Bienvenidos a Honduras!
It has now been ten days since our squad arrived in Honduras and what an amazing ten days it has been! This month, seven of the eight teams are working with a ministry called Zion's Gate. Zion's Gate was started by a man named Tony, who after making a decision about 7 years ago to follow Christ, came to Honduras on a missions trip and ended up feeling he had found home. Not knowing what the Lord was calling him to do, he sold his businiess, and belongings in the states and came down to make his home here just outside the capital city of Tegucigulpa. Here he started working with street kids, feeding them, spending time with them, building relationships with them, something many people in this country didn't care to do or think was possible.
Now you might be thinking, what an amazing man. I know thats what I was thinking. What sacrifice, what courage. That is not what Tony would say to you. In fact, now after sometime we see the fruit, but when he first made the decision to come to Honduras most people thought he was crazy and not everyone was scared to tell him. No, if you asked Tony, he would tell you, he wasn't being sacrificing his life, he was living it. He wasn't acting in his courage, but in faithfulness that the Lord had prepared his works ahead of him.
Tony's faithfulness to God's calling has produced a safe place for street boys and girls now to come and escape the streets. It is a place for them to see the love of Christ demonstrated in the actions of Tony and his wife Nidia. Over the last few years this ministry has gained more and more respect from the local population because of the way they have changed the lives of these kids and offered them a future beyond the streets, the paint thinner, and the condemnation of others.
We are living in tents on the property again this month and are involved in not only this ministry, but are working with the local hospital and going into the poorest parts of the city to build relationships with people who many parts of society have forgotten.
The one word I would use to describe this month is RELATIONSHIP.
