Ive been in Honduras now for about 20 days and normally we would be moving on to our next country, but this time our stay is extended. I’ve been living on a farm in the mountains about 40min. outside the city center of Tegucigalpa with over a hundred acres of fields and mountains surrounding me. Coffee grows up one face of a mountain and cows graze in the valley bellow. There are a few horses and banana trees to dress up the valley as well. This month we are with the all girls team which has been a blessing because they are all pretty awesome. Shout out – team Beloved.
Toni, our contact, has a wild heart for the kids in a certain area of town called Los Pinos. Most of the people there are told they are the trash they live among and that they stink just as worse. Toni has dedicated his life in opposition of that. Its a tough calling but its only like Jesus to call the lowest of the low to become the greatest among nations. Jesus believes in these people and has put a bit of that into Toni’s heart.
This farm that we live on was once a retort for Christians to come and relax and be awhile secluded from the busyness of whatever. The funds ran out and the life of the place died. The vision is to bring it back, to employ those who were once unemployable and to give life back, not only to the farm, but to people.
We’ve been helping bring this place back to life, doing service projects to revamp the farm. We host a few of the kids from Los Pinos everyday who come and spend the night and help alongside us. Its a good opportunity to continue building relationships and give these kids a reason to get out of bed. Quite literally, allot of the kids in Los Pinos have no reason to get out of bed. They can’t get up and get something to eat because they don’t have food, they can’t go to school because they can’t afford it; the only alternative, which unfortunately some give into, is to huff paint thinner to take the pain of hunger away and to occupy the mind by making it completely numb.
At first glance there is no hope for these people, the president (whom we met the other day) has given empty promises of helping the poor, and no one else takes interest because why would they? There is hope in Jesus, and that is hope enough to change their lives. Toni and his wife have spoken that hope into this place, evading death threats and continuing to speak life about a future they can have; something they have never heard before, that they can do something with their lives.
Henry is a testimony for the work Christ has begun in this place. He fit the description I gave above, now is a fellow brother in Christ. He goes to school, he learns English, he works at the farm, he no longer harasses people with a knife at the bus station and not because he wants to steal but because he wants to eat. People said there was no hope for him. There is hope in Christ for him, and only by believing he can change, can he change. If you don’t believe it; if you don’t believe in the things hoped for, in the convictions of things not seen, then yes there is no hope. But only by faith and faith alone do any of us have hope, because I am no better than the worst of this place and neither are you. But there was a time at humanities greatest low, when our Messiah was murdered and all hope was seemingly lost. But what satan meant for evil, God meant for good and on the third day, the party in Hell was over when Christ rose again bringing life. And so there is reconciliation; there is faith, there is hope, and there is the greatest of all, love eternal. Because when Christ returns hope is fulfilled and faith is no more because we can see the rock we stand on, but love continues to abide.
Toni and his wife Needia support around 11 kids in school and are working toward better ways of supporting and providing for the hope in Los Pinos.
