Home from Honduras

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

We are back from Honduras and had a wonderfully blessed time!  I know I won't be able to fully express in words the amazing things we experienced, but I'll do my best to give you a taste of what went on there.  Unlike most trips we've been familiar with, this was not a “project” trip.  We didn't build anything or “accomplish” anything.  And yet, we feel that it was an extremely valuable time of learning about orphan care and building relationships.

Our guide Douglas and his wife Karla

We learned a lot about what it means to be an orphan.  Although we've adopted two children, and even seen the less-than-ideal orphanage where Rayanna lived, on this trip we came face-to-face with the reality of what it means to be an orphan, especially in a country without much help available.

On a couple of our days there, we visited foster homes and private orphanages.  I had expected physical needs to be the most obvious needs we'd encounter, but I was surprised.  Most of these places had their physical needs met at least at a basic level.  But their overwhelming emotional/spiritual needs hit us hard.  Several of the girls we met were victims of incest, two of them bearing their father's child, and several of them having been raped repeatedly.  One girl's family had all been murdered while she hid in the bathroom.  One group of children with special needs were virtually homeless, living in an abandoned school with food provided but nothing else.  Some of the children's parents had simply disappeared and no one knew where they were.  One little 7-year-old girl had been digging through garbage to find food for herself and two younger siblings.

Of course, we've all heard stories like this before, but to meet these beautiful children in person and interact with them and see into their eyes and their souls . . . it was heart-wrenching.  Even the ones who were in “good” places didn't appear to have any help in dealing with their trauma, and several were unable to go to school because of missing paperwork or not being able to afford supplies.  Without counseling, without permanent families, without education, without hope.

Two days later we visited these places again, and I'm so glad we were able to go back.  We returned with Bibles and gifts, spent some time doing artwork with them, and read a letter of encouragement and hope in Christ that we had written for them.   Our guide and translator was wonderful and made it possible for us to share the gospel with them, and hopefully bring them some encouragement.  It was a precious time to spend with them, seeing a glimmer of happiness on their faces.  But it was so hard to leave, knowing that we can't fix things for them.

That was another thing I learned.  I already knew there's no easy fix for these situations, and we aren't going to “save the world” by visiting for a week.  But the firsthand experience really let me feel how small we are compared to the size of this problem.  However, that feeling also brings me to the lesson we learned in the happier parts of the trip—that the body of Christ is connected throughout the world by something deeper than culture or language or location.  We're connected by the Spirit of God, and we can work together to spread Christ's love and be His body to a suffering world.

The ministry that we partnered with there is called Providence World.  The contrast between the hopelessness of kids without homes and the joy in the families at La Providencia was amazing!  We spent a lot of time that week at La Providencia, learning about their ministry and their vision, and we are so excited to work with them!  

La Providencia is working on the orphan problem at a deep level—not a bandaid for the problems, but a solution.  Their model is placing children into families—a couple with up to 8 children, committed for the child's growing up years.  They ask to have children placed with them that (for one reason or another) can't be adopted, so that these children will have a family.  They provide excellent medical care and education, Christian training, and the love of committed parents.  These children will grow up to be assets to their local community and help improve the plight of children in Honduras.  But they don't stop with just the orphans!  Their excellent school includes children from the community as well (which raises the value of orphans in their society).  They provide surgeries for needy children in the area.  They are constantly looking for ways to reach out to the community and strengthen families, so that the root causes of children being orphaned will be diminished.  Their future goals which they are actively working toward include self-sustainability, a home for widows (“grandmothers” to the children), building more orphan homes, and much more.  We are thrilled to see what God is doing through them, and were so blessed to be a part of it.

The atmosphere was very enjoyable there too.  We felt much safer than we'd expected to, all the people we met were warm and friendly and welcomed us readily.  Even the scenery was beautiful!  We were up in the mountains, surrounded by gorgeous views everywhere we looked!  Up there it wasn't too hot.  It was in the 60's in the morning and would get up to maybe 80 in the afternoon.  We sure weren't in a hurry to return to the never-ending winter Maryland's having this year!

We are excited to go back to Honduras, and to take more people from our church with us next time.  We want to help this beautiful part of the body of Christ in the work they're doing.  And we desire to be a part of reaching out to orphans in Honduras and building relationships with the Honduran branch of our spiritual family tree.  If you have any interest in learning more about La Providencia, please visit their website at providenceworld.com.  You can sponsor a child, give a financial gift, buy coffee from them (I actually had my first full cup of coffee EVER while we were there.  It's good stuff!)  Or even find out about taking a trip there yourself.  You won't regret it!