Hope through the Pandemic

The Effects of COVID-19

It has been a year filled with many challenges in Honduras and for our schools, but it has also given us the opportunity to develop new strategies to keep advancing in long distance education and not stop our mission.  

Families have been affected physically, emotionally, and socially throughout the pandemic. Students were sent home and all school activities were cancelled by the Ministry of Education. Many parents have lost their jobs or taken significant pay cuts. Students are isolated at home and have had little intellectual stimulation. Some family members of students have contracted the virus and lost their lives.

In Gonzales, Belkis Diaz, the Principal at Gonzales School elaborates:

“For some of our students the process has been approachable because they have access to technology to be able to do homework, but to others it has not been easy because of the economy at home and don’t have technology tools.”

Members of the community have had to make adjustments and adapt to the changes caused by the pandemic. Please continue to pray for our students and the community.

Hope through the Pandemic

In the midst of all these challenges, God has been so faithful! 

With the passing of time Lifeline schools have had to learn to use tools that were not normally used in the day to day. The pandemic has pushed the schools to be more creative, seek to learn the unknown and implement new methods that they had never imagined using in a classroom! From this push for innovation and change, the schools have seen positive impact and growth: parents that have never been involved in their children's learning are now engaged and responding positively to the new changes. 

Principal Belkis adds that, “ our school has created strategies to reach everyone and each of our students. This situation has also allowed many to develop other abilities and subsistence ways such as entrepreneurship and being self-taught formally and informally.”

Students will not attend the school for the rest of 2020, which means that Lifeline’s schools in Honduras will finish classes virtually on November 30th. Currently students receive four daily classes, 40 min. each. The school staff thanks God for this experience!

God is Faithful in Omoa

Life in the Omoa children’s home comes with added challenges with the pandemic due to the number of people all under one roof. The girls have been leaning into God through nightly devotionals as well as serving their community! 

In the height of the shutdowns the girls prepared over 300 cooked meals in one week for the Omoa Christian Church families and surrounding community! While it was a lot of work, by cooking the meals the girls were able to give the families the extra economic gift of saving them the cost of gas butane, electricity or wood. 

Carlos Cojon, Honduras Country Director, writes: “This has been more work for the children’s home but is great blessing see many faces grateful with God's work through Lifeline”

In addition to serving the community, two girls were baptized this summer! Yired and Yolani gave their lives to Jesus. Please pray for these two young believers that they are a light wherever they are.