New Puppy and A House On Fire

What a day!

That’s what I wrote in my journal last night. It’s a phrase that I often use at the end of a particularly hectic day, but yesterday it was more than appropriate (as you can tell by the title of this post).

Where do I even start?

First the puppy part. As you probably know, in January our dog Carl died. It was hard for us to lose a part of the family, but we also lost our guard dog out at the Villa. So we started praying for “Carl Jr”. Well, I found him!

By complete chance (and the hand of God), I was passing by the house of a friend’s mother-in-law at the same time that a neighbor was visiting her…a neighbor with a weimaraner puppy that looked like a mini-Carl! Of course I jumped out of the car to ask her where she bought the dog. It turned out that she was selling the puppy that was with her. So I got her number, we called the next night, and BAM…we have a new puppy!

Yesterday I went with the girls to pick him up. That was a huge excitement. As we drove back to the Villa (me driving, Sara in front with the dog, and all the girls in the bed of the pickup truck), we realized that we were in for some excitement with our new pup. He barked and licked and romped around the car until we reached the entrance to the Villa. Then he decided to sleep (go figure).

As Maria (the gatekeeper) opened the door, she exclaimed “Yay, a new puppy! You’re house is on fire.” Not necessarily two sentences that I would ever string together. And what a shock it gave us!

What house? Our house? The Villa? Is on fire? I knew that Hae Young and the boys had arrived before us, and since I hadn’t received a phone call, I prayed that it was not as serious as Maria had said. Regardless, I hit the gas and we started up the mountain to see that damage.

As we neared the top, we could see the flames. The girls in the back (who hadn’t heard the news from Maria) started banging on the windows, screaming that there was fire. I’m sure it was a shock for them. All I could see were a lot of flames, very close to the apartments. We said a quick prayer and continued on to the house.

Ok, you can breathe a sigh of relieve, the house was spared. The fire burned a big chunk of land near the house and apartments but didn’t touch either of the buildings. Nor did it get to our water tank or any of the gardens. The only thing that was damaged was a tube that carries water from the tank to the apartments (but that was replaced early this morning).

As you can see from the pictures, the fire came very close to our house…too close. But the miracle is that it stopped before it hit the house. There is almost a complete circle around the house where the land is burnt and yet NOTHING crossed over. God completely protected His house and His children.

As a child, I was terrified of fire. It was one of my biggest fears that my house would start on fire and that I would lose everything I had. And yet, as I heard the news from Maria, I felt a complete calm wash over me. Even though she was telling me that my house was on fire, I KNEW that God would protect us and that everything would work out for His good. My childhood fears came to pass and I survived. I don’t have to fear the fires anymore because I can trust that God will protect those who serve Him.

Isaiah says it well “though you may pass through the fires, you will not get burned…”

God performs miracles every day, and I am so thankful that I get to see them so frequently. While I would never wish to relieve this, I am grateful for the experience to meet my fears head on and CONQUER them. We are victorious with Christ!

So after all the excitement, we settled down with our new puppy…who the kids decided to name Brownie. Their reasoning: “everyone loves brownies”! It’s true, and it looks like this dog loves us back. As I write this, he is sleeping at my feet, tired from playing with the kids during recess!

My All-Nighter: A Lesson In Submission

I’ll admit it….

….I’ve never pulled an “all-nighter”. I know that it’s a typical college thing to do – staying up all night to finish a paper of study for a big test, but I’ve never done it.

I’d like to say that I never pulled an all-nighter because I was a diligent student who was always prepared well before bedtime, but the truth is…

…I love my bed!
It doesn’t matter if it’s a full-size bed at my parents’ house, or a lofted extra-long in a dorm room, or my brother-in-law’s old futon. I’ll sleep just about anywhere, mostly because I love to sleep.

That’s where I often get into trouble. A wise person once told me “the idols in your life are the things that you believe you cannot live without”. Huh. I never would have thought of my bed as an idol in my life, but many times this past year, I spent more time thinking about sleeping than I did thinking about the actual tasks at hand.

My bed became my refuge. It didn’t matter that I slept in 13 different beds over the last 12 months (impressive right?), as long as I was in “my bed”, nobody could touch me. In bed, wrapped up in a warm blanket, I could forget about the frustrations or stress of the day and I didn’t have to start thinking yet about the day to come. Just me and my bed.

Getting back to the all-nighter.

So I pulled an “all-nighter” the other night. It was another practice in the lesson that God has been teaching me this month. It’s a lesson in submission. Not so much being submissive to Him or to authorities, but teaching my body to be submissive to me.

