I really struggled with knowing how to begin this blog post, mainly because so much has happened over the last month. It’s hard to decide what to write, how to write it…goodness, I never anticipated the challenge! I wish I could share everything with you, truly, but there’s just too much!
So for now, I want to share with you about our month at La Providencia, and what I’ve learned here about building the kingdom. Next post will be about the way the Lord moved while we were in Roatan during Holy Week…so stay tuned!
We lived and worked at La Providencia during the month of March. It sits on the side of a pine-covered mountain outside of Siguatepeque, Honduras. The setting is so beautiful. La Providencia provides orphan care that utilizes a family-based model. On campus, there is a medical clinic (that is free of charge to every orphan in Honduras and also served as our home for the month), a bilingual school with classrooms that rival the most creative classrooms I’ve seen in the US, homes that house families with ex-orphans (I’ll explain this in a moment), and agricultural projects galore. In the future, more homes will be built, along with a home for widows and additional classrooms for the school. We worked mostly on agricultural projects, with a few ministry opportunities with the kiddos thrown in. We spent most days clearing a hillside to plant coffee that will help to make La Providencia sustainable. It was some of the most intense manual labor I’ve ever done…machetes and log-hauling up steep terrain. But one day you and I will be able to buy the coffee that is planted on that hillside. And those funds will go to support the kids who live at La Providencia. In other words, it was totally worth it.
But back to the family model…it’s incredible and cutting edge. When a home is built (and these homes are remarkably nice…high quality and child-friendly), La Providencia utilizes local pastors to find a couple to move in and become parents of the children who will eventually live there. These couples may have one or two biological children as well. Then five to six orphans come to live with them, and they become a family, whilst living at La Providencia in their own home. The change is so drastic that the children are no longer referred to as orphans, but as ex-orphans. Eventually all will be adopted by the house parents as well.
Side note here: the house parents who currently live at La Providencia are wonderful people. Their hearts are enormous, and it is clear that the children who live with them are theirs…fully theirs. They know they are loved and cared for…and will always be loved and cared for.
Right now, there are two full families living in houses on campus at La Providencia. We were privileged to help finish the third home and assist with moving in the newest couple and their son. The fourth home is under construction now. The vision is to eventually have 96 children living at La Providencia in families. I can’t wait to return one day and see this become a reality! They also plan to have a home on campus, where widows over the age of 65 will live. These women will become grandmothers to the children…beautiful.
There were two things that struck me most about La Providencia…1. They pursue excellence in an incredible way. Their philosophy values quality over quantity, and it shows. These are brilliant Christ followers who are investing their lives in orphan care, and God is using their hearts to radically change the lives of children who were once abandoned, which brings me to the second thing. 2. The children at La Providencia are extraordinary. They are brilliant, well-adjusted, know the Gospel, and full of joy. I know there are challenges and difficulties…I’m not naïve enough to think that La Providencia is perfect. But I also know what I witnessed this month. And I witnessed beauty and greatness. I witnessed the church doing what the church is called to do. I witnessed the body of Christ loving orphans into adoption.
I witnessed the bigness of the church. And you know what? It made me really, really proud to be a part of the church, to be a part of the family of believers around the world who follow Jesus.
The mere fact that people all over the globe (my squad included) can unite around the Gospel – people who come from different cultures, different economic classes, and entirely different worlds – is evidence of God’s provision and His very existence. It is miraculous that He brings together people who would never have crossed paths to do His work and be His church. It’s undoubtedly messy at times, but it’s truly beautiful.
What is your role in building His kingdom? What is your role in the church? Are you loving people well? Maybe you’re loving people outside the church well, but are you loving people in the church well? Are you asking the Father to give you His heart and eyes for the people you sit next to you on Sundays, for the people you with whom you serve? These are your brothers and sisters…but are you loving and serving them as such? Am I?
I’m learning. I’m growing. The Lord is teaching me what this looks like, slowly but surely. It’s difficult. It requires self-sacrifice and limitless, supernatural grace. But I promise one thing: it is worth it. The intimacy, the relationships: they are worth it.
In John 13:35 Jesus said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Let’s love one another well. Let’s love one another like He loves us. When we do, He moves. He builds places like La Providencia. He changes lives.
