A letter from Tim and Gloria Wheeler in Honduras
June 2011
Dear Friends,
Gloria hosting a mission team.
Before sharing about our mission activities we would like to share more about us. Gloria and I have been serving in Gloria’s country of Honduras since 1990. Before that I worked with Heifer International, building up the program in Honduras, and Gloria was a public employee in the Ministry of Economics. Our daughters were all born in Honduras and went to a bilingual school through high school. Today all three are pursuing careers in the United States, combining study with work as they continue in their chosen fields of study. We also have raised two more girls, both of whom are teachers, one as a professor in the United States and the other as a high school science teacher in Honduras.
Gloria and I will be celebrating 33 years of marriage this coming week. The sensation of time passing encourages us to concentrate on the present, on where we are and what we are doing as a unique opportunity that we have been given. We also have a feeling that things always are changing in one sense, but in another sense many things remain the same and it is our perception of them that changes. In any event, we have high motivation to respond to community needs around us in a responsible way, using the appreciative inquiry approach of seeing what is going well and what can be improved upon. In the process we are always trying to build people up with skills, self-esteem, and spiritual wholeness. We are doing this by hosting mission teams that serve in communities along with educating study tours of visitors and serving in the role of advisor to programs and people in Heifer programs in the region.
Armando working on his house.
We have written about the community of Cerro Azul previously. Now I would like to relate a personal story of a member of a church in Tegucigalpa. Many days can be a mixture of emotions and feelings about what we are involved in, our highs and our lows. I was reminded of this mixture of emotions just the other day when a youth mission team was visiting and working in a pretty rough neighborhood helping to build the house of Armando, who is a member of the local congregation.
We visited his present dwelling where he lives with his mother, sister and niece; a one-room structure made of material scraps in a public area. The group members peered in and saw only one bed and asked where everyone sleeps. Unfortunately, this is the reality for some people around Tegucigalpa; the poorest 20 percent of the poor people live in this way. Luckily, Armando belongs to the church and a mission committee has been formed and is trying to assist those who most need it. The sharp contrast between that dwelling and the new house that he is building with the assistance of mission team support is vivid as is part of the story that we would like to communicate. One day as he gazed over the foundation and the beginning of the walls going up he exclaimed to Gloria: “This is a lot of house for me—all of our belongings will fit in one of these rooms. I never imagined that one day I would have my own house and that it would be so nice.” Surely Armando is feeling the hand of God over him, guiding him and protecting him, and the warmth of the Spirit as he brings about the transformation of a new reality for himself and his family.
Armando with his mother.
As the mission team youth hauled materials to the site, sliding in mud and with sweat running down their faces, they were met with the hollow stares of neighborhood youth, young people with no jobs or high school education, no real hope or plan for the future. Some are members of gangs who consider the neighborhood to be their territory. This is the reality of the world where we are located; sharp contrasts, big challenges, and few answers coming from the public sector. That is why it is very important that the human solidarity and effort to change the reality of one person at a time as part of God’s plan is so important. I was reminded that this mixture of contrasting feelings is the way that many days are and the reality that many of us are in; but then again it is a sharp reminder that this is why we are here, to be in a place where it isn’t that easy to be, where there is suffering and hardship around us, to bring some hope in some way in a wanting and broken world. “…let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth” (1 John: 3:18).
At the end of the day, the mission leader commented to me that she thought the youth had learned a lot that day; they had learned about the contrasts that we have in the real world and that everything is not perfect. They had seen wonderful hope in the eyes of Armando and the emptiness of the looks from some Honduran youth. This is the real world and this is why we are here.
Tim talking to visiting group
Thank you for your prayers and support for us and for others around the world. If you are moved to help support us in mission, our salary support number is E200423 and a donation can be sent with the account number in the memo line to: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Box 643700, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700, or you can give online (see below). As a church you can support in this way: Write a check to: The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Church Remittances Processing, P.O. Box 643678, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3678, giving the DMS number for Tim and Gloria Wheeler: D507280.
Faithfully,
Tim and Gloria Wheeler
Apartado 15027
Colonia Kennedy
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
The 2011 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 288
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