Be the light.....

CLICK HERE for today's photo album

I have never crafted the last day of a mission trip, but if I were to do so, it would look exactly like this day did!  After a day of rest, we were excited to head back up to the children's home for a final day of work.  Full disclosure - I have learned this week that "excited" is a relative term that is measured differently by everyone.....

We gathered the tools and headed to the work site to join the guys.  They had made some great progress the day before and today we were starting a whole new section of the wall.  We immediately got to work not needing much guidance as, of course, we were now pros.  We divided up into small groups to tackle each of the tasks.  One of the neat things about these students is that there were no "clicks" this week.  Each time we broke into groups there was always a different mix and each group seemed to get along really well and have great conversations.

For me, this is the first time in Honduras where I worked on a build project at the children's home so I didn't really know what the difference would be.  What I discovered this week was the great relationships you build with the workers when you spend 3-4 days with them.  Today it was like showing up to hang out with 3 old friends, 2 of them not speaking English.  Though focused and efficient at work (trust me, don't be staring off into space when you need to be handing them blockas or mixing mescla), these guys are super relational.  We learned all about Edson and how he and his wife moved to the states for 3 years.  He shared his struggles at a young age and how he came to know Christ.  He would light up as he talked about his son Benjamin and how much he loved worship music.  Though fairly quiet, Ariel would pepper in questions about each of us; our work, our spouse and children, school and of course an occasional joke at our expense.  He was a really sweet man until he asked me if one of the students was my daughter.  Our relationship deteriorated quickly after that.

Angel, in my opinion, is the quiet giant of the 3.  Not really ever saying much, he would light up as he led worshiped and shared with us at lunch.  You could tell he was paying attention to every detail of us throughout the day as he would speak directly to those details during our time at lunch.  From remembering our backgrounds to what songs we said we liked while working, he is gifted in connecting with people and seems to have a passion for relationships that I pray to have a fraction of some day.  The experience with these guys is just another testament to the Honduran culture and the pride they take in being a light to the world for Jesus.

We wrapped up our day a little early as the children had a presentation for us before we left.  Believe it or not some (definitely not all) of us were disappointed to stop working.    We had hit our rhythm by this time and were sad to be leaving the guys.  We headed up to see the children and of course had a wonderful time.  They thanked us for our being there and for the work we had done.  They then challenged us to a couple of games included "hot cabbage" where we got to take on different challenges from saying Spanish words to the chicken dance.  (not a typo) After a relay race of frog hops and lunges, with them cheering us on, we closed with the children praying for us.  Though sad, this was one of the highlights of the day for most of us.

On the way home we stopped by Suzy's house to see some of the progress of her projects and to visit with her family.  She greeted us with ice cream sundays and we got to spend time with here children and play with the numerous animals.  It was great to see the work that had been done including a new guest house built out of the garage for 2 of her children.

After dinner, our final time together was a very special one as Suzy joined us at casa lamb and led us in worship and a devotional.  After a few songs with her playing the guitar, we read Revelation 3:8 and and talked about how God has prepared us to be the light of the world.  We listened closely as she talked about the struggles over the last 30 years as a missionary.   Through the MANY times of doubt, she would turn to this verse as a reminder that though we may not be moving forward in our calling, we are to stand strong in our faith and be the light of love we are called to do.  She shared with us how special St. Peters is to her and her family and how we have been a light for them.  With little Danny running around the room, she pointed out that had it not been for St. Peters, there would not be the light for him or her other children.  She also did a great job putting it into perspective that our calling may not be for some lofty mission like lamb or moving to another country to serve.  All the while keeping the clear message that we are to be the love and life of Jesus, she concluded with "There is a lot to be said for the love of one person".  That is where it all starts.

After Suzy left we concluded our time together sharing our highlights of the day.  Though the exercise was to share your HIGH (singular) of the day, everyone of us started with "well, I actually have 3...", most of us adding our time with Suzy as an awesome experience.  We then did a gratitude exercise where each member of the team had a sheet of paper with their name on it passed around and everyone wrote a word of encouragement or thanks to everyone else.  It was a great way to end the day with them taking their sheet home as a reminder of their team and how they all impacted each other over the week.

