Myself and four ladies from my squad ended up in Antigua,
Guatemala three extra days because two girls were not feeling well enough to
travel back to Tegucigalpa with the rest of the team. For that reason, I didn’t
get back to ministry in Honduras until May 13. This is month 9, and it was
different than any other month because for the first time, we were all together
as a squad. Yes, all 50 of us at ONE location.
Hard to believe it’s possible, but we did it. We camped out at Zion’s
Gate Ministry with tents and sleeping bags. The beans and rice were plentiful,
and there was always someone to talk to!
(the squad on the last day)
Zion’s Gate Ministries was founded by Tony Deien about five
years ago. Tony is a fantastic guy who does some real and raw ministry in the
surrounding Tegucigalpa area. Tony’s main ministry is in the streets of
Tegucigalpa. He talks with young boys on the streets or that are hanging around
the dumpsters- usually very high on paint thinner. He invites them to live on
his property (where we stayed), where he shares the love of Jesus as well as
offering them motivation to live a life worthy of their calling. Tony’s job is
VERY difficult, as though the boys have a better life on his property, they
still often make bad decisions such as staying out past curfew, fighting, or
using drugs.
(tony with anderson, one of the youngest boys living on the property)
We did a plethora of activities this month at Zion’s Gate. While
I was still in Guatemala, my team did manual labor working on a garden. This may
sound or seem easy, but you try digging in the dirt in Honduras! Rock after
rock after rock, this took patience and hard work. The day after I returned,
our team had “our day� with Tony. We got to take one of the boys, Carlos, into
town and enjoy time with him. We enjoyed time at a grocery store, lunch at the
mall, and then visited Carlos’s mom who live in Los Pinos- Sector F. This is an
extremely dangerous area of Tegucigalpa where murders are very common. This is
where Carlos was from and where he was raised.
(Carlos and I)
We spent three days at Heart of Christ Ministries in
Talanga, Honduras. Heart of Christ is a ministry that takes in 10 year old-18
year old girls and their babies. They have had babies due to rape or incest. Joseph
and I got to do some labor such as installing barb wire and building picnic
tables while the five girls on our team took care of babies. We had a great
time with the girls playing hide and seek, doing hair, and going to the pulperia.
(barb wire going up)
After getting back from Heart of Christ, we had a few more
days of hard labor, which included helping pour concrete at the bunny house,
which is a business that one of the boys on Tony’s property is starting. Great
idea and great income potential! More hard digging, breaking huge rocks, and
party music while we worked!
(taking a breather from the hard work!)
We were blessed to be able to go to the mall once a week to
shop, watch a movie at the cinema, and grab some internet. Tony was able to
bless us with a squad trip to the beach! It was a beautiful, secluded beach
that bordered Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador. The beach and scenery was
beautiful, so fantastic! We were able to kick back, relax, and enjoy God’s
creation while getting our bronzeeee onnnn.
(just before the evening rainshower that night)
One last thing I wanted to mention. The day before we left,
we were able to go to the trash dump outside of Tegucigalpa. We were only there
for about 20 minutes because it started to storm really bad when we just arrived
there. Scenes at the dump I will always remember. Swarms of people surrounding
every trash truck that came, sorting out rubber, plastic, and cardboard. NO ONE
stopped working when it started raining, even when it was POURING rain. I only
got to have one real conversation with two ladies who worked there. You can
check out the picture below.
(Friends at the trash dump)
There you have it! Honduras in a nutshell…an amazing country
with fantastic people and tasty food!
Stay tuned for my next blog about Honduras- a very personal story about some of my best friends this month…
