I had a great night’s sleep last night followed by the usual breakfast. I read Mark 10 about the little children and Jesus and Ecclesiastes 3 about the seasons of life. The former reminded me of how much Jesus loves children (and those with hearts like children) the latter of how God makes everything beautiful in its time. Both of these are good lessons to reflect upon in Honduras. Worship today was Everlasting God and Holy and Anointed One and A. shared words and thoughts from 1 Corinthians 13. We were on the bus around 9:00am and headed for the dump.

There are 21 families living just outside the trash dump on the western end of Choluteca. Most of the men work at the dump and the GCLA church has been reaching out to these families for the past year or so. There is incredible poverty here. Most of the living structures are huts held together by mud and sticks with whatever roofing they can find. Many children have little or no clothing. It breaks your heart. Heritage was recently able to raise enough money to pay for concrete floors in each of the 21 houses. We gave food provisions, infant formula, and toiletry kits to each of the 21 homes and prayed for each one as well. Afterwards we handed out the rest of our clothing and gifts.

After we left the dump, we headed to Cuidad Nueva for lunch. We had BBQ chicken and fries. It was absolutely amazing – I ate every bite. We were planning to visit each of the homes where we did construction and give gifts to the families, but our time was short so we visited four of the six. Our final stop was Mamita and Papito’s house. They are an elderly couple in poor health and we are completely reconstructing their house. Both of them were so grateful to God and us for our help. It was amazing to see such a strong faith in these two people. Because of our work, their existing house was completely destroyed. This is making their health worse, especially Papito’s asthma. I’m glad we have the chance to help these amazing people, but I hope the cost isn’t too high. I spent some time looking for “Pablo con el pelo Guapo” from last year because I thought he lived near where we were. I asked two girls and they said they knew him. They called him “El Guapo” and I couldn’t tell if he moved or just lived farther away than I thought. We all boarded the bus and headed up the mountain for San Marcos.

We were hoping to have time to visit Oasis de Amor, but we were short on time, so A. told the “Hola, Scarlet” story. We did stop at a breathtaking mountain pass where you could see all the way to El Salvador and Nicaragua. We all snapped some great pictures.

We then headed in to San Marcos to a daycare/preschool run by Pastor Achillies, Nena’s brother, who also happens to be a doctor. There are about 30 kids in this daycare/preschool, none older than 10. I learned from Achilles at dinner that the daycare workers are all volunteers. He said he drives around to the poor areas of San Marcos and loads the kids up in the back of his pickup truck. I asked him if single parent households were typical for these kids. He told me it is the norm all across the country. The men don’t care about their kids. Achilles acknowledged this as a major problem. He asked me to pray for a bus and some funds so they can expand (he told me that some years he’s had no money in the budget, but somehow God provided a way for the daycare to continue).

While we were at the daycare, the kids sang a few songs for us (including the “Barney” theme song in Spanish). We made bead bracelets for them and taught them the song “Alleluia”. It was a great visit. Next, we went to the town plaza to enjoy the fresh air (since it’s up in the mountains) and take some pictures.

Next, we went to a ranch where we had an amazing chicken dinner with a baked potato, rice, and beans. It was after dinner that I spoke to Achilles (without an interpreter). It was the best solely Spanish conversation I had on the entire trip. Some people rode horses and the more adventurous ones walked across a partial bridge over the pond (above). We watched the sun set through the mountains and enjoyed each other’s company. It was a great way to decompress after such a long week.

P., B., D., T., and I had a great tie-down back at the hotel. It was so sweet to hear what God has been doing in their hearts. I am glad all of these guys came on this trip. I was in bed around 10:45.