It can often be heard at the Finca that we have a Finca family within our fence made up of all our different departments and areas, including our niños, tías, missionaries, Sores, maintenance workers, doctors, security guards, professional staff, teachers, our Board of Directors in Honduras, former Finca kids, and a few prominent neighbors from the outside communities. & THAT IS SO, SO, SO TRUE!! It is one of the things that makes La Finca del Niño so miraculously incredible despite our many imperfections, and it is a true testament to the advantages and challenges that comes with having intentional community.
However, despite the fact that we are a Finca family that enjoys one another’s presence so much, there is really only one day every year that all of the members of our special family in rural Honduras are present: the Finca anniversary party every May!! This year we celebrated 29 years since our opening in 1996, and we were blessed to be able to celebrate as an entire Finca community despite the inherent business in everyone’s lives.
The party was on Wednesday, May 21st, starting with mass in our beautiful Finca church at 10:00am! Although the actual party located between the convent and the missionary house overlooking the vast ocean didn’t start until 11:30am, everyone was busy with their respective jobs starting as early as 7:00am! Our maintenance staff was busy moving tables and benches, as well putting up the tents that would protect our guests from the hot Honduran sun. Our teachers, who are INCREDIBLY talented decorators for any sort of party, were in charge of decorating for the cowboy themed party, & they did a marvelous job as normal with their limited resources. Our Lics, specifically our engineer, psychologist, social worker, and director, were busy organizing all of the food and the general preparations for the day.
Our security guard on that day, Selvin, was busy making preparations to bring his dad’s horse to the party. You can’t have a cowboy themed party without a horse, right??? The missionaries were busy preparing our many skits, games, dances, and activities that we were going to perform among ourselves and with our Finca kids and staff after lunch. Our tías were busy making all of the food (Mexican tacos!!!) and drinks to feed our Finca family. Like any fully functional family, everyone had a role and everyone had to do their role to the best of their ability for the end product to be a success.
After a beautiful yet scorching hot mass celebrated by our visiting missionary priest, Fr. Eugene, from Grand Rapids, Michigan, we all made our way to the site of the party to enjoy one another’s company and to celebrate another year at this beautiful mission. Until everyone arrived and got situated at the party, there was lots of music being played, laughs being shared, and a few brave souls dancing in front of everyone, trying to increase the ánimo and energy in this special time! The official festivities probably began about 12:00pm with Sor Isamar (in charge of spiritual life at the Finca) and Christian (our Finca driver) serving as the MC’s.
Lunch was served at about 12:30pm, and there were many acts performed both before and after lunch! A few family members of Lic Fatima (our full-time nurse on staff) performed a choregraphed dance to a few songs, Lic Fatima danced an El Salvadorean folk dance with some of our Finca girls, Rachel, and Theresa, the missionaries acted out how each house enters the Finca church every morning and afternoon, the security guards sang a song and performed a guessing game with the kids, the missionaries performed a choregraphed dance with our immersion group participants to the song “El Ratón Vaquero”, and our teachers performed a hilarious skit that involved some fighting and lots of dancing. All in all, there were SO, SO, SO many laughs shared as a Finca community!
Despite the great food (although they probably didn’t have enough food for the quantity of people that were at the party) and the great performances, something else caught my attention as the most memorable part of the party: looking around and seeing all of the wonderful people that make up this beautiful mission as they were happy and enjoying time with one another! There is no doubt that this mission is hard for every department and area at the Finca, but every single person shows up every day and does the very best that they can do out of pure love for the mission and love for the children in our care!
Not a single person at the Finca would argue that we don’t have a lot of room to grow and improve our mission because of course we can always improve the care of our children and how we are preparing them for life after the Finca! However, everyone understands how special this mission is because of the people that work here and how they give their lives to fighting for the well-being of our Finca kids. Every single person sacrifices in some way to work and/or live at the Finca, but they do it without a moment’s hesitation because they believe in the mission and the people that make up this beautiful mission!
As I looked around last Wednesday during the party, I couldn’t help but get emotional that this really is one, big Finca family!! A lot is expected and asked of us as missionaries, especially in my role as service coordinator, but we wouldn’t change our current life circumstances for anything in the world! Everyone realizes how grateful we must be in order to live and work in such a beautiful place like the Finca.
Please pray for all of our summer volunteers, as they arrive at the Finca next week for their 2-month commitment! Please also pray for my health and my ability to overcome a current bacteria in my stomach!
Please let me know how I can pray for you!
God bless!