March 22, 2010

Last few days

Posted by Ashley

2 comments

Sorry about the lack of posts! A lot has happened since the last one, so I’ll try to catch you up! This experience has been AMAZING so far!! We are so blessed to have had the opportunity to make this trip and really see some of what it will be like when we live down here. We absolutely LOVE these kids and know that this is what God has called us to and He’s going to work out all of the details!

Okay so we came back to Tegucigalpa on Friday after spending the week with the kids. And what a great week it was! Justin was able to fix some of the computers that have been out of service and I was able to help some with administrative things in the office while the kids were at school. We also spent some great time with the work team that was down here and it was such a blessing to be able to share this experience with them!

Then at nights the team thought of some wonderful things to bring down to do with the kids! They brought down string and beads to make bracelets, which the kids absolutely loved!! Then some coloring sheets and crayons! I’ve never seen so many boys get excited about coloring! And another crazy thing-all of the boys wanted to color the pictures of the flowers because they said they were really pretty (which they were)- I thought that was really cute! So we now have about 5 bracelets and 7 coloring sheets that we were given to bring back with us ☺

When we got back into town we went to Pastor Jorge’s house to spend some time with his WONDERFUL family again! AND….exciting news!! Jorge’s son, Jorgito, is engaged!! ☺ They’re getting married in like 2 weeks on April 9! We’re SO excited for them and they’re both very, very sweet! We’re really looking forward to getting to know them better when we get down here. And we also got to spend some time with his daughter, Helga Ruth, and son-in-law, Mauricio, who will be the directors of the school. We love them and cannot wait to work with them! It will be such a blessing to have another couple there and they are GREAT people! We’re about to go spend the rest of the day with them too, so that should be very fun! They have two of the cutest, sweetest, SMARTEST kids you’ve ever seen too! We’ll put some pictures up soon!

We also got a chance to go back to the streets to pass out food. This experience was very different from last week’s. At the first place we stopped we met a man named Oscar. He’s 35 years old and “can speak 20 languages” but he doesn’t tell many people that because he doesn’t like to brag . The crazy thing was that he preached to us the entire time we were there-probably a good 15-20 minutes and he really brought it home. He sang some worship songs, basically told us the gospel message and that we can’t do anything apart from God. He recited the Lord’s Prayer and told us about being baptized in the spirit and how he lives for God. Then I asked him if he still continued to use drugs. He said he did. He told me about how God is mighty and strong but we’re humans and the flesh is weak and about how he wants to stop but his flesh won’t let him. It’s amazing how much those that we might normally write off can remind us of God’s love and put us back in our place. We never imagined we’d go into the streets and have someone telling us of God’s love, but God never ceases to surprise us!

At the next stop we met Sergio. Sergio was so thrilled to see us and told us how it encourages him and brightens his spirit every time a Manuelito group comes out there. He then told us that he knew one day he was going to give his life to the Lord. This broke my heart and I asked him if he knew that that day could be today. He said he did but then just shrugged. People in the group wanted me tokeep translating, but at this point I was so choked up that I just had to turn away.

It’s so hard to see people struggling and having to turn to drugs to numb their senses. It’s so hard to know that their lives could have been different. But at the same time it’s encouraging to know that some of them have been changed. I was thinking about the older girls in the project as we drove through town and saw prostitutes on the street corners. That could have been those girls, but someone cared enough to make a difference in their lives and now all 3 are about to graduate as teachers! Praise God! And they all want to make a difference in the lives of other children that are in the same situation that they were in. It’s so amazing to see the cycle breaking!

We only have a couple of days left in Honduras and we’re getting pretty bummed. We hate to leave these kids as we just want to stay and love them forever. Please pray that God would keep us healthy these last couple of days and for safe travels on Thursday when we return to the states. We love you all and thank you SO SO much from the bottom of our hearts for keeping up with us while we are here. We can’t wait to tell you all in person! ☺

Dios les bendiga (God bless you all)
Ashley