Last week, we had a team travel to Honduras to support our mission partnerships Orphan Outreach and AFE and I had the privilege and honor to be on this team led by Bob Beams who did an extraordinary job leading us every step of the way.
I personally had no idea what to expect since I’ve never been to Honduras and I wanted to be open to whatever God was going to show us while we were there. One of the things that immediately struck me is what we saw in regards to poverty, way of life, etc. is more of the “norm” in the world as opposed to our standards of living.
“We are more of the minority of the world, not the majority.”
The faces of the kids at AFE and their smiles were encouraging to say the least. Their love overflowed at all times with us while we were there bringing constant smiles, laughter, and tears of joy to all of us. Even while visiting the dump in Tegucigalpa, you could see smiles, girls jump roping, you could see hope.
Hope that God has something bigger going on there. Hope that God will rescue and IS rescuing kids and families out of the dump. Hope that Jesus means everything so while even in the midst of a dump; there can be smiles and joy because Christ is well worth it!
The church (Amor y Vida) is located near the AFE school in the Linda Miller Community and being with them and their pastor Jeony Ordonez was another great encouragement to see what God is doing in that area. We had a chance to worship with them on Sunday morning and visit a small group one night of the week.
21 or so packed guys into a small room certainly made me think about how we think we don’t have enough space in our homes to host a LG. Their involvement 4, 5, or even 6 days out of the week for 4-6 hours at a time made me think about how we often don’t have enough time or are “too busy” to be more involved with our LG’s. Lastly, their emphasis on the Word and how much they treasured reading their Bible made me think of how we have so many Bibles and resources and somehow get stagnant in reading and studying Scripture and have lost treasuring it.
We also had the privilege of getting to work alongside the church to help a family by building 3 bunk beds, a dining room table, and two benches to go along with it. Also a stonewall outside the house to help with the soil and with inclement weather. Watching this family’s excitement over this was priceless. The kids even went to bed around 6PM just so they could sleep in their beds!
For me personally, one of the biggest highlights of the trip was when the entire school of kids lifted their hands and prayed for us as we left. It was one of the most powerful prayers I’ve ever experienced and it wasn’t even in English! I am challenged in many areas and will be continuously praying for Honduras, Orphan Outreach, the AFE School, Amor y Vida, and the communities there including the dump in Tegucigalpa. God is working in a BIG way in that area including many coming to Christ, rescuing families from the dump, and raising up leadership in the area to impact lasting change.
To God be the Glory!
