The youth enjoy holding the pre-k children at White Dove Bilingual school.
Daniel wanted to stop at a banana stand so we could taste the mini bananas.
A student is hard at work on a book in Language class.
Our finished projects! We can't wait to see kids sleeping in the beds we made and
eating at the tables we made this week!
We visited the Tejares Highway Feeding program where children that live along a very
busy highway get to eat a hot meal 5 days a week.
The kids loved the stickers we gave them and covered
their shirts, arms, and faces.
The children at this program are in desperate need of shoes and many other basic needs.
This is Pearl, a little girl who has benefited from the highway feeding program. Roy carries Pearl across the busy highway, something she does by herself everyday.
Today was our last full day in Honduras. We started our day by going to a nearby village called Santa Clara. We visited a school that was started by two missionaries just a few years ago. It was such a neat experience to visit with Arturo, the man who has diligently answered God's call to build and maintain a thriving bilingual school. It is a beautiful school with a current enrollment of 76 students. They are doing amazing things at this school and are literally changing the path of these children. Some of the 6th graders we talked to have hopes of being engineers or lawyers, something they never would have even thought of a few years ago. It was so neat to meet the students and teachers and to see how Arturo and his wife, along with many others have truly made a difference by being faithful and trusting God's plan.
After lunch Jeff and Roy went back to put the finishing touches on the closet unit they have been building while the rest of us went on a tour of a private hospital in town. After the tour we went for a quick, hot stroll in the downtown area and found a fun ice-cream shop! Then we headed back to Tranquilidad for one last time. Some of our youth brought clothes and toys to bring to the family that lives right outside Tranquilidad. The 3 boys were very shy at first, but ended up coming to play ball on the porch with us. Next we celebrated and took pictures of all the finished projects! Our group has all worked really hard in many different ways to do some great things at Tranquilidad this week. It's neat to think that in a few months precious children of Honduras could be walking on the rock paths we put down, sleeping in the beds we made and eating at the tables our group lovingly made!
Next we went to the Tejeres Highway Feeding program. This was probably the most emotional part of our trip for me and probably for many others in our group. This program was started several years ago as a result of children living along the highway, digging through the trash at the landfill nearby to find food for their next meal. Sam, Roxanne and several of their friends through a non-profit started serving a hot meal to these children once a week. Now they are serving a hot meal 5 days a week. The children that come to this program live in extremely poor conditions, it is very possible that the food they receive at this program is the only real food they will get all week. Many of these kids are malnourished, they have no shoes and most likely have never taken a real bath or shower other than the one they get in the river nearby. In addition to their horrible living conditions they basically risk their lives everyday by crossing a very busy highway. Huge semi-trucks zoom by while children as young as two years old walk by themselves just inches from the highway. Today we were able to come in and make bracelets with the kids, give them stickers and pass out sunglasses. They were so excited about stickers! Many of them ended up having stickers up and down their arms and all over their faces. Such a simple thing, made them so happy!
As our trip comes to an end there are a few things I want to share with you: The youth on this trip have been amazing! They have worked so hard without complaining, loved BIG and have been so much fun! Roxanne and Sam have been a beautiful example to our group of what it looks like to love the Lord, to have complete faith in what He has called them to do and to be passionate about everything they do. We've also learned the importance of surrounding yourself with people that have huge hearts. This trip would not have been the same without our amazing driver, Mario, our gentle and kind translator, Daniel and our sweet, very hard working ladies, Gloria, Sandra and Leti, that cooked for us 3 meals a day, did our laundry and cleaned up after us, all with a smile on their faces. All of these people have become our friends, we have been blessed to meet them and will miss them dearly. I also want to thank our church and all of our family and friends back home. Thank you for making this trip possible. Many of you helped us out financially, sent donations and have been praying for us. We have felt your prayers the entire time we have been here and appreciate all of
your support. We've been able to be the hands and feet of Christ in numerous situations this week,
but we have also been changed and blessed by the beautiful people of Honduras.
You all have a special place in hearts!
Blessings in the name of Jesus,
Daun Lipetska
(Pictures and captions chosen by Kinsey Heinrich )
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