así es la vida...: Beauty from Pain....

One month later...

Sorry everyone. It's been a crazy month! I should have written an update a while ago.
Right now I am currently sitting on the couch at the Horst's house, a little sad because my team, Barcelona, just lost La Copa del Rey to their rival team, Real Madrid. My sister Hope is a huge fan of Real Madrid, so I know I shall hear no end to this ;) But the window is open and the smell of rain is wafting in...yes, rain! How we've needed! It's been stifling in the city with all the humidity plus all the disgusting polution--which means super hot days, but no blue skies.

So where I have been? Where to begin? Well, I started my second ministry, as mentioned before, at the Micah Project. It's in downtown centro, which is like the center of Teguz. It's where all the shops and stuff are if you don't want to go to a mall.
Micah Project, or in Spanish, Projecto Miqueas, is really amazing. And it's really where I'm supposed to be right now I think. I've never felt this way about a ministry or a group of people before. God has given me this amazing passion and over-whelming love for them. I'll have bad days, where the boys are difficult and I think "I need a break," but I get home and all of a sudden I want to go back so bad and I just love them so much. I've never had this overwhelmingness of God's love for anyone or anything before. It's really a blessed experience.

At Micah Project I've been helping in classes and actually teaching some! It's slightly scary to teach teenage boys, especially in Spanish. But it's really fun too. God has really enabled me to see past the rough backgrounds and even the way many of them act and into their hearts, and see those precious moments when their personalities shine through so brightly, and their vulnerability and childlike wonder come through. Don't get me wrong, these aren't innocent little boys--but they ARE God's little boys. And I've just witnessed so much and seen and know the young men who have come up through the Micah Project and just seen how God really brings beauty from pain.

At the Micah house I teach a Geography class, a reading class and a handwriting class. Also I do one on one reading with one of the boys named Axelito, who is 13, and also one on one Math with him. This coming week I'll be starting to teach several English classes as Melanie and I will be covering for some teachers who are going South Africa for a little while for a wedding and then to sightsee.
I often play soccer with the boys on Monday afternoons, and go to their soccer practices on Wednesday's and Thursdays to cheer them on!
It's hard to put into words my feelings for the ministry. I've never felt so completely at home with my gifts and talents. I can be goofy there--that's one of the main things I do there, goof off with the boys. I know how hard it's going to be for me to leave. A couple of weeks ago I thought I was going to have to switch ministries. That was heart-wrenching...I really hadn't cried that hard in a long time. But God worked it out and I stayed!
I'm learning so much all the time, just about how their lives are, and I learn how to relate to people who have been through hell. How to encourage and motivate them.
These boys will be some of the next leaders in the Honduran church, a new generation of fathers, brothers, and sons. That's something Honduras really needs.

Appropriately named "The Micah Project," their key verse for the boys comes from Micah 6:8, and this is the mission of the Micah Project for the boys:

He has shown you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly[a] with your God.

Please pray for the staff at Micah. It takes so much energy, but the reward is great. Sometimes we don't see the reward, but God pulls through. Pray for the boys battle against their addiction to drugs and also just to the lifestyle of the streets. Even those who have been there several years still have to fight that constant temptation. Pray for all the Micah boys: Wilmer, Miguel, Glen, David, Nelly, Luis, Maicol, Axel, Hector, Joel, Pedro Luis, Moises, Axelito, Miguelito, Yeison, Brayan, Manuel, and Raul.
Everyone of these boys are so precious to me, and to God.