Hola from Honduras!
I love this place. The sounds, the music, the people, the language, the culture. Whether I am taking a machete to the weeds (Lord help us all), building relationships with the Honduran teenage boys who live here, or sharing a quiet moment of prayer with my team- it feels like home.
Honestly, the craziest thing about this journey so far is that it doesn't feel so crazy.
It doesn't feel so weird to be eating different foods, or living in my tent, or getting internet once a week if all goes well, or sharing a 3 stall bathroom with my entire squad plus some (coed bathrooms- an exciting learning experience..haha).
It feels like…pure joy. It feels like exactly how my life was meant to be. Trust me, it's not easy by any means. Not at all. But I suppose nothing worth having in life is.
So what our ministry looks like this month:
We are working at Zion's Gate Ministries with a man named Tony, his wife, a few other young missionaries, and a group of young Honduran boys who previously lived on the streets.
Tony has a heart for the ones in this city who others would look at and say "impossible"- the teenage boys who are living on the street, involved in gangs, eating out of dumps, constantly high on paint thinner, without caring families, an education, love, or hope.
For me, the most beautiful part has been building relationships with the boys here. By God's grace (seriously) my Spanish is pulling through for me and I am growing in my confidence. Because of this and just getting some cool God-ordained opportunities, I have been able to sit down one on one with some of these boys that I have grown especially close to and hear their heart and stories and struggles. I have been able to get to know them, share with them, laugh with them, and speak life into them.
It is one thing to hear these stories. It is quite another to look into the faces of them.
Tony has built relationships with these boys over the years, and has invited different ones onto this property and into his home. Did I mention this property used to be the nightclub with the worst reputation in the city? Talk about turning a place around.
He disciples these boys intensely, and is growing them into young men who love the Lord and are becoming spiritual leaders. I listened to a 16 year old former street boy preach to us for the first time this Sunday on Romans.
There is so much love here.
For me, the most beautiful part has been building relationships with the boys here. By God's grace (seriously) my Spanish is pulling through for me and I am growing in my confidence. Because of this and just getting some cool God-ordained opportunities, I have been able to sit down one on one with some of these boys that I have grown especially close to and hear their heart and stories and struggles. I have been able to get to know them, share with them, laugh with them, and speak life into them.
If you had told me a year ago that some of my best friends would be these former Honduran street boys, and that we would be conversing in Spanish, I would have told you that you were crazy.
But here I am, living it.
This is my life now. And there is no place I'd rather be.
