As Paul was instructing the Christians of Thessalonians, he wrote: Aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one. 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12
One of the goals of Children of Love, is to be self-supporting, as much as possible. As a result, the Foundation operates two stores, one on the grounds of Ninos de Amor. The other store is in the town of La Paz. A third venture that is run by the Foundation is a finca or Coffee Farm.
On Friday morning at 8:30 am, we had the opportunity to walk to work with Daniella, a young lady who lives near the Foundation and works at one of the stores run by the Foundation. The store is open seven days per week and sells a variety of school supplies, personal items, toys, clothing, and office supplies. Daniella works many days from 9 am to 6 pm. The store is very neat and clean and is located just one block from the downtown Central Park.
After returning from that walk, we took a ride to the Coffee Farm run by the Foundation, located about 45 minutes away. The drive offers a beautiful vista as you leave the valley and drive up to cooler mountains where the coffee grows. The road itself is fairly good. However, there are more than a few major potholes to keep drivers awake. And the final stretch of dirt road leading off the main highway, is a much more challenging, steep, rocky, and potholed climb that was enough of a challenge for the pick-up truck in which we were riding. The finca itself is a beautiful farm near the top of a mountain, planted with coffee plants, banana trees, lime trees, tangerine trees, and orange trees. This past year, there was a disease that ravaged many of the coffee plants in all of Honduras. As a result, the farmer who is paid to manage the farm has had to replant many of the coffee plants which are the main source of income for the finca. While there were no bananas that were ripe to harvest on this visit, we had the opportunity to pick a number of limes, oranges, tangerines, and get a picture of the work involved on this farm. We also had the opportunity to walk through the home of one of the farmers who lived on the hillside. The home of this farmer and his wife, who had several children, had running water, electricity, a refrigerator, and a fire burning stove. The Mom shared that their toddler son had a doctor visit in Tegucigalpa on Monday, where he would begin cancer treatment. We shared with her that that we would keep her son in our prayers.
In the afternoon, we saw a few final individuals who were in need of glasses. But after that, it was time to box up and store the remaining 1500 pairs of glasses, with the hope of making a return visit in a little over a year.
On Friday evening, we had a wonderful opportunity to gather in the chapel for a celebration of birthdays for four of the children at the Foundation who have birthdays in February, followed by cake, fun with a piñata, singing, prayer, and words from both adults and children about the week that had just passed. It is always difficult to leave this place. However the leaving is tempered with the thought that Christians never say goodbye to one another. We simply say, through Jesus Christ, that we will see you again later. We settle in for a good nights rest before leaving for the airport early Saturday morning. We give thanks to God for this opportunity to serve others in Christ's name.
They started waiting at the gate at 6 a.m. (Yes, we were starting at 9 a.m.) Most have walked here.
