During the past 6 months, I've been focusing the majority of my ministry and energies towards working in the streets with young people and women. The area that I started in, La Kennedy, has a massive need and I will by no means end my time there, but I will be expanding ministry to other parts of Tegucigalpa! This past week, I was able to spread my ministry to a different area of the city, Los Profesores.
While I am glad that Karla and Ana Rosa have moved out of La Kennedy, Los Profesores is no less dangerous or less poverty-stricken than La Kennedy. To be completely truthful, the guys that go with me to do ministry were even hesitant to go there. But, many months ago, I had promised Karla that if she were to move, I would continue to work with her in her home and with her children. I was not ready just yet to break that promise.
We were able to go down to La Kennedy first and visit with our friends down there. Because it was a Wednesday, there were only three or four people there. Luckily, most of them are working to recycle bottles during the week, so there are rarely more than 5-10 people. Now that Oscar is getting registered for classes, I am no longer working with him in one-on-one tutoring sessions, so we are pretty free to just chat with everyone. It is so nice to catch up and learn more about everyone's lives! I have started to be on the lookout for new prospective students as well, so getting a bit of 'free time' is a blessing.
After visiting La Kennedy, we met with Karla so that she could take us up to her house. The new area, Los Profesores, is located on the other side of town, across from the centro and the mercado, so it is quite a bit trickier to find, especially if you do not know the area. A couple bus rides later, we finally made it to her new house. She and her two children are living with the family of Ana Rosa in a one-room house. We were so blessed to share a meal that they prepared for us and to plan a bit for the future.
Within the next month, the women are going to begin to sell soup! Here in Honduras, street vendors are more common than sit-down restaurants, and much more affordable. Ana Rosa had told me that she had previously sold sopa de mondongo, tripe soup, but was forced to stop because she could not afford (via time and money) to do it on her own. After a bit of discussion, the ladies agreed that they would like to do that in order to start taking a hold of their future and support their children. I will have more news on this when we start purchasing the materials and enter the next stage for their business.
I was also able to spend a little time with 13-year-old Elida, who will start 4th grade this next week. While she is not super excited to go back to school, she is promising to start and finish out the year strong. I had been concerned earlier because there was a large gap in funds for her supplies, but I am so happy to say that someone has stepped forward and decided to sponsor her for the jump-start of the year. Praise God!
Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures from this past week because we were very hesitant to bring cameras into Los Profesores. Now that I know (sort of) the area, we will be able to bring a phone or a camera to take pictures next time.
I am so excited for this new branch of street ministry and so blessed for God's provision to make it happen. Within the next couple of weeks we will be planning purchasing the utensils, pots, etc. for the women to start their small business, Elida and Oscar will begin school, I will start a new devotional with the women, and we will continue to build new relationships and foster old ones in both La Kennedy and Los Profesores.
God is so good and faithful to this new, growing ministry!
If you would like to help jump-start Karla and Ana Rosa's soup business, let me know! They will need pots and utensils to start and the ingredients as they sell the soup.
As always, donations are tax-deductible and can be made through World Outreach Ministries at
www.worldoutreach.org/dontaions
simply click my name from the drop-down box
or
World Outreach Ministries (Jennifer Olsen)
P.O. Box B
Marietta, GA 30061
No comments:
Post a Comment