Clay already wrote a blog called the yellow house. He stole my title so i just translated it into spanish (I think). We arrived in Honduras meriocles pasado (last Wednesday) and i love it here. We are working with an organization run by a guy named Tony (weird that i don't know his last name) called puerta de zion. It's here in Tegucigulpa, and basically they work with the street kids that live in a dump called La Kennedy. Its a place with very little hope, La Kennedy I mean. The little barrio is literally built on trash, with little shacks made out of metal and other scraps making up the housing. The kids are playing with trash, the mothers cook around the trash, and all of the men are sniffing rags covered in paint thinner pretty much 24/7. To be sure, it's definitely not my first encounter with this kind of environment, but it is still a tragedy and hard to think about. There is so little hope there that it is ridiculous.
So 2 years ago, Tony, an American ex-Mormon from Utah who now loves Jesus, began to take in street kids that want to get out of the dump. He doesn't make them do anything. He lives on a property with no gate and no wall. The kids are free to come and go. He has simple rules for the operations of the property, but other than that its all based on him loving the crap out of the kids. Literally. It's not a rehab program. The kids have changed because they are loved. And you can visibly see it. Wilder (a newer boy) left and went back to La Kennedy the other day because he didnt want to obey the rules. Tony didn't force him to stay. He told him he loved him and wanted him there, but let him go. The next day, one of our teams was with Tony in the dump. Wilder was there, high on paint thinner. But after Tony gave him a hug, Wilder opened up and asked to come back, because he didn't wanna live in the dumps. It was eye opening to say the least. Nothing was forced upon this kid. He just knew where he was loved. And this is where the love of Christ shines through. No conditions. No "do this and i'll love you". No. It's simply "I love you and I want what's best for you". And when they realize this, they begin to change. It's the same way the love of Christ works. No one comes to love Jesus out of fear of hell. They see that God loves them passionately, fully, wildly, so much so that he would stop at nothing, not even discipline and hell, to His children what we NEED. And when we realize this, we turn to Jesus. And along the way, we screw up, just like Wilder did. Just like Brian did yesterday when he was picking on younger boys and pushing them down. But then, like the Father in the story of the prodigal son, the Father welcomes us back and shows us He loves us, and we continue to grow and change into who we were made to be, Sons and Daughters of the King.
