The Lord God will send His angel before you. –Genesis 24:7
Before we left El Salvador, my team prayed over Honduras and asked the Lord to send His angels ahead of us to make sure we arrived at a place of blessing. Indeed, after eight hours on a bus on Saturday, we arrived at Zion’s Gate. The evidence of the Lord’s blessing on this place is astounding!
Our wonderful contacts this month are Tony and Nydia. Tony is from Utah and has been here about five years, and Nydia is from Honduras. All 43 of us are staying on the property they bought about six months ago, about 15 minutes outside of the capital city of Tegucigalpa. Part of my squad’s task will be cleaning up the property, including an abandoned building where we’ve set up our tent village.
This month we will get our feet wet in lots of different types of ministry. First and foremost, we’ll be helping to disciple the seven boys that Tony and Nydia have taken in. Most of them are former street kids, with pasts ridden with living behind dumpsters, and robbing people to support their drug problems, mostly inhaling paint thinner. My friend Herman has agreed to let me tell his story, which I’ll share in a future blog.
We’ll also have the opportunity to do outreach in hospitals, orphanages and the ghettos. Local pastors are going to take us in to some of the poorest colonies to bring a little hope through music, prayer, and of course, soccer. I’m excited that there’s quite a bit of manual labor involved this month. Aside from painting and cleaning up Zion’s Gate, we’re going to do a “Home Makeover” on Herman’s mom’s house, and build a staircase for the Los Pinos community so that they’re not forced to climb 90 feet over dirt and garbage to get to their homes. Lots more stories on our ministry to come!
On Sunday we were treated to a day of sightseeing in Tegucigalpa. We went up to one of the highest points in this gorgeous, mountainous city, visited the national soccer stadium, drove through the huge outdoor market, and took a tour of the history museum.
To be honest, I was nervous about this month coming in. Month one wasn’t exactly everything I expected, I’ve heard horror stories about Honduras being one of the most dangerous countries in the world, and I have little to no experience working with teenage boys, especially street kids. But I have such a peace about being here. I have already fallen in love with this country and believe the Lord has so much in store for us this month. Tony has had two different local pastors tell him that it is impossible to help the boys living behind the dumpsters, that they’ll never change. Herman, who told us that the day he accepted Christ was the best day of his life, is proof that NOTHING is impossible with God.
