A Friend Experience

My time at La Providencia this week has been bitter sweet. This has been my third trip down here to Siguatepeque & unfortunately it will be my last (at least for a while). I am a part of an organization, called LeaderTreks, which has been partnering with La Providencia for the past several years. They offer us a unique setting where we can use the work they have for us as a tool to develop leaders to fulfill the Great Commission. A co-worker and I met up with a team of high school students from Holland, Michigan. We had the great opportunity to help La Providencia put in a playground for the children to who attend the school here.

Our team was challenged both physically and spiritually this week. As we worked some long & hard days we were also working through the book of James in the evenings as a team. We all were challenged by the lives of the staff, teachers & children who were here throughout the week. I’ve known for a while that James 1:27 has been a verse that La Providencia has rallied around. To see them already taking care of orphans & in pursuit of how they can take care of the widows is something that inspires me. But it was this week that I was really challenged by the last part of that verse, “to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” This had not stuck out to me in the past, but this week God challenged me to observe the people here and see how they were going about keeping themselves from being polluted by the world.

La Providencia is a ministry that is very dear to my heart. One that I will remember for the rest of my life in the ways that it changed my view of the world & of our God.

By Ryan Billelo