Finding My Place at Orphanage Emmanuel

Day 5 – Thursday at Orphanage Emmanuel

Thankfully there are people who take pictures. Mine are woefully incomplete for all of the experiences to shared.  Most of today’s pictures are compliments of team member Kelly.  Gracias!

This morning during our devotion time with the boys, Jose gave me a precious gift. He had woven a bracelet for me to wear. These are very popular here. There was a lady who had been in our team area yesterday with woven goods and was selling bracelets just like this one. I didn’t buy one and am now glad. I have one with much more meaning. My heart danced in that moment.

Today Amy and I headed back to the farm for a day full of planting. We spent all morning in the shade house with Rudolph planting beets. He is a smart boy. Shortly after we began he left and came back with a couple of plastic crates for us to sit on. Bending over and squatting down was killing our backs.

It never even occurred to me to see if there was a way to sit down. I don’t do that at home either, but certainly will from now on. Those seats made all the difference in the world. I have been gardening for close to 30 years. How is that it took a 13-year old boy in Honduras to show me that my back didn’t have to hurt? Some kind of gardening stool is now on my Christmas wish list – just in case a certain someone is reading this. Smiles….

When we finished the beets we headed outside to plant onions. I think this has been the hottest day so

far. Most of the days have been slightly overcast and breezy. Not so today. Bright sun and no breeze. Amy and I decided after lunch that we needed to plant the broccoli because those pots were up in the shade and not in the blazing afternoon sun. The guys were just above us working on their tower and trenches – the projects have to be finished before we leave so they have been really working hard to ensure they get done by tomorrow.

It becomes so easy to have conversation when we let life slow down. Amy and I don’t know one another all that well, but over the onion and broccoli pots we talked about kids and work and ministry and life. It was a time that ministered to my spirit and I know I left there richer for that time with her.

I’ve been working on my Bible study Experiencing God and the thing that is sticking with me is this idea that God is always at work and invites us to join Him where He is working. I feel like this whole trip has been an object lesson in this.

The people here, the orphanage as a whole – this is a place where God is most definitely working. Because they take delighting in the Lord and meditating on His Word (Psalm 1) to heart, the Lord is doing what He promises when He says “For the LORD watches over the path of the godly….” One can sense the hand of the Lord on this place. They know His blessing. They know His provision. They know His protection.

Everyone who works and serves here has responded in some way to the Lord’s invitation to join Him here. Some have responded with their whole life, selling everything to move here. Some have established their families here and are raising their own children alongside the children of Emmanuel. Some are long-term volunteers. Many others are here to join in the Lord’s work for a week like we are.

Amy and I talked about this dawning revelation that we are not all called to join in God’s work in the same way. Maybe sometimes we need to find what it is we are to do – like us and the farm. This is how I feel like I have joined in God’s work of loving on these kids. My husband joins God at work through the building of the water towers or other construction projects. Other team members are joining Him at work as they paint the murals in the gym. Still others are joining Him at work as they paint fingernails, cut hair, help peel potatoes, decorate cookies, serve ice cream, and swing toddlers in the yard.

 

God’s work is to love on these children and there are many, many ways He invites us to join Him. We all have our place.

This insight freed me. Our team leaders have said that we just need to find our place. They have said there is no one thing. That was just not a concept I could grasp until I experienced it. Despite their reassurance, I’ve been feeling inadequate in my participation here. Like I just don’t quite get it. Through that conversation with Amy, I believe the Lord said to me “you get it – don’t worry, you get it.”

Amy and I took Rudolph and Jose to the store at the end of the day. She hadn’t done that yet and I talked her into it. Our time there got slightly hijacked when an older girl was there – a good friend of Rudolph’s. Or so he says.  There was plenty of flirting going on there. They spent the time talking to each other; not particularly interested in being there with us. Amy and I decided we’d just sponsored a date. We lost our translator, which also made it harder to engage with Jose.

Jose has captured my heart.

There is a sponsorship program here and I’m wondering now – Lord, are you calling me sponsor this boy? I just don’t know.

Blessings from Honduras,

Denise