Hello hello! It seems like it’s been so long since I last wrote, but it’s only been like a week and a half. Ha- it sounds like this month we’ll only have internet like twice or so whereas last month I was able to go on once every 3 or so days. Ok well when leaving from Guatemala to Honduras we got to go to this place called Antigua for a night which was nice and we got to go on these amazing, comfortable busses. We’re about a half hour from Tegucigalpa which is the capital of Honduras and we live in high elevation. The mountains here are beautiful. The ministry site this month is really cool. The couple here takes in boys who’re living in the streets of Honduras and on drugs (many are on paint thinner I guess), and they let them live here and they all become family. They teach them about Christ and things like responsibility. So our ministry includes ministry to the teenage boys that live here. I do admit that at first I found them pretty annoying just because of things they’ll do sometimes, but then I remember that they’re 1. Teenagers 2. Boys 3. Just getting off the streets and off drugs. But they’ve been growing on me, and I‘m learning to accept and love better. Where we live is like our “home base” and there’s a rotation of different ministries that they have all the teams on our squad doing like one is working at a hospital and another is building relationships with these people that live in the dumps. It sounds like my team will be able to do both of those this month and some other stuff.
This week starting on Monday, my team left the site here, and stayed somewhere else for the week which was about 2 hours away. We got to sleep in beds which was nice. We woke up so early though, some days at 5am and went to bed super early too. One notable thing was that the power would turn randomly on and off in the city throughout the day, and I guess that‘s pretty common. We stayed at a Christian couple’s place that takes in the kids that no one wants like the kids with special needs, the kids who were born from incest, and the mother’s that were raped and their babies. It also acts as a “safe house” and will take people in temporarily that are in a crisis. It’s not big by any means, but we were told that there are not many like it at all in Honduras. The couple that runs it are very inspiring- just all the things they’ve been through and how they fight for justice in the country and truly love like Jesus and preach Him. We’ve heard that many times the police here are corrupt and that many times rape and murder goes unpunished. The ministry there was also a rotation of taking care of the babies and toddlers while the mother’s were in school, taking care of the kids with special needs, construction work, doing dishes, cooking, and forming relationships with the mothers. There’s a few toddlers there that were born from incest, and one of them was one of the cutest boys I’ve ever seen. The mothers really liked to do makeup and nails, so that was fun doing that with them. I didn’t get to form a very strong connection in just 5 days while having to watch their babies while they were in school, but I did get to form a small connection with them and got to say a couple Scriptures to them. One of the nights we were there, a group of 7 kids unexpectedly had to spend the night there with us because they were just being pulled out of an abusive home. Throughout the week, everyone on my team got like a stomach flu except for me. Many were throwing up a lot and had diarrhea. I like to think that I was ok because of all of you praying for me! I did feel a lil sick last night though, but am feeling better. One of my teammates actually went to the doctor, and I went with.
Today, they let us go to the mall. It’s seems like a regular mall in the U.S. I’m at Applebees right now! The first day we got to Honduras we got to play soccer, participate in this city Bingo thing, and see this city horse competition. We’re going to church on Sunday and next week my team will be going to the place where people live in the dumps and doing some on-site work. We’ve already been to the dump once, and the people literally live off of what has been thrown away and many get high on paint thinner daily. We hope to bring healing and restoration to them.
I’ve missed my family this week and my friends- I think partly because we haven’t had internet time. I even had a dream last night with my friends from Cru. That’s how much I miss you! Haha. Lately like all of my dreams have been about either my family and friends or my team here. Except a couple nights ago when I had this really random, super vivid dream that I was on the phone with Justin Bieber. Hahah. Anyway! Another thing that I’ve been processing is the question: What is ministry and what is the best way to do it? My plan is to give you more thoughts on that later because this is already long, but I’ve just been pondering that lately with just the different ministries that I’ve seen. Anyway love everyone, hope you’re all doing well!
