A letter from Mark and Ashley Wright in Honduras
November 2013
Dia del Niño: Day of the Child
Celebrating Day of the Child Together
Every year in mid-September Honduras celebrates the “Day of the Child.” “Dia del Niño” is a bit like Christmas come early as all over the country there are many parties where the children come and receive gifts. For this year’s Dia del NIño the Honduran Presbyterian women in the churches of the capital city, Tegucigalpa, decided to bring children’s day to a very rural congregation in El Horno. El Horno is a new church plant by the Presbytery of Honduras way, way up on the mountains of Comayagua. There is no electricity there, and as my husband and I like to say, to use the word “road” to El Horno is stretching the language. It’s more like driving across the surface of the moon.
Twelve of us loaded up two older SUVs and two four wheelers early Saturday morning and headed on our way. Our goal was to bring a nice meal of rice and chicken, a piñata, two cakes, lots of school supplies, toys and secondhand clothing, and to tell the story of Jesus through a sock puppet show. I don’t know how to describe the trip there unless you have been “off-roading” in the country. Growing up in the South, I knew folks who would go “muddin’” on the weekends for a little recreation. Certainly there is a good share of mud on the way to El Horno, but this trip is more “bouldering,” because at times you are literally driving in a dry riverbed up and over big rocks. It’s tough on the SUVs, but there is no alternative without access to a helicopter or hovercraft. Alex, who was driving, did his best and kept asking if we were okay in the back, but everyone was really sore the next day from all the bouncing around.
Women from the Tegucigalpa Churches Prepared a Hearty Meal
Along the way there was much discussion about the type of cakes we brought. We have a Pricesmart in Tegucigalpa, which is like Sam’s Club, and they make light and fluffy, delicious, and inexpensive cakes, more like basic North American grocery store cakes. A typical Latin American cake, however, is much more dense and heavy. The person in charge of cakes had opted for the heavier Latin cake and with the poor cakes bouncing all over the place even as we tried to hold them securely, we agreed she had made the right choice. Halfway into the trip we decided we would just have to serve the cakes like pudding, but miraculously the cakes survived. God takes care of his children in the big things and the small things.
This was my first trip to El Horno. As we arrived, the first thing I noticed was a giant spool of electrical wire sitting abandoned on the side of the road. I was told that the government has plans to bring electricity to El Horno, but the forgotten spool has been sitting there so long that the wooden sides are beginning to rot. It made me wonder in just how many other ways this isolated community had been forgotten.
I also saw that the church had a dirt floor, half a roof, and there were no chairs or benches. Mark reminded me that the church was still new and that they had ended up building the church larger than they had planned and had run out of supplies. That hopefulness may not have been a terribly practical decision, but it did express what these brothers and sisters feel about their rapidly growing community of faith.
Nearly 100 Children Are Fed in Body and Spirit at the new Church in El Horno
When the food was ready the nearly 100 children lined up and got their big plates full of chicken and rice (not much chicken) and sat down to eat. These kids were hungry. They are hungry all the time. Everything stopped while they ate. They didn’t waste time trying to find the perfect spot for a picnic. Instead they plopped down wherever there was no mud and just ate. Some boys were even plopped down right next to the exhaust pipe of one of our vehicles. They just wanted to eat. I noticed that one little boy about the size of a 3-year-old had somehow found a second plate. He stacked it on top of the licked-clean first plate and kept on eating. I gave him about half of my plate as well. He stacked that on top and kept on eating. I learned later that he was older than I thought, but lack of proper nutrition kept him and many others small.
After lunch, with their bellies finally full, all the kids and their parents gathered on the hillside to watch our sock puppet show. We had worked hard to make our puppets and props fun and entertaining, and they didn’t disappoint these kids, who spend their days without electricity and television. They watched the story of Jesus’ life eagerly, and really seemed to grasp how Jesus died for them and took away their sins. Afterwards we sang songs together, played games, and enjoyed the great Latin tradition of the piñata. It was good to see them enjoying their special day so much and to be a part of sharing love with the Presbyterian women from Tegucigalpa.
As we loaded up to leave El Horno before the rains started, I began to reflect on all that had happened and on what sharing within the Body of Christ is all about. Yes, this community needs electricity. Yes, this community needs clean water. Yes, this community needs so many things that are beyond our scope to bring to them right now. But on this day we brought the gospel of Jesus Christ to them in a real and tangible way: they were hungry and we fed them; they were naked and we clothed them.
This trip to El Horno was a gift of the Presbyterian women in the city for their brothers and sisters in the rural countryside. The city women are far from wealthy–-they struggle to get food on the table some days, they don’t own homes or cars—yet what a privilege it was to be with these women as they passionately brought the love of Jesus to the least of these in the body of Christ. It was humbling to see how generously they gave of themselves and their limited resources, serving rather than being served, believing that the Good News of Jesus is the greatest treasure of all.
You too can help. In fact, we need your help. We need your prayers and invite your visits with the Presbyterian Church of Honduras. And we need your support as well so that we can continue to walk alongside our Presbyterian sisters and brothers here in Honduras, sharing Christ together and helping new worshiping communities like El Horno be healthy in body and spirit.
Blessings,
Ashley and Mark Wright
The 2013 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 20
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