Here are some pictures from Christmas with Melvin in the states. We were able to spend some time with my folks in Florida, as well as fly up to see my brother 7 his wife Katie and spend New Year's with them. It was also the first time in a very long time to see snow for me, and Melvin's first time ever. I also have some fun video clips of him ice skating. Hilarious! 
Okay, I did not mean to publish that post on this blog, but I might as well explain things instead of deleting it off and leaving my fans behind.
I have a new ministry I am starting called Semillas de Esperanza, and I am very excited about it. I hope that everyone will check out my new blog (www.semillashonduras.blogspot.com) , and I do promise that now I have some financial supporters I will have some accountability for keeping my blog up to date. I am also in the process of creating an updated e-mail list, so if you'd like to be a part of that please either leave your e-mail in your comment or send me a personal e-mail at macayla.purchase@gmail.com
Much Love,
Macayla
This past Saturday I had my first ever meeting with my girls for Semillas de Esperanza, and I am happy to say that it was overwhelmingly better than I could have imagined. Before leaving for the states in December, I had mentioned to the girls my idea of using this ministry as something that will not only teach them a skill, but also help us to have good fellowship, discipleship, as well as raising a little bit of money to do something special for these beautiful girls. Apparently, while I was gone they were asking every weekend when I was going to come back and we were going to start, and my FIRST meeting in the tiny little sewing room under the feeding center held 20 girls, myself, and two adult volunteers. I felt so blessed and like things in my life had just clicked into place. I suppose that's God factoring into that.
So, while I have been so blessed with support from family and friends back home, I am afraid that God is turning this into something even bigger than I had imagined, and I will need to purchase more tools so that we can all work together. I have had one teacher from Pinares who was given $100 to bless a ministry of their choice, and after seeing the turn out from our first SDE meeting said that this was the place to put that money. Today I also received an e-mail in which I have some pre-ordered bracelets that will be purchased to benefit another ministry for young girls also.
Stepping out in faith can sometimes be such a difficult decision. What is known is more comfortable than the unknown, and in the decision making process you are reminded of all of your inadequacies and short-comings, but when you do take that step in faith--that plunge as it may seem sometimes, God is there and he will never let you do it on your own.
I was once again very humbled that God has used me to work for him, and I was once again reminded that if I continue to step out in faith, he will bless me with something bigger than I could ever imagine. I knew there in that moment I was in exactly the right place doing the exactly the right thing, and I felt God telling my spirit that I will never be wealthy if I follow him, but I will never be in want.
Please.
Please.
Please.
Pray for my housing situation.
I need to stay in the house that I'm currently in, and I feel like I am facing many obstacles. I'm trusting in God to iron out all of these wrinkles, but please pray for me and for staying in this house!
For only being a two hour flight away from Miami to Honduras, yesterday was one of the longest days ever. With the travel time that it took to get here, I should be in Europe or something.
Let me start from the beginning. As many of you know, there will be a group from my church coming here on July 14th, and I was originally scheduled to arrive with the team. I changed the date of my flight to give me a little bit of time to become situated before the team comes, so I flew in yesterday, July 10th. With the airport still not officially open in Tegus, all flights have been re-routed through San Pedro Sula, which is only a mere 4-5 hours away by bus. I arrived in Miami 2 1/2 hours prior to departure, made it through customs, and proceeded to sit at my gate for a long time. A REAL long time. In fact, our flight was about 3 1/2 hours late, but I made good conversation with a group of Americans waiting to go to Tegucigalpa for a missions trip. We chatted, shared banana bread together, and as I realized that there was no way I'd be able to reach SPS in time to make my 2:15 bus, for which I was going to have someone waiting for me to pick me up at the bus station when I reached Tegus. The group I was sitting with had chartered their own van to get from the airport to Tegus and said they would give me a ride, so I was good with the situation. I tried to call Melvin from the payphone in Miami to relay the message for me to my ride (Alvin), but the phone call wouldn't go through, so I then had to call my mom to call Melvin to tell him to call Alvin to tell him that I was going to be very late, but I had a ride.
So, seems pretty easy right? Not too complicated? Well, as we touch down in SPS, I stick with the group and we get all through customs to realize that our flight was so late that their chartered van had left. It drove back to Tegus. Without us.
