June 2011

In June, as our American friends head into summer vacation, we remind ourselves that we are only halfway through the Honduran school year...which runs from February through November. Even so, while maintaining our rhythm in classes, June was a month chock-full of activity and outreach! Take a look at the photos below to see how God continued to bless the Micah Project in June...

Above: Paty Pavon (from Villa Linda Miller) has been a teacher at the Micah Project for many years now! Here, she works on Spanish grammar with second-grader Axelito.

Above: Sixth-graders David and Wilmer (with Miguel in the background) work on a math project in our home-schooling program. They are very excited about graduating from the sixth grade this November and beginning middle school next year!

Above: One of the boys' favorite outreach activities is to spend some time with abandoned senior citizens at the CEDER home. Here, Hector and Yeison share a few moments with one of the women at CEDER. Below: Hector Licona, who lives in the Timothy House and graduated from high school last year, helps run our street ministry. Here, he hangs out with José Daniel during a rainy afternoon at our street kid soccer ministry.

Above: Four graduates from Teays Valley Christian Academy in Charleston, West Virginia (where Becca graduated from) came to spend a couple of weeks with us in June. Katie, Erin, Becca and Meredith enjoyed getting to know (and being incessantly pestered by) our boys!

Below: The girls from West Virginia participated in all aspects of our ministries. Here, they serve food on a rainy day at our street kid soccer ministry.

...and spending time with old friends!!!

Above: Long-time Micah friends Mary Alford and Carol Marshall spent a few days with us in June as well, along with Carol's daughter Ruth and her exchange student Anneke Brouwers (from New Zealand). Here, Mary, Anneke and Ruth visit with Axel and Hauner in front of the hotel.

Below: Carol Marshall visits street girl Rosa in the market district of Tegucigalpa.

...enjoying God's beautiful creation...

Near the end of June, we took some of our visitors to one of our favorite spots in Honduras: Amapala Island in the Gulf of Fonseca (the Pacific side of Honduras). Here, we get ready to cross over to the island for a day of fun and relaxation!

...new faces at the Micah Project...

Above: Miguelito swims with his new friend Raul. Raul, whose mom gave him up as a baby, lives with a woman in our neighborhood who has a chronic illness. Raul spends most of his day at the Micah House, and our youngest boys are lobbying to move him in! Miguelito has already been a good big brother to him!

...it's always a good day when there's soccer involved...

...and at Micah, there's soccer involved every day!!! Above: Moises and Yeison go after the ball at our neighborhood soccer field.

The Micah boys take great joy in jumping off of things...no matter how high or what they are jumping into! Here, Pedro Luis and Miguel take a flying leap off a jungle gym!

...modeling God's love for these young ones...

Above: Israel is our Salvadoran missionary who came on a six-month internship last year and never left! He has a real gift for working with our young men, and they implicitly trust his quiet and calm presence. Here, he spends some time with his buddy Axelito!

...friends who bless...

Above: Caroline Nichols was a counselor at a bilingual Christian school in Tegucigalpa for several years before returning home to Iowa this month. Caroline was very active in the Micah Project's ministries. She organized several fundraisers for the project in her school and was always present at our Sunday evening worship times. The day before she left, she donated her car to the Micah Project! ¡Gracias, Caroline!

...a quick update on our older guys...

Above: Marvin Soto is working towards his MBA at Missouri Baptist University in St. Louis. Last year, he was engaged to Oceane, a wonderful young woman from the south of France. This month, Marvin spent three weeks in France with Oceane! She will be returning to St. Louis in a couple of weeks to continue her college studies.

Below: John Bell traveled to San Jose, Costa Rica at the end of June in order to help Brayan Chavez start a six-month program at Youth with a Mission. While in San José, he got to spend some quality time with José and David, who are both studying psychology at the Universidad Latina.

Above: In June, we had a double celebration for Jarvin and Olvin! Olvin graduated from the University of Houston in December, and moved back to Honduras in June to work with the Building a Future foundation. Jarvin received his Associate's Degree in Psychology from the Universidad Latina in Costa Rica in May, and moved back to Honduras in order to continue his Bachelor's degree. Congratulations to both young men!

Below: Danilo is working as a group home parent at a home for boys run by the Manuelito Project. It is so cool to see one of our boys doing this work! Danilo brings his boys by the Micah House every so often so that they can join in our activities!