Leading our kids out of the cycle of poverty

Original post at www.bchonduras.wordpress.com by Michael Lemmons

Our BC team prays our kids will have a monumental year in 2012. They each get the chance to retreat to a great school away from the chaos that their young lives have become. They will start at Corey’s school, a local bilingual school, in February. We are excited to see how it will affect each child and their future.

Arol enjoying our Christmas beach trip!

Arol started at a transition school this past month to help him catch up so that he can start second grade at Interamerican School next month.

We have seen Arol change since he began school. He’s had some behavior issues in the past, and we wondered how he would handle a completely foreign culture to him, an environment with money. But now he’s so much happier and better behaved around us. And he’s barely even begun his education.

Arol still struggles with getting used to this strange environment and foreign language, but he loves it and the time away from life at a homeless shelter. I can’t wait to see what’s next for him, and I thank God for this precious change in this sweet boy. Please pray he succeeds in school and continues down this bright road.

Cutie Dayana laughing in the sun and sand!

Thankfully, God has already provided a generous family to support Arol’s education. But Dayana, Jonatan and Escarleth need your help too. For three of these remaining kids to attend school, we need sponsorships for each of them.

Each child needs $50 per month for transportation, food and field trips. Then they each need $500 one-time for books, school supplies, uniform, etc. We know it sounds like a lot, but any donation helps their futures.

Jonathan having a blast in the Amapala water!

However much you can give, even just $20 one time, will go along way toward helping provide for Escarleth, Jonatan and Dayana’s education. You can sponsor them monthly or help with a part or all of their one-time needs.

If you wish to help, email me at michael@bchonduras.org or my partner in crime atcorey@bchonduras.org. Look for profiles to come on Escarleth, Jonatan and Dayana to learn more about each of these great kids. Thank you for loving our wonderful kids and leading them out of the cycle of poverty.

Sweet Escarleth rarely got out of the water!

Making Christmas Special: Join Us!

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone. I hope you all enjoyed time with your families and are fully recovered from your tryptophan comas. Some of you have already taken your lives in your hands and come away with great Black Friday deals, while some of you will do all of your shopping this year without leaving your house. Whatever your method, Breaking Chains has a great opportunity make Christmas special for someone else this holiday season.

Most of the people living at our ministry facility have grown accustomed to less-than-special Christmases. This year, with so many people coming to our ministry, we are hoping to bring a little bit of that excitement back. We hope you will consider sponsoring all or a part of a child or adult’s Christmas wish!

Escarleth, Miguel, David, Giovany and Milton; find their profiles by clicking the picture!

We would love to be able to give a child or adult your picture and say, “They wanted you to have a good Christmas because they love you so much! They believe in you!” And we would love to give you a picture of that child or adult and say, “You are responsible for their Christmas grin. You showed them love where we could not. Thank you.”

Please check out this entry on Michael’s blog, one of our team members, to learn more about our plans and how you can help. There you can find out more details about cost and what adults and children have already been sponsored. Thanks for your love and support!

We can’t wait to see our kids and families’ faces when we shower them with eternal love this Christmas! Would you like to be a part of it?

Riding the storm out: Cristian

Standing on the sidewalk outside our building, quiet and wearing toboggan in the night air, it was hard to decide what to make of the shy, eighteen-year-old and his friend standing with him. Milton, one of the teenagers from our ministry, had brought the other two boys to the building because he said they needed a place to stay for the night. They seemed harmless, and because our building is typically open for a one-night’s stay to anyone who can follow the rules and isn’t intoxicated, we let them stay. Yet still, a faint worry lingered that the two boys might stir up trouble with the large group of other teenage boys that the building was beginning to accrue.

The night passed and no trouble appeared. The next day we went to build the house and from the first moments out of the car, all previous apprehension disappeared. All of the boys worked hard that day, but one outdid the rest: Cristian, still wearing his toboggan despite the day’s heat. He was the first to raise his hand and put on gloves when we needed volunteers to take down the roof, and he barely took a break all day, except to grab a bag of water or eat a quick rice lunch prepared by the homeowner’s daughter. At the end of the day, we all gathered in the house to pray a blessing and I asked if any of the boys who came with us would like to lead. Scanning the darting eyes and somewhat nervous faces of the boys who have been in our ministry the longest, a smile crept to my face as Cristian removed his toboggan and stepped to the middle of the circle. He offered a short, but articulate blessing for the homeowner and the house and then we all jumped into the truck to head back to the building.

That Friday, while we were at the building for our evening meal service, Christian was sitting on a bench by himself. I walked up and asked if everything was okay. Reluctantly, he said, “I’m a little sad. I’ve just been thinking a lot about my life. A lot of things have happened.” On that note we went inside the building to talk a little more. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, he first said that his father had killed his mother when he was seven years old and then left both he and his five-year-old brother alone. From there, he went to live with his aunt who, after selling his mother’s possessions, left them to go illegally to the United States. Then he lived and worked with his uncle for a year and a half, only to never be paid for his work. Finally, he and his brother came to Tegucigalpa. After being in a few children’s homes, Cristian turned 18 and then was on his own.

