Viewing entries by
Danielle Mendoza
In February 2021 the Connect Global team was able to start the Honduras school year off by assuming the financial and logistical responsibilities of a primary and secondary school, Las Huellas Del Maestro, which as of August 1st, 2021 has 172 students as a part of expanding our ongoing commitment to education and care for children.
We love serving the people God has called us to as a family and we count it a great honor.
Janeth Montoya, our friend, and longtime volunteer has become the Director of The Maternity Home in Honduras with Connect Global, please join us in welcoming her to the team.
There IS hope and His name is Jesus. Let us not forget the battles people are facing everyday. Let us be gracious, let us be kind, let us be people of compassion and generosity.
I am grateful we have a team in Honduras the next several weeks with Travis N Gina Moffitt while Javier Mendoza and I share the details of the project stateside with all of you.
Contact me for more details.
-Danielle Mendoza
“The missionary heart: Care more than some think is wise. Risk more than some think is safe. Dream more than some think is practical. Expect more than some think is possible. I was called not to comfort or success but to obedience….There is no joy outside of knowing Jesus and serving him.”
—Karen Watson, martyr, March 15, 2004
Happy New Year!
Javier, Danielle, & Saige Mendoza in La Ceiba Honduras supporting a local run/walk in support of kids with cancer.
2015 was quite an amazing year for Connect Global and for our family. As many of you know we moved to Honduras in January 2015. We had many good reasons to do so but I'll just list a few.
It really all started 11 years ago when Javier and I fell in love on a mission trip. We were young but shared the same goals and dreams. We both wanted to spend our life helping others. From that trip on we were inseparable and were married a year later. As time moved forward our desire to do something BIG began to grow. We were no longer satisfied with a mission trip once a year and began to map a course for MORE. We were friends with a ministry( Worldwide Voice in the Wilderness) in Dallas Texas who at the time already had over two decades of ministry experience and insight into the non profit world. We decided to deepen that relationship and with their blessing learned all we could from their prison ministry with the intention of applying their practical knowledge to what would one day become Connect Global, our missions organization. Javier and I along with our ministry partners Travis and Gina Moffitt set out to create a world class missions organization over 4.5 years ago. Our goals were lofty and we have held our standards high.
We have set out to create sustainable solutions to solvable problems around the world. We do this through building fish farms, building new construction when needed, bringing in 100s of pounds of medical supplies, mentoring and training with the local police department, partnering financially with schools, orphanages and food banks as well as ministry/ mission training for local pastors.
Javier, Danielle & Saige Mendoza with David (mask) and his mother Sandra and their friend.
Our work has taken us to Mexico, Thailand, Haiti, Colombia, and Honduras. We are honored to serve the beautiful people we have met over the past 11 years and look forward to many years to come.
We have just expanded internally and will now have a Connect Global base in both Tampa, Florida and Dallas, Tx. Our biggest support as an organization comes primarily from these two states and it is where the majority of our teams come from when traveling with us. We look forward to developing deeper and stronger relationships with individuals, churches, & organizations, in the North Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, & Louisiana areas.
Javier and Saige Mendoza with long term friend/partner Jorge Amador his wife, Janeth, and their daughter Alison
The past year we spent in Honduras truly gave us deeper roots in that community, which in turn has provided several open doors for continued partnership. Honduras is the murder capital of the world and over half its citizens live on less than $2.00 a day. What this means to you & me is that WE still have a lot of work to do.
Connect Global continues to be committed to Honduras on a long term basis. We already have several trips planned for 2016 that you can attend, we are coordinating a business leader conference in 2016 in partnership with Global Advance of Dallas, Tx which will be hosted in Honduras, and many other ways you can connect to the sustainable work we are doing.
We could not do it without the love and support from all of you and for that we are thankful. If you are interested in traveling with us in 2016 please visit our TRIPS PAGE
We are excited about the New Year and all the projects Connect Global has in the works. Please Join us!
Javier, Danielle, & Saige Mendoza
One thing I have been mulling over almost constantly is gratitude. Being grateful shows depth in someone’s character, while being ungrateful displays an attitude of entitlement. I am learning that being grateful often times is a choice made by the individual and is rarely determined by ones set of circumstances.
Scouting projects, vision casting and follow through takes a significant amount of work not only from our organization but also from the leaders in the community who graciously plan, facilitate and include every needed detail to accomplish the task at hand. These community leaders are the ones who lend us credibility to their friends, their families, their schools and hospitals.
