Our Leadership

Pastor Jeony Ordoñez grew up in Tegucigalpa with a long history of missionary outreach to children at risk in Honduras. He quickly rose to leadership in his home church, “Amor y Vida” in the Bosque neighborhood and provided direction for its mission program. There he helped co-found the Manuelito project for street children.

Ordonez then moved on to work with the Micah Project, an American-led organization which develops street children into servant-leaders of their society. While serving with Micah, Ordonez happened upon the garbage dump and felt moved to serve the children there. Seeing his passion, Micah Project’s director (Michael Miller) encouraged Ordonez to follow his calling and on Saturday the boys who once roamed the streets instead put on outreach events for children of the garbage dump. As the effort grew and more and more children put down garbage bags and picked up books to learn, it became apparent to Micah Project’s direction that God was using Ordonez powerfully in dump ministry and a separate organization would need to be formed so that Ordonez could focus his efforts.

In 2005, AFE became its own organization and the Ordoñez family moved to a community near the garbage dump to live closer to the people to whom they were ministering. The community was named “Linda Miller” and served as a safe-haven for people displaced when Hurricane Mitch hit Honduras in 1998.

Under the mentorship and direction of his pastor from Amor y Vida in the Bosque, Ordoñez planted a church in Linda Miller (also called “Amor y Vida”) to serve the families in his community and those of the dump. AFE is now a ministry of this church and the majority of its teachers are developed in this church.

Jesi Romero Ordoñez has been involved in her husband’s ministry from the beginning and used her leadership and administration skills to develop to the people of the Tegucigalpa Dump. Before coming to AFE, Jessi worked as an administrator in the department in natural resources for the Honduran government. She now serves as AFE's principal, managing all of the curriculum, finances, and day to day operations of the school. She also plays an important leadership role in the life of “Amor y Vida.”

Jesi also plays a pastoral role at AFE, leading devotionals, the staff, and loving the children there as if they were her own.

Pastor Jeony and Jesi Ordoñez have four children: Brian (21), Vanessa (18), Daniela (15), and Chris (15), who are each inspired by their parents’ example of Christ-like service.