The downside of doing phone interviews with mission trip team members is that it can be really difficult to take a topic and stick with it. The blame lies with the interviewer and not the interviewee. This assignment was pretty basic: Talk to a recent team member about taking the kids on a pool day. Simple, right? Um, that totally did not take into account all of the interesting things the team member had to say and how this particular interviewer has never been known for brief conversations. One question led to another, and suddenly this pretty basic assignment was a field of bunny trails created by the verbose interviewer. Stick with it, though. The interviewee was awesome!
Lori Mills, member of The Well church in Derby, Kanasa, is no stranger to Honduras. She has been on mission trips to Gracias so many times that she lost count herself. The correct number is six. She has made six trips since 2015. Her first trip was when Kim Hall went to start the sponsorship program in conjunction with Sowers4Pastors. That visit was to Mercedes, and things have changed a little since that time. Lori estimates that there were about 160 kids involved in the program. By her guestimate, that number has grown to more than 3000 kids in all of the sponsorship programs.
One thing Lori noticed from her very first trip was that the Sowers family had a very solid, established ministry. Lori had advocated for The Well’s involvement with other sponsorship programs in the past. When she made it back to Derby, Kansas after that first trip, she went with the goal of getting the support of her church. As it happens, Lori’s son-in-law is Pastor Joplin, who is the church’s pastor at The Well. But the bottom line is that The Well is a very mission-minded church.
Lori originally set her goal of finding sponsors at fifty. Allen responded with, “Okay. One hundred fifty it is!”
Thinking they were actually negotiating, Lori suggested that she try to sign up seventy-five sponsors. Allen, who was absent on the day negotiation was taught in school said, “Great! Two-hundred!”
Lori kept her mouth shut after that and went home to find sponsors. She needn’t have worried because The Well had so much sponsor involvement that they took on a sister church. They support three churches in Quelecasque (that are not part of the Manna4Lempira program). Currently, there is a waitlist for available children! In case that wasn’t clear, they have more people wanting to sponsor than there are children!
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| The ever present COVID restrictions. Things are certainly starting to open back up here in Honduras, thankfully |
The Well sent two teams this summer. Lori’s team of twenty-four individuals arrived last week. This week, there is a team with twenty-eight members. That brings us to the actual purpose of this post!
“Pool day is like the icing on the cake. All week long you get to spend time with children, visit their homes . . . there are several sweet moments. But pool day is the devoted time you get to spend with the child or children you sponsor.”
She continued to explain that pool day is a time you get to see a side of them that enjoys life with abandon. She said, “They open up and become almost like different kids. Many of them have very hard lives, but on this day they get to be kids. Many of them have never been to a pool before and are timid. After they get in, they don’t want to get out--even for lunch! Often, the parents will swim, too. Because the translators are there, we have more opportunity to ask questions and communicate with the family. When you’re at the pool, you have time to talk to the parents and get information about how to pray for them. You learn about the challenges they’re facing.”
What’s it like to spend a day in the pool with the kids? Lori said, “Even with the language barriers, every smile, hug, and outburst of laughter are the same. The shyest of kids open up there.”
The joyful atmosphere reminds Lori of a particular verse.
“The Lord your God is in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17
The exuberance is enough to make Lori think that if her spiritual ears were open enough, she would hear Him singing over them in the pool.
- posted by Christi.
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