So here it is, the final morning.  I'm sitting in my special spot in casa lamb, where I have sat every morning I have been in Honduras, overlooking a small balcony over the courtyard.  It is a bitter sweet morning as I am excited to get home to see Lynne and get back to life, but sad that this week is coming to an end.  When I signed up for this trip to come along and help with a youth group, I didn't have any idea what to expect.  Honestly, I thought the trip would be different then before because I would have to be "on" and responsible to help lead the students.  Little did I know that this would be one of the greatest experiences for me in Honduras.  Ranging in ages from 15-17, these students are true lights to the world.  Admittedly, every now and then, I have fallen into the category of people who has a little bit of doubt for our future generation.  If we have a fraction of our society made up of kids like these, we will be just fine......

Day 5 - God provides....

CLICK HERE for today's photo album

Today was an earlier morning as we were headed back to "God's Littlest Lambs" daycare and school to participate in their weekly devotion.  For me and one of the other leaders that played soccer at the Alonzo movement, it was an especially early morning.  Today the school was PACKED full of kids from daycare to the 9th grade.  Their devotion is held each Wednesday in the morning and it is an unbelievable experience to see.  All of the children come up to the basketball/soccer court on top of the school.  They pile in to sing songs of worship and hear a great message for about an hour.  Once again, we laughed and clapped along with songs that we listen too without understanding the words but clearly getting the message.  These kids are so joyful and excited to be there.

Today they had a special visitor in a young man named Joel.  You couldn't help but notice him as soon as the music started as he was the tiny 10 year old behind the drums, not missing a beat.  We were told that he was going to speak and we all deducted that he would come up and read a prayer and then the adults would give a short message relevant to the the prayer.  Not at all the case......  After reading the Gospel, Joel launched into what would end up being one of the most powerful sermons I have seen.  Quick reminder, he is 10....  Side note - we have a great friend of ours that refers to her son as the "tiny tornado".  Joel is giving him a run for his money.   We sat there mesmerized as he walked up and down the room, one hand holding the microphone, the other mostly pointing to the sky as he spoke to the children about perseverance and how God provides in times when we feel stress and difficulty.  He went on to remind them that if they were going through difficult times currently, that God has already provided them with everything they needed to push through.  You seriously could not have planned this any better to fall into the theme of our week.  God did though, and what a great plan it was.

 After devotion, we got to hear from the directors of the different ministries of Lamb.  The first was from the executive director who shared with us the history of Lamb and how it from where it was to where it is today.  The principle shared with us here passion for the children and how difficult some of their lives are.  We heard about a ministry that goes out into Honduras and teaches schools, churches, hospitals and more about how to see the signs of sexual abuse which is unfortunately a huge problem here.  They have trained over 11,000 people on how to help prevent this. 

Today is slated for us to explore and experience Honduras.  Our first stop was for some brief shopping before heading to lunch.  We then headed out to "Valley of the Angels" which is about 45 minutes northeast of Tegucigalpa.  Established in the late 1800s the little city has a central square with a beautiful church surrounded by shops, street vendors, coffee shops and a handful of restaurants.  We strolled around the area and got to take in the scenes and relax and laugh as we all awkwardly tried to find out the exchange rate of each purchase.  Of course all of the Hondurans were super helpful and always a treat to be around. 

One of my favorite experiences of today was on the van ride home when I had a conversation with one of the students and she shared with me her experience of finding God.  She shared that where she was baptized a while ago, she really was going through the motions and didn't really understand or feel like she had a good relationship with God.  It wasn't until a girl in her school saw something in her and said, "I want to pray with you.  I want us to sit here and pray and listen to worship music with you, because I want you to know God."  She explained how she was experience an amazing amount of anxiety and fear at the time and during this time with her friend, God poured over her peace and love.  She teared up telling me the story and how grateful she was for the people she had around her.  Oh , yeah, did I mention she is 15??!!  Who are the "leaders" in this group again??
We got back to case lamb early this evening and of course, as most any person would, we headed straight for the coffee table.....it's Uno time again.

