A letter from Tim Wheeler in Honduras
February 2013
Dear Friends,
Gloria and I returned to Honduras after spending the last four months of 2012 in the U.S. telling our story at different churches and events. During the months there we were able to see many friends and family. The enthusiasm would often bubble over as we talked about our mission activities and told stories about people who are working with others to improve their lives in the midst of what in many ways is a difficult situation. We also texted people in Honduras during our States-side time and called by Skype once in a while preparing activities for the coming year and simply making contact with people in villages and in the projects that are being carried out.
Sometimes during our travels the enthusiasm of people in churches that we visited got to be so great that we felt we better hurry up and get back to Honduras—enough talk, now action.
Gloria Wheeler, PCUSA Peacemaker
We talk about processes a lot in our mission focus. The ongoing processes were moving along as the old year turned into a new one. Our first mission team arrived on Jan 3 and at this writing we have received seven teams that have come to accompany and be part of the processes taking place by working on housing along with the people of the San Antonio Neighborhood in Trinidad, Copan; putting in Living Water of the World safe water systems in the villages of Cerro Azul, Quebraditas and La Cumbre; working with the people of Cerro Azul to build a kindergarten; and starting a new 20-house project in the indigenous village of Santa Cruz, Copan Ruins.
The enthusiasm of all of the people in these places has been impressive. Not only are they coping with subsistence wage earning, they are also working on community projects to improve the quality of life for themselves and their neighbors. When you think about this balancing act you appreciate more the significant sacrifices people make by giving their time while losing days from earning a wage of $4-$5. This they do for the good of their children and neighbors.
In Matthew 22:37, 39 “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.… Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”
Where do we see love? I saw love at the new safe water sites. It gives a chance of a parasite-free life, a human right to children, who then have a better chance to grow up with a greater degree of health.
When I looked at the kindergarten being built I saw love, and I gave thanks to the villagers who have prioritized education for their children even though only 2 people out of 15 families can read and write.
I saw love at the churches we visited and in the brothers and sisters who come as mission teams to put into action their faith and believe that things can be better in this world.
I see love at the San Antonio housing project that has continued working on housing during our four-month hiatus and showed a degree of human solidarity among the 45 families organized in the project that had not been discovered previously in all of their years of living in close proximity. It told me that the housing project, although very important in improving the living conditions of the participants, was a way of moving beyond in a new way of being and doing among people. Yes, the process is important in being able to achieve this. Organized into small groups, people rotate working on each other’s houses until all are finished about the same time. The elderly and single mothers are prioritized.
I see love when people learn new skills both in terms of construction and the human skills of working together. Now they are thinking of the future and what they can undertake when the houses are finished.
I see love in Gloria, love for the people she is called to serve…always with encouragement telling them, “Yes, things can be different.”
When Gloria received special recognition this past year in a church in Michigan as a PC(USA) Peacemaker she said the following:
“I want to give thanks to God and to you for accepting the challenge of going into the world and taking the good news to those who are most needy. As you know we are dedicated to work with the forgotten and poor of Honduras, (those) who want to take the opportunity to change their lives. One of my biggest joys is that you, too, have identified with this vision.”
Yours in Mission,
Tim and Gloria Wheeler
Apartado 15027, Colonia Kennedy
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
The 2013 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 20
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