Christmas Shoeboxes

Paul Deem of Directline Ministries visited this week. He was given a first hand look of the work here in Honduras. Even this veteran foreign missionary got his heart softened by the ministries, the children and circumstances and life we live. He said it did him good to come, see and remember the difficulties and joys first hand. The children penetrated the deepest though. As he learned their stories the reality set in. Weather they gave hug or prayer or spontaneously sing hymns or just labors like a veteran missionary unloading heavy stuff and distributing toys, Paul began to see the Glory of Christ in it all. Because of all the waiting for the next move with customs we all spent a lot of time with the children letting them play. Its been a long expensive week dealing with customs for the container that arrived. Paul is responsible for shipping this container with Christmas shoeboxes for the Children’s Lighthouse and many of the churches we are working. The container last year was costly, this year we seemed to hemorrhage even more money at the bidding of a not so trustworthy customs agent. The container had a lot of corn, shoe boxes, personal items for the lighthouse and a donated older used 4wheeler to move carts around on the 32 acre property. Well, the customs agent had an eye for it and insisted we leave it with them and they would send the container….after a string of hourly and daily new “fees” the container did finally arrive, but the agent broke the seal to inspect it. When it arrived the keys for the 4wheeler had disappeared from where Paul had put them, some toys specifically for the abused children in the Lighthouse were stolen and after an inventory more than 300 shoeboxes were stolen. In all it cost near $4000 in "fees" (money donated to drill a well was all we had) and the lost of some shoeboxes

Welcome to Honduras.

After unloading the container near midnight we were exhausted, and set out early the next morning loading up to head for the mountain churches to distribute them. Over 200 shoeboxes were distributed in Colonia with several salvation decisions. We also distributed Bibles and bible story CDs to parents. We then raced down the mountain to load up again, p/u Pastor Enemesio in his casted foot and head back up to Los Tererros. Over 200 more children received a Christmas shoebox present. For many it is the only present they receive for Christmas. We took the kids out for pizza and Paul had his final goodbyes. The children began to weep and hug him and this ol veteran of a 3rd world mission field welted up….as aggravating as the trip was, I think his visit to Honduras did his heart good, and renewed even his vision…amen.
Click on the photo to enlarge

Would we do it again? Well, what's the worth of a soul? Whats the worth of a smile given to one of God's children?
So that would be yes, maybe bigger next year. With a little more wisdom--Might bring a TV camera crew to customs to do a "story" on the arrival...Hmmm