Aren't we lucky that we got to play with kids all week??
Friday, September 28, 2007
The Bordo
I wish we could have spent all week here and at the girls dentention center. So much need and so little time...
Faces at the Dentention Center
Look at these sweet girls, aren't they beautiful? I wanted to bring them all home with me. Lydia (that I am standing with - 2nd picture) and I really bonded. We could not understand each other a lick, but communicated in our own way. I ate lunch with her, then braided her hair and prayed for her. She gave me some gum out of the candy we passed out to the girls, and as I was leaving, a stuffed beanie baby to take home. I was floored that she would give me something like that and didn't want to take her toy! She insisted, saying she had others. It was a little beaver and when I asked her its name she looked confused. I told her it had to have a name so I would know what to call it when I got home. She thought for awhile and said, "Terry
!"The girl at the top with Hannah was a doll baby also. I prayed for her and she wept and shook as God poured His healing love on her.
I can't even imagine some of the things these girls have been through. The whole time I was there I was thinking about my own beautiful teenage daughters and how awful it would be for them to live in a place like this.
Some of these girls have their own babies (below), in fact, our leader told us that it was wierd for these girls to see our group of girls come in and NOT have babies.
Party at the Girls Dentention Center
This was by far my favorite day. I fell in love with these young girls at the dentention center. We had a party for them and brought in lunch and the cake you see. "Mi Padre Me Ama" means "My Father Loves Me." This girl is reading "The Father's Love Letter" in Spanish. We had presents for the girls and loved them the best we could. I saw God show up so beautifully! Later on, during ministry time, many of them asked Jesus in their hearts and wept as the presence of God touched them.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Dedication of the Water Tank
Here we are excitedly waiting to dedicate the new water tanks at the Bordo Church! That beautiful blonde is Candy, the missionary we worked with during the week. Candy and Wyly, her husband, birthed the vision of bringing clean water to the Bordo. Did you know that worldwide over 1.6 million children die from water borne illnesses every year? More than 1.1 billion people in the world do not have access to safe drinking water. Talk about taking something for granted. Furthermore, this tank only cost $2000. 
Praying at Casa Hogar
This sweet baby is Brenda, everytime Mary Leigh picked her up, the power of God would hit her. As soon as I held her in my arms, the Lord spoke to me and said He had picked her up out of a horrible pit and put a new song in her mouth. (Psalm 40:1-3) I found out later she had been living on the streets. It's a miracle she ended up at Casa Hogar instead of the state run orphanage.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Gatlinburg Gals, Last Summer
So you can have a visual. These are the Ya-Ya's, except for Drenda, who is very much missed. See how off-center we are without her? Okay, that's just my fancy camera work. Me and my timer and the top of Caryn's car. I'm not a professional. The Ya-Ya's are (left to right) Caryn, Becky, Tina and me. Like my new cowboy hat? It was safer than the nose piercing I had planned on getting.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Finally, Honduras
I'm so glad I can access my blog again! I have been wanting to share pictures of our incredible trip. Since a picture is worth 1000 words, I'm going to try and put as many on here as I can, so you can see the joy and peace on the many faces we encountered. God showed up in such a big way while we were there. I left Honduras feeling that God was SOOO big compared to me. He was faithful to minister to every single person we prayed for.
Just to recap the week, we spent Saturday and Sunday in the Bordo, the poorest area in Honduras. Four years ago, the Lord brought a man named Pastor Gustavo to this area and showed him the children running around with no clothes on, drinking water from the sewer. The Lord said, "Do something about that." Pastor Gustavo went back to his church and shared his vision, but was ridiculed. Throughout the years, this man has received only gas money from his church home, yet has been faithful to do what God asked of him as he built a church right on the perimeter of the Bordo. A beautiful group of people work right alongside him shining light into a very dark place. The Bordo is actually municipal property, nothing more than a trash dump. Housing is propped up, pieced together wood or metal with dirt floors. Of course, there is no running water and any electricity is from an illegally tapped line. Around one hundred thousand people live here.
