Click the flag for a map of Honduras.
Click any gold words to see pictures.
I have been fortunate enough to be able to go to Honduras in both 2002 and 2003. In 2002, we went to a village called Santa Rosa in the mountains outside of Tegucigalpa. In 2003, we went to a neighborhood named Israel. Israel is on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa, and is an area where there is some gang-related activity.
Both years, I worked with backyard Bible clubs (BYBC). At Santa Rosa, we were able to minister to about 250 children. It was an overwhelming task, but the group I worked with was willing and able. In Israel, there were only around 70 kids. The church there was very small and we had almost no room to play games or do crafts. The team worked very hard and showed Christ's love to the kids there. As a result, 12 children in Israel prayed to receive Christ before we left them.
In 2002, we met a boy named Bryan. He and his family stay at the end of the road by Camp Betel. The doctors went to see them last year, and found he had a hole in his heart. This problem is operable, and, thanks to money raised by our churches, Bryan is scheduled to have surgery at Baptist hospital (in Winston) this fall (2003).
This past year, we met a couple of other kids. Oscar is 15 and is involved in a local gang in Israel. It was strange to have a kid like this hanging around a church where we were doing a BYBC. By the end of the week, we had the chance to share the Gospel with him. He did not accept Christ while we were in Honduras, because he said he thought his fellow gang members might kill him if they found out.
The other three children were a brother and two sisters. David, Alejandra, and Delsie came to the BYBC every day. We had been informed by another child early in the week that their mother had put them out on the street to beg. Our last day there, on Saturday, their mother came by the church. She is apparently involved with drug and weapon sales. She told them she would not punish them while at the church, but when they arrived home, she would punish them however she could. We also learned that these kids had not eaten for several days. Several of our group offered them our sandwiches and fruit. It was pretty difficult to sit there watching a young boy down six sandwiches in a matter of minutes, not knowing when he might eat again or what would happen to him when he got home. We prayed for them before they left, and continue to pray for them.
Stories like these have impacted each member of the groups I've been able to work with the past two years in Honduras. Hopefully the stories and the pictures on this corner of the internet will impact you in a similar way.
