A letter from Mark And Ashley Wright in Honduras
Christmas, 2010
When we accepted the call to come live and work in Honduras, we had a specific group of people in mind with whom we would work: the Presbyterian Church of Honduras. The churches here are quite poor, and so we had in mind that we would always be surrounded by people of little means. But often “ministry” comes in unexpected ways.
One of the things we didn’t anticipate was the type of people our children would be going to school with. Because our children are intelligent and college-bound, we felt they would benefit from attending a school that could help them, when the time came, to be able to transition back to the United Sates as easily as possible. As it turns out, many of the people at the school where our children attend are quite wealthy. Because we spend a lot of time there, the other parents have become an unintended part of our ministry. We were unprepared for the reality of wealthy people in a developing nation and what ideas our culture exports around the world.
Perhaps in part because of media and advertising, to much of the world America means “success.” And for many Hondurans, both rich and poor, looking glamorous and displaying success is the way one proves his or her importance. There is a whole industry here of plastic surgery and aesthetic spas to make you look young and fit. This is not what we were expecting.
Holidays are especially revealing. At Halloween last year, we noticed that our kids were virtually the only kids in this school of 1,000 who had homemade costumes. Eliott, our middle son, using a cardboard box, dressed as an iPod, and we got many compliments. It was as if people had not even thought to make costumes because it was somehow “gauche,” or seemed poor. This year he dressed as a giant Dorito chip. But this year we noticed some homemade costumes at school, and even some quite incredible ones. We would like to think that maybe we had something to do with that. Maybe by showing that all Americans aren’t so money-conscious, we helped people to ease up a little bit.
The Christmas spend-a-thon mentality is another of our tragic exports, especially the buy, buy, buy, “the more stuff you have — the happier you will be” idea. Just as in the United States, Christmas trees start going up here at the beginning of November, as if to remind us there are only 60 shopping days left to spend, spend, spend!
Again, however imperfectly, we try to demonstrate that our worth doesn’t come from how much we amass and how much we spend, but rather who we ARE as beloved daughters and sons of God. As Christians, we are called to be a beacon of light to the world and to show Christ to the world. That means that wherever we live, no matter who we are, the world is watching us. The non-Christians in the United States are watching you just as much as Hondurans are watching my family here. The parents of the kids with whom my children go to school are the ones who wield power in Honduras, the ones who make the laws and the ones from whom one will become president one day. We believe that our “unintended” witness there is crucial. It is important that the people at our school see that followers of Jesus have given up lives in the United States in order to follow Christ and do his will. It is important that they see me walking around at the school drop-off in the morning with no makeup in my Wal-Mart clothes. It is important (though difficult for my kids, I’m sure) when other kids and parents see that we will not buy an iPad for our eighth grader or a Blackberry for our fourth grader. We hope that when wealthy Honduran families see our family attempting to practice moderation, it causes them to stop and think.
Just as the world had no idea that the little baby Jesus would grow up to become the Savior of the world, we have no idea what the tiny seeds that we are planting every day in our seemingly mundane lives will grow up to become. God uses all kinds of circumstances to melt people’s hearts and bring them closer to Him. We feel so privileged to be living here, discovering what it is that God is up to in our lives. We thank you all so much for your support and we wish you and your families the peace of Christ this Christmas.
Mark and Ashley Wright
The 2011 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 288
