Too Honest?

A few years ago if shown a map of the Western Hemisphere and asked about the location of Honduras, I would have pointed in the general direction of Panama and said, with zero confidence) something like “umm… over there.. somewhere?” (Geography has never been my strong suit). In fact, at that point in my life the only thing I could speak intelligently of in regards to the country of Honduras was the quality of their cigars. To me, Honduras was not a real place filled with actual living humans, it was just another small-ish country on a map of countries I would never visit or invest any energy into – it was just another Central American with a year-long summer and great soil for growing tobacco.  

… too honest?

When Nathan and Erik first presented us with the idea of sponsoring a child in La Ceiba, I wasn’t particularly moved by the story telling. In all honesty, I remember thinking to myself “Well, God, you’ve given me this great job with some disposable income, I guess it would be good of me to spend some of that on a worthy cause,” which  is probably something a lot more people think than are willing to admit. As the packets for the individual children were passed down the rows, I found it very surreal that I browse through the stack of children and pick the one that I wanted to sponsor, like I was picking a team for kickball– do I pick the kid that looks the “coolest”, or the one that looks the most “needy”…  and would it look weird if I chose to sponsor a girl..? 

As with anything, I realize now that God had a specific plan in mind and that plan was for me to sponsor a little boy named Angel (and for my girlfriend, now my wife, to sponsor a pretty little girl named Marlen).  It didn’t matter how exactly I came to the decision or even that the decision to become a sponsor was made with very little thought in regards what sponsorship meant outside of the money subtracted from my checking account every month – like it was just my “Christian duty”. 

Slowly but surely, God began to change my heart. But, it wasn’t until we were literally “on the ground” in La Ceiba that I realized just how much of a difference our partnership with Mission of Mercy, and our direct sponsorship could make in the lives of these children. And regardless of the money we were investing to physically build a structure and provide these kids some basic necessities and a Christian education, we all began to see that the biggest difference we were making in the lives of these kids was by simply showing them love.

- Jordan Whitt