Seven years ago, Shednaylove Honoré entered Lazarus Academy Haiti as a quiet, uncertain child. At just 3 years old, she lost her mother when she passed away suddenly. Without a father in her life, Shednaylove was taken in by her grandmother, who already had a full household to care for.

The Vocational Carpentry School at Mission Lazarus has been a cornerstone of change and hope in southern Honduras since its inception in 2003. It all started with a small but powerful vision: to offer a lifeline to the young men of Ciudad Nueva, a neighborhood in Choluteca that was rebuilding after the devastation of Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

The Refuge is a community of eight homes for orphaned and vulnerable children. Here they have access to quality healthcare, education, and vocational training, laying the groundwork for good health and a future livelihood.

For many children in Potreritos, a deeply isolated community with no access to dental care, tooth decay isn’t just a minor inconvenience—it’s a serious threat. Without treatment, they risk losing their teeth at a young age, making it painful to eat, speak, or even smile.

What if your life depended on medical care that was nowhere to be found? For thousands of Hondurans, this isn’t just a fear—it’s their reality. Scattered across the remote mountains and dense jungles of southern Honduras, entire villages live completely off the land, farming just enough to survive. These subsistence farmers and their families work tirelessly to grow beans and corn, yet when sickness strikes, there is nowhere to turn.

In the small village of La Danta, located just 30 minutes from Namasigüe, Choluteca, most families struggle to meet their basic needs. The intense heat scorches the land, and nearly everyone relies on subsistence farming, growing corn to feed their families. But since corn alone doesn’t provide enough income, many also find work in fields harvesting melon, watermelon, sugarcane, or on shrimp farms.

When the pastors of Mission Lazarus first met Julio Varela, he was at his lowest point—sick, bedridden, and without options. They prayed over him, sharing the Word of God with his family, offering not just comfort, but the promise that he was not alone. A week later, when the pastors returned, they expected to find Julio still struggling. Instead, they found a miracle.

In the heart of rural Honduras, in a small village called La Constancia, a mother of two set out on a journey that would change not only her life but the lives of everyone around her. Rosalina Estrada, 32, had always lived with the heavy burden of single motherhood after her husband left when their son Esaú was just 4 years old. For years, she struggled to provide for her two young children, Yeilin and Esaú, while carrying the weight of her challenges alone.

Body functions and noises, quite taboo or unsophisticated to discuss in the US, are a fair game topic of discussion when doing development and humanitarian aid work it seems. Especially in the two thirds of the globe that does not benefit from many of the amazing luxuries that we take for granted in the western world. What’s even more alarming than discussing your body functions and noises is that more people die every year from diarrhea than from AIDS. And, a large part of that diarrhea could be prevented if people had two simple things.

Mariela Would Be a migrant, but she’s NOT. What Would Be your situation today if someone hadn’t made a sacrifice for you? Or, what Would Be your situation if they didn’t see something in you that you perhaps didn’t see in yourself? Maybe it was help in a tough moment, maybe it was a teacher who in-spite of being overloaded and exhausted they didn’t ignore the Spirit’s urging to invest in you. Perhaps that “someone” didn’t give you anything more than an opportunity.

I believe in the words of Christ, when he said, “I have come so that they may have life, and a life in abundance.” Abundance does not mean wealth, abundance in its most basic sense can mean that I have left-overs from supper tonight. If I truly believe that I am His ambassador of Christ, then as his representative I’m called to ensure that his words are made real to all people. Abundance is an abundance on all levels, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, it’s not partially abundant, it’s not a qualified abundance, it is abundance.

Imagine walking for three years through foreign lands with different languages and different cultures. You’re not part of a reality show nor part of a forced foreign military campaign, but you were indeed forced into this journey, you are traveling against your will, as if you’d fallen in a raging river, a river of poverty, and you’re being swept downstream.

Haiti is many things, but one thing it is NOT, a lost cause. For every American who looks a lot like me and who has a similar ancestry as I do, our ancestors likely played a small role in stacking the deck against this small Caribbean island. But all of our families’ small roles cabined had an enormous impact.