Honduras 2008
We are back to our US homes after an amazing week doing ministry with our ministry partners in La Ceiba. Many things were different this year because of the children’s program and some of our old friends were not there to share the week with us. But God took our week and made it into something wonderful and special.
First the team was a little different this year with Anton (Luis) and Rachel going with us. Anton was designed by God to do exactly what he did this past week – tell 4-11 year olds about Jesus in the most fun and winning way possible in Spanish. We also had Dr. Eva and Rebecca as well as Christine on the team for the first time. And they brought their special gifts and personalities to the team.
Second, we had a different coordinator, Ernesto (Tito) because Merphran was doing missions work in the US. I believe Ernesto also was designed by God specifically to do what he did this week: ministry with a bunch of crazy gringos.
The team went in three different directions for the week. One group worked in the Clinic (the Dr’s obviously), one group worked with the kids at CNI each day (Stoney and Anton obviously), and one group went out into the high schools to talk about God’s standards for Sexual Purity (Steph and Tony). So this year’s report will be broken up into these three different areas instead of broken up by day.
CNI – in English it roughly means Nutritional Center for Children
Sunday at CNI, we had all 38 kids there for a sports and fun day. We made name tags for each kid so that we could identify them quicker (thanks Andrea). The rest of the day was spent playing and getting to know the kids.
Sunday night we had a special service for the teens at church. Stephanie sang and acted, Nick and Stoney clowned and Tony shared a message on everyone using your special gifts to fulfill the great commission.
Monday and Tuesday we had 2 CNI groups per day -a morning group and afternoon group. With each group we opened with Nick and Stoney clowning for Christ, the teens played a game, Stoney and Anton taught an awesome Bible lesson, the teens did a great craft with them that related to the lesson, then the highlight of the day was Charlie the Puppet (played by Anton). The 20-25 minute skits that everyone loved were written by Rachel (the 12 year old on our team).
CNI Children’s Homes – Wednesday all day
On Wednesday, we pilled into a couple of vans with gifts, soccer balls, and towels that all of you sent down for the families. Marlin the coordinator of CNI took us to the homes of each of the CNI kids. For next year, put flip flops on your list to collect. These kids made great treks each day on broken or non existent flip flops.
The first house we visited was way off the beaten path. We drove 5 minutes from the church, then walked, and walked and walked up and down hills to Amalia and Fernando’s “house.” It was at least another 15 minute walk over rough terrain to get to nothing. But the smiles on those two amazing kids’ faces was the same as it had been every day. They acted like they had everything in the world. And in many ways, even though they have absolutely nothing materially, they do have everything important.
Out of the 24 homes we went to at least 5 of them had parents who had been murdered or are missing, but you could never tell it from the joy that these kids have on their faces. Our teens really had to reevaluate what they think are priorities. Rachel said it best when she said that our “petty wants” get in the way of what is important.
Another amazing observation that the team made was that the brothers and sisters of the kids we gave gifts to, did not act envious of what their sibling had received. They were genuinely happy for their brother or sister’s good fortune. Wow, we could learn a lot from that!! In addition, everyone we met was so over the top appreciative. No sense of entitlement seemed to exist.
So CNI is making sure that these kids have at least one nutritional meal per day and someone in the world who cares about their school work / education. Then they let us help to nourish them spiritually, love them, and have loads of fun with them.
The great part is that CNI and Total Home are starting to dramatically change the lives of some people in La Ceiba. Here is a picture of a Total Home house built for the family of Miguel and Gaby from CNI. But the other picture is of Samera. Samera is the beautiful little girl in the blue dress. She is on the waiting list for CNI. There are ~40 kids sponsored for CNI, but there are 60 kids who meet all the criteria, but are on a waiting list. Unfortunately there is no other way to say it than, “for just $38 a month, Samera could be attending school plus CNI each day.”
Salud Total – Every day
We sort of take the clinic for granted because Dr. Suly has been out there every day for the past 3 years, but our doctors are a key part of “healing the sick and telling them the kingdom of God is near.” This week was special as well because Dr. Gene had the opportunity to do some minor surgery for Claudia (one of the kids from CNI). She is sad in this picture because it hurt quite a bit, but that afternoon she was all smiles as we painted T-shirts together. All the different ministries are connecting!!
Niños de la Luz – Thursday afternoon
On Thursday afternoon we returned to the Niños de la Luz orphanage to play with the boys. Stoney, Nick and Anton put on their clown magic and puppet shows and big fun was had by all. While they were doing that Stephanie and Tony gave their purity talk to the teenage boys – and that is the rest of the story of the week.
No Sexation without Marriagation – God’s plan for Sex
Meanwhile out in the local schools, Stephanie and Tony were challenging the teenagers (and some twenty somethings) to trust God for a spouse enough to wait and not give their bodies AND hearts away. Over half of the talks were to secular schools.
We started each session by Stephanie and our new Amiges (not really plural for Amigos) doing a skit where she starts with a pretty present, a guy comes up and takes the present and opens it, he dumps her, she rewraps the present, and another guy comes up and unwraps the present, he dumps her, so she rewraps what is left of the present. Finally, she puts on a veil for her wedding day and looks down at the torn, broken gift that God had given her to give to her husband and she walks off sad. This powerful visual got the teens thinking.
Of course we talked about the dangers of sex outside of marriage, disease and pregnancy. But very quickly moved to Jesus’ standard in Matthew 5 which says that “if you look at a woman lustfully, you have committed adultery with her in your heart.” God understands that the problem starts when we give away our hearts to lust and infatuation. We talked about pornography, and Stephanie challenged the girls not to cause the guys to stumble by what they wear. It is very hot in Honduras.
Next we talked about the difference between dating and courting. Dating is the dangerous practice of being alone with someone who is not your spouse for recreation. Courting is the process of waiting until you are ready for marriage, then spending time with your families. They know when you are putting on an act that will go away when you get married. We talked about setting standards and sticking to them. The picture on the right above represents the emotional damage that broken relationship create that we take into each of our subsequent relationships.
We talked about the standard that God intended: the man / woman relationship would be one man and one woman in a mature, permanent relationship. But we have made a child’s game out of it to see if a boy and girl can get each other to notice, like, date, go all the way with them. One criteria we have set for starting to play the relationship game is the ability to financial provide for a spouse. If you are not ready to pay the rent, food, insurance, and the like, you are not ready to engage in the “relationship game.” Imagine how much stronger our marriages would be if guys hadn’t seen thousands of women naked before marriage (if they only saw that one person that way). Or if girls hadn’t given their hearts to dozens of guys during high school or earlier.
We ended up talking to 6 groups for a total of 550+ people. We talked to groups inside, outside, in a garage, on whatever surface we could find, and wherever they would have us. The groups varied in size and age (one group was made up mostly of people in their 20’s, in that group was a former prostitute and many single unmarried mothers). In each group, we clearly talked about God’s redemptive power and clearly shared the gospel. Not all consequences of sin can be wiped away here on earth (pregnancy, disease, etc…), but God desires to clean us up from the inside out.
Stephanie and Tony have such a burden for the youth of the world. If you ever wanted them to come talk to your youth group or even talk with the parents of teens and preteens about courting vs dating, please let them know.