Dinner with Neel

I'm a cheapskate if there has ever been one.  I don't know who bestowed such a trait on me or what vestigial instinct bubbled to the top of my gene pool.  However, I know that I began showing signs at a young age.

When I was a nine-year-old kid, I went shopping with my step-momma.  She notoriously shopped by coupon at the time.  As if under the command of Admiral Nimitz in Saipan, Carol Ann aisle-hopped across Target with stealth and speed.  In no need of being distracted by a child with limited allegiance to a shopping list, she sent me to roam the toy section with a plan to meet back at the register in thirty minutes.  When we met at the front of the store I had an X-Men action figure (Iceman if my recollection serves me right) ready to purchase for the fair price of $4.99.  Carol Ann let me go first because I only had one item.  When the clerk rang up my toy, the total came to $5.39.  I immediately turned to Carol Ann and asked if I could borrow a dollar to cover the change.  She responded "what about that $20 bill in your wallet?"  Without thinking anything of it I remarked, "I don't want to break my twenty!"  I remember as clear as day Carol Ann pulling out fifty cents in change and saying "Son, you give 'tight wad' a whole new name!"

What does this have to do with community empowerment in Honduras?  Well, as I was tallying up my budget for this year's trip, I looked at where I might save a few bucks.  Travel from the San Pedro Sula Airport to Casa Blanca in El Progreso stuck out at me.  I wondered who I might know who could give me a ride.

Then it came to me!  I thought, "Dr. Delmer is from El Progreso.  Maybe he is home and can give me a ride."  I wrote to Delmer; alas, he would not be in Honduras during June.  "But my brother Neel can give you a ride" Delmer wrote back.  Cha-ching...$30 bucks in savings!

Not only did Neel give me ride, his sweet girlfriend offered to feed me also.  The special of the day??

Sopa Marinera

It was one of the best I have ever enjoyed, but what made it taste so deliciosa was not the whole fish, crab, shrimp, leche de coco, or sweet yucca, but the love which brought ladle to bowl.  It is such a warm feeling knowing that I have friends a world away who will greet me as family.

There are many other memories (most which are best left for oral storytelling) from the night I spent in Progreso in early June 2019, but "Dinner with Neel" will be one of my fondest.

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How many more stories like this could be shared among the 60K volunteers who travel to Honduras each year?  With UVA - Uniting Volunteers App of Honduras - we can learn about all of the other connections that have been and are being made among volunteers.  UVA could also be used to discover which volunteers are doing what, where, and when in Honduras each year.  Such a tool could truly transform the effectiveness of the honest outreach throughout Honduras.  Such a tool offers the unity the volunteer community must have in order to provide the infrastructure the Honduran government simply won't.  Will you join me in sharing my GoFundMe page at www.gofundme.com/unitingvolunteershonduras to raise awareness and funds for UVA-Honduras?!  

And if you are ready to take the plunge and join AHMEN's Rio de Agua Viva team in 2020, contact me today! 

Together, we are the difference.

Act Now!! Join Rio de Agua Viva Community Empowerment Team Today!

Who: Filmmakers, videographers, photographers, students, teachers, interpreters, anyone with a kind heart

What: Build relationships, engage in intercultural dialogue, talk human rights and the environment with local change agents, indigenous leaders, and municipal officials (Open for college credit opportunities and research!)

When: June 3-14, 2019

Where: Yorito (Mountains), Jutiapa (urban Caribbean), Cusuna (Rural Caribbean), Raista (Rain Forrest)

How: $1500 + cost of flight (This money will cover all in-country travel, meals, lodging, insurance, AHMEN membership, team t-shirt, interpretation services, cultural events, and 1 day of R&R)

Why: Join our team to evaluate the status and results of AHMEN's Community Empowerment Program!

For more information, contact team leader Michael Franklin @EcofemFranklin or visit the team website at www.honduranmissions.com/teams and click on Rio de Agua Viva today!

Together, we are the difference!

Volunteerism Offers Hope, Can Do More

In a time when the military has been given full permission to kick and beat protesters and invade Honduran citizens' homes our Honduran friends need our thoughts and prayers more than we can ever imagine.  They also need our action!

The impact I wish to make on altruistic activism in Honduras is great; however, I also think it is achievable.  More so, however, it is necessary.  The tens of thousands of volunteers, NGOs, non-profits, and missionaries must have some sort of network to communicate.  At this point in time, there are only loose uncoordinated efforts in place.  One of my objectives as a human rights activist then is to create the United Volunteers App of Honduras or UVA for short.

I also wish to put my name forward for the role of US Ambassador to Honduras, diplomat, public relations representative, and/or special envoy.  There is much to be done in Honduras to help local families achieve justice in their lifetimes, and much of it is achievable through many of the same mechanisms already in place.  With UVA a united collaboration of volunteers across Honduras can tend to many of the basic relief, community development, and empowerment needs of the pueblos, but macro issues like a nationwide clean water and reliable healthcare infrastructure, for example, are jobs for international cooperation.

Take a look at where my mind is on the long-term liberating future of Honduras.  Buy a copy of my book, and let me know what you think.  Drop a donation off on my GoFundMe account.  Read and share any of my dozens of blogs widely.  My personal relationship with God fuels my passion for sustainable, green, justice-filled development in Honduras, but I would not be doing God any favors by trying to tackle another nation's problems on my own.  That is why I'm asking for your help.



Together, we are the difference.