Children of God....

Children of God… Hijos de Dios………

1 John 3 1-6 1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. 4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

I am back from Honduras and God truly blessed my time there. I met and ministered 56 amazing boys, fed 3000 pounds of rice and beans and shared the Gospel to the hungry/homeless in Tegucigalpa, learned a lot about myself, and a lot about God and the way He is working in my life and the lives of everyone at Forgotten Children Ministries.

Our days would start out with a wonderful breakfast with the boys and then a devotion. The boys have to wash their own dishes so they choose not to use utensils because they would have to wash them I have to say that this is a sight to see. Thank goodness for tortillas because rice is so much easier to pick up with a tortilla than your fingers. Most of the time we would give them our forks and spoons when we were done. Here we would never do that b/c of germs....not there. They could care less. After devotion we would pile in the bus and head out to do food ministry. The shelter boys would stay at the shelter doing chores and playing. They were out of school for summer break. Food ministry is where we would decide on a certain village and then go door to door. We would share the Gospel, talk with them, pray for them, and then pass out food. Massive amounts of rice and beans were handed out and many had full tummies that night. We got to sit down with many wonderful families and many were saved this week. I long for the day that I will eat at the same table with some of these men and women because they gave their life to Christ this week. Some of the food ministry we did at a park downtown for the street kids and homeless men and women. I saw some men that were the perfect picture of what I think hell looks like. They were so high on drugs they could hardly function. I also got to meet a couple that has a precious baby girl that decided to give up drugs last summer while a team was there and is still clean. It was a picture of how God can save....It is amazing that we live in such different worlds but the struggles are a lot alike.

After food ministry we would head to Grace Farms to spend the afternoon with the older boys. I am so thankful they were out of school for summer break because we got to spend a lot of good quality time together. Lunch was served and then the boys had their daily soccer game. Hondurans vs "grengos" (north americans)...I have to say that most of the men on the grengo team could not move after the first day but they fought on and kept playing everyday. The girls would play frisbee and football with the boys that didn't want to play soccer and just hang out. After everyone got energy out we broke up into different age groups and did bible lessons. My group had the youngest boys and we taught about The Prodigal Son, Jesus and Peter, Zaccheus, and The Parable of the two sons. We did some crafts and just spent lots of time talking. I got to teach "Zaccheus was a wee little man" and I promise all of you would have been dying out laughing watching me try to teach this to a group of spanish speaking boys. They loved it and got their fair share of laughs that day. I cherished the afternoons with the older boys. The first part of the week I really thought it was going to be hard to get to know them b/c they don't talk as much as the younger ones but after day one it got much easier. We would stay with them until about 4pm and then would head back to the shelter to eat dinner and do the bible lessons with the youngest boys. We had fun making bracelets, boats, and many other fun crafts. That was their favorite part and I have an arm full of bracelets that were made for me by the boys. It is etched in my mind each precious face that made them. After the lessons, we would head up for group time. We would sing and talk about the highs and lows of the day. I am going to post a video of one of the boys singing. You have to see it....

One of the many lessons God reaffirmed to me in Honduras was about trusting and depending on Him….allowing Him to work beyond my strengths and talents. I could love on the children or people I just met easily but I had a hard time opening up and talking with them about what God had done in my life. I prayed for God to give me the words to minister to them and to share things that had happened to me and how God had saved me and made all things new and pure despite my own doing. I was able to talk about walking by faith and fixing our eyes on Jesus and what the repercussions of taking your eyes off of Him are. There was one time when I didn’t have any words, just tears, as I stood outside a hut with a couple of women and their children who had been abandoned by the fathers. No money or food. To get money they searched dumpsters for bottles to recycle. I was able to share some of my life with them and how God has worked despite all the bad that had happened. I doubted myself and what “my story” would mean to someone else. Would it really make a difference? It was only when I was at the end of myself that God came in and worked. He gave me the words. As I reflect on this special moment I realize that this is the way God always works. He comes in and has His perfect way in our moments of inability and weakness. I want to live in such a way that I constantly allow God to work through my inadequacy. Throughout the week I enjoyed many good times and encountered situations and circumstances that were hard to accept but I always knew that God was right there by my side.

One other thing that happened was that I got to spend every afternoon at the farm with the little boy that our family has decided to sponsor. I met Jose on Sunday at church. I saw him singing on stage during the service and my heart melted. I don’t know why I was drawn to him but I was. I fell in love with this little boy immediately after I met him. He is kind of quiet and doesn’t draw a lot of attention to himself so I had to really try to get to know him. Once I did my heart melted. Jose and his brother, Noel, have been in the ministry for one year. Before they came to FCM they would spend their days roaming the streets for food and begging for money. Their father is not alive and the man that now lives with his mom would constantly abuse them for not bringing home enough food or money. They approached Lori and Richie Womack, the FCM missionaries, one day asking for money. This meeting would lead to the Womack’s building a relationship with them. Feeding them daily and providing them the only true love they had ever known. After talking to Jose and Noel’s mother, Richie was able to bring them into the ministry. Sadly, they have many siblings still at home that are now doing their job….begging and stealing. (I actually got to meet Jose’s sister one day when she was hanging outside the shelter waiting for us to come home). God has transformed Jose and he is a true testament of grace. I got to spend some good quality time with him that I will cherish forever. I long to see him (along with the other boys) again and if I was able to bring him home with me I would have. I just hope that he remembers the unconditional love that was shown to him last week and more than anything I hope that I was able to show him God’s love and the importance of a relationship with Christ so that he may always know God loves him. You can go to the FCM website and click on sponsorship and see a picture of all the boys. If you feel led or just interested in learning more about sponsoring please feel free to ask me. It only cost $25 a month. I have met all these boys and I would love to tell you more about each one of them. I am a new advocate for this ministry. God had been tugging at my heart about sponsoring a child for some time now and the first one that popped in my head was Compassion International. Not that CI is not a great ministry to support because it is but God showed me this week that even though FCM is not as big as CI they need just as much support and prayers. Stan Nowell, the founder of FCM, was with us the whole week. He splits his time between Chattanooga, TN and Honduras. I can tell you that he is a true man of God and his love for all the children of Honduras is amazing. The mission of FCM is to provide shelter, food, clothing, and medical attention to these boys but more importantly to nurture, disciple, and educate them. The goal of the mission is to share the love and hope that is found in knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And let me tell you these boys are absolutely amazing and are so thankful that God saved them and brought them into the ministry.


So meet Jose....



Is he not precious????



This is a picture that Stan posted on his facebook page from this past Sunday at church....Do you see Jose on the front row? He is wearing the soccer jersey I gave him. Makes me smile....