A letter from Tim Wheeler in Honduras
Noveber 2011
Dear Friends,
Mayor Jesus Orlando Jimenez with Tim at a Living Waters for the World water purification site Installed in his municipal township.
We wake up every day to new happenings. Sometimes they are a surprise, things that we had no idea would happen. Other times they are a continuation of events that we have been working on in carrying out activities as we had hoped for and planned. So are the pages and chapters of our lives, some planned and built up over time, others with an unexpected twist completely out of our control. Today Gloria and I awoke to the latter; a phone call told us that our friend, the mayor of Trinidad, Copan, had been in an accident driving back to Trinidad from Tegucigalpa in the early morning. Jesus Orlando Jimenez was re-elected by what I like to say was a landslide two years ago. People showed their appreciation for all that he had done for the municipality during the previous four years, especially the way he reached out to poor people. The projects we have coordinated with him in Copantle and Cerro Azul are examples of this. But Orlando has become more than just a public figure with whom we are able to coordinate activities; he has become a friend because of the personal and human side to his relations with us and the mission teams that come in our programs.
We heard from another phone call, one with Orlando himself, that he was being driven in an ambulance; we found it incredible that he could take a phone call. He was on his way to San Pedro Sula for exams. We felt relieved since he answered his phone. Two hours later we got word that he had fractured a vertebrae in the back of his neck; probably a support collar will help for his recovery, which looked better as the morning progressed. Still, the pain and sorrow were evident in a conversation with his wife, profesora Berta, now at his bedside,. Such events are not taken lightly, but we can be thankful for a lesser bad and hope for a full recovery. We mention all of this because we have written a lot about Cerro Azul, Trinidad, and some of you know the mayor. He should make a full recovery.
What I was going to write about in this letter was Rosa Margarita Caballero, pictured here as she was getting an eye exam given by a medical brigade from Yorkminster Presbyterian Church, which was coordinating outpatient medical and eye exams in several villages in Trinidad with our friend the mayor during the week. Doña Rosa Margarita is 70 years old and has an agreeable, outgoing personality. At the same time there is a graciousness shining in her face, skin weathered from working outside most of her life. I was intrigued by this figure of strength and dignity but with obvious hardship in life’s journey. From interviewing her I found out that she works in the coffee farms in the area picking beans for Lp. 30 per can (25 lbs.), usually 2.5 cans a day, which comes to $4.00. This she reported with a kind of pride since she considered it was good that she supported herself and was not dependent on any of her three children. She also told me that she had raised four grandchildren and had five great-grandchildren. When coffee was not in season she worked for nine days and cleaned coffee plants on 1.5 manzanas (2.5 acres) and earned $24 for the whole job. Although she didn’t complain about her activities and told them with a certain amount of pride, I had the feeling that she just stated the facts—that was the way they are and the way her life is.
Rosa Margarita Caballero, being fitted for reading glasses by Dr. Jeanne Brooks.
In their book When Helping Hurts Corbett and Fikkert talk about material poverty alleviation, broken systems and broken individuals in the majority world. They talk about the limitation of centering on only material poverty without considering the spiritual aspects and brokenness that may or may not be present in any society or situation. They talk about the degree of individualism in different societies with less developed traditional people having stronger ties to community and group. People often live out poverty without really knowing the causes, or without understanding a life without poverty. What they know are the pangs of hunger, maybe a leaky roof, or the inherent limitations to resolving real-life situations, let alone new opportunities for themselves or their children. The spiritual strength that may be present is often a surprise to outsiders but is a strong reminder of the variations of poverty and that material poverty does not automatically equate spiritual poverty.
1 Corinthians 12:7 reminds us, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good,” so the Spirit comes to us and is manifested in different ways.
We wondered what it would be like to be 70 and somewhat alone, picking coffee for a subsistence level of living, an aching back and tired arms tempered by emerald green beautiful mountains—poor in one sense and rich in another.
Please lift up in your prayers Doña Rosa Margarita and so many in similar situations who find a spiritual strength while enduring material poverty and get up every day to earn their daily sustenance. Please pray for our friend Jesus Orlando in recovering from his accident, providing him spiritual strength in the days ahead.
Faithfully,
Tim and Gloria
Apartado 15027
Colonia Kennedy
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
The 2011 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 288
The 2012 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 10
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