As he humbly told me the story of his life he said that at one point he dabbled in alcohol and marijuana, but nothing more than that (a rarity for someone his age who has lived the life he has), and was never involved in any gangs. Sheepishly he said, “It’s just like every time I see a light in my life, it goes away. I can never seem to get out of the storm.” My heart about broke at that point and I was overwhelmed with emotion about how different my life has been than his – through no credit of my own. Yet there he was, still standing.

Cristian is currently doing a small apprenticeship in a welding shop and is one of the most active participants and listeners in our weekly teen classes. I don’t know how long he will choose to be a part of our ministry. What I do know is that Cristian is smart, humble, compassionate and resilient and that God can do SO MUCH through him if he will let Him. I ask that you keep Cristian in your prayers. Pray that God will work in his life, that He will give Cristian a belief in himself and a drive to be better than his surroundings and a faith to know that God is always with him – even in the middle of the storm.

Laboring with Love

Dust-covered and exhausted, but laughing, we piled into the back of a red Ford truck and headed home, leaving one hard day's work and a freshly built house in our wake. Jen Wright and David Logue, missionaries who work closely with our ministry, received funding last week to build a house for a family in need. Since the rust of summer mission teams has stopped, they were in need of a good number of workers to help with the job - and we thought it would be a great opportunity for the teenagers from our building.

Getting a group together to work on any kind of manual labor project is usually a recipe for building unity and creating common ground between people. At least, that is what we were banking on as we placed hammers in the hands of eight of our homeless teenagers, some of whom have a history of not getting along, and hoped for the best.

We arrived at the work site on Wednesday morning and saw the grand task that awaited us. It was a two-level structure (one level above ground and a basement) that used to include a house, but now just served as a rickety carpenters shop because the floor wasn’t sturdy enough to chance anyone living in it. The first step was to take out everything in the existing structure, including the heavy carpenters equipment. Then it was time to take down everything that was still standing. A few teens hopped on the roof to pull off the old tin, while the rest wailed away with hammers or pulled boards down by hand. Because of the years of wood shavings and dirt piled on every surface the house, taking it down resulted in mushroom clouds of dust that exploded on all who were unfortunate enough to be within a 15-foot radius. Everyone traded ethnicities by the end of the day – those who arrived at the site looking white left looking Honduran, and those who arrived looking Honduran, left looking white because of the color of the dust.

Once the old was down, the new was ready to be built. With the help of Mark Connell, another friend and U.S. missionary living in Honduras, the teens measured, leveled, cut and nailed their way to a beautiful looking wood house. And what we had hoped would happen, did. The teens worked together with each other and with us, pairing up to pass boards, nailing tin in rhythmic unison, and laughing every once in a while at someone else’s unfortunate hammering ability (in good fun, of course).

At the end of the day, there was a product that they could look at, visible and complete, and say they had accomplished. Once the house was built, we went inside to pray with the family. A new teen at our building volunteered and led a beautiful prayer of blessing over the house and the family. But, the prayers weren’t over. The wife of the carpenter and woman of the house then stepped to the middle of the circle. Through genuine tears, she poured out her gratitude to God and to the teens for their work and prayed blessings right back to them. It was a special moment for the teens, who are often looked down upon and seen as delinquents, to be the recipients of praise and appreciation. It was an opportunity for them to see that even though they have little, there are still opportunities to bless richly, and they are more than capable of doing so.

Financial Support

Many recurring questions keep popping up regarding my new position with Breaking Chains. A few people have asked me specifically about my finances. So here are answers to the two top financial questions.

Question 1: Do you need financial support?

Answer: Yes. This position has never existed before, so I am currently trying to raise as much of my own salary as possible as to not deplete ministry resources. Unless I invent the next "Snuggie" or other product to save the world and make millions, I will not be independently wealthy enough to pay my own salary...so I will be relying on the kindness and financial stewardship of other individuals.

Question 2: What is the best way to send that support to you?

Answer: We are currently trying to work out some different things with the ministry account, so right now the best way is to send a check to Fairlawn Church of Christ (my home congregation) with my name in the memo line or a note attached designating what the money is for. Fairlawn will then write a check to me as ministry support. That way, since the donation is to the church, it can be a tax deduction for the donor and the funds will still make it to me.

In the future, once everything is worked out and finalized, you will be able to make tax deductible donations directly to the ministry account by check or through a PayPal link that will be placed on my blog and the website that we are creating.

Donations can be made by designating a certain amount to be sent each month or by making a one time donation.

Checks can be made out to Fairlawn Church of Christ and mailed to:

6108 W. Bethel Avenue

Muncie, IN 47304

Again, the BIGGEST of thanks to anyone who has supported me financially in the past or plans to in the future. It literally could not be done without your financial support and I cannot express my gratitude for your generosity. I am so blessed to have people in my life who love me enough and believe in the ministry enough to share, as God has commanded us to, some of the financial blessings that He is letting us borrow for a little while on this earth. Ultimately, everything is His, and I can't tell you how encouraging and awesome it is to see people understanding that concept and living it out. Thank you!

