It's only been a week and it feels like a lifetime (except I only took my second shower this morning)! However, Honduras is amazing! The language is such fun, the people are beautiful, the sky is magnificant, the buses are popular, the pulperia's are dependable and the food is terrific…and the Lord is good!
This month, our whole squad is together in the capital, Tegucigalpa, at Zion's Gate Ministry. We are all tenting indoors or outdoors. My team opted for outdoors!
The first few days were for some squad building. We spent hours in worship and many people shared things which have chained them and then experienced so much freedom and celebration. We went to a statue in a park and prayed for the city on Saturday. Sunday we had a church service. Two of the teenage boys living at Zion's Gate shared their testimony. We prayed for one of the boys who shared and his family. Their father hung himself just this past year. We then prayed for the 21 year old translator who tried to kill himself just two days before. My heart absolutely broke for this young man who decided to enter himself into a 90 day treatment center, praise the Lord!
Ministry!
Each team of our squad (O Squad) had been assigned different projects this week. Some stayed at Zion's Gate fixing a gate, the front patio/porch, some built a Tilapia pond, cultivated a farm, loved on beautiful children who have had children from incest or abuse or were being uncared for for mental or physical abuse, and sorted through donated clothes and toys to give away.
The first day my team sorted through all the clothes and toys. The next two days we were able to go to the home of the children. There are 6 teenage girls 12-18, 5 babies under the age of 1, three toddlers, a 6 year old and 9 year old who both have cerebral palsey. All three of the toddlers have been abandoned by their parents. One of them would not let go of my neck and had tears in his eyes when I was telling him bye.
Our contact at Heart of Christ (the home with the children) took our team to pray for a baby who has two tumors under her eye. Gracie, the contact, felt all day that our whole team needed to pray aloud for this baby, Estefanie. It was a very special moment for me. God put us all together for us as a team to usher in His presence, His healing, His love, His salvation to the nations. It was neat to have us all a part of that prayer for her. Please continue to pray for her and for finances for the family.
Next week my team will be on the grounds building a rabbit cage for the 13 boys that live at Zion's Gate to sell. These boys have all come to Zion's Gate by choose from the streets. They are going to school, being well fed, learning to obey, work SOOO hard and learn about the Lord. These boys are all like brothers, they are so loving and really take good care of us, especially riding the buses and walking through the city.
The Lord is teaching me so much about valueing the process of ministry, because we may never see the product of what we do, but loving people is crucial. I am also learning to remember a simpe smile can lighten a person's day, sometimes a smile is all I feel I can do to communicate. I am reminded to be aware of the people around me, asking strangers how they are because you never know how someone may need to be prayed for. And also to learn to be more thankful for what I have been given and be free to give it all away. The boys from the streets, the dump, during their testimony's spoke so much of how thankful they are for their lives and would not trade it for anything. I have been given so much in comparison and my gratitude does not compare to theirs. So I am loving how God is teaching me and shaping my heart to look more like His!
Thank you everyone for your support and prayers!
