Clorinda

This week at La Roca we gave the kids the option to buy churros and juice boxes for 1 lempira each during recess. We were all surprised when Clorinda came in with 80 lempiras worth of coins from her piggy bank, and she wanted to use it all on churros and juice for the week. We didn’t quite understand why she wanted over ten bags of chips and juice boxes each day, but we let her go for it. It wasn’t until the next day that we realized the motive behind her order…

Clorinda walked happily out of her classroom clutching her ten churros and ten juice boxes. She went up to her classmates one by one and offered them snacks out of her stash. We already knew that Clorinda had a sweet heart, but in that moment we realized how big it really was. It made us so happy to see that Clorinda made her own decision to be generous, and we hope that her classmates learned something from her example.

We were the original surprised ones, but I think Clorinda walked away even more surprised. Although she was not expecting anything in return, we wanted to bless her for her kindness, so we bought her a new piggy bank and filled it with more money than she originally had.

Public School Outreach

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The following post is written from the perspective of Tom about our recent trip to Instituto Rafael Pineda Ponce, a public high school in an at-risk neighborhood in Tegucigalpa.

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In public schools in the United States, the Christian worldview is constantly being suppressed more and more as time goes on. It seems like there is always a story in the news about the restriction of the religious rights of students in schools. Because of this mentality I was surprised when I found out that the YFC Tegucigalpa ministry brings gospel presentations to public high schools.

At the end of March I piled into a Toyota 4Runner full of speakers, microphones, and seven other YFC volunteers. We headed to a public high school in Villanueva where we met up with a group of highschoolers from the local church who were going to help us out. Instituto Rafael Pineda Ponce gave us an hour and half in both the morning and afternoon sessions of the school day to put on our event.

As we unpacked I wasn’t scared, but cautious. Five years ago Villanueva was the most dangerous neighborhood in Honduras—a fact that was confirmed to us by Daniel Perez, a former gang member who committed his life to Christ three years ago.

At the end of our program, Dani shared his moving testimony of how God rescued him from a life of crime and violence. He has now committed his life to sharing the hope of Jesus Christ with the same people that he once threatened to rob and assault. It was evident in the faces of the kids that they were impacted by Daniel’s testimony, and we got to follow up with many of them after we finished.

The day ended on a serious note, but things started off fun and upbeat. The kids were drawn in immediately by the break dance and hip hop group that opened up the program. Two YFC volunteers who are friends of Aben performed, and the kids from the local church put on a drama about keeping your heart clean. The students also got a good laugh at my expense, as I played the co-MC “Gringo Loco.”

We had a fun day, and we are excited that God opened the opportunity for us to be there. We saw that many kids were encouraged by the program, and many commented on the response cards that they want to begin a new relationship with Jesus or strengthen an existing one. We are looking forward to more opportunities to put on programs in other public schools!