Wednesday June 11, 2008   

Hola! What a day it has been.  We got up this morning and had our devo on the bus so we could get to the community where we were handing out food bags. Each food bag that we hand out contained enough food to feed a family for 2 weeks.  And each truckload of food that we purchase makes 200-250 bags of food.  Last year it cost us about $1200-$1300 for one truckload. This year the cost has increased to just under $1800.  That changes our budget, but that changes life for the people of Honduras.  In the U.S. it means we have less money to go to the movies and less money to buy ice cream. Here in Honduras it means that there is no food for days at a time. So we set out and drove to the place that we would distribute the food and then split into 3 groups to walk the mountain and deliver the bags of food. Children came from everywhere to join us and play with us, but the thing that is most humbling is that they come to help us… and we thought we were here to help them.  And so our teams walked among the mountain, with children helping carry food bags so that our arms were free to carry children J  Their clothes were dirty and their hair was full of lice. There was trash all over the ground and the children ran through the dirt streets without shoes. And they were filled with joy spending time with us, holding hands, singing, and laughing. God be glorified through the innocence of the children.  We handed food bags that contained Spanish Bibles to the people on the mountain and spoke God’s blessing over them, but it is always amazing to me that they offer God’s blessing over us and our entire team.  One sweet grandma of a child who was with us gave us some homemade rings of bread after we had given her a bag of food.  And again we came to give and in the end found that we had received so much.  God is so faithful to His word in Isaiah 58:10-12 where He tells us that if we give ourselves to the hungry and afflicted that we will be like well-watered streams in scorched places.  We are certainly refreshed in the midst of this desert.   From there we went to Casitas Kennedy, the state run orphanage. It was lots of fun having a pizza party with the children and then having VBS with them.  We did the story of Joshua and the walls of Jericho falling and reminded them that God is faithful to His word. And we laughed and played and hugged their necks and reminded them that they were loved even though they felt quite alone.    Then we came back to the mission house and filled more food bags to distribute on Friday. Then a handful of folks loaded the bus and went to Los Pinos to bring people from their church and community to meet us for a pizza dinner at the Jesus statue.  Since we will be traveling all day on both Sundays of this trip, we decided to gather some of our brothers and  sisters from Honduras together to worship with them. There are no mid-week services here in Honduras, so we created our own and fellowshipped over pizza and pop and then worshiped God at the foot of the Jesus statue overlooking all of Tegucigalpa.  It was so very encouraging. We had a beautiful service with some songs in Spanish, some in English, and some in bothJ Church makes so much sense after working hard together and suffering with the hurting all week long. It makes sense to gather together and remind each other that God still faithful and that Jesus brings us strength for today and hope for tomorrow. It is an encouragement to press on even when life is difficult.  So I’d pleased to share that we encouraged the church in Honduras today, but I will tell you that they encouraged us more than we have words to describe. Amazing. We are reminded over and over this week that, just like a tiny drop of water is the start of many ripples, our actions make a difference and what we do matters.  May you be reminded of the same thing as you go about your days and night in the States.  Thank you for your prayers. Please keep praying us through.