Replicating AFE

The situation in the Tegucigalpa Garbage Dump is not unique. Other garbage dump communities exist in Choluteca and in San Pedro Sula, Honduras….and in many other places of Central America. If a town in poor country like Honduras does not have an organized trash dump, it still has children scavenging the streets to survive.

AFE’s success in rescuing children from the garbage dump has been tremendous and inspiring. And when God began opening doors for AFE and Pastor Jeony, the question arose: how can we replicate what God is doing at AFE in similar situations of children at risk in Latin America?

It wasn’t long before God called and formed a team for this vision. Three years ago Lake City Church in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho visited AFE and shared their heart: “We are interested in training church leaders to meet the specific needs of their contexts….especially if that context is extreme poverty.” Then Pastor Jeony was awarded the position of mission coordinator for his denomination. He began speaking about AFE at many different churches in the region and after his talk the line to speak to him was long. “How can we do what you are doing at AFE in our own communities?”

The vision for Amor y Vida’s Learning Center was born.

The idea is that pastors from poor communities without a lot of training would come to the learning center (beside AFE’s church in the Linda Miller community) to receive practical training in how to reach their communities and maybe even a trade with which to survive. (In these poor communities pastors cannot live on the offerings of their church and must be bi-vocational). The focus will be on how to manifest the transformational gospel in their community to meet the needs that arise out of extreme poverty.

The dream for the Learning Center is in the same stage and the actual building of it. The structure and frame is set-up, but it is not finished.
Would you pray for this vision, that God would guide the planning process, that He would bring the right people onto the team, and provide funds to finish the building?

$3,000 (at least) is needed to finish construction. If you would like to be part of this project in any way, please contact reyangeldiaz@gmail.com

Summer Break

In Honduras, students take their “summer break” in December and January. This is because the school year runs from February to November, as opposed to the September-through-June school year in the United States.

As of November 29th, AFE students are officially out of school. We offer vacation activities (mostly to continue providing the one nutritious meal the children receive all day), and of course AFE’s “Gran Fiesta de Navidad” for the garbage dump community. Nevertheless, during this break AFE’s children often find themselves with more free time and sometimes they get into trouble.

Last year, a promising seventh grade student became pregnant over break and decided not to continue at AFE. In years past, gangs have tried to recruit our children, alcohol and drugs have been experimented with, and older children have simply discovered the independence and freedom they crave by working in the garbage dump instead of attending school.

Jenny Elvir is fourteen and will be in the 8th grade next year

Still, a break is needed. Our children have worked especially hard this last year. Now is the time that AFE’s teachers begin another sort of work, on our knees in prayer for our children as we send them back home. We ask their parents to watch over them, but most agree with a perfunctory nod. The parents believe that their fourteen-year-old is an already an adult....because at fourteen they were already raising two children of their own.

Will you join us in prayer for AFE’s children?

Jeyson Ordonez is sixteen and next year will finish his last year of high school.

Daisy Accepts Christ!

To all who faithfully follow AFE's blog, thank you for your prayers! The week after we posted the story about Danilo, Isis, and Dulce Maria ("New Babies Come to AFE"), their mother, Daisy, came to church and accepted Christ!

Strong Rains Tear Apart the City

The month of August has been a month of rain. Rains so strong they are tearing apart the city. A neighborhood on a mountainside collapses. Rains create potholes and craters in highways so large a car could fall into it. Houses flood. It is amazing the damage something as water can create. The news reports four people that have died trying to cross what were once shallow streams. 2,469 people evacuated from their homes. Tegucigalpa has been in a state of emergency during the month of August. Our prayer is that the rains let up.

This is the back yard of Rey and Elise´s house.

The descruction of a road.