March 12, 2010

Day 3a AMAZING!

Posted by Ashley

3 comments

Today was another wonderful and reaffirming day! God has really touched our hearts for this project and we have been impacted in so many ways. Today we left the Manuelito project after breakfast and traveled, with the work team that is here from St.Louis, to AFE-the dump ministry. AFE (http://www.afehonduras.org), which stands for Amor, Fé y Esperanza –or love, faith and hope- functions as a school and a church. It ministers to the people that live in a dump just uphill from the project. These people search through the dump in order to find food or items they can sell and typically earn around $2/day. Most of them have had no education.

When some of the missionaries that were in Honduras went to dump their garbage there, their daughter noticed the kids searching through piles and told her father that they should start serving them in some way. She was so persistent in the following days that they were encouraged to begin teaching some of the children in the area.

Today the school has, I believe, 150 students and they hope to see a day when there are no children that have to search through garbage to earn a living, but can work in a profession, ending the cycle of poverty for their families. This ministry is really making a HUGE impact on the community. They hope in the next 2 years to begin building 300 houses for the families that currently reside in the dump so that they have a suitable place to live and grow. This project has been going on for 10 years now and 30 of the original students are now studying in Universities! God is good!

Later in the day we visited a place called Casita 21. This is a government run detention facility. It’s difficult to understand how the children come to live there, but many are street children who were put in homes which they eventually tried to run away from. Others are in there for theft and some for drugs. It seems like it is the last stop before they’re placed in real jails, but in reality it basically is a jail. Their dormitories consist of bunk-beds made of concrete blocks and topped with thin mattresses (they’re made of concrete so that they cannot be lifted or taken apart and used as weapons). There are about 14 bunks per room and there are urinals and toilets on the back wall without curtains or doors. There is one common room and a courtyard outside. The boys all shower together, the water comes from holes in the wall and there are no curtains for privacy. The facility is small and its capacity is supposed to be 30 kids, but they regularly have around 60 there. We wanted to take pictures but we were told it wasn’t allowed as the government doesn’t want people to know how bad it is.

Right now one of the children that had been at Manuelito for a short while is in the facility. When we got there he broke down and cried to Jorge and Marta. It is very clear that he wants to return to the project and they are in court right now trying to work out the details. His mother does not want him to return to the project and has even threatened Jorge’s son, who is responsible for going to court and speaking with the police about custody issues. Please pray for this situation to be resolved and for Armando to be given another chance. It’s heartbreaking to see all of the boys there that have never known the love of another person; that have struggled for simple needs that we take for granted daily; that have no hope, because they’ve never had anyone believe in them. Many of the kids there are so sweet and loving and it is so tremendously sad to know that they may never know how God loves them and may never see it demonstrated through anyone. One of the boys was especially sweet and had the kindest eyes. I wanted to take him with me right then, or at least get him into the project, but unfortunately I can’t make those decisions. Thankfully the person who does, Jorge Pinto, has a heart for these children and wants to make their living conditions better. He hopes to one day send teams to the center to help clean it up and make it a better place.

One of the kids that has been at the project for 2 years, Nelson, was also in Casita 21 for a while. Nelson is 12 years old and came with us and shared his testimony with the boys. These are kids that he knows and was friends with while he was there and it was unbelievably brave of him to stand in front of them so candidly and share how God has changed his life. He is a GREAT kid and we’ve had a lot of fun getting to know him and joke around with him. He is VERY affectionate and So funny!!

It has been VERY hot but God has provided shade, breezes, and water when necessary. So far no burns! Please continue to pray for good health and safety. Tonight we will be going to Jorge’s house for dinner then back to the WGM Guesthouse (where we currently are) for the night.

Dios les bendiga. (God bless you!) and we will update with more pictures and maybe videos soon! ☺