWAYS worth it! ALWAYS! I strongly believe that it is one of our four pillars at the Finca and for our missionary community for a reason, and I am willing to fight and claw to ensure that community remains incredibly important among missionaries at the Finca, at least while I am the interim service coordinator and have the ability to voice my opinion in such matters.
That being said, my community life this year has looked WAY, WAY different yet still so beautiful in so many ways. Natalie & Kenna returned to the United States in early December, the Looby family returned to the United States in mid-January for personal reasons, & Chloe decided to move out of the missionary house to Casa 1 for personal reasons. In a matter of about 6 weeks, I was suddenly living alone in an incredibly large missionary house and searching for answers on how I might still have a community to rely on and spend quality time with this year.
I have lived at the Finca for 2.5 years and am beyond blessed to have developed so many incredible relationships along the way. I have amazing friendships with so many different groups of people at the Finca, including our Lics (our director, social worker, and psychologist), 3 religious sisters onsite with us, maintenance workers, security guards, tías, teachers, and our Finca children. However, having amazing friendships is much different from having a genuine community to rely on for support when times get tough, so I had to get creative to form as much of a community as possible.
My community over the last month or two has certainly looked different than past years, but it has still been incredible in so many ways! I invite someone over to eat with me at CST every day, either for lunch, dinner, or sometimes both, including people from the outside communities surrounding the Finca, our maintenance workers and security guards and their families, and our houses within the Finca. As could be expected, these meals in CST have led to some incredible conversations, competitive Bingo games played after dinner, and so many joyful moments passed around our kitchen table.
Our 3 religious sisters onsite at the Finca have also done an incredible job inviting me into their community as much as possible and making me feel loved and appreciated. I have invited them to a lunch or dinner every week in CST, and they often invite me over to the convent once a week and for special occasions, such as birthdays and celebrations within their Franciscan Order. My relationships with our three religious sisters have grown so much over the last two months, and it is so normal nowadays to spend time together as a community, which hasn’t always been the case during my time at the Finca when we have a larger missionary community.
I have also invited our 3 Lics at the Finca for a lunch in CST every week, and my relationships with them have grown SO, SO much! Especially now that I am serving in the interim service coordinator role, the majority of our conversations prior to living alone in CST were work-related or surface-level conversations while passing one another at the Finca. However, our lunches together have allowed us to get to know one another on a deeper and more personal level, which has led to incredible conversations, amazing stories from the past, and many joyful moments spent around our small table in the living room at CST.
I also have gotten creative for our typical missionary community events that occur every week. For our Friday night movie night, I make dinner for the security guards and the maintenance staff, and they come to the Finca to enjoy a meal and a movie night. For Monday night community nights, I have forced our two night security guards to play a board game or a card game with me, yet they are rarely interested in learning anything more complicated than UNO.
My community life over the last month or two has exceeded all of my expectations, and I am extremely grateful for the people in our larger Finca community that have made it a point to love me well and make it as much of a community as possible. The Finca and our model allow for such an incredible family atmosphere, and, probably now more than ever before, I genuinely consider all of the people involved in this mission to be one, big, happy family!
That being said, I am SO, SO excited to have a community of gringos again in the near future! Community life is one of my favorite aspects of living at the Finca, and there are just certain aspects of community life that cannot be replicated from the Hondurans at the Finca. We will have summer missionaries for two months and full-time missionaries come in late September or early October. There is light at the end of the tunnel!
Please pray for my discernment! I have recently started discerning to stay at the Finca for longer-term in the service coordinator position or to return to the United States after this year or maybe after one more year to further my relationship with Kristen. Please pray for my ability to follow God’s will no matter how hard it will be!
Please let me know how I can pray for you!
God Bless!