If you have any questions, please email me at mathews.courtney@gmail.com.

“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.”

- Psalms 24:1

Next steps

If you had asked me during my junior year of college what I would be doing after graduation, I would not have said "living in Honduras for a year." And if you had asked me at the beginning of last year what I would be doing after my internship, I certainly would not have said "moving to Oklahoma to work for Breaking Chains." But here we are, and I couldn't be happier about it.

A lot of people have been asking what my next step is and how everything is working, so I'll just lay it all out here. Toward the end of my internship, Amber and I talked a lot about what I should do once it was over. Should I stay in Honduras? Go home and get a job? Crawl in a hole because I don't like making major life decisions? Well what presented itself is a little of the first two and, thankfully, none of the third. Basically, the ministry is at the point where it needs to expand and Amber has a lot of dreams and ideas that she would like to pursue for the ministry, but can't properly do so without some organizational and administrative support. So, I have signed on to help with communications, fundraising and act as a North American liaison.

I will be based in the U.S., but will travel back and forth to Honduras, spending about six months of the year there, intermittently, to assess needs and provide ministry support. Since most of my work will take place on the computer, phone, or traveling, it could technically be done from anywhere. But, since Dudley (my U.S. boss/mentor) lives in Oklahoma along with most of the Board of Directors, a move to Oklahoma makes the most sense as we get rolling with everything. So TOMORROW, Oct. 5, I will load up the Ford Focus and head west from the Hoosier state to the Sooner state.

This is my first "big girl" job, so I am a little nervous, but also very excited for the opportunity. The job itself is a little unconventional. It is a position that has not existed before, so I am sort of creating my own job description and, since the account hasn't been set up with funds to handle extra positions before, I will need to raise as much of my own salary as possible. However, by being so unconventional, I hope to be able to learn and try a variety of things that I wouldn't have had the opportunity to do in a more structured scenario.

I just wanted to thank everyone who has supported me over the past year, whether it be through prayer, reading my blog, financial donation or encouragement. I truly could not have done it without you! And this new step would not have been possible without the first opportunity to serve in Honduras, so I am truly thankful to everyone who made that possible. Really, really, humbled and thankful.

If you have any questions, want to get in touch, or have ideas you want to send my way, you can email me at mathews.courtney@gmail.com. And, while we are still getting things set up for a website, our Facebook page is up and running. So you can "like" us at Breaking Chains Homeless Ministry to see the latest updates from the ministry.

Thank you!

A soggy farewell

My last days in Honduras were about a month ago, but I remember everything about them like they were yesterday. Especially our final soccer trip...because I think I am still drying out.

My friend Jenn Hines was finishing up her internship with David just weeks before mine ended with Amber and she wanted to do something special with the homeless ministry before she left. Since this is Central America and nearly every child comes out of the womb dribbling a soccer ball, she decided to take the youth to an indoor soccer facility.

Everyone was so excited as they laced up their tennis shoes (or whatever they had that seemed the closest to athletic footwear) and piled into two vehicles. We spent the hour of rented time playing soccer, cheering, and teaching the youth how to play "sharks and minnows" - a game that seemed much less aerobic when I was seven.

Well everyone LOVED Jenn's farewell day so much that I thought it would be fun to do the same for my own. It appeared, through some conversation, that some of the youth would be interested in playing basketball too, so we went to the outdoor courts at Baxter where you can play both. In theory, the two soccer days should have played out exactly the same...

So on Saturday afternoon we pulled up to the Breaking Chains building and the youth and whoever else would fit piled into the interior of the cars, while the rest crammed themselves into the bed of David's truck beneath an ominous, grey cloud cover. We only got about five minutes down the road before the sky opened up and started sprinkling, and then raining, and then pouring nickel sized raindrops, permeating the clothes of our misfortunate open-air riding friends. I sat, warm and dry, watching from the backseat of Darwin's car -cringing at first and horrified that we had, once again, taken HOMELESS people from their dry, indoor rooms to get drenched in a monsoon. Perfect. It was camping trip: round two. But through the foggy windshield I could tell that my soggy friends in the truck in front of us were undeterred...dancing around, laughing and comparing who was the wettest among them.

Once on the court, basketball lasted for a grand total of five minutes, and made another five-minute reappearance when the soccer ball got kicked over the fence and someone had to go chase it down. Other than that, it was all soccer business. Surprise, surprise. And after a few small scuffles on the court and trying to evenly divide teams (they tried to put me, David's intern Corey, and three kids under age 10 on one team and call it fair) everyone enjoyed their time playing in the rain and didn't want to leave once it was time to go. (Except the women who came to watch and ended up huddled under an awning for two hours. I think they were ready to leave...)

Once again, I'm amazed by their ability to find joy no matter the circumstance.