Rundown of the last few days. On Sunday, we went to the Los Pinos church. Next, we went as a group to the didalgo orphanage and put on a festival for them. Monday, My group worked with pouring sidewalks for Torch's medical clinic in Santa Ana. We went to the Jesus statute later that night then. I went to Santa Ana again on Tuesday. Wednesday, I visited an orphanage for children who come from abusive environments. Then we went to a center run by Jimmy Hughes for rehabilitating men. We then went to a Catholic church with a 7 second echo and sang, and then visited a blind school. Everyone always loves the blind school.

Thoughts on the activities:

• Los Pinos. Every time I go to a church that Torch is built, I am struck by how Christ's church is not bound by race or class. Taking communiun with my brothers in Christ, singing the same songs in different languages, is really a unique difference. Sadly though, I also notice there are never boys my age there. There are usually many mothers, children, but the fathers are scarce and the boys are even harder to find. There was one there in the high school age, which is a rarity. He had gotten baptized by Torch last summer, so that's awesome.
• Didalgo Orphanage. Us interns got there before everyone else, so I was able to play with the kids all by myself. I began to think I was so cool, they kept jumping up on me wanting rides. However, all of the sudden they started talking in Spanish and watching down the road. They saw one bus, and began to jump up and down. They saw another bus and began to shout two buses. Then they saw a truck, and they were jumping up and down with enthusiasm I have never witnessed before. They kept shouting, "two buses and a two trucks!" At first I was kind of jealous, (what happened to me?). But then, it brought to mind when Jesus said suffer the little ones unto me. Here these poor orphans illustrated a joy that words can not describe. This is why Jesus brought the little ones to him. (note: while we were there, an orphan got extremely sick with a 105 fever and began having seizures. If we were not there with our nurses, she would have died because they probably would not have taken her to the hospital)
• Santa Ana. Torch is attempting to make Santa Ana a new outlet of jobs for the Honduran people. They are building 2 children's homes, and bringing women who have been trained by Mi Esperanza (Another organization under IRC's direction; they train poor women in area's such as art and hairstyles hoping to bring them out of the rut). I left the states hoping I would not have to mix another batch of cement, but I've been mixing a lot of cement doing their sidewalk. I've also had to learn how to be a stone mason making some retaining walls.
• Jimmy Hughes: Jimmy Hughes wasn't there, but let me tell you something about this man. When he got saved, he was a hitman for some latin american mafia in El Salvador. He had killed 6 guys trying to get to one he was hired to kill, when he realized his life was pointless. He got arrested, changed his life, sold out his mafia bretheren for a shorter sentence, and is now trying to help other men out of drug addictions. There was a man there named Salvador who rapped his testimony. I thought it was awesome; he is really a man on fire for God.
• Blind School: Those kids are so more talented then I am. I watched them play Chess yesterday!!! In order to tell the difference between whose pieces are whose, they have metal balls on the top of every black piece. Then when they are playing they touch every piece, memorizing where their positions are then make their move. Their singing is amazing as well.

I'll try and post pictures tonight,

hoss