(GPS voice) recalculating route…
Sometimes god throws curveballs into our life plans. Sometimes we think we know where we are going and are re-directed like a GPS.
RULE #1 in Missionary Living: Be Flexible
So I am not in Bulgaria as originally thought. With the Olympics coming up in London, prices for flights are outrageous since Bulgaria uses a connection through London.
Instead, G Squad took a detour and is currently in Honduras! We took a bus from DC to NYC, flew from JFK to Costa Rica, spent the night in a hostel in Nicaragua, and made it to our contacts house the next afternoon in Honduras, appx 40 hours of traveling.
Our contact, Tony, stays in the mountains of Tegucigalpa, the capital city of Honduras. He has a discipleship ministry aimed to take children who are on the streets and raising them with Christian values. Tony has about 10 children living with him now, all of whom have been in street gangs and caught up in sniffing paint thinner. Some children living with him are as young as 7 years old have been rescued of a life of living in the city dump and begging for money for their next high.
This month, our team will be doing many different events. Three days a week, our squad will be working on landscaping the ministry grounds to make it more appealing for street children to come. My team is working on the common area on the grounds, placing wood borders, lacquering paintings, finishing a wall, and drilling holes in cement. The idea is to make the common area visually appealing and protecting the wall painting from being damaged from children slamming things on it. This is not my first choice in ministry but I’m game for it.
Outside of manual labor, we will be working with INFA, an organization trying to remove girls at risk of hurting themselves off the streets. I made a connection with a 5 year old named Katerine. We spent time painting on the chalk (I made her a chalk flower) and playing with her the way her abandoned father never has. My heart hurts for these girls. We also plan on visiting the city dumps which is a prime spot for people to be getting high on paint thinner, the country’s most prevalent drug.
Another ministry we are doing is something called “hitting the streets”. This is where we will be entertaining cars in traffic with skits, songs, candy, and a smile. The Honduran people where a stank face most of the time, so to bring them a smile in the midst of rush hour is going to be great. Lastly, we will be reaching out to local gangs and doing sport activities with them, playing soccer and basketball.
Honduras is labeled one of the most dangerous places to be, but the people are in desperate need of love. About 90% of children here grow up without a father and children start using drugs and alcohol from as young as 5. Pray for the ministry Tony is doing down here, to reach more youth searching for a change.
I only have internet access on Fridays for about 3-4 hours, so if you would like to Skype or anything, feel free to hit me up then
