December 30th

After a day of ministry in the Matagalpa garbage dump, we were served dinner by a local church body in that city.  After the long drive home where Jesus ministered to many of us on the bus ride, we finally heard the bus horn informing the kids back at Casa Betesda that we were "home."  They were ready and expecting us as one of the highlights of the trip was about to occur, for them and for us. The kids wanted to share their testimonies with us.  And the chairs were set, kids seated on one side, our team seated on the other side.  Spencer, a student at Baylor and team memebr was our interpreter.  First one up, Adonis. He is thirteen. He tells his story of a hostile home environment from his earliest days. One day, his dad ended his own life.  How difficult it then was for his mom and him.  She then just left and Adonis was on the streets alone by age six. He was scared, hurt, drugged and finally picked up by a woman who gave him food and shelter.  The following morning, she invited Pastor Arturo to visit.  Adonis then came into the orphanage and was loved, fed, clothed and introduced to Jesus. He said from that day, he knew, he was no longer an orphan but a child of God with an inheritance that was secure.

Next was Douwny. She had a hard time getting through the beginning of her story as she shared that her family fought so much that she tried seveeral times to end her own life.  She was only 11. But when she came to Casa Betesda and felt loved by Pastor Arturo, Pastor Eduardo and Maria, and all the other kids, she now has a desire to live and love others who are hurting as she was.  That's her in the middle.