We've been here less than a week, and I have learned more in this time than ever before. God has also given me this time to reflect on things from the past. I’ve thought about all the kids in my life. I can see each one of them in the faces of the children we are serving this month. Our ministry in Honduras is at an orphanage, but it's not your average orphanage. This ministry has 3 homes, 1 girls rescue house, and 2 feeding stations.
To say it is hot here doesn’t even begin to describe it. The average heat index since we’ve been here has been over 100 degrees. It doesn’t matter how hot it is…the kids still need love and there is still work to do. The other night I was drowning in sweat, and on top of that I had 3 kids sitting in my lap wanting me to bounce them on my knee, and one child asleep on my chest. As I was listening to the kids laugh and try to teach me English I thought to myself, there is no place I’d rather be than sweating to death and surrounded by these precious little kids. Then I thought about all the times in the past, I’ve pushed a child away because it was too hot to hold them, too hot for them to be laying on me, too hot to go outside and play. Somehow those excuses just aren’t good enough anymore.
The kids we are serving this month have been hurt in ways I can't even imagine, have seen things adults should never witness, have been rejected and abandoned. And yet there is joy in their hearts and on their faces. The very minute I walk out of my room in the mornings and come around the corner children run towards me. It's like they are waiting on me, on us (my team). They literally jump into our arms so we have to be ready to catch them. These kids start my mornings with the best bear hugs in the world!! And then they just snuggle up close and don't want you to put them down. I can't imagine refusing to play with, hold, or love on any of these kids…EVER!!
And yep….I've been peed on too. Last night as we were preparing to go to dinner with our ministry contact, I was holding this beautiful little girl when I got that warm feeling on my legs…sure enough she had gone to the bathroom. But even at that point, I found it hard to put her down. I just hugged her tighter and smiled.
Christ said bring the little children to me! He didn’t turn them away because it was too hot, so what makes that an okay excuse for me to use? I'm pretty sure Jesus probably had a child or 2 use the bathroom on Him during His ministry too.
Lift these precious little children up in your prayers!! They are amazing! And pray also for their Tias….the ladies that run the homes. They are incredible and love each of these kids as if they were their own.
