Wednesday, December 16, 2009
GIVING IS FUN
(Thanks for putting up with my ramblings about my trip to Honduras.)
I love givers and when we give of ourselves. We are SO like Jesus when we give ourselves away. I honestly believe giving is fun. Last week I had a blast giving to people less fortunate than myself. Here are a few more things we did in Honduras...
The feeding center in a little village outside of Tegucigalpa that feeds hungry kids once a day, was closed all week last week. So on Friday we went to McDonald's and bought 250 hamburgers and chicken nuggets and fed the hungry kids.
It wasn't long until kids came from every direction.
It didn't take long for this little boy to down his hamburger.
Waiting in line.
She was a dirty little girl, but still SO friendly.
After all the food was gone, we got out one of the new soccer balls we'd brought. We packed 5 new soccer balls. We left two at the dump, one here and 2 for the Casa kids.
It did not take long for us to pick teams and start a game of soccer. They LOVE soccer.
The little village was up on the mountain side, so we'd often kick it off the hill and have to go find it. Somehow Randy Allen and I wound up as goalkeepers on opposite teams. After giving up three quick goals, a little boy officially took over my job and I was demoted to just a player. I couldn't explain to them that I didn't know how to play soccer. Randy, however, did an amazing job playing goalie and never lost his job. He was known as the great Grande Gringo.
On Thursday we built a house for a single mother who had three kids and took care of extra kids. They'd all been living in a smaller house with more family than the 16X16 foot house we were going to build. The cost to build a house is $1350. We purchased this house with money donated to the "Honduras Fund." Hopefully there will be LOTS more houses to come.
The tools used to build a house are hammers, post-hole diggers, tape measures, levels and chainsaws. Since there's no electricity on building sites, all the wood is cut with a chainsaw. VERY manly :)
Even I can drive a nail.
Using the chainsaw to cut the window and door for the house. They've built over 300 of these little houses for families, and I'm amazed just how square, tight and solid they are.
Quite possibly the coolest thing was when one of the little boys took his mom by the hand and led her into the house for the first time. He was beaming and smiling from ear to ear, and then he looked at him mom and said, "Magnifico." 
The building crew and the new family all together for a picture. It was an all day job but worth it.
Waving good-bye to the momma and kids.
You may never get to go to Honduras or another 3rd world country and give yourself away, but I'm reminded of what Mother Teresa once said, "Not everyone can serve the poorest of the world in Calcutta with me, but God does call everyone to a Calcutta ... you just have to find yours." If you'll look, your Honduras will be out there today. Your Calcutta or Honduras may be the lady at work who needs a shoulder to cry on today. It may be the family across the street struggling to make ends meet or the hungry man holding the "will work for food" sign. Your Honduras is out there today ... you just have to find it. Give yourself away today!
Labels: Honduras
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9 Comments:
It makes me "homesick" to see these pictures! I sure hope I make it back there soon!
I actually got through these pictures and comments without crying and crying like I did the last blog. You know how easily I can cry these days. But I am smiling in my heart for the work that you and your team are doing. Love you, gmj
I've helped build several of those homes in San Felipe, Mexico. Among the most meaningful missions I've ever been involved in. We called them "Project Sweat" because it seldom cooled off below about 105 degrees at night. Went up to 115 - 120 in the daytime and we were making the concrete blocks in molds, so every day we had a crew building the house and a crew making blocks that would be stacked and used by the next group to come down.
Thanks for sharing this.
I am glad you are sharing your Calcutta....I am still looking for mine...
The little girl with the beads made me sob... some dignity in appalling poverty.
Oh, how I wish I could bring all those kids home with me! I do love the look on the little girl with the pigtails & the "princess" overalls-- yes she is! And that expression on her face is the cutest thing I've seen in a while. Thanks for sharing. (And congrats on the use of the chainsaw.)
There's one window in the little house we built. It's like the door, but on the back side.
I noticed that many of the poor in the area had windows and just a towel over the window. None of them have glass in them.
I hope this answers your question.
Amen, Trey!! What an awesome report-thanks for sharing!! Thanks for being the hands of feet of Jesus to the people of Honduras. It really is amazing and humbling to be a part of God's amazing plan!
It's really important for you to share these pictures. I showed them to my wife and now we're talking almost daily about Honduras. We were telling some friends from church about this work and they didn't "get it" until they saw the pictures.
So much hardship in the world, so much to do....
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