A letter from Tim and Gloria Wheeler serving in Honduras
February 2015 - Building a Better Future
Theme: Hope in a better future that raises up Human Dignity
Dear Friends,
Previously we wrote about ending our mission assignment at the end of 2015. Yes, this is certainly a different type of year for us with a different feeling. Being in transition, we find it hard to plan for the long term. We savor certain moments of fulfillment with people we are called to be with and we know, too, that we will never completely leave Honduras. Nevertheless, a little girl named Sofia in a small village raised our spirits as we began a year of transitions.
I turned today to reflection 8 in the devotional guide that Gloria prepared for the recent Voices on the Border study trip that looked into the situation of immigrants coming from Central America to the Mexico-U.S. border. The devotion raises questions that speak to us all wherever we are.
“Our world is convulsioned due to struggles, wars, confrontations of all types, including drug traffic. Daily we see children walking the streets looking for something to eat, beaten women, abandoned and violated by the indifference of society. The majority of these people opt to immigrate in search of a better future. On the other hand, in our country there are a great number of indigenous people and poor people. Some have had their land usurped and others have been denied the opportunity to land ownership.”
This paragraph could speak to us in many different places; it certainly relates to us in Honduras as do the following questions.
How can we recreate hope in such an adverse world?
How do we maintain (our) faith when everyone talks to us about death?
How can we raise up human dignity in a world where the majority lacks the minimum to subsist with dignity?
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A housing project was started in Sofia's village in January
When I saw her I felt sorry for her, barefoot and unkempt. It was a cold and wet day in January. We were just starting a housing project in the village with North Americans accompanying the organized village groups in working together on the first steps of the project. The mud made it difficult for most to move around. The ones with the least trouble seemed to be some little kids who actually were laughing as they slid around in a playful way carrying stones and water to the site to help pour the foundation of the house that I found out would belong to a single mother. Yes, there we were trying to do good in the world carrying forth our principles of mission as we understood them. Yet the children seemed to have a different take on the situation, especially this little girl with long dark hair and a mischief look as she carried forth. She was enjoying every moment. Her joy definitely wouldn’t be related to a theological mission concept of helping those who need it. No, it was much more basic and less abstract than that. She was building her own better future. She told me of her plans: she was to start kindergarten in a few days; she would have a new house.
I went over to her and asked whose house this would be. She answered without hesitation, “It is my house.” She blurted it out. You could see she was really happy. Yes, her mother, the single Mom, was there working too and it would be Sofia’s house.
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Sofia gets a school uniform to start kindergarten
I thought about the questions posed in the devotional about recreating hope, maintaining faith and raising up human dignity. Suddenly the questions took on a different twist for me. It was less about going out in the world and doing things for other people so that they would be raised up with faith and human dignity in some abstract way. It was much more about simply being present and accompanying those who are trying to do these things and looking for those opportunities right around us. Little Sofia taught us about the simple joy of participating in direct action in response to the question.
Of course it is more complicated than that. Gloria and I have the relationships—a mission program to partner with a local government, identify the village where we will carry out the project, assist in organizing the people, and facilitate the purchase of materials to carry it out. The mission group from the Phoenix, Arizona, has come every year as part of a mission focus in the world, fully supported by their congregation to do so and actively plan, raise funds and interpret their mission focus throughout the year. They deliberately chose to come in mission in this type of program. But, nevertheless, little Sofia taught us all something too. It is necessary to just start. We can contribute to a better world right where we are, today. Let us start with our good intentions where we are; the larger theological questions of breadth and depth will be answered as we go. David LaMotte talks about this in his book Worldchanging 101. He talks about little steps that are premeditated and that become visible one day when we see change taking place right before our eyes. Those are the moments that we savor and celebrate.
Thank you for sharing and supporting our mission focus through many years, for lifting up people like Sofia and for doing justice in the world where you are. If you are so called, please do continue to support us this year with financial gifts and with prayers and encouragement for those who most need it. We greatly appreciate your presence with us on our mission journey this year as we continue to write and reflect about it.
Yours faithfully,
Tim and Gloria
Apartado 15027, Colonia Kennedy
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
The 2015 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 68
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