the "woohaa"

That's Marc's name for it. It happened on Friday of last week, when the mayor of Tegucigalpa, Ricardo Alvarez, one of the councilmen, Dr. Mario Pineda, vice-congressman Dr. Mario Zelaya, and TORCH leaders Marc Tindall and Tim Hines met at El Reparto and Nueva Oriente for fairly good sized press coverage of the agreement between TORCH and the municipality to help in move families from very dangerious communities that are literally collapsing to safer communities.Press conference in El Reparto. Facing the cameras, from left to right is Dr. Mario Pineda, councilman (in white shirt), Dr. Mario Zelaya, vice congressman, Ricardo Alvarez, mayor of Tegucigalpa, and TORCH leader Marc Tindall


El Reparto, where one of the old, condemned houses has already been torn down.

Two girls who moved into one of the new houses built in Nueva Oriente with their family


Press inside one of the houses being built in Nueva Oriente

TORCH leader Tim Hines speaking to the press at Nueva Oriente

There were lots of people at each site, as you can see in the pictures. The first stop was El Reparto, where the press talked with community and TORCH leaders, as well as with one or two of the families who had already had houses built in Nueva Oriente. One of the old houses had already been torn down.

After reaching Nueva Oriente later that afternoon, you could see people flocking up to the top of the mountain, where two houses were being built side by side. It was obviously a huge event for the people living there. I wanted to be closer to the action, but I was asked to help bring some tin up from further down the hill. I noticed my Honduran friend carrying the tin differently that I was used to, so I tried carrying it that way....it was actually kind of awkward. And of course, as I reached the top of the mountain, I saw camera lenses staring at me, even as I already thought I looked stupid. (By the way, the next day, just as I feared, my picture was in The Heraldo, which is one of the major papers in Honduras...it wasn't bad as I thought it would be, but funny all the same)

So, the public officials got to have their faces associated with helping families out (they also strongly encouraged Hondurans to get off their rears and start helping each other out more, from what I hear), and we got to build some houses for families in the name of Jesus...a pretty cool day, I thought :)

a delayed update

Ok, so I'm a little behind on my posting....this post actually deals with events from Wednesday. I'll try to mention any updates to one of the events in particular from the past couple of days.

First of all, we had an awesome day in the dump. Marc, Terri, and I picked up the two large vats of frijoles (beans) and arroz (rice) along with a TON of tortillas from a lady who lives next to the children's home. We then picked up a bunch of bags of water to hand out (If you don't know, clean water can be bought in small bags as well as bottles, etc.). The three of us drove out to the dump, and I wish I could've taken some pictures, but we were constantly giving out food! My english-speaking friend Bryan, who lives in the dump, Fannie, and another little girl whose names escapes me helped us feed everyone. They didn't even ask for food first...they were just willing to sit in the truck bed with us helping us feed everyone. It was a really awesome thing to see.

We hung out with everyone for a bit after we fed them, then left, but it was really a great day to visit the dump. Talking, hanging out, and just trying to be Jesus to these people continually equalizes where I am and where they are...because it's not really about where we live, no matter how drastically different. It's about who we are and in what image we're made in.



The next major event that happened is that we went with one of the congressmen and two or three councilmen to this area (I can't remember the name) where the mountain is literally falling into houses and is a major safety issue, among others, for the families there. The city government and TORCH have made an agreement that the city will help find families who live in these houses and relocate them to another area that is safer. These families will move (some have moved already) to TORCH houses built in a community called Nueva Oriental. The agreement is that TORCH will build 20 houses for families that the city will relocate.

I've often struggled with how government and the mission of God could be mixed...because so many times things basically just get screwed up. I think what the city and TORCH is doing together is a really awesome thing that will give houses to families who need them in the name of Jesus. I have some photos below of the old house locations.It might be hard to see, but there's a house where part of it is basically hanging over the edge of a cliff...if I remember right, 11 people live in it, and it's only a matter of time before it collapes.

Here's the old house of one of the first people to move to Nueva Oriental. I think at least 6 live here.

Where a rock from the mountain collapsed and fell through part of the house. Not a good situation at all.

A TINY, tiny, kitten in the house. I wish I had my hand next to it, because it could literally fit right in the palm of my hand alone!

So, 20 houses are to be built for relocating families who live in terrible houses on a mountain that's falling down. Four of the houses have been built already as of today. I'll post pictures sometime soon of when the mayor and councilmen visited both the mountain that's falling and Nueva Oriental. Getting 16 more houses will be noo problem!

