Chino Gringo! Chino Gringo!

Chino Gringo …..a commonly used phrase that has been spreading like wild fire in the Colony of Los Pinos. Chino Gringo translates to “Chinese White Person” …..’cept I’m not Chinese. Apparently in the Spanish language it doesn’t matter if youre Chinese, Lao, Filipino, or Japanese, all types of Asian cultures are called Chino. I think it’s absolutely HILARIOUS that I have been appointed the name Chino Gringo to these beautiful kids. I have told these kids my name and all, but Chino Gringo seems to be their favorite to call me. It’s such a beautiful occurrence that whenever we pull up to Los Pinos, there are over a dozen kids running up to me and yelling “Chino Gringo! Chino Gringo! Chino Gringo!” We were working in Los Pinos yesterday, and as we were waiting for the rest of the group to come one of the girls that we play with was walking home from school; I kindly said Hola and automatically she said “Hola Chino Gringo!” That moment was definitely a highlight of my day. Even my teammates have adopted calling me Chino Gringo. Love it!

Well first off, I’ve been learning a lot from the Lord Himself. He has been teaching me things that I never would’ve thought of back home. Most importantly He has taught me that Christ’s Love never takes a break. As mentioned before we are working a lot with street kids and their families. The three main boys that we have been working with have been very great, but at times they can be very overwhelming.  These boys have been basically on their own for a majority of their lives. They never had anyone to teach them how to say please and thank you. No one has taught them about sharing any of their things. They don’t know how to respect and take care of things that are given to them. Sometimes they don’t really listen to us when we ask them to do things or settle down when we ask them to. We have the boys over on the weekends and one of the boys, Josue, has been staying with our group at the farm. The point I’m trying to explain is that yes, it would be nice to have peace and quiet without having teenage boys running around, but these boys need LOVE. They have been lacking LOVE for most of their life. God has sent us here to LOVE on these boys. My teammate Lindsay shared an example with us one day that stated that Christ’s love for us never takes breaks. God doesn’t decide He wants to take a 5 or 10 minute break from loving us because we keep screwing up or get caught up in sin. These boys haven’t received the LOVE they deserve….it’s such a sad situation. STREET LIFE is all they have known…..until now……

The kids in Los Pinos don’t have much of a chance at succeeding in life at all. I know that was really harsh to say, but it’s the truth. There’s always going to be a few “diamonds in the rough” but most of these kids won’t have an opportunity at a good education. As a matter of fact, most of the kids there don’t get a very good education. The way the school system works in Honduras is that by law every kid needs to be in school from K-6^th grade. The K-6 program is covered by the government, BUT any education after 6^th grade needs to be paid for by the parents and/or families. The aftermath of that law is that a TON of kids don’t go to school after the 6^th grade. A main reason is because their parents can’t afford it, so instead they make their kids go into the workforce and the education stops at a 6^th grade level. Anyways, back to the subject of the kids….

 

The kids here, especially our boys, don’t have much. Limited clothing, no clean water to drink, no education, and most unfortunately no food. One of the things that we feel blessed to do is provide food for our boys whenever they come to the farm on the weekend. Dang, those boys can eat! I remember an instance when we were making pancakes one morning and the boys ate more pancakes than any other human being I’ve never seen! Just the other day as we just got to Los Pinos, one of the boys-Carlos- came up and held my hand and said “Chino Gringo, yo tengo hombre, yo tengo hombre” which translates to “I’m hungry, I’m hungry.” Gosh, that really broke my heart to hear him say that. I didn’t have any money on me so I couldn’t buy him anything, but we fortunately brought some PB&J sandwiches (a staple food on the World Race) so Carlos was able to at least get some food that day. Since the boys live on their own basically, they don’t have anyone to cook for them. There’s no set time for dinner together, and they definitely don’t have money to stop at Burger King to get anything. Our contact person Tony says these boys sometimes go for days without eating anything. This is the part where huffing paint thinner comes in. Doing drugs suppresses your appetite; therefore doing paint thinner is an easy way for these boys to get their mind of the hunger pains.

 

There are a few more things that I want to share with you like what God has been enabling us to do for these kids and what not, but I will post that blog tomorrow when I get internet. Aside from working with the kids in Los Pinos, I am helping our contact Tony with setting up Facebook and a blog page so he can connect with people around the world. The blog will have stories and pictures from his Ministry here in Honduras. Our plan is to build a site where people can visit and read more about the families Tony is working with here in Honduras. We want to build the blog so that if people feel led to support Tony’s ministry or support the families Tony is working with, they are able to by donating online ;whether it be by financial blessings, coming down to Honduras, and even sending food. I’ll have more details when it is finished!

 

These are just a few photos of an experience God has graciously blessed me with. You can visit my Facebook album for more photos of this beautiful ministry!

 

 (You do not need to be a member of Facebook to view)

 

Again, I will post more information tomorrow hopefully! Thank you for reading and taking part in this beautiful thing the Lord has placed in my life!

 

God bless!!!

 

PK