On our first day in Honduras, we were welcomed by several children and teens holding signs, each with a different team members name. There were balloons, rejoicing of all kinds…and that was just the airport. it was one of the most precious greetings I have ever seen. When we arrived at our contact's property, we had a short briefing on the city. We found out that 98% of honduran birth certificates literally have no father listed. 60% of the population is under the age of 16. Most of the mothers in this country have several children, each fathered by a different man. My team and I quickly discovered that Honduras would be much darker than expected.We realized that the 20 children that called our host's property home were some of the worst of the worst among Honduras. We love with gangsters, drug addicts, the homeless, the orphans, the widows, those who are deaf and mute. They are the people you see begging on the streets, numbing their pain by getting high on paint thinner.
I'm not going to lie. Latin America was actually the very last place I wanted to be this summer. I wanted to be in Thailand, the place I will one day call home, the place that has stolen my heart, and the only place that I was willing to give my heart to. I wanted to be where the spiritual warfare was constant, where the darkness was draining, where I was forced onto dependence on God, where I was stretched to my breaking point daily. I saw Honduras as "easy". And eventually I got to the point where I received the fact that I was going to Honduras to lead a team. They were my ministry.
Long story short, Honduras has shown me some serious darkness. Maybe not the same as Thailand or India or Africa, but it's here. It's present. The light is still very much necessary. This team has a special connection with this place and with the hearts of these people. I'm ready for us to be challenged, to be broken, to be stretched. Im ready for us to realize God in a new and tangible way. I'm ready for us to realizeore of ourselves in Christ. In ready for us to surrender all and have our lives look dramatically different when we return than when we left. I'm ready to jump into ministry head first and grow in new ways.
SO ministry starts Monday and I have full expectation that God will move in unimaginable ways. Excited to see what happens in the next week as our schedules become jam packed with teaching, street ministry, and some hard labor 🙂
