I got to see a glimpse of God through his people this month.
In the orphanage we were at this month, there are 6 houses full of residents, and we have six teams of 6 people here so we all went to one house each. I want to spend some time now introducing you all to some of the precious people I got to spend all month with.
Lucia:
Lucia. Wow. This girl is something special.
I was actually surprised to find out she’s a resident because of how capable, determined and strong she is. She fiercely fights and protects her little sister, Fatima. (As you can see there’s a cut on her head she got from protecting her sister from one the other residents- all judgment reserved for that resident who also has problems of her own which is why she’s in this house and needs all the love as well).
She is so selfless and sets her life to helping others, especially her paralyzed, mute sister. Despite struggles of her own, she still puts others before herself. She’s essentially her sister’s full-time care taker: she does all the feeding, most of the changing, and helps look out for her.
This girl is so full of love. As a missionary, I’m supposed to be the one there pouring out love to those I’m serving, however, I think she gave me more love. No matter how much I gave, she always gave more. She would always just wrap her arms around me and hold me which was just the most precious hugs I’ve ever had.
Lucia is my main form of communication. She gives me all the info about her and her sister. She tells me everything. She tells us what Fatima needs if she’s crying/ how we can help. She told me about their family and some of their past. And most heartbreakingly, one day she told me that Fatima cries a lot more when we aren’t there. Which makes me never want to leave! She also told me, before I started tell her everyday that she is beautiful, that she had never been told that before which was just as heartbreaking.
This girl also fiercely prays. One day she asked if we could pray for her sister to walk, she then joined us in prayer and pleaded with the father on behalf of her sister. The love and care that could be heard through her earnest prayer was just so touching.
I could go on for days about Lucia, but she clearly holds a very special place in my heart and anyone would be just so lucky to meet her!
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Fatima:
This is Fatima. I learned that she loves Snapchat filters and nothing is more exciting than seeing a smile on this precious soul’s face!!
This girl has captured my heart like none other. I mean wow. I’m in awe with how quickly I could so strongly love someone.
She is a fighter. She is so strong. Her condition is absolutely heartbreaking, but just being able to see God’s strength through her makes so inspired.
We’re not exactly sure what her condition is diagnosed as, but we do know she’s paralyzed. The paralysis causes horrible bed sores which just keep getting worse and cause her to be in constant pain. Her ability and strength just to continue to make it through another day really makes me check myself and change my perspective on life.
She also isn’t able to speak, but she understands everything spoken to her. There was one night that I was very troubled with how I could best serve her, and God gave me a dream where I was reading the Bible to her in Spanish, so I started doing that every day I could. I know I didn’t pronounce some words right, which probably made it hard to understand, but I also know that God’s word does not return void. Amazingly enough, after the first day I did this, her sister told me that it meant a lot to her and that she held it in her head and in her heart.
Fatima is a fighter. She is strong. She is brave. She is beautiful and she is the sweetest girl I’ve ever known.
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Maria:
Maria was the first to meet us and she brought us right in to her home. This girl can dance the night away, every single day. She loves music more than any one I know, and as soon as a beat starts going (even if it’s just me singing occapelloi*****) she will break out in dance. Our very first day was spent simply dancing for 7 hours straight with the sweet girl. We even got to intruduce her to our worship music, which we had downloaded in Spanish, and she even lifted her hands towards heaven!
You will also never capture a moment of her without a smile on her face. Her smile is so big, so real, and so radiant. You can’t not smile when you see her. Joy is so evident in this beautiful girl. No matter her situation she is always happy. Even when doing her chores.
She also prays with us. She may be mute, and can’t make a single sound, but as soon as we pray for one of her housemates, she joins right in, she folds her hands, bows her head and joins with us. One of my absolute favorite memories of her is the first time we went to pray for Fatima, we told her we needed to stop dancing for a second to pray and she, without second thought, stopped everything she was doing, everything she loved, just to go pray with us.
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Cesar:
This boy is something else, and we love him so dearly! He absolutely loves physcial touch- we learned this because he loves to grab our hands and place them on this face. He also has a funny obsession with ears and always liked to touch/ look at ours!
He is quite determined. That boy is going to get his way even if it kills him. His strength and perseverance is something to learn from though.
He took some time to warm up to, but it was so precious once he invited us in to his world. He loves to be read to, even if it’s in English. He just loves to have someone near. To be seen. To be heard. To be noticed. We gave all the love in the world to this guy, and he really was so easy to love.
One day when we all took the kids outside he refused to go down to the basketball court, so instead he and I sat on a step outside singing Spanish worship music and enjoying the beautiful weather.
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Esthefany:
The very first day we got to see her smile was one of the best! It took her a minute to warm up to us, but once she did we had so much fun with her!
Her trade mark is percing her lips together and humming at one of us. However, we learned ways to make her smile and laugh and it is just so fun!
She’s a funny little thing and will always make us laugh with the funny things she does!
This girl will also eat ANYTHING, which is quite humorous but also dangerous! We had to keep a close eye on her to stop her from eating bugs or grass!
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Christina:
This sweet angel.
This poor girl is also mute and paralyzed and unable to communicate, but she is so precious and sweet.
We were heartbroken to find out that she has lice! The worst infestation I’ve ever seen. From the looks of it, she had suffered with it for months. The day I found out, I prayed to God and said “I know this is such a silly prayer, but will you please heal her of this. I know it’s not serious, but I also know you care for her and don’t want her to have to suffer with this anymore.”
The next day, my teammates showed up prepared. I had no idea of what they had planned, but they brought lice treatment and lice combs and took care of her for 7 hours! When I saw them start on this, God quickly alerted me that my own team was the answer to my prayers. It was amazing of how practical this answer was, and how God willingly allowed us to partner in this miracle. I was shook that I hadn’t even thought of us helping (lesson learned) because I was assuming at the snap of my fingers / prayer her lice would disappear, but He wanted to do it with us to teach us more of his character. He’s a servant who is willing to get dirty to help his children who he so loves regardless of how much it cost him.
I was amazed by my team who so willingly laid down their flesh and dug right in to help this poor girl who couldn’t help herself.
We love our Christina so much, and now have a deeper understanding of how Christ loves us.
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Daniel:
Last but certainly not least is Daniel.
This boy is a trip. He loves being read to, even if it’s in English, just like Cesar. He also loves, and I mean LOVES, to eat. We quickly learned that during meal times we have to keep a very close eye on him or he’ll take everyone else’s food right off their plate, even if it’s soup! We also have to keep him locked out of the kitchen or he will eat everything.
This boy is so so sweet though. He loves hugs, and loves to be loved. He loves just spending time with you even if you’re just sitting in silence.
Every time we leave his room he always looks out the hole of the door, where the handle would be, to watch us leave and wave goodbye.
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There are so many more special, unique, beautiful people we met at the orphanage this month, who all left a mark on us. Leaving this month was so hard. The goodbyes were heart wrenching, and if you want to know what happened to my heart, it was left here with these people.
Their beautiful uniqueness taught us more about God’s character and showed us more of how he even loves us. Last month the key lesson I learned is that if you want to know what God looks like, then look at his creation. Since we are all made in the image of God, we all look like an aspect and show a glimpse of his face and who he is. I was able to carry that into this month and experience that truth in an even deeper way through the love, joy, faithfulness, strength, etc in these precious children of God.
I know I was supposed to be here to make a change and love on these sweet gems to show them God’s love, I’m leaving here forever changed with a deeper love for God and his people from the love they showed me.
Thank you Jesus for this month in Honduras.
