Young Alumna Honored for work in honduras In a recent Vision story about OC alumni ministering in Honduras, Amber Foster (04) said, “I can imagine being hungry. I can imagine being thirsty. I can even imagine being on drugs. But I cannot imagine having no one who cares about you. There aren’t many things I do well, but I care about people.” Her clarity of mission and focused, compelling love are two big reasons why Amber has been named OC’s Young Alumna of the Year. When we last told you about Amber’s work in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, it was in the context of political chaos and upheaval last fall. Now that has passed, the government is stable again, and the Breaking Chains ministry to Tegucigalpa’s homeless is growing spiritually and numerically. In the past year, Breaking Chains acquired a building that has greatly expanded the number of services available through the ministry. The attendance for a new, weekly church service numbers between 40 and 60 people each week. “The best part is how excited they are to step up and lead in the services,” Amber said. “We invite them to pray aloud for the group each time, and when they do, it is encouraging to see them grow closer to the Lord and our community.”
The venue is more than a church building. It recently began to host an after-school program for homeless children, and serves as a vocational school and store to sell crafts participants learn to make. They hope it will soon become a halfway house for single moms living on the streets with their children. In addition to helping Honduras’ homeless, Amber has made an impact on countless students and visitors who come to work with her on spring break and summer campaigns. Amber estimates that she hosted about 500 campaigners this summer. Amber believes in the power of short-term mission work because of the impact it made in her own life. During the spring break of her freshman year, Amber went to Honduras with a group led by Dr. Dudley Chancey. She knew then that her life was changed. She credits Chancey for exemplifying “service regardless of the sacrifice” and credits Dr. Bailey McBride for teaching her “what it means to love completely.” Amber’s ministry is a labor of love. She encourages other young alumni and students thinking about mission work to try it out for a month or two and see how it goes. “If people are willing to be changed when they come, then it’s an invaluable experience,” she said. By Ann White (04)
A slice of life from Amber’s blog
amberinhonduras.blogspot.com
Osman is a 22-year-old homeless person who goes by the name Payaso (clown). He’s a bit of a troublemaker, and to be quite honest, I’m usually not too excited to see him walk through the door at church. He tends to wind people up more than he participates in the service. On Sunday, I announced that we would start taking
up an offering next week. The first destination for our offering will be chairs so that we can get up off of the floor for the church service. As we were getting ready to go have dinner, Payaso scoots over next to me on the floor, puts four tostones in my hand (a toston is equivalent to about 2.5 cents of a dollar) and shyly says, “This is all I have,
but you can have it.” I was incredibly humbled. I’ve never been in the position where, in order to give, I had to literally give all that I had. I have a feeling there will be more of these stories to come. I learn more from these people than I could ever hope to teach them.
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