Month one of the race is now officially over. Crazy. I’m still sorting through the emotions of what that means, and it still hasn’t really hit me that I’m on an 11 month missions trip and that I’ll be traveling to and through at least 11 countries. But it’s been a great first month.
For those that like details, my team and I served at a ministry called “New Life Children’s Home” in a small town called Jalaca, Honduras. It’s a wonderful place, and Ron and Annette Thiesen, who now run the ministry, are two of the most giving, humble, and loving people I have ever met. They really do exemplify what it means to be a Christ follower. For more info about them and their ministry, I highly recommend my teammate Wendy’s blog posting about it, here. (don’t let the title of her blog scare you away. I promise it’s not too messy.)
As I briefly mentioned in my last blog, we’ve seen a number of miraculous healings in Honduras. Which is awesome. God does amazing things for people. (Steph should be uploading a blog about one of these healings soon — stay tuned to her blog read about it!) But the focus for the team this month was more about the kids at New Life and supporting the Thiesen family. Which has been great. We spent a lot of time with the 47 kids at New Life, ranging in ages 5 to 19, and it was awesome to see them open up to us and to become friends with them. They each have their challenges and difficult stories, but God is doing great things in their lives, and the amount of love they showed us and each other (most of the time) is awesome.
In an average week, we would work 8-10 hour ministry days 6 days a week, with one day off a week to sight see, seek out some internet and coffee, and otherwise get some rest. We ran services for the kids 3 nights a week, and on other nights would hang out with them at cell groups, youth group, or church services. (I’m telling ya — these people go to church pretty much every day. Its pretty incredible.)
Most mornings we would help out the Thiesen’s with some much needed work around their home. They pour themselves out so fully that they simply don’t always have the time to get the bigger projects around the house taken care of. These projects included, but aren’t limited to — fixing ceiling fans, wiring up switches and outlets, rerouting power lines, cleaning and organizing the tool shed, and the biggest project, pulling out some old rotted cabinets of the kitchen that mice had found there way into to replace them with cement counters.
In the afternoons, we’d look for ways to spend time with and entertain the kids — take them to swimming holes, walk them to a nearby pulperia (a little store) to get charamuscas (frozen treats), go on short hikes, or most commonly, play soccer.
Getting to know the kids and being able to lead them into worship and pour into their lives was both a privilege and an honor. One of my favorite nights with the kids was when we split up the older ones (12 and older) by gender to talk to them about sexual purity. As you might expect, the boys didn’t have a whole lot of enthusiasm about the subject — most of them were looking at the floor a lot of the time — but coming from a place where I grew up in a relatively healthy family, it was neat to me that these kids had the opportunity to hear wisdom and testimonies about the topic that I’m even not sure I had as a kid.
All the people at New Life Children’s Home have really made an impression on my heart, and leaving them to move on to other ministries is in part exciting, but also bittersweet. Ron and Annette have a great ministry, and are amazing people, but could really use more support. Be sure to check out newlifehonduras.org to see how you can support them, or alternatively, maybe the Lord is putting it on your heart to spend an extended amount of time there to teach and love on the kids? It’d at least be a great conversation to have! Let me know if you want to get into contact with Annette.
Thanks for reading and for your support! The Lord has really been teaching me about confidence in Him in the last month, what it means to be His son, and the power that comes with that. Please play the He would continue to guide me as the All Out team leader, give me wisdom, and stretch me so that I can grow into more the man He designed me to be.
Also, be sure to check out my facebook page (and my team’s pages) to see some pictures from the month!
