An Evening at the POI Girls Home

We had a blast at the girls home tonight. Our group and the boys came over to have dinner and hangout. Last year the old girls home was hit by a flood. The new home is so nice! 

We had lasagna, salad, bread, and ice cream for dinner and dessert. It was yummy! Then many of the kids made bracelets and visited. 

The kids played while the adults heard POI's story and heard from two POI kids. VERY moving. 

Then members of our team shared some thoughts of the trip so far. It was an emotional night. Good tears. 😊

We said goodbye and headed back to our hotel and the kids went straight to bed after a shower. I think they were both asleep with15 minutes. Actually for Carley, it was probably within five minutes. 

Tomorrow we have breakfast, church, then spending the day with the POI boys and girls at lunch, riding mountain bikes or riding horses and playing soccer. A day of fun-just sharing the love of Jesus and getting to know the POI kids more. Should be a great day. Thanks for all the prayers!

Day Two- Orphange and City Dump

This morning we started off with a devotional time led by Braxton on the roof of the hotel. After that was breakfast which included fresh fruit, cereal, eggs, toast, and bagels. 

We then left for the morning at a special needs orphanage. We had four stations for the kids-fingerpaint, play dough, music instruments and hands on toys, and digging in rice with scoops. 

The kids were so happy to see us and we enjoyed just playing and sharing God's love with them. I held a little boy, Carlo, who was six, that was blind and had cerebral palsy, for at least 30 minutes. I rocked him and sang to him.  They told us he liked to feel secure, so I just held him tight and hugged him. 

We served them cake and ice cream. Carley passed out the food. Caleb fed a sweet girl in a wheelchair. She rubbed her belly to tell him she was full. 

After that, we toured the orphanage. We hung out in one of their rooms where some of the boys were watching Ice Age. Carlo was in there, so I held him some more and Caleb held him too. Chris pointed out what a heart Caleb has for kids. I was so proud of him for reaching out and loving these children. 

After that we said adios and we left for the park at the top of a mountain that has a huge statue of Jesus. 

We had lunch outside there-  it was submarine sandwiches and sodas. 

We headed back to our vans and headed to the city dump to feed the people that live there.  Groups of people live there to collect plastic to turn in to recycle. Men, women, and children..it's tough to see and describe. When we pulled in, there were people in all areas of the dump. They came running toward the truck with food. There were also dogs, vultures, and cows...lots of all of those animals.  Carley just stared out the window and then decided she didn't want to get out. It was just overwhelming. Caleb got out with the group and started passing out water. After watching for a bit, Carley decided she did want to get out. As soon as we were out, the smell hit us hard. It's just undescribable everything you see and smell. Our group passed out lots of meals. It's truly heartbreaking. Chris said so many said gracias or thank you. He said he looked each one in the eye and patted them on the shoulder just to make sure they felt love. 

As our group debriefed back at the hotel, several good points were made. First, Jesus died for all of those people just like He died for you and me. Jesus was crucified in a city dump. David from POI said he thinks about that every time he is there. If Jesus died in Honduras, it would have probably been in that dump. Also, our lives before Jesus are similar to the situation in the dump...we just dig through all the garbage of this world and then Jesus saves us when we decide to live for Him. 

It was a good day, but a very emotional day. Loving those that many in the world view as unlovable was good for all of us. Remembering that God doesn't make mistakes...we are all His children and need to share that love with everyone we come in contact with in our lives. I'm so glad my children are getting to do that this week. 

Tonight we are having dinner at the POI home for girls. The boys from POI will be there too. It will be a fun evening. 

Please continue to pray for our team. Thank you so much! 

First night in Honduras

Tonight we went to the POI house home for boys and got to spend lots of time just hanging out with these sweet fellows.  The kids in our group loved playing with the house boys. Ball, checkers, soccer, tag, and more. It was great to see them just being kids and having fun! We ate pizza then had a cake to celebrate Braxton and Carrie's anniversary. 

Below are some pictures from our evening. 

Headed to Honduras

We arrived at the airport at 4:15am and after a crazy checkin, we made it through security and to our gate. There are 27 in our group. Our flight to Atlanta was scheduled to leave at 6, but due to low clouds in the ATL area, we were delayed at our exit and on the runway until around 7am. 

We landed safely in Atlanta and had a little less than one hour to get to our
next flight. Sounds easy, but we were the farthest terminal away. We hopped on the tram and headed to our gate. 

We made it and had an easy takeoff and flight. We knew earlier we may not land in Tegucigalpa if it was raining. Many of you prayed for the rain to stop and God heard those prayers, so thank you! 

If you don't know, landing at Tegucigalpa is one of the toughest landings around the world. The runway is short and really close to houses and mountains. I was expecting a rough landing, but our pilot handled it without problems at all. After we landed, the people on the plane clapped, which is common, and over the loudspeaker, we heard "Thank ya, thank ya very much!" Great for this group from Memphis to hear!

After a wait to get through customs, all of our luggage was waiting for us and we met up with David Hamilton of POI. 

We got on vans and headed to our hotel. 

We are staying at the Humaya Inn. It's pretty nice. Our room has two double beds, a twin bed, and a couch. We had a great lunch of homemade tostadas topped with either beans or beef with fresh juice to drink. 

Carley ate her entire bean tostada! Hooray!

After lunch we met on the hotel rooftop for a team meeting to go over rules and the schedule for tonight. We then had the afternoon to rest since most of us have been up since around 3am.  All of the Brocks took a much needed nap!

We are going to the POI House Home for the boys tonight. I'll post more about that later. Just wanted everyone to know we arrived safely and thank you for your prayers! 

If you are on twitter or Instagram or even Facebook, we are tagging our pictures and posts with #POIHN14. 

Long time, no post...

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted to our family blog. I'm thinking I may try to go back and post so I can catch up on our year.
Thanksgiving in NYC...Spring Break in DC area...a lot has happened this year. I really need to do a better job at recording our time!
Caleb had a great year is now officially out of 6th grade and leaving PDS. He will be going to MUS in the fall.
Carley did great, too and will be in 3rd grade at Lakeland. There is a certain teacher we are hoping she gets, but doubt she will be placed in Aunt Carla's room. ;)

So, summer is here and we are off to Honduras. We leave in 2 days. Lots to do to get ready. We all received our Typhoid shots, which bothered everyone but Chris, but realistically, it wasn't a terrible shot.
In Honduras, we will be staying at a hotel, but you can't drink or use any of the water from the sinks other than taking a shower.
Our schedule includes visiting a special needs orphanage, feeding those who live and work at the city dump, working with kids at the POI orphanages, delivering water to those in need, and care packages while we get to visit with local families.
Chris and Caleb went on this trip two years ago when it was more of a father/son trip. They have opened it up to families and we are all very excited to go serve. For those worried about our safety, we have armed guards with us at all times....but you are still welcome to pray for safety for our team.

Caleb with buddies from his last trip to Honduras.

Prayers will be truly appreciated...we need prayers for those we are trying to help, that the light of Jesus will shine through us as we serve, and that the rain holds off so we can do lots of our scheduled activities.

The hotel has wifi, so I am hoping to update our blog each day to share what we do each day with friends and family. Feel free to share comments with us...I will share them with the family. :)

Thanks for your prayers!
The Brocks