Crucitas--an Unexpected Home Away From Home

Chelsea, lovingly administrating
the Lighthouse program

When you want to learn about a particular sponsorship center for Manna 4 Lempira, it is advisable to talk to someone who thinks of that area as a home away from home. That’s why, when I wanted to learn more about Crucitas, I spoke to Chelsea Johnson of Glen Burnie, MD. She laughed and said she could talk about Crucitas for hours. While we didn’t talk for hours, we certainly talked long enough for me to feel the love she has for the children of Crucitas.

Chelsea and her husband, Heath, first visited Honduras in August 2017. They had only been married for two months, at the time. The year they launched their marriage was also the year the sponsorship program launched.

When talking to Chelsea, I got the feeling that she was sorting through memories like they were video footage she was trying to edit together for a documentary. We talked about the various schools that feed into Crucitas. The schools have names, but Chelsea uses a number system when discussing them. She talked about the 100s to the 1000s like she was talking about her children, which, in a sense, she was.

It takes somewhere between an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes to get to Crucitas from Gracias. Chelsea laughed and said that if Russell is driving and there’s no team riding in the back of the truck, it’s closer to an hour. Chelsea knows they’re getting close when they stop to pick up Hector, who translates for their VBS programs. When the trucks get close to any of the schools or the feeding center, the kids run up to the fence and smile and wave. Chelsea describes the knowledge the kids haven’t forgotten them as an overwhelming feeling that they are loved there. She said, “We love them as much as they love us.”

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The Crucitas program has been growing rapidly. In 2017, there were three schools and approximately 200 kids. Today, there are ten schools and more than 700 kids. The schools have unique personalities and Chelsea talked about them the way a proud mom talks about her children.

There’s the school with a flagpole people always try to climb. There’s the school with the pig that's kept in the back. Chelsea laughed and said she never has the heart to tell first-time team members that the pig is not a pet. There are schools with no playground and one with a huge soccer field. Some of Chelsea’s favorite memories are of time spent on that soccer field. There is one school that is so difficult to access that the children and teachers walk to another school to see visiting teams and participate in VBS. There are schools where you can watch the boys wander off for a few minutes and come back holding chickens they somehow managed to catch.

Visiting team from Lighthouse Church, running a VBS program in one of the
public schools in Crucitas!

Chelsea and Heath last visited in February. While at the school with the soccer field, which she refers to as “300,” Chelsea and Heath told their sponsored child they are expecting a baby. Their sponsored child wept tears of joy! They will miss going back in August because that happens to coincide with Chelsea’s due date. However, Russell has already assured them, that when they come back next February, there will be plenty of people who want to hold the baby. That’s what happens when you go to your home away from home.

 - posted by Christi