Llama Del Bosque

H O N D U R A S

In month two of the World Race, I lived in Valle De Angeles, Honduras. Honduras was my favorite place in Central America and I enjoyed every day that I was there! That month was, All Squad Month, which means that I lived in ONE house with 36 other people. We all shared three bathrooms, crammed 14 people in one bedroom and never ate a meal alone.

I. Absolutely. Loved. It. 

Valle De Angeles is a beautiful city, high in the mountains (4,000ft in elevation), full of trees. It’s a magical place, to say the least. I discovered my favorite tree there, it’s called Llama Del Bosque. These trees were everywhere and they stood out among every other tree. The flowers are big and vibrant, I just love it!!

During this month, we worked at an orphanage for adults who have special needs. To say that our day to day job was hard, is an understatement. Not only did I have a language barrier because I am not fluent in Spanish, but there was a cognitive barrier as well. 

The campus that we worked at was about half a mile from our home. We started ministry at 9:00am everyday and left at 11:45, had lunch from 12-1 and then walked back to continue our ministry from 1:30-4. Campus has six houses and there are two workers per house. Twelve residents stayed in each home and each person had a different diagnosis. Some are lame, some are mute, some are intellectually challenged. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. The two workers in the house are women, who basically work for free. The residents call them, “Tia’s”. 

The Tia’s bathe, feed, clothe, nurture, and entertain their residents. So, we shared in those responsibilities and helped them in anyway that we could or were allowed to. We took the residents to play basketball outside, had dance parties with them, sang with them, colored and painted. We talked to the ones who were able to understand our questions and asked them what their stories were and how they felt about them. It was such a beautiful thing to be apart of. 

The Tia’s are incredible women who take the role of a parent for people who were abandoned because of something that they couldn’t control. The amount of love and compassion these women have, is a true testament to who they are and I was so blessed to have learned how to truly serve someone, from them.

Here are the residents that live in the house that my team and I worked in:

Top Row (from left to right): Estepani (green sweater), Lucia (green t-shirt), Daniel (blue jersey)

Maria (red sweater). Bottom Row (from left to right): Cesar (teal shirt), Christina (plaid), David (brown pants). Not Pictured: Fatima, Martha, Lupe & Nubia. 

Above: Martha

Below: Fatima

During this month, I lamented, I prayed in circles about healing, I grieved, I questioned but most of all, I loved. Each one of the residents in my house stole a piece of my heart and I will never expect them to give it back.

I truly learned about God’s heart for the poor and powerless. I finally understand unconditional love and innocence. Learning that love is more than words and an occasional hug or kiss, truly changed my life and my perspective on the Father’s love for all of us. I learned that life, no matter what it looks like, is a true blessing. I could go on and on and on about the hard lessons that I learned but there wouldn’t be enough time or room for it. 

My favorite memories from that month, are cleaning one of my residents because she laid in her own filth for hours before anyone found her. She was not neglected, but she couldn’t speak or move, so no one knew that she was in that predicament. We picked lice out of another residents hair and it wasn’t just your normal case of lice, this took us two days to do because she hadn’t been treated at all and the lice was THRIVING in her hair. Lastly, I was able to develop a relationship with the most difficult resident. 

Memory # 1 : I had the opportunity to clean a resident and it was not easy. When we arrived in the morning, I made my rounds and visited each resident to let them know we had arrived. Then, I entered into her room and she was laying in her bed and had such a sad look on her face. She had feces and urine all over her, her clothes were soaked, she also has terrible bed sores. So, some of my teammates and I quickly walked to her bedside to help her. We couldn’t move her to the bathroom, so they had to pick her up and I wiped her down and cleaned her wounds with baby wipes. She screamed and cried but it was the kind of scraping in crying that had no sound, which broke my heart. Although this was difficult, I loved being able to care for her and make sure that she was comfortable, felt seen and safe. I learned in that moment, that sometimes the most righteous thing that you can do, is change someones diaper and dress their wounds.

Memory # 2 : L I C E – this gave me the heebie-jeebies but I loved the whole process. I loved being able to hold her face, wash her hair, coax her with comforting words while she struggled to understand why we were picking through her hair and pray over her in the process. At the end of this, I ended up with lice but I don’t even care because it was worth it! 

Memory # 3 : I’m actually going to name drop in this one – Martha, man, this girl pulled my heart out of my chest and then put it right back in. She struggled with kleptomania and bipolar disorder but I loved her the most. I loved how hot and cold she was, it always kept me on my toes! There are a couple of incidents that happened with her and some of her roommates, but I’m gonna share those things in person. Martha was feared, other residents didn’t care for her, she caused some trouble for the Tia’s. She was a piece of work! But those are my favorite kind of people. The ones who are raw, difficult and exactly who they are. Although, this is a challenge that Martha has no control over, she owned it man. I talked with her any chance that I got to, I spoke truth over her and tried to build her up in a way that she could understand. I hugged her when she stormed into the house crying. I stood outside her window when she was locked in her room because she was being violent. I just wanted to love her and make sure that she was pursued. By the end of our month in Honduras, she was my hardest goodbye and we both bawled our eyes out. My last goodbye was said through the steel bars of her window. It was heart wrenching. I will always remember her reaching through the window for my hand and pulling me in so that our foreheads touched. #EstoyLlorandoEnElClub #ImCryingInTheClub

The most valuable thing that I learned in Honduras was, intimacy. How to just sit with the Lord and let Him love me. I would ponder all of the goodness that I experienced or was about to experience that day, because it was just so darn evident. 

It was like I was dating the Lord and He took me on a romantic journey. He still is actually.

In the morning I would wake up pray or read through Kings, those are the books I chose that month. I would pray about what I read or just sit in His presence and listen. Here are a couple of journal passages that I wrote. My relationship with Jesus, began to change a lot that month and it’s still growing. 

Although this is long winded, I hope you enjoyed being updated on my month two. Thanks for taking the time to read this!

-Mariss