Blessed

Today was our first full day in Honduras. We started off not in normal Sunday fashion. We went on two home visits. The first little boy, Santos, has never been in school and has no language. He is 4 years old. The next little boy, Josue, is 7 and has some language. He just started attending school less than a year ago.

Santos lives to the dump community, what a way to start the day. It is quite a haul to even get up to his house because it´s on a mountain and has a make-shift trail leading up to it. Once we got into the house, which was made out of anything they could find in the dump, we were welcomed by his mom. Their kitchen was nothing more than an old coal burning stove. Santos is one of eight children, the youngest being 23 days old. We spoke with his mother, through our wonderful interpreter Lesley (who interpreted from a mixture of ASL/LESH into Spanish... Kudos!) about the importance of sending her child to school but also learning to communicate with him so he could have access to communication all the time not just at school. It was also emphasized that if Santos attends school he not only doesn´t have to work in the dump but he could get another job and make more money. She said she wasn´t sure because her brother didn´t want Santos to attend school but she would try to find some money to send him. We all prayed extra hard he would come to school. We were all extremely touched when we actually walked out into the dump to see what they live with. They pick through trash to try to find anything to exchange for money.

After leaving Santos´s house, we went over the river and through the woods.... well actually on many roads and UP a mountain (all in our bus, yea I was scared). We went to Josue´s house. He just started going to school but he has had really good language acquistion so he can communicate pretty well. His mother doesn´t sign and also cannot read or write so she has no means of communication with him. Their home did not have any kind of kitchen. In this home it´s just Josue, his mother, and sister. We brought each of the families a large bucket with food. They were all extremely appreciative.

After leaving we ate lunch and then headed off to church. We did a skit, similar to the "Ëverything" skit by Lifehouse (minus the music) which was a lot of fun and people seemed to really be touched by it. We then broke into small groups and I went with the youth. It was a lot of fun to see how the younger Deaf here are a lot like the Deaf youth in the US.

We then headed off to El Picacho, which is like a national park but it hosts the statue of Jesus. This is really hard for many in Honduras and especially after our morning visit because the statue overlooks the city but it´s back is to the dump community, so many who live there feel God doesn´t care about or love them. Thank goodness we don´t worship a statue and that God is EVERYWHERE so his back is never to us. It was lots of fun, Larry (and Carolina) went with us so we got our own personal tour from native a Honduran.

We left El Picacho and headed back to the high school where we ate dinner and hung out/ got ready for the next day. After dinner, Larry gave his testimony. He grew up with a Deaf mother, hearing father, and 2 Deaf brothers. After being in a gang he really felt he should get out after seeing his brother get shot in the back. The bullet had been unclean and to remove it would most likely leave him blind so he decided to deal with the pain and leave it in, this later lead to his death. He learned his other brother was in a gang as well and later died too. He turned his life around after being invited to church with a friend and becoming saved. He is now married with a beautiful daugther and God has really blessed him.

This whole day made me think about how much we as Americans have it good. We almost never know someone who has been shot, at least not like Larry and many people here. We almost never have to deal with problems of poverty. We may not have money sometimes but never like this! I cannot imagine how much different my life would have been had I been born here in Honduras instead of America. God has given us way too much to be greedy and unthankful.

Blessings,
Rebecca