The devotion at night continued the theme of pressing into how the Lord is speaking to us and discerning what the call is and how we embrace it. The highlights of the day they shared mostly surrounded Joel and his passion during devotion, most of us shared that in addition to that, we really enjoyed the time we spent together in the vans and at Valley of the Angels.  This group has a really cool dynamic together.  We discussed a couple passages and spent a lot of time in Luke 9:10-17 on how God will provide.  Which he showed us all day.  (and every day for that matter)  We had time again for them to reflect and journal and then we partnered up and were given the task of sharing with each other what gifts the other person had and then to pray for each other.  The energy of the group after this was at a 10!  I can safely say that I have been humbled by this group.  Their faith really is a true measure of the power of the Holy Spirit and I am truly grateful for this time with them.   Well, except for the conversation when one of them said, "wait, you don't have kids?  Wow, I thought you had a kid in college."  Yeah, I could have done without that........

Per usual, we concluded our evening with a few rounds of Uno where these sweet teens turn to savages with no regard for their elders and no problem seeing each other's cards and shouting to the group how to exploit said information.  We will work on where this behavior is supported in the bible. 

Once again, it is early in the morning and everyone is stirring well before breakfast and having quiet time. We head back up to the children's home for our last day of work.  I can't help but be a little sad that we are coming to an end.  I'm gonna miss these guys......

Day 4 - Fear to faith...

CLICK HERE for Day 4 photo album

Hola!  By now you have probably deducted that the title of each day has come from the theme of the day.  Well, today's title will probably be on of the most fitting ones of the week!  (It may also be one of the longer ones because I am on fire with excitement right now for this group!

So today was our second work day.  Suffice to say the energy level was not quite as high as it was the day before when our ignorance shielded us from the reality of the work to come.  No, today, we new what was coming.........  However, as always, the moment we stepped out of the van, stepped onto the grounds of casa hogar and saw the smiling faces of Angel and Ariel, we were ready to go!  We continued to work on the wall and to our surprise, there was an added project of tending to the "garden".  As usual, the Hondurans do things on a big level so this was more of a farm than a garden!  Oddly enough, no one offered to take my job of moving cinder blocks and shoveling mescla in exchange for working on the garden so I will have to supply more pictures later on that one.....

Those of you who attended the dinner a couple of weeks ago may remember a brief discussion among the group regarding raincoats.  During said discussion a certain wife was very confident on how unnecessary bringing raincoats would be.  She was incorrect......  At about 11:15, the rain started.  It was a cool welcome at first but then it started to come down.  Early lunch!!  We rushed up to the church and sat under the covered patio to wait it out.  This is when one of the best parts of the day was about to begin.  During lunch, it really began to pour which gave us an amazing scene overlooking the already gorgeous valley now covered with fog and the rain on the tin roof was like the setting of a movie.  And if that wasn't enough for us to just enjoy being in the presence of the Lord, Angel picked up his guitar and today's worship began.

The Hondurans are really big on giving their testimonies.  The take seriously the charge to share the gospel and to share it often.  So after a couple of songs, Angel shared his testimony.  Coming from a very difficult situation, he shared his struggles with fear, depression, sadness, sickness, his family and his battle with his faith.  His face lit up as the story led to him finding and falling in love with Christ again. With no shortage of tears, we all listen, memorized by how joyful he was and how much he loved sharing this with us.  After that he played a couple of songs (one he wrote himself - insert more tears here...) and then asked the group to share our stories and asked us a few questions about our faith and journey.  We heard a couple of testimonies from our group and discussed where we would be today with Christ in our lives.  In perfect timing the rain let up and it was time to go to work.  God's 2 hour lunch break for us was over....

The work after lunch had a little extra "pep" in it.  The energy carried through all of us and we got into the that "rhythm" you always want to happen whenever working on a big project.  The rain started again and this time it wasn't quite the gradual build up as the morning shower.  Nope, it came DOWN.  We all retreated to the pre-school where we had a dance party to children's songs about smelling like coconuts and doctors being monkeys.....you had to be there.  (No really, I have no idea how to describe the situation.)  The children loved it though, that's all that matters.

