Before I get into the things we did to "minister" to the people we encountered I must give a disclaimer. I did not take a lot of pictures of the things we did. A few reasons, the first and biggest being that if I am helping someone, I want it to be about them and not something I am able to look back on and pat myself on the back for. Secondly, if someone walked into my home and took pictures without asking I would totally be upset, and I personally couldn't do it. I tried to sneak a picture here and there for the sole purpose of showing my girls my experience, but ultimately I stole pics from others that did take pics (no judgment on them taking pictures, I am just saying I could not do it). So you may not have a lot of "ministry pics" from me, and if that's what you're looking for, this isn't going to be the blog to read.
We gave out food today. The team separated into two groups, taking food to 5 families each (total of 10 families were given food). PR was on a different team from me, but Jax was with my team. This is when PR met the other young people and this was the last day he rode on my bus, because they road with the Alabama team the rest of the trip.
The homes we took food to were very small, some barely had a door. I think the biggest house we took food to was maybe the size of my bedroom. Kitchens were typically outside of the main house, in some sort of structure, not sure they could really be considered a "room" in our standards. The floors in them were dirt, there was usually a table like structure for their stove, which was a small fire for them to cook on. Sometimes a shelf with less supplies than I have on my counter for coffee (and I drink my coffee black), and maybe a cup hanging on the wall.
This was hard to see, knowing I have more food in my pantry on just half a shelf, I also have food in the refrigerator, and a shelf in the garage I fill up when things are on sale. The few days leading up to us leaving on the trip we were without power due to Hurricane Ian, but I still had a gas grill I used to cook everything on. I even cooked frozen pizzas on that sucker. I didn't complain, but it was definitely tricky and I wanted the electricity back on. I didn't have to cook over a fire on a table though. I also had frozen pizza to cook.
To prove my point, one of the families we took food to was a single dad with two kids. The dad had been out of work for a week (and when he does work he makes equivalent to $7 US per day). He was almost out of food (to me it looked like a little flour and maybe at most 2 cups of rice left), and the night before had told his two kids of his concerns about running out of food and having no money. He told us that his children told him not to worry because God was going to take care of them. That next morning while the kids were at church, we showed up with food.
So many thoughts but I'll just say this. I have NEVER had to rely on God like that. Sure, I've struggled to make life altering decisions, but not to have such a basic need met (especially in conjunction with so many other lifestyle elements they live with there that we do not). I've prayed for us to make wise decisions with our money, but I've not had to have the literal child like faith I witnessed there, just to have a meal.
I did want to take a picture of a comparison of homes. I didn't get a great picture of the home we helped, but it is there behind the bushes. if you look to the right of the pole you can almost see it.
Made of unpainted concrete block (which is a pretty good house in comparison to others made of spare pieces of wood or tin, or even a few sticks and a tarp) and a tin roof.
The blue house is one that looks very much like what you would see here in the US. The local pastor who was walking with us to take food pointed out that those homes have someone living in the US, sending money to them to help better their life.
While I've always understood the economical argument against that from our US perspective, I've never really cared that people do that, its their money to spend how they want. I now SEE why they do it. When you've physically seen someone living in poverty, having less (what we consider) necessities in their house than you have in your bathroom drawer, you have complete understanding as to why they send money back home. Uncomfortable truth: a good portion of us in the US are just too stingy to do that anyway so we can't understand. We have not embraced what the original church did in Acts 2. No, not talking about the first part, when the Holy Spirit came down (Pentecostals have that one down) I'm talking about what the fruit of the Holy Spirit in their lives looked like. Down a bit in Acts 2, starting in verse 42, the believers actually shared their lives together. Verse 45 talks about them selling things to help others who needed it. I saw way more of this in Honduras than I've ever witnessed in the US.
On a lighter note, when we got back to our rooms we all got showers. I got mine, it was cold again. PR got his, again, a cold shower. Jax gets his last. As he exits the bathroom a billowing cloud of steam follows him and he goes, "I thought yall said the shower was cold?". We might have told him we didn't like him and that he needed to go sleep with the donkey outside... and to brush his teeth with the sink water. Jesus is still working on me.
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