Our ministry experience so far has been absolutely incredible. We have been living and working at a place called Zion’s Gate. Tony (our contact/host) is an amazing man after God’s own heart. He has been rescuing young boys and girls from the streets and allowing them to live as his own children. He provides them with love and encouragement and allows them to find their own relationships with God. We have been blessed to hear the testimonies of several of the boys and they are truly inspiring. They are also hilarious and love practical jokes. I don’t know how many times I have been told to close my eyes, only to find a firecracker under my feet! They are beautiful kids who simply desire to be loved and cared for.
This is Genesis. She is the most adorable thing ever! Cassie ( a former world racer staying at Zion's Gate) is in the process of adopting her but is having some issues recieving custody. She lives with Cassie most of the time, but her mother will come and take her back to the dump where they live without any notice. Please pray that Cassie can adopt her so she can have the life and love she deserves.
On our first “real” day of ministry, we were working with a woman who is dedicated to loving abused women around Honduras. She deals with cases of sexual abuse, violence, sex slavery, and children that have been abandoned because they have special needs. She has brought in several young girls who have been impregnated by rape, sometimes by their own fathers and grandfathers. The girls are given a place to live, care for their babies, and receive the love they deserve. We fell in love with the girls as well as their children. There are two children who were abandoned after their mother’s gave birth to them. Moses is a very precious two-year old boy who was born with a 15lb tumor, larger than his own body. His mother left the hospital as soon as her son was born. The tumor was eventually removed and we just discovered that he is in the process of becoming adopted!
Alexander is also two years old and words cannot express how much this child touched our team. He was born out of incest and his mother eventually ran away, leaving him behind. He clung to us like glue for most of the day, mostly sleeping in our arms. We also cared for the babies while the mothers were in class and we were able to sing and pray over them, something that may have blessed us more than them. I was also given the opportunity to make lunch with their cook. I love to cook so this was a great time for me! However, I could not communicate well with her because I cannot speak Spanish. I found that the best thing to do was to hold something up in the air (carrots, green beans, etc.) and ask, “How do you say this?” a phrase that I have actually learned in Spanish. Then she would tell me and show me what she wanted done with the item. We made an amazing dish of rice, chicken, green beans, onions, celery, and a touch of various spices that were unknown to me because I couldn’t understand what she was saying. Later in the day we were able to paint nails with the girls and I was blessed with a beautiful manicure and pedicure!
This is Alexander! He is beautiful, very sweet, and loves to be held!
On our second day of ministry, my manicure and pedicure from the previous day were destroyed. We worked with 2 other teams and a woman named Theresa and a man named Donny. We were there to build a dam for a tilapia pond that they will be creating. To teach the local Hondurans to fish will provide them with food and a trade they can use to bring in income. The place we were working at was beautiful, on top of a mountain. Our job was to carry large rocks from one area to the end of the valley where the dam was put into place. I mean these rocks were boulders-some smaller and some larger. This involved us moving large rocks down a hill either by wheel barrel, our hands, or any other method we could think of. Then we had to build the dam in a muddy swamp, and dig up mud to be mixed with cement to create a mortar. I had to carry bags of mud across a swampy area, where I was knee-deep in mud and cow manure. It was a rough day, but we all managed to stay happy, and have a great time! We will be working on the farm on our second week here in Honduras so there will be more to come on our progress!
Our last day of ministry for this week was spent at the school where the boys and girls form Zion's Gate Stay. It is a Christian Bilingual school. We were blessed to be able to teach the children reading, writing, and English. We also spent lunch and recess playing with them and they were very excited to have their pictures taken with us!
I meant to have more pictures on here of various ministry locations but the internet is not allowing me to do so at the moment! so there will be more to come!
