Our first stage of this, preparation, is a blog post that is stirring in my heart. So much so, that I am still wordless on it and until I can wrap my brain around it to convey it, I'll wait.
But for today, let me share about our first full ministry day in the trip stage.
Our Ten Days team consists of 33 people from all over the US. We brought nine people from our home area and seven from our church. We are the only group to have brought kids. Our team's ministry areas have fallen into three categories. First, there is the campus ministry. La universidad nacional autónoma de Honduras has approximately 85,000 students, making it larger than any university in the United States. Evangelism on that campus and the development and discipleship of student leaders is a huge goal. Second, Pastor Rigo Hernandez, the pastor of the Honduran City Life Church, has a special relationship with key members of the police force here in Tegucigalpa. This has led to the opportunity to disciple a group of people who are seen to hold power, but are also seen as people who abuse it. We want to encourage and guide them to Jesus, all while being given the opportunity to serve them through some projects, like painting, that need to be done. Then lastly, we are showing tangible love to children through VBS. This was a ministry that was added just a week ago, but was presented as a ministry project with our team's kids in mind. We will be doing two three-day VBS'. We want to build relationships with kids that will open the door to minister to their whole families.
VBS began today.
We woke up to a beautiful sun and excited atmosphere. Hannah and Jae were so blown away that they had just woken up in a different country. After a great hotel breakfast and my favorite Honduran coffee, we met for some VBS prep. We sorted through the hundreds of toys, crafts, and candy that was brought and prepared for a "normal" VBS at the church location for about 75 kids that we were leaving for at 9:00a.
Actually, we left for our VBS at 11:00a and it was in a dirt-filled soccer field in the middle of a neighborhood of aluminum, concrete, and plywood houses with about 300 children.
Day one lesson: Use pencils, not pens.
Yeah, we were a little overwhelmed. Yes, we might have been slightly under prepared. Yep, we made lots of mistakes. But God showed up.
Michael fit right in with boys his age and began communicating in the universal language of fútbol (soccer) and actually impressed me with how well he kept up with these boys. After their game, I wasn't surprised to see him surrounded and an immediate leader with them. He was actually so involved in trying to communicate something to a boy named David, that he missed the three foot drainage hole. He sliced open his knee pretty rough, but I told him it'll make a great 'missions war injury' one day. The only thing that bummed him out is that his soccer days are limited now.
Hannah helped me with teaching about Elijah and the widow of Zarephath and Jae helped in crafts. Hannah's heart broke for the living conditions and for the families. She told me tonight that she is pretty sure a little girl told her that she didn't have a dad because he just left, a familiar story here.
I am so happy to be back in Central America, this is a place that is so dear to me and I'm so blessed to finally be sharing that with the kids. But it never fails... No matter how often I am here, my heart breaks every time.
A man once asked Hudson Taylor, missionary to China in the late 1800s, "why didn't you come sooner?" and that question stirs in me. If I had come sooner, could I have shared Christ's love and saved a women from looking for love in all the wrong places? If I had come sooner, could I have shared God's restoration power and seen a family restored before it was too late? If I had come sooner, would a man who died yesterday be made whole in Heaven today?
I might not have been here sooner.
But I am here today.
Use me, Lord. Show me, Lord. Mold me, Lord.
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