Day 5 - God provides....

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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......