Given Much More than I Gave
 |
| My view every morning at Grace Farm. |
1 week ago Saturday I left to go on a mission trip to Honduras. The months before I left and the entire way down I kept asking myself what in the world I was doing. I'm about as white and as southern as you can get. As I've looked back on my 44 years, I can't remember a time when I was hungry because I didn't have enough to eat. I've never been without heat when it's cold or cool air when it's hot. I was never abused by my parents. I have always had plenty of clothes in my closet to wear. So again, I asked myself, what am I doing here.
 |
| Plane window view |
Three of the days we were there we went into the garbage dump, where people were living, and a depressed neighborhood to serve the beautiful people of Honduras by meeting a basic need of food, loving them, sharing Jesus with them, and praying for them. I have so many stories to tell that will rip your heart out and make you want to become a puddle of tears on the floor, but there are many ways I saw the great I AM move. I also have stories that will make you giggle. One story I will share, because it's the moment I realized I did have something in common with the people I came in contact with in Honduras.
It was Monday, the first day we were in the dump. We came to a house and my group leader for the day, Bo, looked at me & told me I was up. Whoa, what? I know you don't mean me. My plan was to keep quiet, and let Bo do "the heavy" stuff. Anyway, we walked up to the house and started speaking to the mom. We found out her son had been stabbed in the eye, robbed, and left for dead for the food another missionary group had given him a few weeks before. They wanted to murder him for a few dollars of food. I just couldn't wrap my head around that fact. What do you say to a grieving mother? All I could tell the mom was how, as I mom, I couldn't imagine her fear for her son. I couldn't imagine the fear of the unknown from this moment forward, and that I was so sorry. We prayed for her son, who had a doctor's appointment the next day; we prayed a hedge of protection around their home; and we prayed that God would give them peace for the journey they were walking. You know what they told us? They knew Jesus had this situation. They knew He would make a way for them. I was given so much more than I gave. It's always the people who you think should be angry with God & are praising Him instead are His biggest witnesses. I mean, wow.
That's just one story, and trust me when I say I have TONS. I have fallen in love with the people of Honduras. I have fallen in love with the children in FCM. I have fallen in love with Noah's Ark Church. If I had the money and a group to tag along with, I'd go back tomorrow. Yes, they moved me that much. Attached below is a 30 second video from Noah's Ark Church Sunday. They started singing Like a Lion by David Crowder & ask me how cool it was to sing it in English as they were singing in Spanish?! It made me aware of the every nation & every tongue will praise the Lord. And yes, I cried. How can you not when you realize He is being praised 24 hours a day throughout the world. I was a little verklemped.
Pray that God will provide the money for us to go next year. Pray for me to relearn enough Spanish to communicate a little. Pray for Roberto, he's a really cool kid who loved dead legging all of us. Pray for all the children in the Forgotten Children's Ministries. Pray for their missionaries and translators because they totally rock and just live out God's love!
Celebrating life & the Love of Christ,
~ashley
PS~ on a side note, E took 4000 pictures the week we were in Honduras. :) Hopefully 1/2 will turn out, she's pretty talented, so I bet more than that turn out. I'll post a link when she's done going through them so you can see some of the beautiful people we met. <3
Comments
Post a Comment