First time participant Dima Didenko - Reflections on 2025 Summer Respite Trip

I am excited to share that I just returned from a mission trip to Honduras, where our team of 10, including my 15-year-old daughter, Eleanor, who was the primary catalyst for me to join this trip, spent a week at The Hogar de Niños, an orphanage in the mountainous area of Honduras.

The orphanage houses about 40-60 children at any given time, ages 2-15, who are orphaned or abandoned by their parents, unable to take care of them. Some of the children are victims of domestic violence and several of them are there because of abuse that they have suffered at home. On the 2nd day of our weeklong visit, a 2-year-old boy was dropped off by the Honduran police at the orphanage, showing bruises and signs of abuse and was immediately admitted to the orphanage the same day and immediately was taken to see a doctor for evaluation.

While there, our team did several projects, like fixing the roof, repairing the furniture and making the facilities more livable as well as spending the time with the children and making them feel loved and cared for. Also, I was able to bring with me donated decommissioned laptops from AdventHealth West Florida Division that could still be used by the former residents of the orphanage who are now attending Seventh-Day Adventist colleges in Mexico and Peru and install solar-powered security cameras to enhance the safety and security of the premises at the orphanage.

My heart was full with the emotions spending the time from morning until the night at The Hogar de Niños, learning stories, and I was really struck by the one I heard about a single mother wanting to give up the care for her children 10 years ago, when the laws were different and the Hogar couldn't take over the care with a living parent, and ending up committing suicide so that her two kids could live at this specific orphanage and making this unfathomable sacrifice for doing what she thought was best for her kids.

On our last day, the group along with the staff, the former residents, volunteers and the kids from the Hogar went to the city trash dumping grounds, located just outside of the city, known as: "El Crematorio" and gave out food packets to the residents that lived on the grounds surrounded by trash and smoke emanating from the burning of the trash. We could hear explosions of whatever was being destroyed as we walked around the area. I was struck by the thought that the kids from the orphanage, having very little in this world, were right there with us, giving out food with us and living out the Christ-like example of serving others and extending the blessing to those who were even less fortunate that they were.

As I reflect on that day and the events of the last week, I cannot help but think of the Bible verse from Matthew 25:40 that says: “…whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” and the opportunity we have to do our part in making our world a better place, whether in our relationships, our community, or in our workplace.