The Joy of Service

Above: Maycol spends time with a homeless senior at the CEDER shelter in downtown Tegucigalpa. Our young men go to CEDER every week to visit with the homeless senior citizens there.

Above: In the right hand picture, from the Honduran newspaper El Heraldo, Micah boys Hector and Axel chat with Santa Claus. The director of the CEDER shelter, Francisco, dresses up as Santa every Christmas (the beard is real!) and delivers toys to poor children all over Tegucigalpa. Our boys donated their allowances in December to purchase toys and helped Francisco deliver presents to children in the public hospital on December 23 and 24.

The Joy of Service

According to I Peter 4:10, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms”. As our young men become more like Christ in their daily walk, our goal is to help them imitate his servant-like attitude, desiring to use their gifts for the benefit of others and the glory of God. On a human level, service gives one a sense of value, an implicit sense that you are doing something meaningful. Being able to give something to someone is a soul-regenerating activity. Seeing people in extreme need and reaching out to them helps us live our theme verse: it gives our young men a thirst to see justice done and a desire to live mercy-filled lives.

Our “ministry” is not always a formal mission. Yes, we spend several hours a week ministering to street children. Yes, we visit homeless seniors on a weekly basis. But ministry also happens every time the guys go on home visits; it happens when they have a long conversation with a friend in the neighborhood; it happens when they encourage and support each other as brothers.

Our goal is to teach our young men that life is ministry.