I’ve experienced an incredible amount of success over the past few months traveling through four countries by deliberately not thinking about it. I remember my high school soccer coach telling us how to take penalty kicks (even though it’s just you and the goalie on a stopped play, your nerves, your brain, your expectations can throw you off and you’ll kick the ball well beyond the range of the goal, or right into the hands of the goalie.)
He said, “Just don’t think about. Kick the ball.”
His reasoning was simple, “You’ve been playing for the past 10 years, you know how to score a goal. You know how to take a penalty kick: low, on the ground 
side pocket. If you over think it, you’ll miss.”
The majority of my work is going off of leads that people give me about who I should talk to, or visit. Very often they have a vague idea, and a phone number, and maybe (sometimes) a name. Maybe a first name, maybe a school name, sometimes it’s just a guess.
Sometimes I just stare at that number. Look at it and think about who’s going to answer it, are they going to understand me? Are they going to want to listen to me? Am we going to be able to communicate? Are they going to want to talk for 10 min and burn up my phone credit?
When people asked me how I visited almost 70 schools and met with 12 different organizations over the past couple of months I tell them, “I just pressed call.”
Before I can think of anything that may prevent me from making the call, any undesired outcome or consequence that may creep into view, I just press that big green button.
My mind shifts. I think about what I need to say what someone answers and then they pick up.
Meetings, visits, lunches, coffees, plans, outings, ideas, it can only happen if you call.
Just press call.
Edify worldwide – 
safety where I live, but I just found that difficult in Honduras. For one, everything closes at 6:00 or 7:00pm due to the danger of theft or robbery in the evening. Banks stop taking deposits at 4:00pm, and close their heavy doors at 5:00. Everything is guarded by private security with weapons, even the Burger King.
where I encountered similar initial negative stereotypes:
reason Honduras is a difficult place to live and travel gives us even more cause to help bring hope and Christian witness to difficult areas.
Edify worldwide – 
y that question over and over in my mind when I visit yet another private school and the teachers tell me that when students come from public schools and enter seventh and eighth grade and still don’t know how to read or write. It would be understandable if the children were in primary school, but to pass through seven or eight grades without learning, that’s alarming. In fact, much of the developing world, an estimated 793 million illiterate adults struggle with illiteracy.
a bit shocking.
Francisco comes back with a stack of certificates, newly stamped with the seal of approval from the Ministry of Education. His private Christian school is now recognized by the Nicaraguan government as meeting their national standards of literacy training. I’m flipping through the names on these awards and realizing that with each new name I see, this represents a new life for the individual. For a mom or a dad, they now have the ability to help their kids with their homework, find a better job, and read aloud to their kids at night furthering the beautiful bloom of knowledge in their household.
I think it’s because we both realize a simple yet incredibly profound thing has transpired. Even though nobody was there when he was a child, he is present now for the children. Even though no one had the money for him to go to school, he has found a way to provide for others. Even though he and his family lived many kilometers away, they found a house closer to the school to provide weekend classes.
HOPE International’s internship and fellowship opportunities are designed for individuals seeking to develop spiritually and professionally, while gaining valuable experience. HOPE interns and fellows enjoy the benefits of a challenging and meaningful opportunity, while working in a spiritually nurturing environment. During this opportunity, you will experience spiritual formation, professional enrichment, and significant involvement.
Edify worldwide – 
don’t know exactly where this local woman had gotten such a large bill, but I think I can connect the dots in this particular situation. Like in many impoverished countries, with the high frequency of tourism and enormous economic poverty, women sometimes engage in prostitution. I don’t want to give you the impression that this is what Nicaragau is like throughout the country or what it should be known for. That would not be true, nor would it be a fair representation to the beautiful countryside and Nicaraguan culture I have come to enjoy over the past month. Indeed, it is a complicated issue, an economic pressure driven by the divide between the rich who are in power limiting free market commerce from taking shape and the desperate poor waiting for more jobs.
Progress may be slow, but it is arriving.
With Edify I have been visiting schools and meeting with organizations like ACECEN to see if they’d be a good partner for Edify as they currently work with Christian schools in Nicaragua. ACECEN “promotes the development and improvement of Christian schools, preparing students to excel professionally based on biblical principles so that they become agents of transformation in society.”
Aaron Roth – HOPE International – “Feels Like Home” – Dec. 2012
Edify worldwide – 
On Christmas Day I called my Dominican family on Skype. I lived with them in their small home in a ghetto of Santo Domingo for a short bit when I first arrived to the DR, but had visited them every two or three weeks for the two years I spent in the DR. Talking with them on Skype brought back so many memories of my time in Santo Domingo, and though it had only been two months, it felt like a long time since I had been at home with them.
It hasn’t bothered me though. When I made the decision three years ago to serve overseas, I knew that I was changing some things that would remain permanent. Having a stable “home” would be a temporary enjoyment and a future plan. What became home to me was a mission, and that’s where I put my focus.
I’ve written many times about my belief in the efficacy and strength of what we do in Edify, and what HOPE International does around the world. We have been helping people develop skills to provide more employment opportunities and income for their families, providing them the financial capital to get started, and sharing the hope of a loving God who believed that to redeem the brokenness of this world was worth sending his beloved Son to this earth. (I think it’s always important to point back to the real meaning of the holidays you know?)
d those that I will continue working with this upcoming year.
Nicaragua my host family showed me the room where I’d be staying. It’s separated from the house, has its own bathroom, and is clean.