The Honduras Project A Mission among the people of honduras

The Honduras Project

It has been a very busy month here in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. We have had groups from the United States here for most of the past 30 days. We have also seen the arrival of the heat that is typical for this time of year. The temperature is in the mid-90’s most days and it is a “heavy” heat. The haze that surrounds the city is a combination of the heat and smoke from the wildfires that burn indiscriminately throughout the area. It is so thick some days that planes are unable to land and they are rerouted to San Pedro Sula.

I want to share with all of you the story of a young man we have known for nearly 7 years, Carlos. We first met Carlos and his family in a community called Union y Fuerza while our group was working there during our two week trip. Carlos lived with his mother Daisy, and two brothers, Eduardo and Saul, in a shack made of tin and wood that they had been able to collect over the years. There is no father in their life and their mother has borne the burden of bringing the boys up by herself in very difficult conditions.

It was my fourth year coming on a trip here and my responsibility at that time was to coordinate the various activities the group was involved in on a given day and to make sure everyone had whatever resources and supplies they needed. I had a rental truck and I remember the first day in the community meeting this 11-year-old boy, Carlos. He virtually became attached to me and that truck. He would help me with whatever I was doing whether it was finding a place to buy wood, tin, nails, cement, sand, and gravel, or moving tools from worksite to worksite, or helping individual leaders problem solve, or whatever. He became my right-hand-man, my translator (me with little spanish, him with little english so I’m sure it was quite entertaining!), my truth-detector, and my personal body guard. I came to rely on him for quite a bit.

Over the course of the next couple of years, the situation in Carlos’ community deteriorated quite rapidly. Gang activity increased and it became very dangerous. So much so, that we ceased taking our groups in there to work. I am grateful that there have been others that continue to work among the people there, but we did not feel confident enough to bring our TORCH groups there. Daisy, Carlos’ mother, actually would lock her children in the house all day while she was at work. She feared for their safety constantly. All the families there did. Carlos and his family also lost their home to a fire and was facing the prospect of trying to rebuild.

An opportunity to move the family out of there arose when Daisy was given a job working at a new children’s home in Santa Ana, 25 kilometers out of the city. Carlos and his family moved into a small neighborhood of cement block duplexes built with donations from an LA based radio show host wanting to provide better housing for those living in the poorer, gang-filled communities. Unfortunately, over the next couple years, that small neighborhood became known as the “Slums of Santa Ana”. As the duplexes were filled with families from tough communities, the neighborhood itself became a tough community.

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Honduras is among the poorest in Western Hemisphere:

• per capita income of only $1,030

• 64% poverty rate

• infant mortality rate of 34 per 1000

• chronic malnutrition rate of 33%in children under 5

• average adult education level of 5.3 years

• HIV/AIDS infection rate of 1.8% of adults

• rapid deterioration of water and forest resources

Sources: 2004 World Bank estimates, US Agency for International Development

"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.” James 2:14-18

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