Our 2007 mission trip to Hogar Renacer, a small orphanage north of Tegucigalpa, Honduras started out on a smooth path. This year we traveled with a smaller group in numbers but large in talents. We always go to Honduras with work on our minds but sometimes God shows us that it may not be “our” work we’re supposed to do. Most of our group members were veterans and used to the discombobulating work experience.
We had hoped to build a “car port” for the kids to stand under while waiting for the Tegucigalpa bus (where they go for high school) that would also provide a dry place for the orphanage vehicles. We also had the intentions of laying a tile floor in the neighborhood church in Cofradia where the children attend, as well as, sponsor Vacation Bible School, and get the orphanage pool up and running along with various other small grounds maintenance jobs. We spent countless hours in cars driving around the city of Tegucigalpa for supplies, waiting for keys, dry skies, and work directions.
We participated in devotions after breakfast and dinner every day, and our journal theme was on walking with God. I thought of my other three roommates and our hike up the hill back and forth to the main buildings of the orphanage and decided that it was during that trek walked with God. We walked and reflected on the day as the stars lit our path and we discussed about our daily goals were on our way down to breakfast the next morning.
I discovered that my goals, or our goals as North Americans did not matter. We were not operating on our schedule. Although we were frustrated with the setbacks and work complications, we began playing longer with the children while “wasting time”.
During devotions one day someone spoke up about their walk with God. She mentioned that they had sat and watched a few of the group members making bracelets with some of the kids and playing jacks with others. We knew that we were no longer working on our schedule but on Gods.
We did accomplish some of our tasks. The church floor was completed and unveiled at the church service the Sunday before we left for the United States. We also were able to do much needed cleaning and organizing around the orphanage. The Bible School went exceptionally well. In addition to these labors of love, we were also able to spend time with each of the different age groups of children living at the orphanage.
One of our goals was to help the children appreciate country as much as we do ours. We took the oldest children to Copan, the Mayan ruins site. We assigned each youth to one of the team members. We spent the night at a hotel, swam in the pool and ate dinner out, and each teen became special to their chaperones. The next day we went to the ruins where we all shared awe as we scaled the walls of ancient burial grounds and temples.
The guys on our team organized a campout on the outskirts of the orphanage property, utilizing tents and supplies donated by friends in the USA. The young adult women on our team bonded with pillows, candy and popcorn at a movie night with the girls.
Each year we go we become more attached to this little orphanage God named Hogar Renacer or Home of Rebirth. God surprises each year with opportunities we could not have imagined. Sometimes we create beautiful works of art like the mosaic mural we created for the church in 2006, or labor with mud, stone and a little concrete to help friends build houses, and sometimes we jump rope and color the porch in brilliant shades of chalk. We thank the Synod of the Trinity for the travel grant that helped make this year’s experience with God possible.
Submitted by Katie Updegraff
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