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Psychology graduate completed degree online while ministering to teens in Honduras children’s homes

Editor’s Note: Throughout the summer, Liberty News will shine the spotlight on members of the Class of 2020 leading up to Liberty’s 47th Commencement on Sept. 11-12. As seniors, this class had the exciting privilege of leading Liberty into a new decade — and then met the challenge of completing their degree during a pandemic. Through it all, they have made us proud. They are marching onward as true Champions for Christ, entering their chosen fields equipped to be world-changers with a renewed hope for the future.

Congratulations Class of 2020! #LU2020 #LUGrads


Kacey Barahona and her husband, Luis, serve together in his native country of Honduras.

As a child, Kacey Barahona (’20) had multiple advantages handed to her in regard to her future and had the support of her family and Christian faith to lean in to.

Now a missionary in Honduras who has served children in orphanages and foster care for six years, Barahona and her husband, Luis, a local Honduran, work to provide those opportunities for teens who were not given the same upbringing.

Barahona studied developmental psychology through Liberty University Online Programs while in the mission field over the past five years. She recently earned her degree and is directly applying her education and training to her ministry abroad.

As a high schooler in Ohio, Barahona prayed for God to lead her where she needed to go to best serve Him.

“I felt inspired by the encouragement that Paul gives Timothy to not let anybody look down on you because you are young,” Barahona said. “I really wanted to try and let God lead me to use the skills and experience I already had with ministry to serve Him.”

After graduation from high school and a gap year spent alongside more experienced missionaries in Honduras, Thailand, and South Africa, Barahona was led to Honduras to work with an organization that supports children living in orphanages and extreme poverty by coming alongside the preexisting work of children’s homes and provide additional programs. This organization works with roughly 500 children, and Barahona directly serves 50-75 teens.

Kacey and Luis at a youth night with students.

“We do youth groups, workshops, and clubs for areas they’re interested in, and also create opportunities for them to find careers when they leave the home,” she said. “We work really hard to give them all the connections within their children’s home because a lot of times the homes aren’t equipped to help the kids when they get out, necessarily.”

Three years ago, she and her husband held a discipleship night at a children’s home for 40 teenagers. It was through these conversations that she first realized the struggles of 18-year-olds who “age out” of children’s homes.

“For a lot of these teenagers, they see 18 as a dreaded moment of their life because it’s when they age out of the system and they lose a lot of the support they have,” Barahona explained. “A lot of them haven’t graduated high school, they have no job experience, and many haven’t seen what it’s like in a household that keeps a budget, goes to the grocery store, and so on. They have a desire to live responsibly and succeed in life, but they have none of the tools.”

After turning 18 and leaving the homes, many of the teens are left to live in neighborhoods that are high in gang activity. Barahona recalled a night when one of the teens who had only been living away from the home for a few weeks suddenly found his life threatened when he was falsely identified on the street as a rival gang member.

The baptism of a young man from the Barahonas’ ministry in Honduras

“He told us what happened that night; he was genuinely scared, and at that moment we realized we were the most consistent figures in his life, and we had to ask ourselves, ‘What is our role and what does love do in this moment?’” she said. “We decided we had to offer him to stay with us until we could figure out something better, and that’s how God opened the door for starting a transition project.”

They soon developed a place where 18-year-olds can transition into their new independent lives and gain the skills needed to succeed in adulthood. It has now brought six males and one female in, and Barahona prays that it can continue to grow.

“I can’t imagine being 18 and knowing ‘I have to leave this place that’s been home forever, but I don’t have anyone to call, where to get a job, or where I’m going to eat and sleep,’” Barahona said. “When I realized that so many of the teenagers that we knew and loved were facing that, my husband and I knew that we needed to make sure they knew that we are people they can call; everyone deserves to have that person in their life.”

Four of the young men from the ministry with one of its supporters (second from left) and Barahona (second from right)

While serving in Honduras, Barahona was able to continue her education through Liberty, with flexible online courses that allowed her to fulfill assignments that fit her full-time ministry schedule.

“When I started, I felt like I was stepping into the unknown, but to have the degree finished five years later, I look back at the support from my professors and the way they pushed me to do well,” Barahona said. “I had so many opportunities to apply what I was learning, and my professors were also able to offer insights into my work as it happened.”

Even when the electricity would go out in the middle of an exam or she had to tend to pressing needs of the teens she served, Barahona said her professors met her issues with grace and understanding.

She added that as she pursued her degree, the teens were able to learn from her example.   As they watched her working and studying, they saw that success comes with dedication and sacrifice.

“I talked to them about my (online education) experience and invited them into the process, including the times when it was hard to sacrifice time, and I think that was a connecting point when we talked about the sacrifices and rewards of it,” she said. “I think it’s encouraged them to work hard in high school and consider what they might want to study when they graduate, and since they were a part of my process, they might feel more willing to explore it for themselves.”

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