Ready or not...

Here we come. After several months of running all over Honduras, we're finally settling down. At the beginning of the coming year, we'll be moving into Las Lomitas. This town is fairly accessible, only about 15 minutes off the pavement and within 30 minutes of Santa Cruz de Yojoa, a decent sized town. They do not have running water or electricity and focus on agriculture, primarily coffee and plantains. We're going with this community due to its level of need, their level of desire to improve, and its proximity to the office, where we can support the growth of the community development aspect of Heart to Honduras. The pastor there, Erick, is young, very active and has a lot of desire for his church to start improving his community. We feel like there is the beginning of a strong partnership in Las Lomitas, and we are very excited to start sharing life with them.

This process brought us down to the wire with one other community, Caliche. As mentioned previously, Caliche's level of need is extreme, but so is the accessibility. In order to fulfill our obligations here in the office and help forge connections with other development organizations here in Honduras, we needed some place more accessible. But, we are planning to spend one day a week in a Caliche, bringing in various experts and helping them start down the road to sustainable development. We have been working with them now for 3 months to bring clean water in, and the week of January 14, construction should start up in the mountains to bring water from a spring. We've also met with a road commission that has the potential to improve their access. Please be praying for the people there.

These houses are in Caliche. The photos were taken discretely, so they're a little rough.

Both of these communities have huge needs, and we know that we are not sufficient to meet or solve them, let alone without creating dependency. But, we know that this is what we must do. We feel that it's our responsibility to be an advocate for these people. Christ left a perfect life, layed down his power, to be a broken human in a dirty, fallen world. We know that we must follow his example in order make any lasting difference. We want to share life in the way Christ did. To cry, bleed, sweat, and live with the marginalized of the world. We have an obligation to stand up for the forgotten, oppressed, and suffering. How can we know their need if we don't truly know them. These people deserve to know that there is hope in this life and the next just as much as we do. One of our favorite passages is in Isaiah 58 because it shows the God we love so well. The God who is frustrated with hypocrisy and inaction, and yearns for us to show love in this world. The Israelites begin by complaining, and God answers them. Even if you're not the Bible-reading type, please just give this a read.

³ ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
   ‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
   and you have not noticed?’
   “Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
   and exploit all your workers.
⁴ Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
   and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
   and expect your voice to be heard on high.
⁵ Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
   only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
   and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
   a day acceptable to the LORD?
 ⁶ “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
   and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
   and break every yoke? ⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
   and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
   and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
   and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness^[a] will go before you,
   and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
⁹ Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
   you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
   “If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
   with the pointing finger and malicious talk, ¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
   and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
   and your night will become like the noonday.

We know that throughout history and up to this day, Christians have often maligned the name Christ, but we also know that He is a good God, despite the atrocities that fallen people have committed "for His sake." We are committed to making sure our lives reflect the kind of grace and kindness we have been shown by this God that loves without expectation. We recognize that it does not appear to make a lot of sense to leave good jobs, great families, and a content future. But, this apathy is our enemy and if we do not respond now, days will continue to pass with people living without hope.

This coming year, we hope to slowly walk this road with Las Lomitas and Caliche. Please pray for us to be patient, loving, and self-sacrificing; living in the example of our good God.