Because history has never repeated itself, we headed back to the work site the moment the rain let up.  The timing this time was a little bit better, as soon as we finish the current row on the wall, the rain came back - this time we called it a day.  Before headed home, we got to hear another Testimony from Mirza.  Mirza came to the children's home 12 years ago and is now in medical school.  She shared her story of how at 8 years old, she choose to leave her home and come to the children's home for a better life.  Yes, at 8 years old.  In addition to being in med school she also volunteers for Lamb and other organizations.  With all of this and her studies, she wakes up at 4am in order to get to class and most of her nights wrap up after midnight.  It was such a great treat to be able to hear from her and how her faith and the company of great people at Lamb, she is truly pursuing her dream of becoming a doctor.  The vans arrived shortly after that and wet, probably smelly, and laughing, we piled in and headed back down to casa lamb for another great evening.

Before dinner we headed to the school in Flor del Campo for The Alonzo Movement.  I encourage you to click and learn more about this ministry.  In a nutshell it was created after one of the scholarship recipients from Lamb was killed for his cell phone.  The Alonzo movement was created as a way to get kids off of the streets and to give them something to do.  They meet at the school in the evenings to play soccer.  The have also have an Alonzo worship band that was practicing while we were there.  So we all got to play with the kids there while listening to the band, with an amazing view over the city.  The kids there were younger than teenagers and we all filtered into the group to play with them.  Yes, all of us.  I broke my "no soccer on concrete at this age" rule.  And where I am not in a body cast, it wasn't a shinning moment of my athletic ability.

After diner we grouped up for our devotional.  Though we were meeting much later in the evening, the energy was high.  The group shared their highlights of the day which again mostly consisted of the joy of being with the children.  We then all shared our favorite versus from the bible and why.  After that we talked about 2 Timothy 1:7-8 - in a nutshell - Moving from fear to faith.  After a brief discussion on how God has already equipped us for our calling we asked the students if God has stirred anything in their hearts on this trip so far....and then we waited.  Committing to let the silence do the heavy lifting with a group that up until this point had proven to be fairly "shy" when it came to sharing, we waited for them to step up.  And boy did they!

This quiet bunch began to share what the Lord had put on their hearts this week and it was amazing to be a spectator.  They shared about how they felt the Lord telling them to be more honest with themselves and to others and have the strength to be themselves.  They shared about how where they were struggling to with what the future holds, God gave them a peace about it.  Some shared about how they need to surrender and be more committed.  Some were convicted that they were truly following their calling with school.  Yes, these are all teenagers, and powerful ones at that.

We closed the night with quiet time for journaling and once again, the 15 minutes given was a fraction of what they took.  The night concluded with a few fierce, but friendly, rounds of Uno.

Day 4 - well done sir, well done.....

Day 3 - Gift of Joy.......

CLICK HERE are all of Day 3's pictures.....

It should probably go without saying from here forward that the day was AWESOME!  With it being our first official "work" day, we traveled up the mountain with a little apprehension but no less excitement.  On the way we picked up a new friend, Edson, who works for Lamb and helps the volunteer groups with the work projects at the children's home.

Currently the project at hand is a perimeter wall around the property.  Our job today was to begin the next 2 sections of the wall.  With the help of Edson, Mario, Angel and Ariel, we immediately got to work laying the foundation.  Keep in mind that we are here with no "machinery" for the basics of any construction project.  So, while there is no shortage of tools and skill, everything is done by hand.  We divided into 3 groups.  The first group was in charge of cutting, bending and building the rebar
grids for the foundations and pillars. The second was to mix the concrete and mescla which is a little different then running up to the new Lowes and grabbing a couple of bags of cement.  We had two piles - one with rocks (gravel) and another with sand.  We would take some of each and mix in a bag of cement and with shovels, 4 of us would mix them up on the ground adding water.  The process for the mescla was similar but we had to sift the sand through grates to clean it up before mixing.

The third group (which seemed to be the smallest group) was in charge of digging the trench for the next 2 sections of the wall.  Now, I have dug a trench before......My trench was dug in Mount Pleasant soil, and was about 10 feet long.  It was miserable, like really miserable.  So you can imagine our excitement and relief when today's trench was about 30 feet long, along a barbed wire fence, oh yeah, and through solid rock!!  So we got to chisel our way through while someone else shoveled the rocks away.  I tried every leadership trick in the book to leverage that one out, these kids are smarter than that...... No bueno.

