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Hello, St. Joan of Arc!

Sorry that it has been so long since I’ve last written. It has been a busy summer full of vacations and preparations for our newest group of volunteers. We just finished a very exciting time which leaves me with so much to share that it is difficult to know where to start.

October 1st marked my one year anniversary here in Honduras, working with Farm of the Child. It truly is a wonderful project, full of beautiful people from the children, to Honduran staff, to my fellow North American volunteers. I have been so blessed in the year that I have been here and am excited as I begin my second. I have seen countless transformations and have learned to love as I never have loved before. The children that I work with are broken, suffering, and needy, but they are also some of the most beautiful human beings that I have ever encountered. It is a true gift to know them and a privilege to have over another year to spend growing with them.

I spent the past year working as one of the Farm’s social workers helping to create a safe atmosphere that promotes growth in our children and house parents - challenging but rewarding work. While I have loved this position, I continually felt myself drawn especially to our three children that have been labeled as special needs. For this reason I am very excited that I will be changing my position in the project next year, serving as the special needs teacher and tutoring coordinator.

Many leave to do missionary work with the idea of serving the least among us - the poor, the widows, the orphans. However, ask most in the midst or at the end of missionary service who was truly served in their time in missions and they will say themselves. This has very much been my experience thus far. The work that has been done in me has been much greater than the work that I have offered to this community. In September, the volunteer community went on retreat to help prepare ourselves to build a new community with the arrival of new volunteers in October. The director of the retreat was a man from West Virginia who has lived the past 20 years in Honduras. Based on his own experience, he offered us lectures on the work that is done within a missioner during their time in mission. He spoke of missions as being a time in which God, through the poor, weak and powerless, transforms us. God is constantly present loving us and helping to chip away at our inhumanity – our pride, selfishness, and independence to name a few of the less human aspects that I have found in myself. It has been a year of learning to be vulnerable and to love.

This growth is painful and still incomplete in me, but it is why I think that I have been called here to Honduras. I came to serve poor orphans, but have found that I am the one that is poor and that more service is being done for me than what I have done for them. I am constantly broken down and rebuilt here both in my relationships with the children and with the other volunteers. While this brokenness is something that hurts, I hope that it will help me to return as a more whole person ready to live a life of unconditional love and compassion.

Lindsey Anderson an SJA young adult and graduate of Creighton University is spending two years in Honduras working at Farm of the Child, an education and health center for needy children. Lindsey has agreed to send back periodic reports. A feature on Lindsey can be found at this link. Lindsey can be contacted at lupemarie@hotmail.com; Finca del Niño; Apartado Postal #110; Trujillo, Colón; Honduras, C.A.