Team Beautiful Feet will be partnering with International Ministry Torre Fuerte, El Rio (M.I.T.E.R.) this month.
Meet Pastor Asdrubal Salinas and his family.
Pastor is on the far right of course… His daughter Ana (18 years old) is beside him and his son Haziel (19 years old is between me and Ana. Pastor's youngest daughter is in the middle of the picture. Her name is Stephanie. And their friend Brandon is on the far left.
They are such wonderful people and we have loved our first week with them. We met them last Sunday… loaded into their van and headed to Tegucigalpa for church. We parked in front of a little business strip and headed up some stairs to the second level. There, we entered into a small room that was their church. We were not sure what to expect, but I definitely was not picturing this. We immediately felt welcomed and comfortable. I really liked the intimacy of this small church… I would estimate about 30-40 people were there. We are the first North Americans they have ever had in church, so they were pretty excited. They welcomed us with open arms!
After church, they treated us to lunch… Pizza Hut! I tell you… this place is full of familiar fast food restaurants… Pizza Hut, Wendy’s, Duncan Donuts, Burger King, McDonalds… all over the place.
Monday, we spent the day just getting to know each other. We sat around and shared our stories with Pastor and he shared his with us. He has a crazy, awesome testimony of God’s grace. Pastor Salinas used to be into drugs and had all kinds of problems because of it. But, God turned his life around and has made him into a powerful man of God!
Pastor Salinas and his family lived in the States for a period of about 5 years. In that time, his children were able to learn a lot of English. His two oldest children… Haziel and Ana serve as our translators this month. We have loved getting to know these 2! They are so amazing and the more time we spend with them, the more they open up with us. Their family has become our family here and we are so blessed to have them as our contacts this month!
Our ministry this month is going to be really exciting! We have the opportunity to do all kinds of things…
Visit orphanages and nursing homes
Take food to the homeless
Pray for the community
Go out into the community and evangelize
Paint the church walls
And, I am going to be speaking to the church tomorrow night (using my family services education background) about healthy families.
Last Friday we had the opportunity to go to the oldest hospital here in Tegucigalpa and pray healing over the patients there. We visited the men’s cancer area and the children’s respiratory area. The hospitals here are a lot different… definitely not as sanitary and all of the patients are in one large room with everyone else in that same department. Pastor Salinas told us it is said that people leave this hospital in worse condition than when they came in.
These are some things we have planned! My team is really excited about this ministry. The things we are going to do and see will be hard sometimes… but in those times when God is breaking us for the people here, those are the times where he is also going to teach us the most.
Also… joining our team for this month is Daniel!
Daniel is 17. He is a Christian and has never been in a gang or done any drugs, which seems to be rare here in Honduras… he is genuinely a really good guy who is a good role model for the boys staying with Tony. I do not know much of his story yet, but I hope to learn it throughout the course of this month. There is definitely a language barrier with Daniel. He knows very, very little English… and as you could see from my motherhood blog (click here is you would like to read it), I know very little Spanish. But, in just the short week of ministry he has been with us so far, I can already tell that he is becoming more comfortable with us, Pastor Salinas, and his kids! We are blessed to have him on our team this month.
Saturday was my birthday! I had a wonderful time! I went to lunch with Pastor Salinas, his family, Youth Pastor Manguel, my team, Daniel, Zeb (a volunteer here who is an alumni World Racer, and a bunch of the youth from their church. We had a big Chinese meal and a cake that is traditional here in Honduras called Tres Leche cake (3 milk cake). I had a wonderful birthday! I was able to skype with my family for just a short period of time on my birthday, which was awesome!
Pics from my bday!
An exciting month is ahead of us! I look forward to being able to tell you about the incredible opportunities and blessings this month has in store.
Until next time…….