In all actuality, the work was awesome.  We laughed and had a great time getting to know each other better as well as getting to know the guys helping us.  These guys have amazing stories and even more amazing hearts of caring.  Angel, who we later learned has an amazing voice, spends his days off traveling way out into the country to pray and worship with people who do not have the means to attend church.  He is also in his church's worship band.  Edson spent 3 year in the states studying with his wife Claudia.  Before moving, he sold EVERYTHING he had here in Honduras and instead of using that money to get ready for his new chapter, he took every cent and spent it on the needs of the youth ministry with which he worked here in Honduras.  He then did the same when God called him back home.

For lunch we gathered up at the church to enjoy the cool breeze amazing views of the valley.  After eating, Angel grabbed his guitar which is real treat.  Knowing that one of our group's family is from Columbia, he picked a few songs of Colombian singers and told us the stories of their background.  We were all once again struck by the fact that where most of us did not understand a word of the songs, the power, joy and meaning of each was not at all lost in translation.

After lunch we headed back down the hill and continued our projects and worked until the children got finished with school.  We wrapped up our projects and got to spend a little bit of time with the children.  More hide and seek, soccer and crafts with LOTS of laughter!

Our group time back at casa lamb this evening was definitely a special one.  Though we were all tired, sore and ready to relax and play some games before bead, the group lit up with stories of the day.  The overwhelming theme for all of us was how joyful the day was.  Where none of us would probably give up our day jobs to pursue a life in masonry, we all had a wonderful time.  The joy of the guys that helped us radiated through the group.  This was then of course carried on by the children.  We reflected on how cool it was that at the end of the day, when we were all so tired, hungry and sore, the joy in the children created an energy and joy in us that could not be measured.

We ended our group discussion giving the students "10 minutes" of quiet time to journal and pray on the day.  We challenged them again with the question "If God wanted you to do something different in you, would you let him?"  It was almost 30 minutes before any of them were done....

For me, I went to bed with an amazing amount of joy and honor of being able to spend time with these great "kids".  Every single one of them is amazingly gifted and in just 3 short days, I have gotten to see this first hand.  It is no surprise to me that God is once again using Honduras to center me in my faith, it has been incredible.

However, as I wrap up this recap, I will close with a line from "God of this city" (which is currently playing in my ear) - "For greater things have yet to come and greater things are still to be done in this city....."

Day 2 - A new beginning.....

CLICK HERE for Day 2 photo album (there are some doozies in here.....)

Day 2 is down and what a day it was!  It was definitely a day of new beginnings in friendships, faith and perspective.  It started with the special treat in a brief teaching from TJ before breakfast.  During this talk he challenged us to be sure that we listen to the Lord this week (and always) and to ask ourselves, "If Jesus called on you to do something new, would you let him?"  A great question that was simply a primer to another amazing day together.  So after another fantastic meal from Dulce, we piled into the van and headed off to church.

We got to the children's home about 9:45 and got to meet more of the children and Tias as well as see Suzy and her family.  A few years ago the "Kitty Chapel" was built on a bluff of the property and has amazing views overlooking the valley.  Have lost his mother at a young age, the donor of the chapel has a passion for these children.  The chapel is beautiful and provides space not only for the children to worship on Sundays, it is the scene of numerous other gatherings, a handful of weddings and sadly one funeral.  It is also where we had lunch today with the children.  In front of the chapel is a prayer garden surrounded by a prayer wall built over the last couple of years.  In addition to praying in this area, you will find where people have written down and rolled up prayer requests and placed them throughout the wall. 

Today was a special day at the church that began with a presentation from the children where they gave a dramatic presentation of the struggle of good vs. evil.  The Lamb worship band is an amazing group that truly does bring worship to a new level.  Comprised of children from the home, it has been a true pleasure to watch them grow over the last few years both spiritually and with their musical gifts.   The sermon today was from TJ where he discussed 2 Kings 4:1-14 - the story of Naaman and his healing.  In much of our discussion both in the morning and in our evening devotional,  we reflected on how we tend to take everything into our own hands versus handing it over to the Lord.  How we tend to perform or buy our way out of a situation versus humbly submitting our burdens, our sorrows and our suffering over to him and asking for help. 

