(Re)introduction - 5 Years (Section 1)

The blog has lay dormant now for some time as we have lived and worked in the US and traveled back and forth to Honduras over this past year. Sorry to those of you that actually read this (all three of you).  However groggy it might be, it is time to wake the blog back up!

We will soon be returning to Honduras, likely sometime in the first two weeks of April. Although we will once again miss our US family, we are very excited to return to our Honduran home and family. So much has happened over the past few months: new children, thousands of miles of travel, a new business, and countless other things.

As much as has happened over the past few months, so much more has happened over the past five years. Some of you know the tale well by now, others are new to our life story. Regardless, as we look at soon returning to Honduras, we thought that it might be productive for us to reflect over these past five years and think of what we have learned and experienced.

As a result, starting today and continuing every Friday for the next few weeks, we will be posting an additional installment of “5 Years” that examines our life up until this point. We hope that you are able to know us a little more through these reflections.

Section one starts right now...

(Re)introduction

10 years ago, Honduras was just another banana republic to me, one of those forgotten, floundering narco-nations between Mexico and the Panama Canal. In 2010, we made a brief visit to the country without any inkling that it was soon to become much more than just a placeholder on the map. It was to become Home.

Since 2011, we have there built a home and weathered tropical fevers, deluges, and heatwaves. In the tiny town of Las Lomitas, at our even tinier house, dogs, chickens, and goats have squished into the world, and many have gone on to that great farm in the sky (Bought a ticket on Vulture Airlines as the neighbors would say.) At this home our work became our life, and our life became our work. The principles and practices that guided our work also leaked inward, even as our beliefs flowed out. The process of community development is no more an overnight process than that of a newborn becoming a college professor. We knew when we started that this would be a long road to walk and have been encouraged to see positive signs begin to show within our short time in Honduras. These results have only been possible through the careful investment of time, love, and resources, and we hope and believe that the dividends will pay for many years to come.

Much of this investment has been made in Las Lomitas and its 500 inhabitants. Located on the top of a lush hill covered in coffee fields and forest, the town is accessed by a three-mile dirt road that climbs to 3000 feet in elevation. There we built our 500 square-foot block house on a small plot at the edge of the soccer field and slowly put together a small homestead complete with chickens, quails, dairy goats, banana trees, and vegetable garden. After three years of living without electricity, we rejoiced with our neighbors when a collective effort resulted in the extension of power lines into our town. Water comes only three hours/week, so we collect rainwater in an underground cistern which we hand pump into an elevated storage tank for our daily necessities.

Beyond Las Lomitas, we work with Heart to Honduras throughout the Yojoa region in approximately 20 villages to empower local leaders in unity and collaboration as they seek to improve their communities. We do not lay out a prescription for development to these communities, but instead walk alongside them as they determine their own priorities. In the same way, we do not provide all of the solutions and resources necessary for them to accomplish their goals but support them in understanding what local resources already exist and what local connections can be made – a process known as Asset-based Community Development (ABCD). We often work specifically with the local church leaders and patronatos (community councils) in an attempt to break down the wall that has all too often been built between them.

Click chart to expand.

Over the past five years, we have seen many of these communities break out of their former shells of highly-dependent organisms that sought all nourishment and resources necessary to their growth from outside entities. Prior to the HTH CD efforts in these towns, many community initiatives were identified by North Americans and funded 100% by international donors. Through time, very intentional interventions, and the hope of Christ, we are now seeing an average of ~40% of necessary resources be provided by groups within the local community and government.

This improvement has far exceeded our expectations. Our process has been far from perfect, and we have certainly learnt much on our way forward, but the results indicate to us the great potential for local growth that already exists in Honduras. As an organization, we are not creating capacity, just simply uncovering what has been lying dormant just beneath the surface. North American Christians are often surprised to find the evidence of an active faith in Christ in many far-flung places, evidence of our egocentrism – a scathing indictment of our pride. Christ’s power to redeem without us should not surprise us. In the same way, we should not be surprised to find great ability, resources, and resolve in a seemingly broken and impoverished people. We have all been created with great potential, and that capacity has been twisted and drained to varying degrees in each one of us. Let’s not fool ourselves with who the real hero is, and who is actually doing the saving. No matter how white and comely the horse may perceive itself, at the end of the day the thing is still just a dumb beast doing the bidding of its master.

The "5 Years" series will continue next Friday.