Honduras is Numero Uno

 This month’s big news is that Honduras came in number one in two separate categories, but unfortunately not in areas to be happy about.

The rather shocking story was all over our news broadcasting that an international study found Honduras has the highest rate of homicides in the world.¹

This was followed a week later with a report that Honduras has once again regained it’s position as being the poorest country in Central American (a position that over the years has been swapped back and forth between Honduras and Nicaragua).

Along with these headlines were the continuous daily reports of corruption, drugs, natural disaster and many more problems that plague the daily life of those living in Honduras. 

These drastic findings in Honduras may cause you to wonder is it wise for us to be here, or what could have ever lead us to go, or maybe if you were in our place you would be deciding it’s time to pull the plug and head back to the states.  These are rather valid points and so we would like to address them and share some of our perspective.

Since our first involvement with missions in Honduras back in 1996 we have known about the high and growing rate of crime.  The gang activity in the two principal cities, Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, is very strong and has only been increasing over the years.  Gang activity is related to the drug trafficking which is primarily to the states.  Both of these, gangs and drug trafficking, with the addition of a high poverty level, I believe, all play into the surreal homicide rate.  The report was from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s Global Study on Homicide and they found that Honduras had a rate of 82 homicides for every 100,000 persons.¹

As a comparison, Belize has a rate of 41.7, Guatemala is 41.1, while Mexico is only 18.1.  To bring it back home, the United States had a rate of 5, Canada was 1.8, and the UK a low 1.2.  So, the rate in Honduras is quite significant.

Do we see this in our daily lives?  Yes, we see it in many ways.  That every bank, grocery store, gas station and little convenience store has an armed guard standing by or at the door.  On our way to church one Sunday this month we saw several police cars and a crew of reporters at one of the many piles of trash along the side of the road.  As we came closer we realized there was a body that had been, quite literally, dumped there on the trash during the night.  It was quite unsettling and significantly colored the day. 

Does it effect the way we live?  Well, yes and no.  In many ways it does not impact our day-to-day routine.  We live our lives, meet with people, walk the streets, drive around, and we are not afraid and do not see public violence.  At the same time, we are cautious.  We purpose to not return home after dark (about 5:30 pm), and we try to be aware of who is around us and what is going on at all times.

The bottom line for us, regarding these new statistics for Honduras, is that they are real reflections of a very spiritually dark country.  This does not make us want to pack up and go home, but rather, this is the very reason we came.

These recent news broadcasts reveal how desperately the people of Honduras need the truth of the gospel.  Not the health and wealth gospel, but rather, the simple truth that God loves them, right now, and right where they are.  That they have a problem because they have sinned and they live trapped in their sin.  That God sent His Son (Jn 3:16) to die for them so that they might be set free to have life and have it abundantly (Jn 10:10).  JESUS IS THAT LIFE (Jn 1:4 & 14:6).  Not the guarantee of more money, not the pursuit of more stuff and not a promise that life will simply turn all smiles if you just accept Jesus.  No, Jesus is THE LIFE, it is He that they can have abundantly, and that will change their whole life even if their surroundings stay the same.

We don’t think of leaving Honduras because, after prayer, counsel, and many years of short term missions here, we truly feel the Lord has called us here.  We know that the Lord is able to keep us from all harm (Dan 3:17-18).  That does not mean we feel that the Lord will protect us from all harm.  Rather, it means that we are confident that we are following His path for us and that in anything that happens, ANYTHING, we can rejoice and be glad in (Mt 5:12), because we are walking in what the Lord has laid out beforehand for us to do (Eph 2:10).  This is the best place any of us can be as Christians.  Whether you are on the mission field, or home in the states, the safest place to be is always where the Father leads.

¹ http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/statistics/crime/global-study-on-homicide-2011.html  

Door Number One, Two or Three

We went to San Pedro de Tutule house hunting the second time in as many weeks to look at some houses to rent. Norma came with us and brought her cousin from Tegucigalpa to have a 'cousin's visit' with the third cousin, Faustina, in Tutule.

In Tutule there are currently only three houses as potential rentals making it a choice between door number one, door number two or door number three. Reminds me of “The Price is Right.”

House number one is normally rented out to male students attending the local training institute and there are currently nine students living there. The house has three bedrooms and two bathrooms (one of which actually works).  The kitchen has no stove or refrigerator (common in Honduras for the renter to have to provide) and the sink faucet is a spigot on very flimsy plastic piping that comes through a hole in the wall. The window panes are so badly eaten by termites that whole sections of the windows are falling out and currently held in by tape. Every window has at least one pane missing. The floors are mostly cement and the walls have missed the last several cycles of cleaning and painting. Outside, there are sections of the covering for the eves are missing and open for anything to fly or crawl in. So, we have to say “no” to this house.

House number two is a big older house right around the corner from the center of town. It's nearly impossible to describe but to simple enough to say it is older and in much need of work. So, it is also a “no” for house number two.

House number three has the most potential. It is actually an almost finished house and so it's new. It has a nice little floor plan and so really looks like it would be a sweet little house. Unfortunately, the neighbor is a cantina, and a good size one at that, and everyone has advised us, “DO NOT RENT next to a cantina.” Men get drunk, there are the occasional fights in the streets and they indiscriminately shoot their guns. So, house number three is also a “no” even though we really do like the house but it's in a bad location.

So, Thursday after a day of driving and house hunting, Norma and her cousin were spending the night at Faustina's house, and we were going to treat ourselves to the same hotel we had stayed at the week before in Marcala, which is about in 45 minutes away. The hotel is a treat simply because it's uber clean, the bed is very nice, there's plentiful hot water for showering, and the hotel restaurant is ok for homey cooking. All this for about $30 per night.

Well we had a surprise and disappointment because the hotel was full. They gave us a recommendation for another hotel in town. That hotel turned out to be a little cheaper but the savings just weren't worth it. The floor was uber ucky so we had to slip into our shoes getting out of bed. It was supposed to have hot water but that turned out to be somewhat intermittent. No restaurant. And, worst of all, the internet was not strong. So, we had disappointments from house hunting followed by a kind of gross hotel experience.

We woke up in the morning in a different mindset recognizing that a 'closed door' from the Lord was as good as an open door. We had to examine our options.

1. We could continue indefinitely at Norma's house but this leaves us far from Tutule.
2. We can move in with our friends and fellow missionaries the Reyes family who are serving about an hour from Tutule. That would put us closer but in a house that lacks electricity.
3. We could try to find housing in La Paz or Marcala as they are bigger population centers, but not BIG by any means, would probably have more housing options and both are closer to Tutule than the Reyes family.
4. We can assess is the Lord directly us to start in an area that is not Tutule.
   
   
   Where we are today, Saturday, November 5^th, is the thought of combining options. We plan to stay with the Reyes family for a period while we seek out housing options in La Paz and Marcala, and cry out to the Lord for His leading!