All of the rental places inside the airport were closed, and it was late enough that there were no more busses going to Tegus. I found myself stuck in the SPS airport with a group of 13 abandoned Americans that did not speak Spanish and that had no idea how to get back to Tegus or even how to get a hotel or taxi in San Pedro Sula.
After talking with anyone and everyone working in the airport, I had guys calling their uncles, friends, cousins, brothers, ANYONE who might have a van large enough to accomodate the team of 13 plus myself and all our luggage, that would be willing to drive us in the rain all the way back to Tegus. After about an hour, we found someone. Praise the Lord.
After talking with the team, I found out that they were staying at a church retreat center about a mile away from Pinares, and in fact at the same retreat center where Melvin was currently working with another group of Americans. I, again, made a few phone calls and got Melvin to meet us at the bottom of the mountain to show the driver where to go because I was being dropped off at my house.
Its amazing the way God uses us and puts us in exactly the right place and at exactly the right time for his purpose.
Today seems like the first day since Wednesday that I have been able to exhale, relax, and take it easy. As I wrote you last, I was discussing the difficulty that it would be for me to finish out the school year and be back in time for the wedding. Everything went according to plan, which was fantastic, but it was tiring none the less.
Friday was rehearsal dinner, which was such a special time. I was very appreciative for my mom's 3 good friends who helped her out tremendously in serving 35 people. I normally help out my mom with all parties and social events that she puts on, but with the school year going so late and me coming in the earliest that I 
could, I did not help her before the event took place. So, if you're reading this ladies, THANK YOU SO MUCH for all of the hard work! We then proceeded to roast the bride and groom with stories about Gary (or whether you better know him as Gay Bear or Gall Pupohase) and Katie, who I myself do not know super well since they started dating after I was moved out and living in St. Augustine. 
The fantastic Little Black Dress that was aforementioned above.
I mean it Melvin, we need to go out to a nice dinner or something!
My guess is that however interesting my last day of school may be, you guys are probably more interested in the plane crash and what that now entails for our precious little Toncontin International Airport. On Friday morning at about 9:00 a.m. a TACA flight coming from San Salvador to pick up more passengers in Honduras before heading to Miami ran off the runway, killing 5 people. Its amazing that only 5 died, because as you can see from the picture, the plane broke into 3 pieces, and landed on top of 3 cars on a busy highway. The casualties would have been much higher, but luckily the "bomberos" (firefighters) arrived on the scene shortly and sprayed a foam-like liquid all over the area to protect the plane from exloding from the fuel leaking from both the plane and the cars that it landed upon. 
Since then, Tegucigalpa has closed the doors for its international airport, diverting all flights to San Pedro Sula (5 hours away by bus) to an airport that cannot handle twice the number of flights. So, the roads are still closed with the plane remaining in its exact spot, the capital city's airport is out of commission, the airlines are not increasing the number of flights leaving SPS, but trying to fit twice the amount of people on it, and in the meanwhile hundreds of employees of Toncontin airport are out of a job. The latest rumor is that they will never open Toncontin International again, but permanently change Palmerola Air Force Base (owned by the U.S.), located a little more than an hour outside of the city, into the new international airport. I don't know who is benefitting from that venture, but my guess is that someone in the government is making a ton of money from that decision because it is certainly not beneficial to anyone else. It is almost ridiculous to think of the capital of a country not having an airport, and the trickle down effect almost seems to have no end. How will people get to the airport? What will they do with the newly renovated Toncontin? What will that mean for mission groups coming down? What about the former employees and their families? Tourists? And all of this is off the top of my head. Today is Thursday, and it is about 9:30 in the morning. Normally I would be working today, but the government has sent out a mandate cancelling all schools for the country because of the massive strike they are anticipating today. Before I go into all the details, let me explain sort of the state of the union and why the people are striking.
As all of you reading this may know, gas is expensive and seems to be rising daily. Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela and current threat for the United States, has been trying to ally Honduras with Venezuela, luring the country with lower gas prices by buying directly from Venezuelan refineries instead of buying from the U.S. . Since Honduras buys from the U.S. and imports the gas into the country, it is more expensive. Combine those gas prices and a poor country, and you have something combustible. Literally.
