Matthew 25:35-40

Today we went to the orphanages. The first one is called Las Mujeres, which is for girls ages 12 to 18 who are "at risk".  This is a place where girls who have been abused and/ or abandoned are taken.  Most are very hostile and untrusting of people. Here the team took the fresh vegetables, hygiene items, etc.  They sang songs, did a drama and decorated flip flops and colored.  The girls seemed to enjoy the attention.  There was a 13 year old girl who had a 20 day old infant. It was so sad to see a child with a child. We went to lunch in a mall and had Honduran food. ALL the teens liked it.  Couldn't believe it.  Not one of them complained or just didn't eat their food. It was amazing. Then we went to the orphanage for infants to age 12, both girls and boys.  This one was hard.  There is a 12 year old boy in a diaper and in a crib.  He doesn't speak and he doesn't walk.  He just sits there.  But there was a girl on this team who took the time to play with this boy.  She slowly won his trust and she played catch with him.  It was beautiful to watch. With the exception of maybe one or two babies, all in this room were handicapped and all were in diapers.  The smell was horrible.  We all took turns loving on these unloved, castoff children of Honduras. Each of us took a child who could not walk on their own and just held them.  The ones that could manage to smile, did.  The others who couldn't smile showed their pleasure in other ways.  THIS is what we as God's children should be doing.  This is what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 25: 35 - 40. "…And Jesus will say, I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me." This team WAS the hands of Jesus to these handicapped abandoned children.  I was so VERY proud of them.





I wish I could post pictures of what we experienced today, but the people who run the orphanages told us we were not permitted to post any pictures of the children on the internet.  I will be able to post one of us surrounding the girls in prayer as you cannot see any of them specifically, but I really want to post the ones of the handicapped children smiling and cooing as they are being held.  These will be priceless memories for me and the team.

This update is a serious one today.  We cannot experience what we did today and make light of any of it.  As one of the teens said tonight as we were debriefing the day, "It is hard to imagine what we saw because this doesn't happen in America.  There isn't a child in America that isn't wanted by SOMEONE…" How true. How very true.