Dear family and friends!
I always mean to get these blogs out on more of a consistent basis, but I am finding that words don’t seem to come to me until nearing the end of a month.
My team and I are leaving Honduras this coming Wednesday! I still can’t believe how fast time flies. It feels like just yesterday we arrived at our ministry and were getting our house rules from our hosts. This month my team was paired team “Comeback Kids” and we had our squad leader, Hannah with us for the whole month. Team CK have been such a wonderful addition this month and with all of the projects we were assigned. How blessed we were to have had an extra 14 hardworking hands.
The ministry we partnered with this month is called “Hope at Hand” and it is run by a young couple named David and Scarleth. The ministry D&S normally do is during the school year and focuses on feeding and teaching children about the Lord, but since the schools here in Central America have “summer break” from December to February, we weren’t actually able to do the ministry that David and Scarleth do, however they were able to find us some work to do in a special needs orphanage nearby.
This month ministry has looked like so many different things. During our first few days at the orphanage, we learned that the beautiful compound we would be working and doing ministry with used to be funded by the government, but as of recently, it is no longer receiving funds. Now there is a staff shortage as well as a funding shortage and still — there are so many precious mouths to feed and orphans that continue to need care. During our first week on the grounds, we were given a series of projects to work on around the compound. We cleaned, organized, inventoried, scraped paint, swept, mopped, and scrubbed some of the dirties buildings I have ever been in before. These were the same type of buildings the residents (orphans) live in, but these buildings were as abandoned as many of these adorable souls.
As we quickly worked through the projects we were given, we were moved to the garden where we have spent the most amount of our time. December is rainy season so as of this last week, we haven’t been able to completely finish the garden the way we planned and hoped, but it has come so far. What was once a poor excuse for a garden is now a freshly cared for piece of land that is ready for a new chapter itself. The director of the orphanage told us that her vision for the “garden” was for it to become a small area for horse therapy. In fact, the director, Karen, shared many of her hopes and dreams for what the orphanage will become one day, with us and I am so happy that my team and I could be even a small trickle in the ocean of Karen’s desires for this facility. No other World Race team has been to this orphanage before so it has been such an awesome experience going in somewhere and setting the bar for other teams to come. My desire is to see the orphanage pan out to be everything Karen shared with us, because if it becomes even half of that, my heart will be full of peace and joy for these residents.
On our very first day, as I was walking with my teammates through the compound, receiving our welcoming tour, the red gatorade that was in my hand had quickly met its match with a resident named “Nino.” At first glance, Nino will make your heart beat a little faster and your senses on full awareness, so as he had a death grip on my gatorade and was speaking some sort of gibberish to me, I was slightly terrified of what could happen to me if I denied my gatorade so I let Nino have it. As I gave it to him, he forced me to put one hand on the back of his neck and the other on the bottom of the bottle as he chugged the whole gatorade in 30 seconds. The image was something of feeding a baby a bottle of milk. I sat there in the uncomfortableness of the moment, 13 of my squad mates intently watching the whole experience. Everything had happened so fast. Once Nino was finished with my drink, he gave me the empty bottle and hugged me for what felt like an eternity. This hug wasn’t one I could escape, trust me, I tried…a couple of times.
We learned after that day that and after many many stolen water bottles that Nino was a predator to any beverages we had with us. Nino has become one of our favorite residents and he is one of the most unpredictable and entertaining people I know. Some days Nino wakes up in a mood that sets the pace for the rest of his day; he yells “No!” and turns his face from us when we try to show him love that day, but more days than not, he is in a good mood, ready for some high fives, hugs, kisses, and water bottles.
These are adult orphans. We know some of their stories and others we aren’t quite sure of, but the stories we do know are that of tragic abandonment. Some of these residents have been sexually abused by multiple relatives, others have been found in trash heaps, left to rot. The stories of what these people have been through and the fact they can smile with so much joy now, continually amazes me. They are a true story of redemption and strength. I thank the Lord for orphanages like the one we have been working with that have taken these residents in and have cared for them since they were found — some of them having been found as young as toddlers! And here they are now, adults receiving the same care.
While the orphanage has been our main ministry this month, we also were able to experience other parts of ministry too.
— Squeezed lemons the size of grapefruits for 2 hours to make lemonade
— Picked sour and sweet oranges from an orange field
— Delivered Christmas presents and candy to the schools David and Scarleth do ministry at
— Made a piñata from scratch
— Sang Feliz Navidad at least 50 times
— Gardened
— Squeezed oranges to make fresh orange juice
— Cooked breakfast for church
— Cut down and dug out banana tree’s
— Created Christmas games for the orphanage’s Christmas party
Even this list looks too small for how full I am feeling. I have so many wonderful videos of our ministry this month and if my small knowledge of technology will allow, I will try to post that for you all to see how beautiful my new friends are and what this month has meant to me. This Christmas season, God has given me the gift of being able to love on these precious people and to feel their love in return.
