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A letter from Tim and Gloria Wheeler serving in Honduras

March 2015 - The Passion of Christ, Easter

Dear Friends,

Sawdust rugs in Copan Ruins depict the passion of Christ at Easter time

 

Scene from the life of Jesus depicted at Easter time

 

Doña Cruz supports herself by collecting plastic containers and selling them

 

Doña Cruz stands in front of her new house with Gloria and addresses a mission team

 

Doña Cruz as she tells her story of rising up again and again

 

A station of the cross in Copan, Honduras, during Easter week

 

Christ being carried back from Calvary to the church, Easter Sunday in Copan, Honduras

Her smile belied all of the pain that she held in as she explained her hope for the future and of a better life for her family.  She was participating in the new housing project in Las Lagunas, Copan, which many PC(USA) mission teams have been accompanying. Her family was one of 27 families who had come together to qualify for the new project in which they would all get a housing lot if they were willing to work on building their own homes.

Suddenly her smile was lost as her face conveyed some of the pain and difficulties that she had suffered over many years. Doña Cruz told us that she had lived on roadside right-of-ways, under bridges, vacant smidges of land, and a number of places with her family. Time and again she would receive a notification from the city government that she could not inhabit the place that she called home with her 11 children and husband.  She would have to pack her array of pots and pans, mattresses, and clothes and set out to another location.  Her family would put up another little dwelling made of sticks, poles, plastic and mud that they would call home.  The pain that she felt for her children is hard to fathom—how can we?  What we can fathom is the huge change taking place for Doña Cruz and her family as expressed in the changes in her face.

Holy Week just passed. The passion of Christ is remembered on his road to Golgotha. The acting out of this journey as a Catholic tradition reminds us of those who may be suffering around us. This helps us to reflect on the life of those who suffer in our midst on a journey of ongoing pain.  The passion of Christ helps us to remember that pain has a face, and that suffering is seen in their spilled blood. As people go on this journey they are asking for accompaniment and compassion to lessen the suffering.  They need love and participation from others who can lessen the suffering and help start to break down the structures that may oppress them.

During all of these years we have found people within the churches that have accompanied us who have been with us and with the people in Honduras.  They have shown the passion of Christ and they have been like Simon of Cyrene, who helped Christ bear the cross, represented at the Fifth Station of the Cross. Mission support has been the form of accompaniment, of being with Christ on the journey by providing relief, comfort and assistance to those in most need.  Great achievements have been accomplished in many places, and we are thankful for this in all of our years of service of coordinating mission teams, carrying out community projects with their presence, and teaching values-based methodologies to partner staff and communities.

Everyone in these churches from the U.S. who have come to partner with us may have already planned the work that they will carry out and what they will do.  Maybe they think their journey has ended and it is time to rest, but perhaps they will be asked to take on a new cross and a new challenge may come up along the way.  Taking on this new cross might be very unexpected but also may be what they are called to do. At the same time, there is a possibility that this new activity may bring them great joy and fulfillment.

Christ crucified tells us that there is hope for all of us, we are all invited to a new life. The image of Jesus with outstretched arms is for us all.   This image has been central in the concept of our approach for many years, an approach that has been open to all those who are in need, who are suffering and falling down without hope.  We have seen people rise again and again, like Doña Cruz.  Perhaps her great happiness now with her new home nearly ready to inhabit is the counterweight of the great pain she has felt so many other times.  Her life has changed, and no one will ever come with an evacuation notice again. People coming to Honduras in mission have also changed their lives by reaching out and seeing those around them like Simon of Cyrene. 

Thank you for being on this journey with us. We ask for your continued support for us this year and for World Mission as the stories of justice and personal peace, as we have told in this story, are carried out in different ways across the world. We are told in Matthew 9:35-38: “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

There is new hope and new opportunities, but the workers are few.  The journey has not ended but may have just begun. Thank you for your friendship and support. Presbyterian World Mission has recently informed us that financial goals for sending and supporting mission co-workers for 2014 were not met, and if the trend continues next year five mission co-workers may have to end their service early, and the following year up to 40 may need to return home early.

If you are inclined to continue financial support for us or to support us for the first time, we are thankful and honored.  We are so grateful for your support.

Faithfully,

Tim and Gloria Wheeler
Apartado 15027, Colonia Kennedy
Tegucigalpa, Honduras

The 2015 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 68
Read more about Tim and Gloria Wheeler's ministry

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