My Father’s House
The last night before we left for Honduras we were invited over to a man named Shane’s house for dinner. Our squad walked and took a bus to what seemed like a rundown area and found ourselves standing outside a big black gate. We were let in to see a beautiful house with white pillars on the front and a 3 car garage with a trampoline out front. My first though was "this guy has money!"
This place was called My father’s House and this man was literally caring for 22 children. We walk in the house and immediately have kids running around giving us big hugs and they prepared a spaghetti dinner for us. I looked at this man and his beautiful house and saw a Guatemalan Daddy Warbucks. We ate food and the kids put on some skits and sang songs for us. During dinner was when Shane began to tell us about his ministry and the history of the house which goes only a few years back.
What I had previously assumed about Shane and the orphanage was way off and I felt the Lord really say “Jenny never judge a book by its cover “. Shane was called to leave everything behind back in the United States a few years ago and knew he needed to start an orphanage but didn’t know where or how. He lived his life for the Lord and getting by with the support people donated for him. I could write 30 blogs about how the Lord brought him to Guatemala and made it possible for this place to exist but trust and faith the doors were opened and they began receiving children.
These children are sent to the house by the judge when they were no longer able to live at their home because of physical and sexual abuse, abandonment, family death and other reasons. The kids come to the house scared, alone and sad. But you would never know that if you saw them. My Father’s house is completely funded through donations. They only have a few months in advance saved and trust that the Lord will always provide.
One of the main reasons the building is called My Father’s House is not only because they want it to be a house centered on their heavenly Father but also because Shane never wanted a place that would be called an orphanage. He wanted the kids to be able to go and enjoy school just like everyone else and play with the other children in the neighborhood. When the other children ask where the kids are from they will simply be able to say My Father’s House J
Psalm 27:4” One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life “