But real quick, here's a picture I took overlooking some of the Honduran mountains. I tried the panorama feature on my camera free hand...it consists of 3 photos, I believe. More blurry than I would've liked, but it works!

the dump

First of all, I know I will return here (the dump) many times before my time here is over, but I felt this first trip back to the dump after months was worth its own entry. For those of you who have experienced the dump here, or anywhere else like it, it's easier to visualize. For those of you who have never been to place like this...well, I can try and try and try to explain it the best I can, but I really don't think it does it justice. The city dump of Tegucigalpa houses garbage, obviously...it also houses hundreds of buzzards, I'm sure millions of flies, a stench that sticks with you for quite a while, and most importantly, and unfortunately, people...creatures of God made in the likeness of God, which is also a very significant fact to understand and keep in mind.

The only creature God made in the likeness of Himself.

That's gotta mean something, right?

So, the next question is, how does the only creature made in the image of God Almighty end up in what is possibly one of the closest things to Hell on Earth? Marc and I talked about this as we were leaving the dump. He was basically asking God why this was happening and for Him to show us a way to do more for these people than just feeding them. Feeding them is a huge step in helping them, don't get me wrong...but it doesn't take them out of that constant suffering. You know, I bet a lot of the people at the dump work harder than some Americans who have been blessed with jobs. Some people were raised into this poverty on the streets...some of them probably started sniffing glue to cure their hunger pangs...lost a ton a brain cells along the way as they became addicted, then somehow wandered over to the dump.

I met a girl named Fannie (spelling may be totally off), who sat in the back of Marc's rental truck after all of the food had been dispensed (which was, by the way, a bowl of rice, beans, and tortillas, along with minimos [small bananas], and water for each person until all food ran out). I pretty much failed at talking to her (my spanish has backtracked a lot...when I didn't know much anyway). She stayed in the bed of the truck as we left, and after asking Marc where we were taking her, he replied that we were taking her to get some milk. After he bought the milk and we dropped her off outside of the dump, he then explained to me that she was 16 and pregnant...oh, and she already has a 3 month old. How does such a sweet girl end up in a situation like this?? Then Marc brought up something I had kept myself from thinking about...in a setting like the dump, in a culture where women can be easily taken by men, she's probably been raped many times over...it's a terrible thing to think about, but it's probably the truth. It's seeing things like this that makes the cry for Jesus to come back even more urgent, so that He can redeem His creation and correct all of this mess.

Fannie's on the right.

On the flip side of this sad, sad story, I heard some people from an Ohio/West Virginia group talk yesterday evening about how meeting the people at the dump has made them more aware of seeing themselves in other people. Apparently there was a young person in the dump who had aspired to finish their education and do something with their life...one of the volunteers heard this comment was made and realized that she was the same person as the Honduran in the dump...she has the same goals. The comment was then made that this volunteer saw herself in this poorHonduran soul, and that this must be how Jesus looked at us during His ministry on Earth. He saw Himself in each person He encountered. This was a neat thing for me to hear, because it's like a revelation of "Hey! This is what it really means to be like Jesus!" I think we miss this a lot as a church...we just choose to live in our little church building bubble, avoiding the things and people that make us uncomfortable--the same people Jesus met with and ate with...what we might term the "scum of the earth".

Anyway, I got to meet lots of really cool people yesterday and got to eat some very good food as well, but I won't get into that. To me, the dump was a huge focal point of the day, and my first experience with it since last year, and I felt it was worth sharing. Seeing people with the eyes of Jesus can be a VERY tough thing, because it's easy to fight against. I'm in no way perfect in seeing people this way, but I really believe experiencing conditions like those at the Tegucigalpa dump really help.

a gringo once again

Well, I made it back to Honduras. It's kind of crazy that I'm here again...it doesn't seem that long ago I was just leaving this place. (fyi, for those of you who don't know, a gringo is what a white person is generally called here). All of the flights were fine and I ended up with all of my luggage (yay!). On the way from Houston to Tegucigalpa, I sat in between two people, from two different mission groups, going to two different areas. It was pretty neat to see how little by little, God's kingdom is being brought to an impoverished place like Honduras.

I spent much of the afternoon with Marc and Terri Tindall, the couple I'm working with while I'm here, going from place to place around the capital. I'd have to say one of the best things that happened during this time was that Marc had a meeting with the mayor of Tegucigalpa and his councilmen (I think). Basically, the government has located a few impoverished areas around the city where the people are in danger of landslides and they wish to find a way to relocate them to areas that are safer. They are considering a form of partnership with TORCH in that they can locate and find families to relocate and who need a new home, and TORCH volunteers will build houses for these people. About 500 families are involved with this relocation, and we've already commited to building 20 houses in once particular location, beginning June 29th.

You know, I'm usually not a fan of politicians, and while these government officials have some agendas (based on their comments on being there while the media is there), you could tell that they still really cared about this effort to help people out. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how God works in this partnership!