Teaching my body to be submissive to me means that I do not live in the flesh. It means that I can exert self-control in terms of what I say, how I react, what I eat, what I do with my time, etc.

God completely convicted me in this area of my life and hit it home when I started reading the book “The Character of the Lord’s Worker” by Watchman Nee. It’s a fast read and it’s pure truth…none of the fluffy stuff.

In his book, Nee has a chapter on submitting our bodies. He states “I should discipline my body until it serves me, instead of me serving it”. It’s such a good point. How often do I get into trouble because I am listening to my body and not God? My stomach grumbles and I eat. My legs don’t want to move, so I don’t work out. I get offended by someone, so I say hurtful words. I feel tired so I go to bed instead of finishing my “to do list” (VERY GUILTY).

But it should be the other way around. My body should do what I tell it to do. My body submits to me, I submit to God, end of story.

Nee lists three ways that we should discipline our bodies:

1) Fasting
2) Prayer Vigils (aka “all-nighters)
3) Living out of our comfort zone.

So basically Nee says in one part is that if I call myself a true follower of Christ and have not ever spent the entire night in prayer/meditation, I should be EMBARRASSED! And I was. Here I am, trying to be a good example to these kids, and yet my bed is a priority in my life. We get up at 5 am to pray, and I’m the last one out of bed…pathetic.

Now really getting back to the “all-nighter”

Upon reading this, I decided “enough is enough” and that night I held my first all-nighter. I convinced Miriam to ditch her big bed for the night to sleep in my room with the girls. I stocked up on hot-water and tea. And I moved all the “necessities” to the living room.
Journal…check. English and Spanish Bibles…check and check. Ipod ready with worship music…check. Favorite pajamas…check. Comfy couch….check. I was ready to spend a night with God.

And I did it! I sent the girls to bed at 9:30 and sat down to pray, worship (well that part was standing up), read the Bible and spend some serious time with the Lord. The best part is: I felt so refreshed when 5 am rolled around and the kids came down for prayer. And the feeling lasted the whole day!

In general, it was a fantastic night! I am slowly learning to submit my body to the will of God and to have self-control over the desires of my flesh. And I am realizing that no matter how much I love my bed…I love God more and I need to put Him first in my life, NO MATTER WHAT.

All-nighters are fun…I think this might be a monthly thing.

Attempted Drive-By Mugging

That's probably not a good title for a blog. Yes, I was involved in an ATTEMPTED Drive-By Mugging (I bet you didn't even know those things existed) but don't worry mom...nothing happened.



I have to share this story mostly because the more I re-told the story, the funnier it became. I'm glad that we're able to laugh about it now. So now that you know that I am safe and my belongings are safe...here's the story.



Tuesday morning 8 am: Betsy, Tacarra (an friend who wanted to come out to see the Villa) and I are in the pickup truck driving out to the Villa. Our bags are tied together in the back and we are sitting in traffic waiting to get onto the highway.



Nothing to be worried about. Betsy was sharing with Tacarra how she came to be a missioary in Honduras, and I was sitting between the two of them, holding Betsy's purse and enjoying the ride. The doors were unlocked, and the windows were opened (but only a couple inches).

Then out of no-where a guy appeared, put his hands on the top of the window and started talking to us. We didn't notice at first because we were having a conversation, but he became more anxious and began to raise his voice until he was yelling "cellulares, cellulares". (cellphones) Then he put his hands inside the car trying to grab at the cellphones (although none of them were withing eye-sight).

Thank God the car in front of us had moved forward, so Betsy slammed the gas and we went flying forward. The man must have been startled because he took off running and didn't return. Thank God for watching over us through all of this. This whole scene took place probably over the course of 25 seconds, but it left us a little paranoid and a little shaken until we were on the highway heading out of town.

The funny part of this all was Betsy's reaction of
"Thank God he didn't grab my head"

Of all the things to give thanks to God for (thank God he didn't have a gun, thank God he didn't take anything out of the pick-up, thank God he was alone, etc) Betsy is giving thanks that this man didn't grab her HEAD.
And secondly, it sends me into fits of laughter imagining what I would have done if he had grabbed her head. How exactly are you supposed to react to that?!

So there's my first "mugging" experience in Honduras (can I really call it that?). Don't worry family and friends, I am completely safe, and I don't expect anymore situations like that one. My biggest worry is that the kids are going to steal my secret stash of sweets!

"I Am A Responsible Adult" And An Errupting Breakfast

Those two things really shouldn't go together.

