In my last blog, I wrote about how crazy busy the school year is at the Finca, especially compared to how relaxed and fun the winter months are within our Finca community! School always starts on February 1st at the Finca, and the first two or so months of school until Holy Week can often be difficult for Finca missionaries because of our busy lifestyle without a break in the school schedule. Our Finca school always has the entire Holy Week off classes, and this free week is THE BEST WEEK EVER!! Missionaries have SO, SO much time to spend with our kids, tías, the missionary community, and the larger Finca community, especially compared to the busyness of our schedules when school is in session.
My missionary community last year had a lot of internal problems during the 2ish months between school starting and Holy Week. I think a lot of those problems were caused by the craziness of the Finca life during school without a break from the “normalness” of everyday life at the Finca. The Finca was not accepting Spring Break groups last March due to the pandemic, so we did not have the option to host college students from the United States for a week.
However, the Finca decided to accept Spring Break groups this year after lessening COVID restrictions in Honduras, and we had a group of 13 students and 2 chaperones come to the Finca from Notre Dame University during March 11th-18th! It was certainly a crazy week with 15 more people living in our house, especially when Kenna, Natalie, and I have become accustomed to an extremely small community of 3 in Casa Santa Teresita, our missionary house. Despite the craziness and the business of hosting 15 people, IT WAS SUCH AN INCREDIBLE WEEK!!
The students were primarily working during the mornings on fixing a roof at San Valentín, one of our houses at the Finca that has always been so incredibly hot during the day because the roof was not modernized, and putting up solar lamps for our security nightlamps around the Finca perimeter. Kenna and I also had four of the Notre Dame students come to help us at the school every day, and our students LOVED having them in class and to play during recess!
After a busy morning working on those various projects, we did so many fun activities during the afternoons! We had a Finca beach party one day with every child at the Finca, and the Finca kids LOVED having so many new missionaries to have water fights, to throw them from their shoulders into the ocean, and to imitate being a boat pulling them through the water. We also had every child at the Finca come to the campo and the park on Monday afternoon, and our Finca boys in particular LOVED the huge soccer game that we were able to play with so many more missionaries at the Finca!
We also walked to a popular poza, which is essentially a swimming hole in a river, in a nearby community that the students really enjoyed hiking to and swimming in! The students also went on a tour of Mojaguay, the town/neighborhood closest to the Finca, and had the opportunity to buy gifts for their family and friends in the US from the women that live in Mojaguay. Finally, on the last day that the students were at the Finca, the majority of the students played in the weekly soccer game at the Finca every Friday afternoon. This particular soccer game was Gringos vs. Hondurans, which was incredibly unfair from the beginning but was SO, SO much fun for everybody playing!
Despite the busyness of our schedules while the Spring Break group was at the Finca, there were SO, SO many opportunities for great conversations and to get to know the students on a deeper level! Whether it was eating lunch or dinner around the table, cooking dinner, playing soccer, going to the beach, having a dance party at a Finca employee’s house that lives in Mojaguay, or just hanging out in the hammocks with the students, I really enjoyed the ample opportunities to get to know the students on a deeper level and it was so sad to see them leave after spending a week with them!
I have been out of college for almost 4 years now, and I was genuinely surprised at how late the Notre Dame students could stay up every night! Kenna, Natalie, and I are in bed the majority of school nights by 9pm or 9:30pm because of how early mornings start at the Finca during the school year, but the Notre Dame students stayed up talking in our living room every night until at least 12am and woke up at around 5am or 5:30am…. Oh, what it would be like to be young again!
The Finca is really struggling this year to find summer missionaries and full-time missionaries starting in October, and that is why I believe these Spring Break groups to the Finca are so important! These week-long adventures for the students open their hearts and minds to potentially serving at the Finca one day in the future, and perhaps even sooner rather than later if they are juniors or seniors in college. Even if these specific students don’t come to the Finca, they now have great experiences of the Finca that they can share with any friends or family members that are discerning serving on mission.
Please pray for Ryan, who is our new missionary coordinator coming to the Finca on May 5th! Please pray for his peace and joy as he prepares to arrive at the Finca for his three-year commitment.
Please also pray for our Phase 2 kids at the Finca, which means they now go to high school in Trujillo and are preparing to turn 18 and leave the Finca in the next few years.
Please let me know how I can pray for you!
God Bless!