Honduras cannot, by any means, make enemies with the U.S. because we depend so highly on foreign aid, exports, and good international relations with the superpower to the north. However, gas is about $4 a gallon and would be even more expensive but the government subsidizes it and keeps the prices level so that people can survive. The thing is though, the people are not surviving. The overwhelming majority of the people don't even make the $4 a day to pay for one gallon of gas, so when Hugo Chavez came through Honduras offering his propaganda and promises for a better life if we side with him, the people's desperation spoke through and believed his empty promises. I was working the day Chavez came through, but Melvin listened to the radio broadcast and his resounding feeling was that a charismatic leader offering promises that can never be fulfilled to people desperate for an answer is recipe for economic instability and invitation for tyranny. This is the same formula that plagues many poor, undeveloped nations.
Because Honduras was talking to Chavez, the U.S. took action and put economic pressure on Honduras. The three biggest exports from Honduras (which, by the way, are almost exclusively bought by the U.S.) are canteloupe, tilapia and shrimp. Earlier this month, the U.S. declared that Honduran canteloupe were contaminated by salmonella and were not being accepted in the U.S.. Honduras rebutted, saying that they were completely safe to eat and the president Mel Zelaya went on CNN recently and made this public statement to the U.S.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eb7m4uu3TNU
Basic translation: Melon is a delicious fruit, and if the president of the country can eat it live on TVwithout fear, so can the U.S. people.
Not even one week after melongate, the U.S. stopped accepting Honduran exports altogether, and we figured it out that this had nothing to do with salmonella---this was the U.S. putting economic pressure on the country showing that without them, we have no money. While I believe siding with Venezuela would be devastating for the country, I cannot judge people for wanting a better life.
With that said, gas prices have increased dramatically, which means that everything has increased in price. The GNI since 2006 has dropped, making the average household income now below $2000 per year, but costs of living have increased. Basic foods such as eggs, flour, sugar, bananas, etc. are now unaffordable to people on their current wages, which brings us to today's strikes. For awhile the government tried to placate the people by saying something reminiscent of Marie Antoinette's "let them eat cake" sentiment when told that the people of France can no longer eat bread. Honduras told the people "let them eat tortillas," not knowing that within a few weeks of this statement that the people could no longer afford the flour and cornmeal to make their tortillas. Teachers, universaties, transportation, and the people of the "popular block" (which are those who are considered middle class and below.....by far the overwhelming majority of the country) are marching and protesting today for change. Many of the major roads of the country are being blocked by demonstrators and military, which is why school is cancelled.
I've been thinking a lot about this situation, and I cannot think of a good resolve. Should the government be more involved? Less involved? Do we ask for more help from the U.S.? Do we need to depend less on foreign aid? I just don't know. I'm by no means an expert on such matters, but sometimes its hard to understand the way things work down here and why the country works the way it does after living 22 years of my life in the U.S.. I never feared that the U.S. would bottom out economically, I never feared severe military state in Vero Beach, and I never have known U.S. citizens so economically desperate that any and all actions would be taken in order to meet basic survival needs, and be met with nothing. Even after Hurricane Katrina, which reduced U.S. citizens to lead lives with the same desperation that many of the world's countries function with daily, there was still our government offering free aid to help the people recover and doing what they could to rectify the situation. I know that not everything done was perfect, but it was still there.
I am currently reading a book that is a journal of Henri Nouwen's mission and ministry in Latin America called Gracias, and the book takes place mainly in Peru & Bolivia during the late 80's and early 90's, when these countries shared economic profiles that are very similar to the current state of Honduras. This is a passage written in this book by Gerry McCrane, who was a third world bishop and wrote this for missionaries entering into Latin America accustomed to Western philosophy and democracy:
Here are the two main places we stayed during Semana Santa. One might look familiar, 
and this is because last year I stayed at this amazing tree-house hostel on Lago Peten Itza in the northern jungles of Guatemala. This place is what inspired me to invite Dan & Ashley down to spend Semana Santa with me, and just like last year it was gorgeous and refreshing. 
In Antigua, we stayed at a great little hostel called El Gato Negro (The Black Cat) which had wonderful ambience, great breakfast included, and fantastic music all day long.
Here are some of the promised pictures & video clips of Palm Sunday.
This was truly one of the most magical times of my life. I had never experienced anything like this before, and it was a beautiful recipe of equal parts culture and equal parts religious experience being mixed before my eyes. Pictures can only convey so much, but for me I know that I will remember this special moment for the rest of my life. Enjoy!
