Updates from Honduras...

This summer has gone crazy fast.  As soon as we returned from Honduras, we immediately jumped in the car and headed to New Jersey and New Hampshire to do vacation with each of our families.  Both weeks seemed to fly by.  We returned late last Saturday night and jumped quickly back into youth ministry with a youth group beach trip to Ocean City for a couple of days.  It has been a whirlwind of a summer.

For those of you who read my recent post about our trip to Honduras, I wanted to update you with some amazing information about the little boy we met, Luis.  As I shared before, Nate and I were so taken by this little boy with a huge heart.  We wanted to know more about his story and his situation and were curious if there was anyway that we could help him.  The youth group from my Dad's church headed to Honduras a week or two after us, to finish our the project we had started.  It was really cool, because they actually got to work with many of the kids we had worked with.

Amy, who was one of our missionaries, as well as has become one of my good friends, sent me a message a couple of days into their trip.  She had inquired about Luis and his home situation, and found out some awesome news.  While he does have problems walking, he actually comes from a home where he is loved and taken care of!  So, apparently I was not given correct info, or I misunderstood the info.  While I feel incredibly dumb, I am so excited to hear this awesome news!  The news actually gets better too. The team from my Dad's church had the privilege of holding a baptism with many of the people we had spent time with at the tail end of their trip.  Little Luis got baptized!  I haven't heard all the details, but I saw the pictures and it brought tears to my eyes.  God is moving in Honduras is some incredible ways.

So, while Luis' story is much different than I had thought, and for that I am extremely grateful, he still hold such a piece of my heart.  Each day I wake up, I remember that little boy with the rain boots, living in the hills of Honduras, and I think about how big the love of God truly is.  Luis radiates the love of God, and because of that, my heart has been changed.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Donut Story

Image
When I was about five years into being a Youth Pastor, I met a group of kids that changed my life.  Many of you reading this, who know me personally, have probably heard me talk about them numerous times.  Nate and I happened to live in the parsonage next door to the church I was serving at at the time, and would routinely come home to a group of boys that I would have described then as "rough around the edges."   They dressed mostly in black, had long hair, and sometimes even had black painted fingernails.  They loved to smoke, and they loved to skateboard.  After a few days of watching them through our window, Nate and I went outside and brought them some sodas.  We introduced ourselves, told them I was the Youth Pastor at the church, and invited them to come to youth group.  While they politely declined our invitation, we continued to invite them over and over again, attempted to skate with them, and fill them with snacks.  Until one day, ...
Read more

A Mother's Heart...

Image
It was the night before we were ready to leave for Ethiopia that it dawned on me. We hadn’t given the necklace to Biruk yet. When we had exchanged necklaces with his birth mom ten years prior at the orphanage, we had no idea when we would give it to him. We just knew that we wanted him to be old enough to appreciate it, as it would be the only thing he would have from her. We had no idea if we would ever see her again.  There have been several moments in our journey where I’ve had to pinch myself, because it has felt like I was dreaming. That night as we put our final things in our suitcases, took a deep breath, and came to the realization that we were not only taking our kids to Ethiopia, but that Biruk would in fact meet his birth mom…well, you had to pinch me, because it felt like I was dreaming. It also felt like the perfect moment to share this gift that we had been holding onto for 10 years. So we pulled out the necklace and gave it to Biruk. While words can be few and...
Read more

Stories Matter

Image
Yesterday, my family and I found ourselves at a local elementary school’s culture club, presenting about our trip to Ethiopia. Even as I write those words, it kind of blows my mind how God has continued to use our story in unexpected places. When the kids were old enough to understand, we began to talk about taking them back to their birth country when they turned 10. We figured at 10, they would be old enough to be pretty good travelers, but still approach the adventure with a childlike wonder. What we didn’t plan on, was that the year Biruk turned 10 would come on the heels of me taking a brand new job, our family moving to a new state, and buying our very first house, in an economy that felt as though it was tanking!  I remember talking to my counselor one day and sharing with him that while we had always promised this trip to our kids, it just didn’t seem to make financial sense. After all, last time I checked, Southwest Airlines does not travel to Africa. He said someth...
Read more