And yet, here I am writing a blog about them, so here goes.

Yesterday Hae Young went into town for the weekend off, leaving Eduardo (age 20), Miriam (age 19) and me (age 24) alone with the kids. And then we realized that this is the first time that there hasn't been an "adult" at the Villa with us.

When Hae Young was in Korea we either had Rosa (who cooked for us) or Fofo (Elvia's brother-in-law) or some other adult from the ministry.

Not that I don't qualify as an adult...
I know that legally I have been an adult for 6 years and yet I still that I have a lot to learn and a lot more to experience until I can really call myself an adult. So I like to refer to myself still as a "joven" (or a young person) although I think I'm pushing it since that's the term we use to refer to the teenagers here.

So yesterday I jokingly said to Betsy and Hae Young: "no adults at the Villa, let's party!" to which Betsy responded "Katie, you are an adult". She then proceeded to have me repeat "I am a responsible adult, I am a responsible adult" (all in fun of course).

More than capable
Of course I think that we are more than capable. I've been out at the Villa for a year, Ed and Miriam have been here 7 months and nothing is going to happen to us out here. Even if it does, it's only for the weekend :) We've lived through water shortage, no light, food shortage, broken-down cars, etc...I think we can survive a weekend with 9 kids!


Which gets me to the errupting breakfast story. I guess this showcases the "responsible adult" part?

The girls and I decided to make rice and milk (arroz con leche) a few mornings ago. It's very simple. Make the rice, boil the milk, combine the milk, rice, cinnamon, sugar and there you go - yummy breakfast.

Well, Lesli was scooping the rice from one bowl into the pan of milk...one-spoonful-at-a-time...and I was getting impatient so I (being the responsible adult) suggested that she just dump it all in.

Any ideas what happens when a large mass of rice (which is heavy) is dumped into a large pan with about a gallon's worth of hot milk?
Well anyone with basic science knowledge can tell you that the rice displaces the milk, and that the force with which the rice hits the milk makes an EQUAL AND OPPOSITE reaction.

So you can image my surprise when the milk literally errupted (up and then down) causing a HUGE mess on the kitchen counters, floors and of course all the people in the kitchen.

The girls looked at me, I burst out laughing and then like any responsible adult, I threatened discipline on any of the girls who told Hae Young what had happened.

I guess the secrets out now.

So there you have it: Katie Hutjens. Missionary. Chef-in-training. Responsible Adult.

La Quincenera

Anyone who is familiar with Hispanic customs knows that a girl's quincenera (15th birthday) is a very big deal.

So of course we had to have a big celebration for Angie on her 15th birthday. Being away from your family on your birthday can be difficult, and even more so when it's a big birthday like this. But no worries, Angie was celebrated and spoiled on her special day.

Here are some pictures that I just have to share, she was beautiful!




Miriam, Mari, and me all getting Angie ready for her celebration.

Ready to go...look at that smile!



Angie and me at the end of the day. Honestly, she smiled like this ALL day long!

I love this picture. This is when we're all singing to Angie before she blows out the candles. But she and Sara are so happy in this picture. What fun!

"Man's" Best Friend

I don’t think I’ve written a blog yet about Carl, our (Weimaraner) dog out at the Villa. Carl originally was Betsy’s dog, but he came out to the Villa about 2 years ago. Carl adapted to life at the Villa extremely well. There was a lot of space, plenty of food, and a ton of kids to give him love.

Sadly, Carl died on Tuesday morning. I am currently at home in De Pere, but apparently Hae Young found him Tuesday morning; she thought he was sleeping, until he didn’t get up.

Losing a pet is never a fun thing, and I am actually very thankful that I wasn’t there for the whole ordeal.

I wouldn’t really call Carl “man’s best friend”. In fact, he didn’t really seem to like men at all. It makes sense. He was raised by Betsy and her kids and then came to the Villa to live with Hae Young and a bunch of kids. Not a lot of men in that mix.

But Carl was a fantastic guard dog. He always came on our hikes and always had to be the leader (even if it meant running ahead of everyone and pushing the little kids out of his way). When I went walking alone during the day, he always stayed by my side and wouldn’t let anyone get close to me. By the time Carl had arrived at the Villa, he had lost most of his teeth (due to eating chicken bones), but his 80-pound frame was enough to keep strangers at bay.