Because of the Bordo church, the children receive a nutritious meal three times a week and, while we were there, fresh water flowed into the community. On Sunday morning, we went to children's church and participated in the wonderful service they have for the kids and afterwards helped serve food. Sunday night was a youth service and, as sweet and fun as children's church had been that morning, the youth service was vibrant, exciting and powerful. The speaker was a young man who mesmerized me with his energy even though I couldn't understand a bit of what he was saying! You'll see pictures of the dedication of the water tank. This was a 2 year vision of missionaries Wyly and Candy Gammon - the missionaries we worked with all week. It was just an unexpected blessing that we got to see clean, fresh water come into that community the week we were there. If you can believe it, such a life-changing thing only cost $2000 to set up.
In the Bordo, we passed out candy to the children, bags of rice and beans to families and hygiene products like washcloths, toothbrushes and soap. During that time, I had a man come up to me and ask for prayer. He said he wanted to be delivered from alcoholism! I was floored and knew it was a divine appointment for me early in the week. I believe God wanted to show me how powerful and beautiful He is early on because the week would only get more intense. The man asked Jesus into his heart and I watched as the power of God kept knocking him to his knees. He was trying so hard to stand up and couldn't. Candy was with me and she's a tiny little thing and he was clinging to her for dear life! The man had been drinking and after we prayed his eyes were completely clear! Praise God!
We spent one day at a juvenile detention center for young girls. Orphans of the state, mentally handicapped, prostitutes, run aways, homeless, you name it....any unwanted girl between the ages of 12 and 18 is placed here. Such a terrible place to be a teenager. We found out there is gang violence and prostitution going on in the facility. One of the gang leaders wouldn't allow her girls to talk to the "gringas." Every time we asked one of them a question, she would look at the leader to see if it was okay to speak. It was such a subtle dance of glancing and head nodding, you would have missed it if you weren't paying attention. God is bigger than all that though. We had a party for them and let them know how much Father God cherishes them. It was a beautiful thing to see girls so stone-faced and callous open up to such Love. During ministry time, these girls wept and asked for prayer. They wanted Jesus in their lives and to be set free. I believe God healed many hearts that day. I have prayed that what happened inside those girls would change the atmosphere in that horrible place. Of all the days in Honduras, this was the one that affected me the most. I know the Lord has called me to minister to women, but that day the Lord showed me the value of the whole female race. I ache for the girls who live close by me who are abandoned or abused. They live in America too, right? Even sleepy little Greenville, South Carolina.
The rest of the week was spent at the orphanages with the younger kids. We clowned one day, did crafts, skits, played, prayed. What a blessing for us! God also allowed me to minister to the Christian women in these facilities. Many of them have been abandoned by their husbands and are illiterate. They were strong on the outside, but broken-hearted on the inside. They wept as we prayed for them and told them how much God loves them. God told me to tell every single one how beautiful and precious they were to Him. Our God is so good.
Thank you all so much for your love, prayers and financial support during this trip. Hannah and I are forever changed by seeing the great love God has for the lost and hurting. I have dreamed the last few nights of being out and telling people how much God loves them. I know He placed an eternal treasure and desire in my heart to see people transformed by the love of God.
Just to recap the week, we spent Saturday and Sunday in the Bordo, the poorest area in Honduras. Four years ago, the Lord brought a man named Pastor Gustavo to this area and showed him the children running around with no clothes on, drinking water from the sewer. The Lord said, "Do something about that." Pastor Gustavo went back to his church and shared his vision, but was ridiculed. Throughout the years, this man has received only gas money from his church home, yet has been faithful to do what God asked of him as he built a church right on the perimeter of the Bordo. A beautiful group of people work right alongside him shining light into a very dark place. The Bordo is actually municipal property, nothing more than a trash dump. Housing is propped up, pieced together wood or metal with dirt floors. Of course, there is no running water and any electricity is from an illegally tapped line. Around one hundred thousand people live here.
