Micah Project May 2009 Photo Album!

May brings about a joyous time in Honduras every year: mango season! The background picture on this month's album is a wheelbarrow full of mangoes taken in the outdoor market place. There were many other blessings in the Micah Project in May however: positive updates from our college students, a golf tournament in Houston, new sewing classes for Micah moms, a vision trip from Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church and, most fun of all: street kid soccer! Take a look at the pictures below to see what God did in the Micah Project in May.

Above: Marvin Morazan (19) continues to study music at Instituto CanZion in San Jose, Costa Rica. Recently, Marvin wrote a letter to all of the Micah guys in which he said: "I have a thousand and one reasons to be thankful to our heavenly Father and his angels. And who are those angels? All of the people that get up every morning and give the best of themselves for us! Truly, each one of us has been chosen for a purpose."

Below: David (24) came to Honduras from Costa Rica for a few days in May on a break from his classes. He is in his third year in San Jose studying psychology at the Universidad Latina. He also teaches Sunday school at his church in San Jose!

On May 13, our supporters in Houston held the First Annual Micah Project Golf Tournament. About 85 golfers turned out, along with 20 volunteers. The tournament netted over $19,000 for the Micah Project, which is a huge blessing in a year in which our donations have been down. Tournament organizers Tina Val, Jeremy Summers and Chris Herbold did a wonderful job in getting everything ready! Micah missionaries John and Becca Bell flew up to Houston for the tournament.

Below: John Bell lines up a shot during the tournament. Many thanks to all who participated!

A new aspect to our ministry this year is street kid soccer! Every Friday, our street ministry coordinator Dan Paul rents a soccer field downtown by the river. Between 15 and 20 street kids and youth show up for an hour of soccer. We have also been blessed by volunteers from the International School, teachers that come on Friday after classes to play soccer with the kids. This has been a great way to develop our relationships with the street kids!

Above: Dan meets with the kids to plan the teams for the day. Below, Jason holds on tight to his bottle of yellow glue as he gets ready to take a shot on goal!

Above: International School teacher Jenna Miller takes a minute from street kid soccer to chat with a street girl named Rosita. Jenna will be joining the Micah Project full time in August. We are excited to have this wonderful addition to our staff! (She also took these photos of street kid soccer).

Below: Jose Daniel holds his glue bottle while playing defense during our Friday afternoon soccer outreach.

On May 22, we received a team from the Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston. They came for a four day "vision trip", which is a chance for them to immerse themselves in our ministries and to learn about what the Micah Project does. It was a real blessing to meet new friends and to catch up with old ones!

The Memorial Drive team visits Pedro in his room in the Leadership House. Pedro is in his first year studying civil engineering in a private university in Tegucigalpa. So far, he is happy with all of his classes except for Calculus!

Above: Memorial Drive team member Dick takes a moment to pose with a street kid named David while visiting the market district in Tegucigalpa; Howard stands in the background. We hope that David will join the Micah Project some day!

Below: Anne and Melody pose with Jose Daniel during street kid soccer. We have also been working with Jose Daniel for almost two years in the hopes that he will joing the project!

Another recent blessing is the way our ministry to our single mom's has progressed. Most of our boys' moms come from extremely impoverished situations. Last year, thanks to project supporter Jo Bewley, we began to teach sewing skills to the moms. This year, we have been able to hire a sewing teacher to work with them every Saturday at the Micah house. Above: Maria (Erick and Cristofer's mom in blue shirt in foreground), Telma (David and Pedro Luis' mom, black shirt in foreground), Daisy (Daniel's mom, green shirt) and Aleyda (Maycol's mom, black shirt in background) work on patterns for dresses that they will be making.

Above: Maycol hugs his mom Aleyda on a visit to her small house. She lives in a very poor barrio on the mountain just above the Micah Project neighborhood.

In March, we helped Edwin's family rent a room in our neighborhood after we discovered that they were living under a bridge. Now, Edwin's younger siblings come to the Micah House daily.

Above: Cristofer manages to hold onto to the triplets while their older brother Manuel perches above him! Although, Cristofer is not related to them, he is really gifted with younger kids!