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
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