After the sermon we got to see 4 people be confirmed.  It was such an honor to be part of this pocess as you could see the love and faith that all of them had.  Following confirmations, Richard Lemus was received as a Deacon into C4SO by TJ, another exciting event to see!!  Richard and his wife Larissa are missionaries that came to Honduras from Cuba and have been an amazing blessing to the children and to Lamb.  Following the service we all gathered outside the chapel for an amazing lunch prepared by the kitchen crew at the children's home. 

GAME TIME!!  Of course the moment all the children were waiting for was the afternoon of games and crafts with the children.  Our crew divided into 2 groups, one that colored and made bracelets and necklaces with some of the children, and another crew that played a mix of wiffle ball and soccer.  Seeing as though the soccer field is cement, this old guy served his duty as photographer very well from the sidelines......the last thing I need is to explain to people that I am in a body cast because I thought I could play soccer. 

This is where I will start to brag on this amazing crew of students.  I don't have to name anyone individually because every single one of them were truly engaged as such supportive and caring leaders with this children.  From the babies to the teenagers, children were laughing and playing with GIANT smiles on their faces all afternoon.  One of the students said that one of his favorite parts of the day was to just see how much JOY this children had and how much joy that brought him. 

As the day went on the activities changed to a mix of property-wide hide and seek, "CABALLO" (horse) and cookie face!  Now, if you are thinking that "horse" would be the traditional basketball version of horse, you would be incorrect.  CABALLO is where the children pretend we are their horse and ride us around yelling CABALLO!  Again, the students stepped up and there were caballo races, caballo naming and then an impromptu game where our students just began to put the children on each other to see how long they could hang on.  Yes, it was as chaotic as it sounds. 

Cookie face you ask ?  Naturally that is a game where you look up,  place an oreo on your forehead and then get it down into your mouth without using your hands.  There are TOO MANY pictures to post in here so be sure to check out the album.....

When we got back to casa lamb we had some downtown before dinner where the group was divided into another Uno competition, relaxing and a side trip to Walmart to buy some baby walkers and a MASSIVE amount of candy to accompany the equally as large amount of snacks we got the day before.  Remember parents, this was a mission trip, not a healthy eating retreat......

After dinner we gathered for our devotional to reflect on the day and to be on purpose with our own personal journeys this week.  In the sharing time, the students shared how much they enjoyed the time with the children and seeing how happy they were.  We talked about how amazing it is that this entire ministry of lamb was started with one small idea and has grown into this amazing organization.  One student shared how even though we didn't know the words, the worship songs were so powerful for us.  In our time we talked about creating a quite space for us each day in order to have quiet time, prayer time and to ask God for what it is he is calling for us to do.  This is also a time for us to lay our burdens down to him.  We then challenged the students to set aside time first thing in the morning to go through this process and gave them a brief outline on how to do so.  What is AWESOME is that as I sit here this morning and type this, I have watched them all up and at em (starting at 6am) and they are all sitting quietly, reading, reflecting and yes, even journaling!!  I can't wait to hear what today brings for them!!

Day 3 is a build day.  We will spend all of today working on the perimeter wall of the children's home.  It's going to be a beautiful day of new beginnings for everyone and we can't wait to share with you how it all went!!

Day 1 - Following the lamb.....very early in the morning

CLICK HERE for Day 1 picture album

Day one started out with a bang with everyone ENTHUSIASTICALLY showing up at the airport at 5am!!  (Well, and one of us at 4:30, names withheld to protect the innocent)  This group of 11 (7  ladies and 4 men) is headed off to Tegucigalpa Honduras to spend 7 days serving at Lamb Institute, an amazing ministry serving children in the area.  I HIGHLY recommend you spend some time on their website reading more about them.  In a nutshell Lamb is a Christ-centered multifaceted ministry that seeks to reach out to the world with the love of Jesus Christ. 

With a brief layover in Atlanta, our journey to visit Tegucigalpa was under way and, aside from the early morning, everyone was excited, kind of.  For those in the group that had never been to Honduras, they were in for a treat with the landing.  The pilot described it ahead of time as an "anything but normal flight", where he would be making a teardrop approach and then "nosedive" to the runway in order to touch down as close to the end of the runway as possible, He continued that the landing will "hopefully be a soft one, but may not be".  The description concluded with "regardless, just know that we will then be stopping very quickly..."  He delivered on his promise.

