the end of the road and beyond

We were spread far and wide today, as we experienced a "welcome to Honduras" moment this morning: it rained all night last night, and we knew that it would be impossible to work in San Miguel because of the flood already experienced this week.

Junior and Justin Prine, David Koski and company were working again in Santa Ana, trying to finish a job that seems to be never-ending. They are determined, however, and Junior has earned his "No Junk for Jesus" T-shirt.

There was a large team of people at the IRC warehouse unloading our container, which finally arrived today. Mark said that this group (including Joel, Nicki Koski, both Lisa's, Jordan, and Jacob) demonstrated the greatest amount of patience, as the container did not even arrive until 3 PM. They did that in under an hour and came back to the mission house to pack bags of food. Currently that team is still working on packing food, even though devo is over and curfew is in just 30 minutes. Talk about diligence!

Mark, Joe, Gena, and Anibal went into San Miguel to check the status of the river and the community. The river was twice as high as it has been all week, and the damage continues. Houses are starting to crumble with the weight of the rain and mud and rocks that are sliding down the mountain. It's so sad, but it looks as if God is really opening some doors for us to minister to this community. We are praying, though, that the Lord will stop the rain so that San Miguel doesn't suffer more damage.

"Intense" would have to be the adjective of the day for the rest of us who went out to visit children's homes. We started by driving about an hour out of Teguc to Jimmy Hughes Ministries. None of us had ever been to this children's home before, and we knew it was going to be an overwhelming experience when Jimmy met us on the bus and started talking about the kids in his home (NOT to be called an orphanage). All of the children who live here are victims of intense abuse or gang crime. These children have been beaten, raped, and witnessed crimes even adults don't want to imagine. Most of us wanted to think that Jimmy was just exaggerating.... until we got off the bus and met the first two children. He showed us the scars that these children had, and six-year-old Ronnie told us the story of his mother's brutal murder. These children have been through unbelievable horrors, and now by the grace of God they are happy and know the love of the Lord. Ronnie sat there and told us that his mother was in heaven and that Jesus had saved him and his sister.

We sat and played with the children for hours: the house is well-supplied with a playground, soccerfield, and trampoline. Jimmy had even invited children from the community to share in the fun. We broke out a cotton-candy machine that Tim Hines has, and there were pink faces and sticky fingers everywhere! Raquel Ayala, Melissa Koski and Paige Prine were the expert cotton candy chefs.

After playing for a bit, we went over to the rehabilitation center just down the street. Here they welcome all sorts of drug addicts and criminals, and in three months they walk away clean, if they choose to walk away. We were all struck today by the number of people who graduate this program and stay to minister to other people. They shared lunch with us, shared a song with us, and Jimmy even shared a motivational message with us. He was saying that God has called all of us to minister to someone. "There is someone out there right now praying," he said, "and YOU are God's answer to that prayer." He was extreme, but very legitimately on fire for the Lord.

We loaded up and went to Didasko, which is another children's home just 15 minutes down the road. This is by far the poorest home that TORCH visits, and it is so far out in the country that TORCH is about the only group who ever comes. We had not told this place we were coming, and when the bus pulled in, the kids were dancing on the porch for joy! After a couple hours of play and another round of cotton candy (their first experience ever!), we circled up to pray. A little boy who was just four or five years old (Frankie, I think) led the prayer for us, and all of the children repeated every word. After we loaded the bus, they stood in a line and sang to us. It was a fun-filled and emotionally exhausting day. We had so many learning experiences, including how to make cotton candy and the sudden appearance of swarms of bugs after a hard rain.

At devo tonight we all talked about how God is calling us to excellence (a message Jimmy Hughes had given us). We all realized that we are to go to the end of the road, and beyond. We're looking forward to what God has in store for us, especially in San Miguel.

More pictures later!!