Because of the Bordo church, the children receive a nutritious meal three times a week and, while we were there, fresh water flowed into the community. On Sunday morning, we went to children's church and participated in the wonderful service they have for the kids and afterwards helped serve food. Sunday night was a youth service and, as sweet and fun as children's church had been that morning, the youth service was vibrant, exciting and powerful. The speaker was a young man who mesmerized me with his energy even though I couldn't understand a bit of what he was saying! You'll see pictures of the dedication of the water tank. This was a 2 year vision of missionaries Wyly and Candy Gammon - the missionaries we worked with all week. It was just an unexpected blessing that we got to see clean, fresh water come into that community the week we were there. If you can believe it, such a life-changing thing only cost $2000 to set up.
In the Bordo, we passed out candy to the children, bags of rice and beans to families and hygiene products like washcloths, toothbrushes and soap. During that time, I had a man come up to me and ask for prayer. He said he wanted to be delivered from alcoholism! I was floored and knew it was a divine appointment for me early in the week. I believe God wanted to show me how powerful and beautiful He is early on because the week would only get more intense. The man asked Jesus into his heart and I watched as the power of God kept knocking him to his knees. He was trying so hard to stand up and couldn't. Candy was with me and she's a tiny little thing and he was clinging to her for dear life! The man had been drinking and after we prayed his eyes were completely clear! Praise God!
We spent one day at a juvenile detention center for young girls. Orphans of the state, mentally handicapped, prostitutes, run aways, homeless, you name it....any unwanted girl between the ages of 12 and 18 is placed here. Such a terrible place to be a teenager. We found out there is gang violence and prostitution going on in the facility. One of the gang leaders wouldn't allow her girls to talk to the "gringas." Every time we asked one of them a question, she would look at the leader to see if it was okay to speak. It was such a subtle dance of glancing and head nodding, you would have missed it if you weren't paying attention. God is bigger than all that though. We had a party for them and let them know how much Father God cherishes them. It was a beautiful thing to see girls so stone-faced and callous open up to such Love. During ministry time, these girls wept and asked for prayer. They wanted Jesus in their lives and to be set free. I believe God healed many hearts that day. I have prayed that what happened inside those girls would change the atmosphere in that horrible place. Of all the days in Honduras, this was the one that affected me the most. I know the Lord has called me to minister to women, but that day the Lord showed me the value of the whole female race. I ache for the girls who live close by me who are abandoned or abused. They live in America too, right? Even sleepy little Greenville, South Carolina.
The rest of the week was spent at the orphanages with the younger kids. We clowned one day, did crafts, skits, played, prayed. What a blessing for us! God also allowed me to minister to the Christian women in these facilities. Many of them have been abandoned by their husbands and are illiterate. They were strong on the outside, but broken-hearted on the inside. They wept as we prayed for them and told them how much God loves them. God told me to tell every single one how beautiful and precious they were to Him. Our God is so good.
Thank you all so much for your love, prayers and financial support during this trip. Hannah and I are forever changed by seeing the great love God has for the lost and hurting. I have dreamed the last few nights of being out and telling people how much God loves them. I know He placed an eternal treasure and desire in my heart to see people transformed by the love of God.
Blogging Again....
Unbelievable. Somehow I could not get access to my blog these past months. A case of having the wrong password and whatnot. Nice Guy asked me again tonight if I had updated my blog with our missions trip pictures, so I decided ONE MORE TIME to see if I could get in. After resetting everything AGAIN, I'm back!
So I will update soon, promise. As it is, it's after midnight and I'm pooped. I have much to say about our trip and some other things going on.
So I will update soon, promise. As it is, it's after midnight and I'm pooped. I have much to say about our trip and some other things going on.
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