Dear friends, family, and followers,
A year ago, I was wrapping my mind
and heart around the fact that my 15-year-old daughter Jane was preparing to leave
the country without me for a week-long mission trip to Honduras. While I had
been with her older sister on consecutive domestic mission trips, sending this
one on her own to such a faraway place was a new challenge for me in
surrendering my loves to the One who loves them even more than I do. Despite
parental trepidation, I opened my grip and she went with the youth group she
attends, and with which I volunteer, through our church, Grace Mills River.
I’ve not regretted that decision.
Neither has she. She is planning to
return this summer to the same girls’ home and the same community to serve there
again. And this year, she has persuaded me to trust God, our perfect Father,
with my own fears and reservations about going and join her there.
Last year, I wrestled hard with the
idea of going, and decided my heart was not in the right place to participate.
The girls living at the Hogar de Niñas in Taulabe, Honduras, are there because
their home situations would not allow them safety or basic necessities. Most
have known serious neglect or abuse. At the Hogar (home), they are fed,
clothed, educated, loved, taught about the God who entered into poverty to live
and die for them. They are protected, provided for, and given a chance at an
adult life they might not have lived to see otherwise. But they are not
adoptable, and I was sure a year ago that investing a week with them and then
leaving them behind would be more than I could bear at the time.
Jane with one of the girls she particularly bonded with, and longs to see again this year.
Over the last year, however, I have
heard the memories shared by Jane, the other Watershed Youth leaders who went,
and the other teens who were on the team with Jane. I have combed their
pictures, seen their tears, and have felt the calling on my heart. It is God
himself who is the Spirit of Adoption, and though I may not be able to bring these
children into my home after this trip, I can certainly share in his love for
them, share in his love for me as his adopted daughter, and worship him with
this team and these children and the staff of the Hogar who know the same
Spirit.
And so, after a year of
sanctification and revelation, I have agreed to join the leader team for the
return youth mission trip to Taulabe, Honduras. We will be leaving on July 11
and returning on July 18. At present count, there are just short of 20 of us
going, youth and adult leaders.
Worship, Honduran style. Jane tells me the joy they have in the Lord surpasses
all we know, because it is pure, unattached to worldly goals and possessions.
She wants me to know that freedom in worship too.
I have shared here with you the
deep longing of my heart, which God is gently and lovingly dealing with in me.
Would you please pray for me in this regard? Pray that I will be enabled by him
to pour out every bit of love and care that he gives me without concern for my
own vulnerability—the anticipated broken heart—and trust him to fill me again
after he lets me be emptied for the sake of loving the children and the youth
on our team (as well as other leaders) for this trip’s duration. Pray he rids
me of myself for the week, and in the weeks ahead, so that I can be truly like
Jesus in compassion and presence and selflessness while we go.
Additionally, would you pray for
the safety of our team in travel, from sickness, and protection from any chaos
or political turbulence, which has been a factor in Honduras in recent months?
Finally, both Jane and I are in
need of financial assistance to reach our goals by July 1, 2018, to make this
trip possible. The cost to go is approximately $1300 for me this year, and
about $1050 for Jane. (She already has her passport, immunizations, and travel
gear from last year.) The money covers our air fare, food, required
vaccinations, passports, a duffle bag for taking needed supplies, and those
supplies we are each asked to donate for the home (sheets, towels, basic
clothing needs for the girls, etc.).
Would you prayerfully consider
making a financial donation as well as a prayer support donation for either or
both of us? No amount is too small, and it is the joining of many individual
gifts that gives the Church its strength in the kingdom. If you are able to
donate, you may do so tax deductibly in one of two ways:
1) Donate online. Visit https://www.hondurasfountainoflife.org/.
Select the yellow “DONATE” tab at the top right of the browser. Make a donation
with PayPal or credit card. IMPORTANT:
make sure to enter “Rebecca Cochrane—July 2018 team” in the small space just
below your monetary amount before completing your donation. Click the line
that says “Project or Mission Team Name here” to enter that information.
Without this designation, the funds will go to a general account and not to my
expenses.
2) Donate by mail: Send a check made out to Honduras
Fountain of Life to
Honduras Fountain of Life
Po Box 223
Fletcher, NC 28732
Fletcher, NC 28732
IMPORTANT: write “Rebecca
Cochrane—July 2018 team” in the memo line. Without this designation, the
funds will go to a general account and not to my expenses.
Thank you so much for considering
how you can prayerfully and financially support me, our team, God’s work in
Honduras and in the hearts and lives of our group as we prepare. We are already
well underway with informational and team building meetings as well as a few
group fundraisers. God is already at work, preparing us now for what he has
prepared for us in Honduras. Will you join us along the way?
If we may likewise pray for you
while you support us similarly, please send me a note to that effect at my
email: rhemagift@gmail.com.
Blessed be the tie that binds our
hearts in Christian love!
Sincerely,
Rebecca Cochrane
