My squad and I had a last minute ministry change to Centre Plaza this past Saturday and it quite literally rocked our world. Centre Plaza is considered one of the most dangerous places in Honduras, we were not allowed to bring anything except for our musicians' instruments at their own risk.
At first glance Centre Plaza looked like a cool hangout, hundreds of people, a live band, and a huge church right on the plaza. After praying with our teams we started to venture out and the brokeness of the people around was overwhelming. People picking through garbage cans for plastic bottles, peope walking in a daze because they are high or wasted, prostitutes surrounded by their pimps not even 20 feet from the church on the plaza, I can't even count how many blind people and people with missing limbs I saw, nor how many handicappped homeless people, there were all these hurting people and everyone who could reach out to them were just walking by not even giving them a second glance.
A lot of us didn't really know how to go about reaching and talking to these people but God definitely had our backs because they all but ran to us. We prayed for so many people in those three hours, God overcame language barriers in the most incredible ways, it was amazing how the Holy Spirit moved.
As I was walking around with some teammates we came upon a 19 year old boy wearing a diaper, laying in a cardboard box that was barely long enough to hold him, and was just surrounded with flies. He was extremely mentally and physically handicapped. His mother was sitting next to him asking people for money, she was relatively young and she looked exhausted. It was one of those situations where you see such an overwhelming need for help and you feel so powerless. My teammates and I asked if we could pray for her and she was more than willing to let us.
I was able to hold her son's hand and look right at him, and as I started praying and speaking life and truth over him, the Holy Spirit overcame barriers because he would not look at me before and his hand was limp in mine but as I started speaking life over him he wouldn't stop smiling and he was just squeezing my hand. It was such amazing, humbling, and awesome all the same time! I continually pray for his mother and him and I have faith that God is going to move in their lives.
We went back to the main part of the plaza after that and prayed with a homeless, mentally handicapped man and a man who had literally just gotten beaten and was bleeding and throwing up everywhere. As we were doing this my teammate Ryan was talking to a man who said that he had a hard time with faith because of churches like the one on the plaza didn't reach out and help people right on their doorstep, the church has huge gates around it and the broken people who go in end up getting kicked out.
He was fascinated with us because here we were, in a dangerous and unsafe place he kept saying, and we were holding their hands without gloves, sharing our water bottles, and letting them lay on us without flinching. He said we show them REAL LOVE, Jesus' love. An unending love, a love that sees these peope, that looks past the dirtiness and looks past their mistakes, a love that wants to consume them, capturing their hearts and never letting them go. A love that shows them just how much they are worth and that they are never alone.
We are returning to Centre Plaza every Saturday from here on out, please be praying for my squad that we can continually share God's love with these wonderful peope. Pray also for our safety so we can keep going.
I also encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and reach out to the broken people around, you would be surprised at how God will move.
Love you guys!
