This month my team joined up with three other teams and stayed with Tony (a fellow American) at Zion’s Gate Ministry in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. Tony and his wife, Nidia, take in street kids and they currently have 15 boys and girls (age 2-19) living with them in their house.
Tony became a Christian 5 years ago when he was 40 years old. Six months after becoming a Christian, he decided that he wanted to do something radical with other Christians and he went on a mission trip to Honduras. While in Honduras, a Honduran pastor asked him if he was being discipled by anyone. Tony said that he was being discipled Saturdays at 3:00 and Tuesday nights when he and several others met for a Bible Study. The pastor said that what Tony was describing wasn’t discipleship.
Discipleship is being with someone 24/7 and doing what they do…like how Jesus lived life with the disciples. The pastor offered Tony an opportunity to move here to Honduras and said he would disciple him for 6 months.
Two years after returning to the states, Tony called the pastor and asked if the offer still stood. Tony moved in with the pastor and his family. Six months later, he decided to move to Honduras permanently.
“I had already lived 40 years in the states. I thought, ‘Why not live my next 40 in Honduras?’ “
A little over a year later and Tony is now the founder of Zion’s Gate, a home for street kids. Tony and his wife currently have 15 street kids living with them from the age of 2 to 19. Most of these kids are from Sector F of Los Pinos, considered to be the most dangerous place in all of Central America. The police won’t even enter Sector F, yet Tony has spent years visiting people, building relationships, helping with the construction of houses, and recuing kids.
The majority of these kids don’t have fathers. They live out of dumpsters, sometimes sitting by the same dumpster all day, scavenging for anything they can find, and then returning home (if they have a home to go to). Many of them don’t go to school nor have anything to keep them busy so they spend most of their days smoking and/or high on drugs or paint thinner.
This is the dumpster where Tony first met Carlos and Fernando. They were street kids, only 10 and 12 years old. They weren't the only boys Tony found living out of dumpsters. His mission is to offer kids and families hope by creating a way out of the vicious cycle of living in the streets.
On our day with Tony we were able to see him in action. We drove around as he showed us where he had met each of the boys and girls years ago. We were able to meet Carlos and Fernando's mom and also meet Liseth, a 14 year old girl with a great smile and fun personality, but unfortunately her life included sitting by the dump for hours a day hoping to find something valuabe.
Tony talked with her for quite a while and by the end of the conversation, she pinky promised to come visit the property.
And that following Sunday, she came to Zion's Gate and stayed for the church service. We gathered around her, praying. She cried as she was overwhelmed with love and although she didn't move in that day, we are hopeful that one day she will be living in the new girl's dorm on the property that is nearly completed.
Tony gives these kids a home, and a father figure. If they choose to come stay on the property, he gets them into school (usually requiring sponsors to donate a certain amount monthly), gives them chores to teach them responsibility, and provides structure through Family meetings, prayer time, and church on the property.
It’s all or nothing on the property. Tony doesn’t require perfection, but he expects 100% commitment. If they don’t behave, he will send them right back to Los Pinos for a few days, a week, a month, or indefinitely. His goal is to raise them up to be leaders, so that they can go rescue other street kids.
“It’s not about how many stay, it’s about how many leave and make disciples.”