The airport experience here is always pleasant with the move through customs being efficient and uneventful.  On all of our trips here we are always greeted by AMANDA who is the volunteer coordinator for Lamb here, and truly a SAINT among men.  (I would ask that you not share this sentiment with her though, we need to keep her on her toes a bit and not give her a big head.)  Amanda has been in Honduras for around 8 years and really has an amazing gift as an Ambassador to not only Lamb, but also to Honduras.  Her story is amazing and she has a passion for her journey.  She has an awesome BLOG that gives a great perspective on her time here.

After piling into the van, our first stop was to head directly to Casa Lamb.  This house is located about 15 minutes from the airport and is where most of the volunteers that come to visit Lamb stay.  Located in a gated community, Casa Lamb is a 6 bedroom house with 2 large living areas, a dinning room and kitchen.  It is such a comfortable house that is a great place for the volunteers to be able to recharge, rest and build fellowship while not working.  When we got there, we got to meet Dulce and Gloria, 2 wonderful ladies that take care of us while we are here.  Trust me when I say there is no shortage of great food from Dulce!  After getting settled we had lunch and then headed out to "God's Littlest Lambs" children's home located in San Buenaventura, about 45 minutes from Tegucigalpa.  This journey through the winding mountain highway also gave us the opportunity to experience a true Honduran experience....the driving.  When we pulled into the children's home, those of us whom had been here before were pleasantly surprised to see an actual driveway that had been built over the last few months.  Originally having an additional 15 minute experience of a rocky terrain of a "road" in our van, this new luxury was great to see that the children now had quick and easy access to the property.

The children's home sits on about 30 acres of some of the most beautiful terrain that you will see.  When we got there, Amanda took us on a tour of the grounds where we started to meet some of the over 70 residents that live there - ranging in age from 9 months to 18 years old.  During the tour we also got to learn the history of the property, from it's start with one small building to now having over 10 structures, including a beautiful Church.  MOST of the children that live here are not actually orphans in that they have family that live here and just do not have the means to take care of their children.  This visit is unique in that a lot of the children were out visiting with their families for the day which is a great blessing for them.  One of the goals of the children's home is to give these children the best experience throughout childhood that they can.  In addition to the comforts of the living situation, there is also a pre-school on campus for the younger kids which is an experience in Honduras that is usually only enjoyed by the "super rich".  A lot of the older children attend school down in Flor del campo, which we will visit later this week.

After touring the grounds, we then got the opportunity to hang out with the children.  Starting with the littlest ones, it was great to see all of the students in our group excited to love on the babies and just have a great time with the children and their "Tias".  After that we moved to the soccer field and playground to play with the other children for the afternoon.  These kids are such a pleasure to be around!  It is always an eye opening experience for us as we all come in with some pre-conceived perspective of pity for the children and their circumstances.  What is awesome about being with them is that they quickly show us God's love in their joy, energy and, for some, feistyness!

After a couple of hours we wrapped up and headed back down the mountain to call it a day.  This second van ride was a great turning point for our group as we all started to open up in discussion of everything from horses, to the children, to Honduras and the culture, to the scenes and areas that we were driving through.  This is an amazing group of students and we are super excited about what this week is going to bring not only to Lamb, but to them and what God is going to stir in their hearts.

Back at Casa Lamb we concluded our day with a wonderful dinner from Dulce where we THOUGHT we would enter into a quiet time quickly followed by bedtime........then "Uno" was brought to the table.....Let's just say that a friendly game among high school friends morphed into a tournament involving a Bishop, the group leaders and then separate "teams" ranging from partners to girls against boys.  The ring leader of the team also began to make up the rules as he went.......

Day 1 was a great success and a blessing for the group leaders.  We are so excited for the students and looking forward to sharing the rest of the experience this week.  Day 2 we will be headed back out to the children's home for church where we will have a special treat as TJ is here for some confirmations, we will share pictures and stories on that for sure!

CLICK HERE for Day 1 picture album