The Micah Project April 2008 Photos

On a recent Saturday, our young men joined some members of our church here in Tegucigalpa to spend the afternoon at a shelter for homeless senior citizens. Many of these seniors have very little contact with the outside world; our visit brought a couple of hours of joy to their lives! Above: Marvincito talks with a gentleman during lunch. Below: Cristofer and Pedro Luis read a passage from to gospel of Luke to a couple of residents of the shelter. The boys expressed a desire to go back to the shelter every couple of weeks!

Above: Daniel (light blue shirt), who was home for a week's vacation from Zamorano University, joins his brother Charly in listening to the stories of one of the residents of the senior citizens' shelter. Below: Jeferson chats with one of the men in the shelter.

Micah Project's director of operations Becca Haver celebrated her fourth anniversary with the Micah Project by taking a month-long trip to South Africa! Becca met up with her parents and her sister for a couple of days in Johannesburg. Then she and her sister Sarah, who is a missionary, travelled to Durban for a few days of R&R. Finally, they travelled to Pfunanane Academy, the Christian school that works with poor children where Sarah is serving ("Pfunanane" means "let's help each other"). Above: Becca smiles with some of Pfunanane's children in the school's library. Below: a couple of the girls at Pfunanane were very excited about receiving the newest Los Micah Boys CD! They even made a music video of one of the songs!

Oscar Amaya was baptized in April! This was a special and memorable event in the life of the Micah Project. This year, Oscar has been maturing greatly as a leader in the Micah House and as a young Christian man. As he prepares to graduate from high school this fall, he felt that he was ready to proclaim his faith to the world through his baptism. On the last Sunday in April, most of the Micah boys gathered around Oscar as he was baptized by Darren Quilley, ,the pastor of our church. Oscar recounted his Christian testimony to those in attendance, and I couldn't help but to be newly amazed by how God used trials and great tragedy in Oscar's life to mold him into the man that God wants him to be.

I am very excited to see what God has in store for Oscar's life, even in the year to come. After he graduates from high school in November, he hopes to do a three month mission project with YWAM (Youth with a Mission). After that, he is considering his options for college in the fall of 2009. Pray for him as God leads him into great things!

Dan Paul has been our street ministry coordinator since last September. He takes a team out to the streets two or three afternoons a week to spend time with the kids and develop a relationship of trust with them. Here, he laughs with some kids in the sprawling market district of the city, one of their main hangouts. Alex, the kid with his arm around Dan, lived in the Micah House neighborhood but was drawn to the streets because of problems in his home. His grandmother (pictured below in pink sweater) wants him to come home but doesn't know how to convince him to give up the addictive yellow glue.

We have been praying for Nelson since we met him under the bridge last year (see photo below). We were joyfully surprised when Nelson appeared at the Micah House with a group from another ministry in Tegucigalpa (see above). It is so good to see Nelson looking like a healthy little boy rather than the emaciated one that we were used to seeing.

Marvincito takes a picture with Micah Project missionary Jessica Busse! Marvin is coming up on his one year anniversary since leaving the streets and joining the project. We are very proud of the progress he is making!

April is the height of the dry season in Honduras. Because the farmers surrounding Tegucigalpa burn off their fields, the city, which is in a bowl, gets enveloped by a thick cloud of smog that doesn't burn off until the rains come in mid-May. Visibility gets so bad that the airport is often shut down for hours each day when the smog is the thickest. in the photo above, you would normally be able to see a chain of mountains in the background.