Sunday in Honduras

Going to church today in Tegucigalpa was very interesting and we learned a lot while there.  The transition house that the kids go to first is above the church.  Many members of their church are challenged to be involved in the manuelito project in some way or another.   They asked us to give a short testimony so we told about how we are only following the Lord’s leading and he has lead us to Honduras.  He has showed us the kids living on the streets and then He brought us to Manuelito.  When the service was over one lady came to me and told me with her broken English...”God spoke to me with your words and I know I am to serve him this year at Manuelito.”  Wow, I didn’t know what to say but I suppose if I did I wouldn’t have been able to tell her anyway because there was not a translator near.  I really need to be working harder on my Spanish!  Three or four of the smaller ones went to eat lunch with us and then to the park.   We ate at KFC believe it or not!  As I sat there eating our lunch, I watched little Nichol eat her chicken and thought about what her life was like only one year ago.  One year ago she was eating from the trash can with her little brother. 

 One year ago she had nobody tell her how special she was.  She is seven years old…the same age as Lilly.  She likes to be played with, likes piggy back rides and giggled the way Lilly would giggle when she put her head band on Scott’s head when she rode on his shoulders. 

 We got to be a part of Nichol and Gary's transition to the farm at Manuelito from the transition house.  I wonder what she thinks when she remembers her life one year ago.  Has she come to understand yet how special she is and that God has a plan for her life?  If her heart has yet to comprehend such love I trust that as the Lord uses Manuelito and those who are working here she will someday soon. 

We had several people give us money to use as we needed it for this trip.  We were limited on how much extra luggage we could purchase so we had to think of something else we could do special for the kids.  We read on their website that they many of them listed as their favorite food, pizza.  This is something that they do not get very often.  So we decided to get pizza for them.  When we came home from our trip in Tegucigalpa we brought back with us the pizza.  The kids had been told that we were doing this and they had been waiting so patiently for our arrival.  We ended up running late so by the time we got back they were overly anxious and hungry as well!  They all came running to the van, we could hardly get out because they were swarming so close.  We bought enough pizza for two groups their size, but figured it was better to have too much then not enough. 

 So as we served them their pizza we heard the words over and over again…”mucho gusto, Gracios!”, (which translates to ”I like this very much, thank you.”)  When they kept taking more and more again, Joe noticed that they were wrapping the extra up in napkins.  I wanted to see what they were planning to do with it and it was obvious that they were trying to not be noticed.  When I saw a trail of boys running to their dorm rooms I took off running after them hoping to catch this on video.  I reached their room only minutes after they did but only in time to see the last boy trying to put his into a bag of toys.  I asked them, “Donde el pizza?” (where is the pizza?) They pat their stomach as to act as if they didn’t know what I was talking about.  So I tried my best to get them to understand that I wouldn’t tell on them…I just thought it was cute.  Yet as the night ended I began thinking about how I thought it was cute.  Really there is nothing cute about it.  They feel they need to hoard and hide their food because they remember too well not knowing where their next meal would come from.  It must take a while to get them to stop feeling the need to do this.  So while in the moment I felt like it was so cute yet now my heart is broken by what I saw.  These poor children…what have they been through?