You’ve probably experienced how quickly time can pass. Welcome to a constant on the World Race.
Honduras still is a new place to me. There’s so much left to see and so much more to experience, but the day is approaching for us to pack up our things and start our journey to Guatemala.
This past week looked different from our first couple of weeks here. Instead of staying on or near the property and doing manual labor, we went out to the most impoverished places of Guatemala to serve meals and pray for those in the dark.
We went to the dumps.
A place called home to some and serves as an occupation to many more.
An area where you couldn’t guess where the actual earth is because all you walk on is layers of decomposing food, medical equipment, and all sorts of varieties of trash.
A place where upon entrance you cannot decide whether to first vomit from the intense smell or cry with knowing that people choose to be here from day to day.
In this place, babies are handed to the “gringos,” aka: whities, in hopes that parents will have one less mouth to feed and body to clothe.
Here, fighting cows, diseased dogs, birds the size of pterodactyls, and humans all manifest the same grounds.
We handed out spaghetti and tortillas, talked with the teens, played with the kids, and prayed for all.
Los Pinos: the land of pines.
Actually, it’s indistinctively known as the land of drugs and abuse.
All 57 of us went to this part of town, well knowing that it’s the most dangerous part of Honduras. We all knew that scars on peoples’ faces meant that they avidly sniff paint thinner and that most women who live there are in a restricted and abusive lifestyle.
We also knew that God had bigger plans for Los Pinos than what others knew the place and the people as.
I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of treasure hunting.
tr-eah-shur. huh-ent-eeng: it’s where you and a small group of people (ie: World Race team) individually pray for God to give you a word, vision, or image of anything. After receiving all the visions, etc., you go out as a group with an eye peeled for the visions, etc., that God gave you and then boldly pray for the person that He leads you to.
Let me share how this became an awesome experience for Team Kina:
Earlier this week we all individually prayed for God to give us a word.
When we were walking through Los Pinos to go pray on a hilltop Lauren and I saw a birdcage on the side of a building (Eddie’s vision). We peeked inside this little building and saw an old lady where all red (Erica’s).
When we realized the puzzle/treasure pieces fitting together we called the team to assemble and we went to ask if this little old lady needed some prayer.
She said that every morning she wakes up and has a terrible headache from her eyes (Kenzie and Lauren’s) and also that she often finds yellow liquid coming from her yes (Kenzie and Lauren’s, yet again).
We prayed for her and once we finished she gladly proclaimed that her headache was gone!
The ironic thing about the dump and Los Pinos is that even though there was visible ugliness and darkness, it was surrounded by so much beauty. The landscapes surrounding both places were marvelous as well as peoples’ eyes after a thoughtful prayer.
Only a few days remain until Honduras becomes a blink of the eye.
