Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Forgotten Children's Ministries trip

from the Forgotten Children's Ministries website: 
Our mission is to rescue the forgotten and abandoned street children of Honduras. Psalm 9:18 states, "The needy will not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the afflicted perish forever."

FCM changes the lives of "high risk" children.
Many of these children come in at a very young age addicted to huffing glue, used to lives lived on the street, and doing anything they can to provide for themselves.

They are transformed into children who know the Lord loves them, they know they have a family who cares for them, they have a passion for serving the Lord, and they have a passion to help children who are still on the street.

One boy shared his testimony with us one night. He came into the program at 10 years old addicted to drugs after living on the street for 4 years. At his initial psychological assessment the doctor said his brain was fried from all the drugs and he would never learn anything new. He admitted the first few years were tough, he ran away at one point. They allowed him to come back and now he is in university studying to be a computer programmer. All he wants to do now is find the doctor and let him know that he( the doctor) and the world might have said one thing about him but the Lord had plans for him. He hopes to work as a computer program and mentor the new boys who come into FCM.

Another boy names Carlos - I am not sure his story but if I had to guess probably very similar to the boy's testimony.  Carlos is in high school. Every day when he gets out of school he hurries to his room grabs his bible and his guitar.  Sometimes he even  forgets to even change out of his uniform. And he heads to the streets of Tegucigalpa to preach. We actually met him out walking the streets while delivering food one day. He joined our small group. I thought he would probably just walk around with us but at the first house Carlos totally took me by surprise. He pulls up a chair next to this lady gets out a bible and begins to share what the Lord has done in his life. No holding back for this teenager. I know the Lord has HUGE plans for him.


Grace was loved on in one week more than she has been in her entire life… and that says a TON. She was spoiled by all of our friends from Alabama and she has 16 new big brothers.  The girl has it made.
Before each meal we all gathered in the courtyard in a circle held hands and prayed. One afternoon I am not totally sure what happened because my eyes were closed but Grace fell during the prayer hitting her head on a step. The sound itself told me it HURT. She began to scream at the top of her lungs. I fell to the ground holding her as tight as I could while praying her skull was not cracked open and afraid to look. After everyone finished praying 16 little boys circled around Grace, very concerned, rubbing her back, and giving her their brand new toy cars. Everyone went upstairs to eat and I stayed in the courtyard with a few others to calm Grace down and access the damage. Turns out she got her first goose egg and that was all. But she was still pretty upset for a while. The boys teacher came out and said "okay, y'all can go upstairs and eat now" and the boys refused to go until Grace was better and able to go with them.  That might have been my favorite moment of the trip, seeing so much care, love, concern in the eyes of these little boys who not too long ago were rough, tough street kids.

Monday, July 16, 2012

We are HOME!  We had a wonderful time of serving with friends at Forgotten Children's Ministries. I will tell some stories in another post. I was very encouraged and blessed and Grace had a BLAST!














Thursday, June 28, 2012

mission trip

Dominican Republic 2004

We are headed on a mission trip.

Yes, we are missionaries going on a mission trip.

We are blessed to have the opportunity to serve a team from my home church and going to Forgotten Children's Ministries-  http://forgottenchildrenministries.org/


I am thrilled to spend a week with some of my oldest friends. Many of the very same people were on the very first mission trip I made to Dominican Republic.

I am excited to serve along side them in a ministry so dear to many of their hearts.

I am excited to serve with another ministry right here in Honduras
 (even though it seems countries away.)

I am excited to see ministry from a different view(as an outsider)
I am excited to love on kids.
I am excited to see Grace love on kids.
I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for our week.

Sometimes, I feel like being a missionary you get into survival mode. You do what you have to do every day while growing very accustomed to the fact that there are: malnourished children living on the next block, child prostitutes walking the street in front of your house at night, prisoners whose families have no food, children who are not in school for lack of a uniform, and women and children who are abused because that is "love".
It all becomes "normal every day life."

I am pray that I NEVER grow accustomed to these things.

I hope to glean some wisdom of those who have been doing ministry for years. While taking a step back and looking at ministry as an outsider and remembering the real reason we do it. I pray the Lord would use us to accomplish whatever His will for the week is.
With an added bonus of hanging out with friends!



Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Our week in pictures

This past week and a half has been a busy but great time for us.
 So many exciting new experiences.
 I have too many great pictures to not share
 I apologize for this picture overload!

We had a group from Mississippi visit the Kasaubila Feeding Program.




We went on an outreach day to the village of Palkaka with Reach Out Honduras.
We prayed with families, delivered hygiene bags, and gave out worm treatments.









We joined Reach Out Honduras for a food distribution and prayed with families.




We had a group from Texas visit the Kasaubilia Feeding Program.



We had an impromptu baptism night.

Foto: Praying with Arnol about salvation!




Daniel Paul was dedicated at church.


Our boxes of donations I packed while in Alabama finally arrived.



We went with a family to a nearby village called Laka and distributed school supplies and saw the medical clinic.





This 170 students go to school in this classroom. 1st-9th grade

This clinic serves 14 villages and does not have any medicine.
 The people came waiting thinking we would have medicine.





Thursday, June 21, 2012

Possible







This month the kids are memorizing Luke 18:27
 "What is impossible with man is possible for God."

When I think about that I seriously just sit here in awe.
really in awe.

If anyone would have told me as a 20 year old girl that within a year l would be living in a  3rd world country and torn between motherhood and finishing school.
I would have said IMPOSSIBLE.
But with the Lord all things are possible.




I look at these children’s faces.
I look into the eyes of a little boy who really gets it. I see a fire in his heart for the Lord that can set all of La Moskitia on fire.
Some say IMPOSSIBLE a little boy who can’t afford school could change La Moskitia.
 I say with God all things are POSSIBLE.




This month 2 other missionary couples brought a team to the Kasaubila Feeding Program for their outreach day.  The kids were so surprised( I did not tell them before) when a big group of gringos showed up not once but twice.
If a few months ago if someone would have told these kids because of Jesus some Americans are going to come and visit you. That because of Jesus a little girl named Riley would ask for all gifts from her birthday to go to kids in Honduras so they would have toys to play with.
They would have said IMPOSSIBLE.
But because of Jesus these kids have sponsors in the States and they have toys to play with.


The majority of the kids in our program live in or have been approved to receive Habitat for Humanity houses.
A few short months ago these same kids dreamed their biggest dreams to have a house. A house that did not fill with water when it rained. They dreamed to have a house they could leave for a few hours without fear that everything they owned would be gone when they returned.
Some might say IMPOSSIBLE especially in this economy that an organization would build 40 homes in LA MOSKITIA.
But, with God ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE.