Honduras 2008---Post #7 The Many Faces of La Esperanza

Meet Nolvia. She is, out of the many faces that I saw, one that I will never forget. Larry Whiting asked us at the end of the trip if there were a few people who stood out above the rest. Nolvia was my 'One'. It's hard to describe really why exactly she stood out, but I think it was her tenacity, her bubbly personality, her desire to be close by me, her sweet smile, and her big eyes that seemed to just take everything in and seemingly recognize in a mature way (as much as a child can) all that was going on around her. More than any of the other kids, I wanted a picture with her and she willingly crawled up into my lap and let herself be photographed with this silly American woman. Though she lived in a cardboard walled, tin roofed dilapidated house with her mom and siblings (which is exactly where she belongs), I still wanted to take her home with me!! And when I think of her, I pray that out of the poverty-stricken rural area she lives in, she'll be a woman with a strong, educated mind and a tender heart, and a love for her family, and a woman who knows God loves her much more than anyone else can. I guess God alone knows her plight, and His plans are for Nolvia and He alone to know.... which is exactly how it should be.

I honestly don't make much of the work that both me and my teammates did while we were in Honduras for 10 days. If anything, I greatly admire the Mother Theresa's of the world who meet poverty head on, not by simply giving some money and some food, but by delving into povety themselves, living among the poor and ministering to even "the least of these." I recently read a small book about Mother Theresa which also included some of her quotes; while on some doctrinal issues I may disagree with her, this woman lived an inspirational life and she had some amazing things to say about loving one another, and ministering to the poor and needy. Both her name and her wisdom will live for many years to come, I think.

"The poor give us much more than we give them. They're such strong people, living day to day with no food. And they never curse, never complain. We don't have to give them pity or sympathy. We have so much to learn from them."

" To know the problem of poverty intellectually is not to understand it. It is not by reading, taking a walk in the slums, admiring and regretting, that we come to understand it and to discover what it has of bad and good. We have to dive into it, live it, share it. "

" Whoever the poorest of the poor are, they are Christ for us--Christ under the guise of human suffering."

" All my years of service to the poor have helped me to understand that they are precisely the ones who better understand human dignity. If they have a problem, it is not lack of money, but the fact that their right to be treated humanly and with tenderness is not recognized."

" But in the West you have another kind of poverty, spiritual poverty. This is far worse. People do not believe in God, do not pray. People do not care for each other. You have the poverty of people who are dissatisfied with what they have, who do not know how to suffer, who give in to despair. This poverty of heart is often more difficult to relieve and to defeat."