Friday, June 01, 2007

Mission Honduras what a team ... what an experience


Well I just returned from a two week mission trip in Honduras. Like every experience I've had in Central America (This is number 8) I was touched by the beauty of the people and the simplicity of their life style. Necessities like medicine and shoes and adequate shelter and portable water are often missing. The daily wage where we stayed was around $5.00 a day. YES 5.00 a day that's all. While the staples rice beans etc are very reasonable anything brought in is very costly and beyond the reach of most...

Why was I born here and why were they born there ? What is my responsibility toward them ? Why do we live in such affluence and they go without. We are the same in the eyes of God and in a world view they are definitely not the worst off.

It is so easy to get lost in our affluence to grow comfortable in our lifestyle and be oblivious to the needs of those who are poor, those who go without.

We have too much
They have too little
there has to be a place where we can meet in the middle .....

Of particular concern to me of late is the whole immigration policy in the US. It seems we desperately need people from Honduras and all of Central America to staff harvest our crops and staff our service industry. But we don't want to give them any kind of legal status or very much legal protection. That way we can escort them out when we don't need them anymore. Our current policy just creates this huge class of undocumented poor people who live in fear of being sent back to poverty. Is that fair ? Is that just ?

Of particular concern is the effect that this policy has on families in Central America. When a person is in our country illegally so that they can support their family they can't go home. They can't have regular contact with their families. In Comyagua (I'm not sure how to spell that) we went into an internet cafe. There was a family huddled around a computer looking at a grainy picture of their father and son. They speak to each other over the internet every week. I venture to say that it is the only contact they have had for years. This "self imposed" exile is a great burden but also a necessity. It is probably the only way he can support his family.

So much to think about and pray about.


Lord disturb my spirit
so that I may never grow comfortable
with things I don't need
when my brothers and sisters lack so much



I'll tryand put some pictures up a little later...


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