Month 2 in Honduras has flown by, I can’t believe it’s over and time to move on to Month 3 in Nicaragua. Working at Zion’s Gate in Tegucigalpa, Honduras has been an awesome experience.
Zion’s Gate is a ministry that Tony, an American, started about 5 years ago to help get boys off the streets. He works with kids who live on the streets and also live in one of the most dangerous ghettos in the world, Los Pinos. He has taken in 4 boys to live at the property and has about 5 or 6 more that he mentors. He wants to provide a safe place for kids who need it with food, love, and most of all grace.
The month was packed full but here’s a bit about what the month looked like for me:
Week 1: Started teaching music at a local school down the street. Every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday we went to school every morning to teach. There was a team of three English teachers and three music teachers. I had no idea what to expect because I was going to be teaching music to 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th graders completely in Spanish (and I am not fluent by any means). But Chris, my co teacher, and I came up with a lesson plan and decided to give it the old college try. After I got over the kids snickering at my broken Spanish, we had some fun. Week 1 was all about learning the keyboard and the notes. We played games, did worksheets, and when all else failed, sang songs.
Another thing I was able to do week 1 was work with Pastor Armando in some of the poor neighborhoods of Tegucigalpa. Pastor Armando runs a sports ministry that has set up dozens of soccer leagues all over Honduras that gets kids off the streets and doing something productive. We were able to help him, go to some schools, and visit a colony where he had done a lot of work and organized a league. We played soccer with the kids at that colony, painted little girls’ nails, sing, and just hang out. It was a great opportunity to see how people are affected by the ministry and the lasting impact it’s having on the community.
Week 2: The lost week. This is when I got sick so it’s all a blur of movies and sleep. It wasn’t a sickness too terrible, just enough to knock me off my feet for a few days. It was probably a blessing in disguise because God knows I needed the rest and to spend some time hanging out with Jesus. While I wasn’t happy at the time to be missing out on the ministry opportunities, I’m glad I had that week to recover and recharge for the next week and the next month.
Week 3: We had our last music classes at the school. The kids got really into the lessons and I was actually surprised by how much they learned. It was a great experience teaching and really good practice for my Spanish. For my very last class, the 2nd graders taught me “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” in Spanish and it was precious. Hopefully they took as much away from the lessons as I did. I’ll miss my little students!
The entire squad (and myself) has been working around the property all month and during week 3 we were able to finish some projects that we started at the beginning of the month. I was working with a couple different groups helping to do planting and painting projects. We painted over the logos on the side of the building (it was an old karaoke bar with huge beer si
gns) so that the community knows this place is no longer a bar. The look on Tony’s face when he saw those logos we no longer there was reason enough to do it. You can tell that he has a great vision for Zion’s Gate and that with our little help, it may be coming sooner than he thought.
Honduras was all about growth. We may have only been there for a month but I could see so much growth in Zion’s Gate, the other ministries,the community, the boys, and the squad. Honduras was definitely a step in God’s plan that changed every person of E squad. Now on to Nicaragua for even more crazy stuff.
Vamanos!