I have one memory of Carl that shows his true colors. One day I was in the shed looking for paint and was struggling to get the lid off the paint bucket. A construction worker was walking past, saw me struggling, and offered to help. Of course, his helping meant that he’d have to enter the shed as well. Carl stood in the doorway (between the two of us) and refused to let this man enter. It wasn’t until I exited the shed that the construction worker could get in to help me. That’s how Carl always was when I was around strangers; he’d put himself between me and the other person as a barrier!

It will be sad to return to the Villa without my "little" dog there to greet me, but I guess that’s a part of life as well. We’re in the process of looking for a puppy of the same race; the kids want to name him Carl!

2010: Year in Review

Year 2011, you have some very big shoes to fill. I can't possibly try to fill this blog with all the ups and downs of 2010, but I can try.

So here is my top 10 list of 2010 (in no specific order, except for #1)

10. I have taken my bathroom for granted.

I have to admit this.

One thing I have learned in 2010 is that I love my bathroom more than I thought. Taking care of 11 kids means that there is not a lot of peace. In Honduras I usually had someone in the bathroom with me while I was getting ready or brushing my teeth, and often I would have to kick kids out of the bathroom so that I could "go" in peace.

And flushing toilet paper? Forget about it...that will back up the septic system for months. In the states, I have to tell myself "flush your toilet paper".

9. Time in the word + a good workout make me just about invincible

I try to make a conscious effort every day to read my bible and pray. But I've realized over the past few months that this is a necessity in my life. The days that I don't take time to pray and talk with God or read His Word leave me with less patience and more frustration. But when I do take the time to draw near to Him, I have a greater sense of peace throughout the day. Even the kids notice.

And I've found that working out is a great time for me to clear my mind, no matter how many people are around me. When I'm in Tegucigalpa, I go for runs in the park, usually with the kids running with me for a lap or two. And when I'm at the Villa, I pop in a Jillian Michaels DVD and have the girls work out with me. I don't know about you, but when I'm working out, I can't think about anything but the workout...and when I finally get back to thinking, somehow problems don't seem as big anymore.

The combination of the two have seriously changed how I view myself and how I interact with others, plus I've lost 30 pounds so that's a plus!!

8. A word of encouragement is priceless.

We had a speaker come in that told us that our kids need to hear 8 positive things for every 1 negative thing we say to them. I think it's true for all of us. We need to hear those encouraging words each day. This is why I am so thankful for my family and friends back home who have been encouraging me from day one!

7. The more love I give, the more love I have.

We have 26 kids in the ministry that have been taken away from their families. They require a lot of love. At the beginning I thought "do I really have the capacity to love them all?" The answer is yes. And I've found that the more I love them, the easier it is to love them. It's a great-big cycle.

6. I have two ears and one mouth for a reason.

I am learning to listen more and talk less. My mouth has always gotten me in trouble and this year was no exception. While I didn't make any huge mistakes, I'm learning that sometimes it's just better to stay quiet.

5. Crying is not going to solve anything.

I cried a lot this year. A LOT. But as Elvia pointed out (on many occasions), nothing is being solved by my tears. Not that tears are always bad, but I'm learning to be proactive and not take things so personal.

4. The Packers on ESPN live in Honduras make me smile...every time.

Like any good-Wisconsin (born and raised) girl, I love my Packers! Having attended a game nearly every season for the last many years (thanks Uncle John and Aunt Ruth), I was a bit sad to miss the season. And then I realized that ESPN airs the games in Honduras...FANTASTIC!! A little piece of home, and an added bonus that the Packers had such a good season.

3. God gives us exactly enough time to do everything He wants us to do.

At the beginning of my time in Honduras, it felt like there weren't enough hours in the day to do everything on our list. But then I realized that I was the one making the list and not allowing God to be a part of it. He has given me the perfect amount of time to do His will, but when I try to add my own agenda, I end up with a lot of unfinished things.

2. Patience is a really good thing to have when living with 11 kids.

I wasn't exactly characterized as a patient person before Honduras. But I have learned a lot. Whether it's waiting an hour in rush-hour traffic, or waiting 25 minutes for Josue to finish his dinner, or waiting 8 months for my residency papers (we're still working on it), I'm learning that it's all in God's perfect timing. So, yes. I am getting a lot better, at least in one aspect :)

1. It's not about me.

I didn't intent to be self-centered when I arrived in Honduras. But somehow I did have the idea that it was about me...at least a little bit. But what I have learned is that it's not about me at all. I am in Honduras to do God's Work, God's Way. End of conversation. It has taken a lot of humility and submission, but slowly I releasing my desires and letting God be in charge. After all, it's His money, His time, His ministry, and His children.