Presbyterian Day in Trinidad

A letter from Tim and Gloria Wheeler serving in Honduras

September 2015

Dear Friends,

Nearing the end of our mission assignment in Honduras, we are mindful of many reflections during this year of transition.

We have a deep sense of gratitude for having been given the opportunity to serve in the way we have over many years.  What better way to put into action our beliefs and theological understandings than to serve as mission personal under World Mission, and in this way serve others!  We have been able to touch and see Christ and a new world unfolding around us in the lives of people and in communities. At the same time we have been challenged by the enormity of the tasks but encouraged and nurtured by the people around us. Gloria and I have felt a special tug from the downtrodden, the lonely and excluded, those who have had no reason to hope for a better future or a tangible way of achieving it until they have been touched by what God wants for us all, a practical and direct way of working in community, based on sharing that which we have to achieve a better human existence both physically and spiritually.

Berta and Johnny built their own home as project participants

Over recent weeks and now months we have heard the explications of people’s perspectives on their experiences in bringing into reality a new way of being. We have heard the joy in their expressions and seen it on their faces.

Berta and Johnny’s faces lit up just as brightly as the new solar lighting in their house when the solar lighting project became a reality, bringing historic change to them and others in the community in late June.  In a remote village with no hope of ever getting electricity from the national grid, the people have lived in darkness with candles and kerosene lamps their whole lives. Johnny earns $5 a day as a farmworker and Berta $1 a day filling firecracker packs with powder on consignment. Solar Under the Sun, a church-based organization centered in Arkansas, has been exploring possibilities in Honduras and decided to partner with us on an individual pilot project for eight homes in Las Glorias, Copan.  Households will pay $2.50 per month, the amount they used to spend on candles and kerosene, to their community fund.  This fee will cover project maintenance, ensuring sustainability.

Housing: before and after

A big change for the women in Las Lagunas has been the eco-cooking stoves; no longer will they cook at ground level with smoke filling their lungs and soot covering their pots and food. By working together they once again are showing how a house-building project, in which mission teams participated, became a transformational process for 25 families, definitely changing the course of their lives. Azucena, the women’s community and project coordinator, continues to grow into her role as a young leader as she works toward obtaining support for the sewage, water and electricity for the housing project.

The community of Chonco, which built 20 houses as one of the first community-led housing projects, decided to allow eight young people to build homes in the same way their parents had previously, by working together in small groups. Their parents, incredibly, put off their own project of plastering their houses so that the funds could be used by the young people.  They also mentored them in house building and community organization so that the project would be a success.

Community-led housing reaches 400 families over 15 years

We have had many goodbye parties leading up to finishing our time of service.  In Trinidad, Copan, six villages and 400 people came together for a celebration of so many joint achievements.  The city council named July 16 to be “Presbyterian Day in Trinidad” in recognition of the partnership developed over an eight-year span with the local municipal government, community groups, short-term Presbyterian mission teams, and World Mission co-workers who shared their efforts and their lives to improve living conditions in this little part of the world and to transform relationships among people. During this span of time special things took place in Trinidad, Copan, because people wanted them to and found the way by working in partnership.

In August the Boys’ Home “El Diamante,” Fundacion Simiente, and Heifer Honduras all gave us send offs.  We plan on sharing some reflections on this in our next letter.

Having said all of this, we need to communicate an important message from World Mission in regard to transitions taking place in Honduras:

The Presbyterian Church of Honduras has requested a Presbyterian World Mission mission co-worker to help them organize training opportunities and increase access to culturally appropriate educational resources.  Honduran Presbyterian leaders would also like for the mission co-worker to help organize its ministries and facilitate partnerships between Honduran and U.S. Presbyterians.  The mission co-worker would also serve as a resource for the PC(USA)’s Honduras Mission Network, a group that promotes relationship building and information sharing among people directly involved in mission in Honduras.

Without the prayer and financial support of Presbyterian congregations and individuals like you, this urgently needed position cannot be filled.

We have greatly appreciated your generous support and prayers for so many years.  We ask for your prayers and financial commitment to this ministry to continue until our end of service through June of 2016. After this time, would you consider joining in prayer and generous support for this new ministry position in Honduras? We will share details as we learn more in the coming months.

Yours faithfully,

Tim and Gloria
Apartado 15027, Colonia Kennedy
Tegucigalpa, Honduras

The 2015 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 68
Read more about Tim and Gloria Wheeler’s ministry