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WHY NOT JOIN AN ORPHANAGE TEAM?!

Heart to Honduras welcomes Jennifer Kast to the Stateside Staff as our connection with Honduran orphanages.  In addition to working with the Honduran churches to form groups of consistent volunteers, Jenny will be leading teams of people who want to spend a week helping the orphanages with some construction projects and spending time loving on the kids.  What better way to become involved in the Year of the Child than to commit some time following Jesus in reaching out to His little ones?

The following article introduces you to Jenny’s heart – and how God gave her a passion for these children.  If you are interested in joining one of her orphanage teams please contact her with the email link provided at the bottom.

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THIS is what I cannot do in my own strength!

~by Jennifer Kast

When my husband and I went to Honduras in September of 09 to spend a year there I quickly felt like God was going to give me a year that I couldn’t do on my own.  During my time in the Word, while listening to music and while journaling I felt God whispering “You can do all things through me.”  Exciting, but more than a little nerve-wracking.

Soon after, I decided to teach an English class in our house to neighborhood kids. [Photo, upper left]  I’m a bit terrified of teaching so I figured THIS is what He meant.

Then in February, Sean and I were asked to take a tour of a government run children’s home in San Pedro Sula.  We were going to be in the area, so why not?

This center had a profound effect on me immediately – in that I wanted to leave!  Close to 200 kids, many with profound disabilities, most of them more than a little dirty, and all of them hungry for attention.

Jenny visiting an orphanage nursery

But the nursery really stuck with me and I soon asked my mother-in-law to come to Honduras to hold and love the babies.  I will always be thankful that she stepped past her fears and answered that request with a yes.  In May, she came with her sister-in-law and we spent 3 days in Nueva Esperanza.

What we experienced in those days has changed my life forever.  And I am constantly reminded that…

THIS is what I cannot do in my own strength.

We came to love the babies and I came out of those days with a hook in my heart cast by the roughest group of kids there – the older boys.  This is a center that is underfunded and understaffed.  So these beautiful children, boys and girls from birth to 14 years old, are just surviving.

Over the next few months I would waver between excitement and total commitment to change the lives of these kids and wallowing in despair because – well, who am I to really make a difference?  And then I would be reminded – He has been preparing me for this all along – I just need to keep going forward.

My husband and I returned to the States in November but our involvement with the kids is far from over.  We are working with the Brazos Abiertos (Open Arms) churches of Heart to Honduras to develop a volunteer program that will bring Hondurans regularly to the center to develop consistent, loving, and positive relationships with the kids.

Also, I will be leading 3 teams of North Americans to the center for one-week work trips.  These trips will be comprised of individuals and small groups of interested people from churches all over the United States.  Teams will spend the week working on construction projects in the school as well as feeding and holding the babies in the nursery and playing with the older children.

This is where YOU come in!  Anyone reading this right now is welcome to join me in ministering to these beautiful children.  If you are interested in joining a team to Honduras in July, September or November 2011 please contact me at jkast@hth.org.

Trip dates for 2012:

• May
• October

If your church or group is interested in an orphanage trip please contact Jenny at jkast@hth.org

Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. – James 1:27