Happy Saturday!
I hope this post will touch your hearts like it did to mine. My hope is to try get you in my shoes to what I see. At the end, we all can see God’s emotional love for the poverty Honduras deaf children who many do not have hopes for future. Few years ago, I had the opportunity go to Honduras on a deaf mission with another deaf pastor and friends. Upon arrival, I met many deaf children who had scarce food, few clothes, no shoes, or toys. What was worst was there were no water to provide showers or bath, no clean drinking water, no doctors or no medicine were available to deaf children. Even a $5 pizza from Pizza Hut (yep, there’s a long line of American branded restaurants in nearby town what they call a “Rich City”) is a luxury food to them!
Many of the deaf kids have suffered a lot through gang wars, drugs and prostitute. It was practically survival of the fittest. Everyone had to fight for their lives every single day. For many years, the area did not have schools for deaf children until 5-10 years ago. They built couple deaf schools to help them succeed in life. It was a great God-sent gift to the area! However, many deaf children still struggle going to school because of live far away and some couldn’t afford to go there. It breaks my heart to see this and sad to see their struggles. Compared to our lives in the USA, we take everything for granted. The Honduras deaf kids need our help more than anything…“Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Get for yourselves purses that will not wear out, the treasure in heaven that never runs out, where thieves can’t steal and moths can’t destroy.” ~ Luke 12:33 (NCV)
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| Honduras boy praying |
One of the many extraordinary experiences I’ve seen was many deaf children were very happy and playful. Even they don’t have everything, even toys. These little precious kids absolutely changed my life and perspective. I’ve became more humble, caring and compassionate. I never saw “complain” or “whine” in their words (sign language). I feel like such a fool because I used would complain about everything at home and they were living their lives as if it was no tomorrow. It is an mind-boggling experience. As I mentioned the pizza earlier in the post, one day I asked the kids what they like to eat. Many didn’t know what to answer. I asked them what food places they had, they gave me a list. Pizza Hut was on the list, I asked them if they like pizza. They said, “Too expensive! Too expensive!” I asked my pastor friend how much they cost. I was told a large pizza was only $5. My jaw dropped. So we ordered 10 wonderful pies. The kids were so thrilled and ran home and all came back with face and hands all washed up, wore their best outfit (even several wore ties) and hair combed. I couldn’t believe it. I was so choked up and teary, tried not to cry. They were absolutely awesome kids.
The more we share stories about Lord Jesus Christ, the more happy and joyful they were. Our deaf mission group brought some supplies and toys to give to the poverty deaf children. They had the biggest smile, extremely excited, some even cried, and were inspired. One of the best moments was when I saw a boy had some kind of an injury to his knee. He couldn’t walk very well on it. We all prayed for his knee. God gave us the Holy Spirit and his knee was healed. With the biggest smile on his face, he got up and ran as fast as he could! He was able to play soccer. Another boy suffered from shoulder problems. We also prayed for his shoulder and it healed, too. He loved swimming, and was able to get back to swimming. This whole incredible experience made me cry. It was a blessing to see their joy and God was so GOOD!
Back in the homeland, after many prayers in the past few years, God opened a door for me to start deaf ministry, Operation Jesus Christ Deaf Ministries, to allow us raise money to help the poverty deaf children in Honduras. Our goal is to provide supplies such as clean drinking water, food, clothes, better education, job training skills, schools, and build deaf churches. We also have plans to develop visual deaf Bibles and donate them. If we all can join together in raising money to help the deaf children, God will bless all of us. We read somewhere no too long ago that if one donates $25, it will feed one child for the entire year….yes, one whole year! Imagine how we can help many for the whole year?
We are still working on the donation program and we will let you know soon when we will be able to start accepting the donation as soon as we become registered as 501(3). We’ll have a new website soon and keep you posted. Even Jesus said poverty deaf children are very precious to Him and they belong to Heaven!... “But Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me. Don’t stop them, because the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to people who are like these children.” ~ Matthew 19:14 (NCV)
Please continue help all of us at OJC Deaf Ministries through prayers and please do consider helping us to make God’s dream come true! Thank you for taking the time to read this. God bless you, brothers and sisters in Christ.
Andrew Lower
President – Operation Jesus Christ Deaf Ministries
