Washington Cathedral Mission Team forms deep relationships

The second week of August brought important visitors to AFE. Some of these visitors had been eagerly awaited by the AFE kids; others would form lasting relationships with their new friends.

The Washington Cathedral Youth Mission Trip was an incredible success. We had some new participants – Lily Haynoski and Tiffanee Hunter, who experienced God in a deeper way than ever before. We had some participants with past mission trip experience, but had yet to visit the Tegucigalpa Dump. Their lives will never be the same. The team spent the morning connecting with the AFE students and the afternoons working construction. They made a special trip to the garbage dump to feed about 250 people. The team worked on AFE’s kithchen and some special skills installed electrical outlets, lights, and fans.

Despite this good work, the highlight of the trip was our day at the beach. It has become a tradition with WAC’s youth teams to take the students out on a day of fun. Most of the children at AFE have missed important parts of childhood as they have been forced to work in the garbage dump as an early age. We do these trips to give them all a chance to be ‘kids’ for a day with no responsibility. This time we planned a whole day trip to the beach. A trip to the beach seems simple enough, but it was actually a daunting task to take 130 kids ranging from kindergarten to 8th grade…most of whom had no experience with the water and did not know how to swim. How would we keep 130 kids from being swept away from the strong ocean currents? Fortunately, everyone stayed in the shallow areas and we came back with the same number of kids we left with! JK

There is a Spanish song that says, “Yo se que el vive! Pues lo veo en la risa de un niño cuando voy pasando, y al oír el bramido del mar que me dice cantando, que hay un Dios verdadero que hizo toda la creación.” Translated to English – I know He lives because I see him in the smiles of the passing children and I hear the ocean sing that there is a true God who made all of creation. Now I know what the author was talking about.

Now that we are receiving teams to AFE, rather than bringing them, we have noticed something new. We would never have guessed the depth and sincerity of the relationships formed between the children and teams. Yet for the past couple of months the kids have asked for some team members by name waiting anxiously for their return. Another thing I noticed from this side of the experience is the sacrifice and work the Hondurans put into receiving teams. It is flat out exhausting mentally, physically, and emotionally to host teams from the states. Without minimizing what our teams bring to AFE, I have no doubt that the Hondurans give as much if not more back to the teams. I feel we have formed a beautiful relationship where both sides mutually benefit.

Update on Jeony’s Daughter Daniella

Many people have heard, followed along with, and prayed for Jeony’s daughter, Daniella, who has had kidney problems since birth. Recently, a turn of events seem to prove that it is God’s time for a miracle in her life and health. An anonymous donor gave a large sum to the Ordonez family to help them pay for hospital expenses. Advances in Honduran medicine have opened a window to having the surgery here. Jessy, Daniella’s mother, is being tested for kidney compatibility. We will know the results in two weeks. Please pray. If the results come back negative, the surgery can be done within a month. And although this surgery is millions of dollars, the doctor has agreed to do it for free! Thank God.

We are still waiting for the results and any prayer would be appreciated.

Imparting the Love of Books

Books have always been a huge part of my life. They helped form my dreams for the future, made me excited to excel in school, and taught me important lessons about history, culture, and people.

Honduras has not had a history of passing on a love for reading to its children. Perhaps this is part of what affects the astronomical levels of illiteracy and lack of education.

One of the best parts of my last week was to see the 8th grade class of AFE devour Charlotte’s Web and develop a love for reading. They finished the book in less than two weeks and are begging for more. Although we have a library, we do not have sets of books for all the kids to read together. Thanks to a gift by Rebecca White, we have been able to purchase two complete sets of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia.

The students began reading The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe today. Since we only have two copies, the teacher uses one to help the students read and one student reads the other copy aloud. Today, as they began The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe, the room became eerily quiet. You could hear the kids breathing. Some have their eyes closed, imaging themselves in the world of Narnia. Others were trying to read over the student’s shoulder. It was a beautiful sight. When we stopped reading they pleaded for more and even offered to skip their break to hear more of the story.

One of our goals in transforming this garbage dump is to increase the level of literacy. The school is a perfect means of doing that among the kids. We hope the students’ enthusiasm for reading will spread among their parents and older siblings. We talk about several areas of literacy: reading, writing and computing. Soon we will open up our own computer lab and teach the students computer skills, giving them more job and educational opportunities.

If you have any suggestions as to what our students should read or where to look for sets of books (in Spanish), please let us know.

You will receive Power!

Finally we have great news about electricity. Namely, we got it. We feel like we have just finished a marathon after all the work that went into getting AFE electricity. Thanks to all the groups and individuals that helped in one way or another to make this a reality. One donor, who has chosen to remain anonymous, we thank for his support through this process and financing of this project. Last Friday, we went to the power company for the twentieth time with more documents, payments, and everything else they had requested. It was suppose to be a 5 minute meeting but turned into an all day affair. In fact, 5 minutes before they were closing, we sealed the deal and were given permission to turn the power on. We lifted up our hands and danced a jig in the office.

With electricity the options are now endless. We can now have adequate lighting in the back rooms where children have trouble reading. We can now have a full kitchen for the feeding of the children. We can now have computers available to teach the children about technology and the internet. We can now show instructive videos to the children through a projector. We can now offer night classes to adults who have to work in the garbage dump during the day. I could go on and on.

Electricity is just one step in transforming the garbage dump. But it is a vital step and one we praise God for.

Great things in 'store' for AFE

One of our core values revolves around the idea of self-sustainability. We do not believe in creating dependent organizations which rely completely on us, but rather working with groups so that they become independent. This idea goes way back and has a long background we would be happy to share with those interested. For now, it is suffice to say that we want the work in the Garbage Dump to continue way pass our time.

Our first step towards self-sustainability is our store at AFE. Thanks to a generous donation by Alan and Julie Steif, we were able to purchase Polos, t-shirts, and hats to sell. All the profits would go to re-investing in the store and operational cost. This is a small step and will by no means make AFE independent, yet it is the beginning. Pastor Jeony and Jessy both have the vision to make AFE self-sustained and are working towards making that a reality.

So far the sells are going great thanks to our many visitors and teams. We are brainstorming other ways to generate income. One idea is to hire an alumni, Junior, who has just graduated with a carpentry degree. He would make the wood frames, jewelry boxes, wall decorations, and crosses for AFE which we would sell for profit. We are excited about this idea because it would be a benefit to both AFE and Junior. We dream of one day producing quality items to sell through our vocational school which we could distribute throughout Honduras. Please keep praying for God’s guidance as we seek self-sustainability.