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!!