Our squad arrived in Honduras last Thursday night after a long drive from Guatemala through El Salvador and to our destination, an old bar in Tegucigalpa the capital city of Honduras. That night I slept on the concrete floors of what was once THE most popular place to be on a Friday night. NOW this bar is a place where people come to WORSHIP!
Tony and his wife Nidia have a ministry called, “Don’t Waste The Opportunity” and they invest their lives, everyday to the youth of Los Pinos that is located on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa. Los Pinos is rated one of the most dangerous places to be in the world where kids invest their time in drugs and in gangs. A popular drug of choice here is sniffing paint thinner. Last Saturday Tony and a guy named Nathan took our squad on a hike to the largest statue I have ever seen. It was a statue of Jesus with his arms opened wide to the city below.
Before we started our team projects Tony thought it would be a good idea to say declarations over the city. There are a number of people who have written this place off as a lost cause and that there is no hope of improvement. That Saturday we voiced TRUTH over the places that are too dangerous for us to step foot into, that there is hope, and that even though we are unable to walk the streets of sector nine there is nothing stopping the holy spirit from entering that place.
Tony enters Los Pinos regularly and has developed respect amongst the youth there and I have seen the impact he has made in the lives of the kids that have been categorized as a lost cause. A few of them live with Tony and his wife at “Zions Gate” the compound where we are living at for this month. These kids are not shy to tell us their story of where they have been and how God changed their lives for the better.
Our ministry is with the local church of Los Pinos and we are working with the youth there. We are teaching the kids English and every Wednesday we play soccer with them. Hondurans LOVE soccer! Everyday we play even when it is not a Wednesday.
During the week we visit homes of local families and ask if they need prayer of any kind. Last Tuesday we met a girl named Katy who was in a terrible accident over a year ago. She was crossing a bridge on a bus and the bridge collapsed. Katy became paralyzed from the waste down and lost her Son in the accident. That day we entered her house and prayed for healing. We filled her room with songs of worship and we prayed some more. We were there for a little over an hour and even though healing did not take place in that moment, I believe that God is going to heal her. If anything the purpose for that day was to show Katy that she is not forgotten by God and that he sent fourteen North Americans to show her his love. We plan on visiting her again.
This week has been incredible! The view at “Zions Gate” is breathtaking. The compound is placed on a hill and you can see the city lights from there. This month is a 24/7 ministry. We are serving both at the church in Los Pinos and also where we are living. We are bringing Gods kingdom to what was once a dark place. We have had multiple worship nights here and the other night we had some local Hondurans lead some worship songs.
Graffiti is still on the walls and the name of the bar is still on the side of the building,. The locals are curious of what is going on here and is another reason why I believe that God is going to shake things up here in Honduras through this ministry in particular. I am beyond stoked to be a small part of it. I am already planning on coming back here in the future.
