This morning the boys, Julie (other volunteer here) and I started the day off with Bible study and went through 2 Corinthians 6. They never cease to amaze me with their insight to what they learned from a certain verse...and some of these kids have only believed in God a few weeks--and they're talking about how even in hard times we have hope because we have God on our side. Which is incredible to hear from the mouths of little ones that have survived living at the local garbage dump by on their own, sexually abused through most of their childhood, have a history of addictions, the list goes on...God is healing and freeing people here, one by one, and he's starting with these boys that I have the gift of spending time with again.
For the rest of the day Julie and I were in charge of the 5 younger boys and had them do chores, etc around the house today while the older boys were up at the mountain helping Lisa. Bethesda Home for Boys has property across the street on the side of the jungle-filled mountain that has been slowly becoming turned into a beautiful future-home for the boys. We call it the "castle home". It is going to be the perfect oasis close enough to everything we need, but removed enough to where the boys can run and play and grow up without being surrounded 24/7 by drugs, violence, and the daily dangers that are here. So today the 4 older boys & Lisa hauled sand and cement up the mountain all day long so everything is set up for the workers tomorrow morning to continue with the second floor of the house. The next time I'm here I hope I'll be coming back to the castle home! :)
And about the circus...I was being literal.
A sketchy circus business has set up in a small patch of grass literally in front of our house by our front gate. This, is a first for me. Apparently this circus has decided to set up here even though the whole neighborhood doesn't like it. Unfortunately, this makes the Top 10 list of some the nastiest situations I've seen here--literally and morally. The circus people are homeless so they camp out in the grass everywhere. In a neighborhood with lots of little kids, they smoke (marijuana, cocaine, etc) and drink an excessive amount of alcohol throughout the night and of course blast loud music. Oh--and they literally squat and poop in the grass in front of our gate. So now we have a public health situation...We've talked to the mayor about it, but he's the same mayor who's been here several years and only takes action on issues that really affect him, and apparently this isn't one of them. Also, according to the boys, when they've walked by all they saw were clowns. There are no rides, there are no animals. Literally a camp of drugged out clowns as the unfortunate "entertainment" in our front yard. So the circus continues...
Tomorrow Lisa and I are going to La Ceiba to take care of some errands so she can leave for a week and take a much needed break. And there's a new mom in the dump (community of people that live at the dump in La Ceiba) that had a c-section and is having some postpartum complications, so I'm going to go visit her while we're there.
Please pray over everything with Lisa leaving for a week, that Julie and I would have wisdom with taking care of the boys and all the daily challenges that come along with that, and all of our safety with everything we do and everywhere we go. Gracias!
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