One of my bucket list items has been to sleep in my tent for an entire month. I thought this dream would come true months back, but it hasn’t come to fruition. Granted, I’ve slept on cement floors, under the feet of three Chinese folks on a train, African bus aisles, next to homeless people and in spaces that were too small to fit my sleeping pad, but never my tent. Finally, month 10, I can check sleeping in my tent off my list.
This month all 44 of us are staying in what used to be a nightclub now turned a very leaky “tent jungle”. Hammocks hang from the rafters and tents are placed inches apart.
Brit and I are sharing my “two person” tent. How two normal sized adults with packs would fit in my tent is beyond me, but we are able to snuggly fit. Even though we have our own tents, we still choose to share (we did put one of our tents in a prime location outside, so we have double the options). Now, used to sleeping inches apart, it’s hard to imagine sleeping in separate tents.
After an exhausting 18-hour bus ride and having to convince our driver to actually drive us to our location and not drop us in the middle of Tegucigalpa, the capital city at 11PM at night, we finally arrived. It was dark and rainy but we began to make our large warehouse into a “home”.
Tony, who only recently moved to Honduras, runs the ministry. A self-made businessman, he came to the Lord only a few years back. After a short-term mission trip to Honduras he decided to come back for a couple more months. Once returning to the U.S. he realized that God was calling him to go to Honduras fulltime. So after selling his business and home, he made the move.
His heart is for the street boys, boys that society and even local churches have deemed unreachable. These boys come from horrific situations; many living in the nearby trash dump, sifting through garbage to find their meals. Stealing, drugs and violence are a way of life. The majority of them were addicted to pain thinner, an extremely cheap drug that prevents hunger pains.
While the rest of the world has decided they are untouchable, too far gone to help, Tony has decided to fight for them. Nine teenage street boys currently live with him and his property is open to whoever needs a refuge away from the harshness that surrounds them. Becoming like a dad to them, he gives them the love that they have never experienced.
He gives them the opportunity to get off the streets and get an education.
He gives them the ability to stop searching for and eating garbage.
He gives them the chance at a real future.
But…beyond everything, he gives them the opportunity to know the love of Jesus.
To realize that while everyone else has abandoned them, Jesus has not.
To realize that the things they have done in their past are forgiven, forgotten.
To realize that they have more of a future than to sift through garbage and sniff paint thinner.
To realize that they are accepted.
To realize that they are loved.
