Honduras: Day Five

It has been a long week so far. I completed 31 interviews in the previous three days, so with this being Saturday it seemed like a good day to take a little break from the intensity. We slept in for a little while this morning, and after that we visited the central market here in San Pedro Sula for the gifts for our daughters. After shopping we enjoyed a yummy traditional Honduran meal that was prepared by some people who work in the central market. In the afternoon we picked up a bunch of snacks and crafts for the girls at Casitas, and we spent most of the afternoon visiting with the girls there. It was very hot and humid, but we looked past that in order to spend some good, quality time with the girls. It's hard to believe that the girls live in such difficult circumstances day after day, and I know they were happy to have visitors. I did interview a couple more kids while I was there, and they also claimed not to have any consistent, one to one visitors. There is such a huge need for mentoring in these institutions that we've visited this week. We need to really pray that mentoring takes off here. Tonight we're going to a big, multisite church here that Bill told me is very similar to North Way. I'm very excited to worship with my new Honduran friends, and I know that this church is very interested in mentoring.

I definitely got a lot out of the visit to Casitas today, but I can tell that God really reached my wife through the experience of being with so many young ladies who are experiencing such struggles in life. One little girl could not talk, but she desperately wanted to make a bracelet out of yarn for Julie. Julie and I haven't talked too much about coming back to Honduras, but I'm hoping that we'll be able to come back some day. One of the strangest feelings about being here is that this is not really too much of an "escape" from our lives in Homewood. The degrees of material poverty are different between the kids we serve in Homewood and the kids we have interacted with here in Honduras, but their tremendous needs remain the same. At-risk youth just want somebody to spend time with them, invest in them, and show them that they matter in this world. I have learned that it is very hard to convince Christians in Honduras to get involved with these kids here, and it continues to be very hard to convince Christians in Pittsburgh to care about kids in Homewood. The problem is, it's not my job to do any convincing to somehow get people to care. It's the Holy Spirit's job to convict people for being disobedient and dismissing the most vulnerable people in our society. I am praying that God will continue to keep this burden on my heart, and that the Holy Spirit will continue to work through me prophetically to shed light on the injustices that are happening to high risk youth around the world. This week has definitely helped my passion to grow, and I am praying that many children will be served and God will be glorified by my research in cities around the world.