The gratitude that they exude in the day to day has even made me feel uncomfortable at times. In part because our organization solely exists to be a help, a support and a friend to such communities, so what else would we be doing? I really want to carry pictures of ALL of YOU and say “ thank them.” We are simply trying to be a follower of Christ who fulfills the Great Commission. For Javier and I personally, as well as Connect Global as a staff, we have made a decision to actually do what the bible says to do. It sounds crazy but by simply doing what the bible says our purpose in life can be revealed. We are to enhance others with the gifts we have received.
For most of you this will not involve you moving to a developing country, learning a new culture or deciphering a new language, but if you are mindful it will re-route your heart and your thinking.
For many of you this will look like you being the best teacher your students will ever have, being a co-worker that will listen in someone’s time of need, or being a spouse that dedicates their life to friendship and mutual partnership within your marriage. The list can go on and on, the idea is that when you begin to nurture your attitude of gratitude you will no longer be able to settle for surface relationship, petty gossip, constant discontentment or dissatisfaction. By focusing on the enhancement of others, you forfeit the “right” to be selfish and that leads you to places you’ve never imagined being.
In fact you might catch yourself volunteering to feed the homeless, taking in foster children, booking a ticket to a foreign land to go and serve, or playing the piano for the elderly in your local nursing home. The possibilities are endless.
It is easier at times to focus on present circumstances, feel entitled or harbor resentment but that road is wide, and leads you nowhere.
Practice gratitude, give of yourself, and live on purpose so you too can experience The Road Less Traveled.
Map of Honduras
We have been here in La Ceiba for just under two months and have hit the ground running. The way of life is different in many ways but we have already gained a greater knowledge of the work set before us. Our days are full and we wouldn't have it any other way.
We enrolled our daughter in school the first of February. She Is thriving in her new environment. We are so grateful to God that she has gracefully accepted a new country, a new home, a new school and a new set of friends. She and I both are working on learning the new language!
Javier is busy volunteering throughout the week at a local church whose primary focus is church planting and showing God's love in action throughout the community. Javier and I together will be giving FREE English classes at the church each Saturday starting in March. We are told that this will be a big deal to the community!
We are doing this in addition to our time spent at Casa Cielo. Casa Cielo is an orphanage about 25 minutes from our home. I am teaching language, spelling and grammar as well as loving on the kids.
Javier is currently rebuilding a website for them and will be taking over a class of his own in March.
On Thursday nights we are a part of a local Honduran small group that is determined to ask the right questions and do the right things within this community. We are very happy to be involved with each of them who have knowledge, insight and ideas for their community. Plus they are a lot of fun too!
We also met with the Director of DiNAF which is best described as a social service to families in need with the great focus being on the children. Local family's ( many from single parent homes ) bring their children there during the day so they can either work or search for a job. DiNAF gives the children a safe place to be, along with meals for families that do not have the means to pay for childcare or education on their own. We have been invited to partner with them through our time and resources. Javier and I along with the rest of the Connect Global team are thinking through how we can best help this local government organization.
Moving to La Ceiba is the best opportunity we have been given to reach into the lives of many families in need.
We thank you for your continued support and prayer.
I will create notes here on FB from time to time while we are away to answer the common questions we get like WHY ? As well as post about what our day to day work looks like there.
In other moments there is such an overwhelming peace about it that I just want to cry ( but I don't because I have a great poker face. ) The fact that I can experience that type of peace and to that degree beside the fact that we have never laid eyes on our soon to be dwelling, or that we don't have a solution for transportation in a country that has been known as the Murder Capitol of the World is nothing short of faith and a miracle. I can tell you peace does not come from having all the answers, all the resources or everything always going according to plan. In my life it has come from faith and trust, believing and knowing we will be ok. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father's care. Matt 10:29. The greatest JOY in what we are embarking on is that it is NOT ABOUT US... Ahhhh how refreshing. It is about what we feel we were not only called to do but that it is something we were created for. To our delight we are seeing that as a family unit we have this desire, calling and will to GO.
Javier and I have been on the mission field separately for 15 years now and on the field together for the last decade. Here is a fun fact... Javier and I fell in love on a mission trip... True story ! It is about the ONLY thing we have in common ha, but what a great thing to share the same passion for. Really my greatest concern on this journey is that my daughter will feel a strong sense of community. I pray she has double the play time with friends and a double portion of love and security in her little heart. I pray this lays a strong foundation In the makeup of who she is and who she will become in life.
Thank you all for reading and letting me share a few thoughts. Your prayers, support and friendship are always valued and respected.
Peace be with YOU!
