Honduras 2010, Day 5

Day five started with us ministering to children at an orphanage...honestly, they ministered to us. They were such precious children. This orphanage is run by a Christian couple... the man who runs it is in his 70's. His wife died several years ago, and he married a Honduran woman who is his helpmate at the orphanage. They also run a school and a church, and his wife is principal of another school, also. They have told us that when we return, they would love for us to present at both of the schools...several hundred children! This couple is so loving toward the children in their home. We sat and talked with them both for a while and could tell that they truly loved these children. Afterward we went in to see the children. The children recited a lot of scripture that they had been taught. Then they sang several praise songs for us. They even sang several of the songs in English. After that blessing, we sang a couple of songs and did our skit for the kids. They loved it. They wanted Scott to sing a solo for them, so he sang "El Me Conoce," which is "He Knows My Name" in English...kind of neat that this is the hymn of the month at Maplewood this month. One of the verses says, "I have a Father. He calls me His own. He'll never leave me, no matter where I go." What a blessing to know that God is a Father to the fatherless, and that He has adopted all of us into His family as co-heirs with Christ! I think that to some extent, these children have a far better understanding and appreciation of this than many of us do. We ended our time of worship together singing Amazing Grace. The children would sing a verse in Spanish, and then we would sing it in English. What a powerful experience! The guys went outside and all played soccer with the boys, and the girls stayed inside and we made balloon animals with them and put barrettes in their hair. We gave them all school supply and hygiene bags as we were getting ready to leave, and we fitted them all with a new pair of flip-flops. We left anything that we were not going to need for the rest of our time with the orphanage. We left a bunch of flip-flops, a few school supply bags, several suitcases, and LOTS of candy!We went back to the hotel and ate lunch before heading out to Comayagua Plaza. This plaza is home to the second oldest cathedral in Central America and the world's second oldest clock tower. First, some went to tour the cathedral while others went shopping and site-seeing. This is one of the places where I feel we have a major impact...each year we are able to give out many tracts in this bustling town square. There is a constant flow of people in and through this area. It is really neat to see our group spread out and almost anywhere we look, we find either someone reading a tract we have given them or talking to one of our group members. There were a couple of boys that kept coming up to our group. One of them did not have on any shoes, so some of the group pulled out a couple pairs of flip-flops and gave them to him. He immediately put them on. They also wanted, not just one tract, but one of each of the tracts we had! Their persistence with this effort ended in them accepting Christ as their personal Savior. I actually had one of the tracts the others didn't, and they had not had a translator with them earlier. As we sat and talked through it with one of the translators, they asked Jesus into their hearts! Then Jessica bravely approached a group of young ladies and asked if we could share the gospel with them. A couple of them were Christians, but have not been living the way they should. And one of them said she just liked the world too much and wasn't ready to make that commitment. I was so proud of Jessica for sharing...and I reminded her that we aren't responsible for a person's decision, only for sharing the truth. Then as we were sitting there, an older lady approached us, and DeDe asked her if she had a relationship with Jesus. She said yes, but her grandson did not. So DeDe was able to talk to him, and he accepted Christ. What a blessing to see my friends and church members doing exactly what Christ has called us to do...sharing the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ! We have been able to see 10 people accept Christ through one-on-one evangelism.Afterward, we headed to the mall and the supermarket to pick up food that we wanted to take home. We then went back to the hotel, got cleaned up, and headed to Pizza Hut. We ate wings, pizza, and dessert...the whole group, mind you...for $52...amazing. The employees came out and sang Happy Birthday to Jessica...she was very embarrassed...it was fun ;)