In just I few months I will move to Tegulcigalpa, Honduras to volunteer for 14 months with Heart’s Home. I will living with four other volunteers in the impoverished neighborhood of Colonia Monterry. Heart’s Home is an international, faith-based, non-profit organization which strives to serve its neighbors where they live and just as they are. For the last twenty years, the organization has worked to promote a culture of compassion through its efforts in 40 homes and two villages across 21 countries. As a Heart’s Home volunteer, I am only required to have a heart open to my community, ready to love and full of empathy. To summarize the Heart’s Home charism, it is an intentional and actionable compassion.
Each Heart’s Home has different activities based on the needs of the community where the volunteers live. Much of my time will be spent visiting neighbors in the mornings and inviting the neighborhood children to the house in the afternoons. I will have three purposes: first, to make friends and to let my friends know that they are loved, valued and supported; second, to welcome members of my neighborhood into the house and into my life; and finally, to serve as a bridge between local charities and services and my friends anytime someone in the neighborhood is in need of help. At my home, the volunteers spend two afternoons each week out working with other organizations,one afternoon at a women’s prison and the other at a home for the disabled and aging. At each the purpose is the same, to encourage our friends.
Everyday will be different in my neighborhood and in many ways the days will be similar to my interview weekend in Brooklyn, NY. On one visit we sat and talked with a gregarious elderly woman who rarely leaves her home. She was full of joy as she eagerly shared the most recent exploits of her grandchildren in New Jersey. On another visit I played with three toddlers giving a struggling mother much needed quiet time to share some of her worries about her illness and finances with another volunteer. On another I sat and held the hand of a woman confined to her bed and barely able to speak as we sang hymns she requested and prayed with her. In Honduras, I will be a homework tutor and a basketball player. I will color and cook. And when a mother has a sick child, I will help her find a doctor and find an organization to pay for her child’s care. Then I will go with her to all of the appointments if she wants a companion. Each day, I my only goal will be to patiently love all those I meet.
