Río de Agua Viva Turns 10!

 

Practice Improves Upon Perfection

When the Rio team was first conceived in the fall of 2012, our team leadership enjoyed deep discussions on the morality of how we delivered our educational programming.  The debate was over whether each one of the Honduran community agents who attended our seminars would receive training in each of the topics we bring or be able to specialize.  We opted to ensure everyone attended all the lessons no matter the topic to maximize exposure.  I don't know if it was because of tradition or insecurity, lack of prayer or lack of faith, over the last 8 years, we never tried any other way.  

Then Greg Thompson took the Rio team by storm and said "Let's try it the other way!"  I could not believe my ears when Greg told me that the Youth Network members and additional community members would each pick one topic to study deeply over three days.  However, when I saw his team practicing their lessons after a night of relaxation at Villa Helens, my eyes told me it was happening.

Meet the teachers of AHMEN's Rio de Agua Viva 2022 team:

Emilio & Erica Bustillo. Emilio helped teach power tool use, and Erica interpreted for hairstyling.

Greg Thompson prepares his lessons in carpentry.

Plumbing and toilet assembly with Greg's nephew, Jesse

Computer applications with Kyle

Julie on the left taught how to prepare a construction budget.  Sarah on the right taught hair styling.

The Rio team has a lot in store for its tenth anniversary, and we need your help to make it happen.  Please contact me to start talking about how you can be a part of sustainable development in Honduras with AHMEN's Rio de Agua Viva team.

Individually, we can only do so much.  Together, let's be the difference!

It's a Thompson Thing

When a flame flickers, does the multiverse see it coming? Better yet, what does the God of eternity do to prepare for the pending darkness? The laws of conservation of mass and energy say that every speck of dust that exists has always existed in some form or fashion. Furthermore, that same matter will always exist! Why am I blowing wind at the philosophical sails of the cosmos? I have a hunch that AHMEN has been witness to an intergalactic legacy transfer.



For those of you who might have been lucky enough to know AHMEN founder Dr. Tom Camp, you know that he didn't sweat the small stuff. He didn't let the little things get under his skin because he went all out in everything he did. The goal Uncle Tom had was not to be grandiose for the sake of it but to check all of the boxes. In conversations over the years about Honduras, Dr. Camp would often end the conversation with questions like "Who are we leaving out?" and "What are we forgetting?" If Uncle Tom saw a hot dog dressed to the nines, he would wonder what additional toppings would make for a more perfect bite.


If we were teaching water filtration, one type of instruction on one type of filter wasn't good enough. We needed three. If we were inviting a Honduran preacher to join our team, we would suddenly have a whole cadre of pastors traveling with us. If we were called on a home visit to meet with a sick mother, we would end up assessing the health needs of the entire family. If you knew Nath Thompson Camp, then you understood his need to be thorough.


The year before time began to take Uncle Tom from us, God gave AHMEN another Thompson to help fill the void. Gregory Thompson joined the Alabama Honduras Medical Educational Network in 2017 ready to do it all!


And just like a Thompson, he was a little sneaky about it at first. Greg came on the Río team at its largest. We were a team of 25 people that year, and you could literally see the energy beaming from Greg's bones at our team's massive undertaking. The next year our team was much smaller in size and scope. I would not have characterized Greg's reaction as disappointment. What I think he observed was that our efforts that year were insufficient. Again, the universe manifests emotions to spur us along. In this case, our 2018 team motivated Greg to dig an additional estuary for the Rio team.


In 2019, we both had a little Thompson in us. As I visited all four of AHMEN's ACSI workshop sites in a little under ten days, Greg led his first solo team. I was able to spend 48-hours with him as he did, and I was taken aback by the direction of Greg's leadership.

Not only had he recruited his own team of volunteers to teach first aid and sex ed, Mr. Thompson brought a real CPR dummy on the team with him to validate the entire training. Not only had Greg opened up an entire new area for AHMEN in partnership with Jutiapa's Youth Network, he invited the entire Youth Network back to Villa Helens for a pool party as friends. Joyfully, Greg took on additional challenges not to prove to himself what he could do, Mr. Thompson told the dealer "hit me" because there was more to be done. What I witnessed that year was oddly similar to the behavior of another dark-haired, bearded man I used to travel with to Honduras. What I witnessed must be a Thompson thing, and I can’t wait to tell you about our adventures this summer in my next blog.



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Why don’t you consider joining me in Honduras in 2023 for the 10-year anniversary of AHMEN’s Río de Agua Viva team? This will be our grandest endeavor yet! Just go to Facebook.com/ahmeninhonduras. Drop your $100 deposit for next year’s team in the donation box, and we will provide you a $100 discount on your team fees. Greg and I can’t partner with the people of Honduras in a vacuum. We need your help.



Together, we are the difference.

Adding Torches to Light the Way

Over the last few years, just as the Rio de Agua Viva team hit its peak, I began to turn the reigns over to Greg Thompson. If you follow AHMEN on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube, you have seen that Gregory is exceeding all expectations.

Check out what Greg has planned this year!

Course: Styling and Salon Management
Instructor: Sarah Hunterman – hair stylist of 20+ years, 8+ years in salon education, and owns a salon business

The hair workshop will be a hands-on introduction to client consultation, wet cut, clipper cut (fades), and styling. The hair workshop will be designed to train the learner to create beautiful and stylish hair designs on paying clients. This can include cut, style, and salon operation discussions.

Course: Information Technology for Business Administration
Instructor: Kyle Hollis – Owner and Manager of Pensieve LLC, a consulting company for employee human resources management utilizing information technology

This course will provide an exploratory foundation in business office administration and support. Students will complete many hands-on activities to build a foundation in Microsoft Office software applications. Through instructional activities, students will have opportunities to apply employability skills and research possible career options in business administration.

            Activities will include:
            1) Resume Building
            2) Profit & Loss Statements
            3) Budgeting
            4) Business Presentations

Course: Plumbing for Maintenance and Construction
Instructor: Jesse Thompson – Employee of Fix and Flow Plumbing Co.

Summary: Plumbing is a trade that has transformed humanity's lifestyle. This course is designed to give a very high level overview of some basic plumbing concepts such as water flow, pipe types, and tools utilized. This course will also address practical skills for common plumbing repairs. Upon completion, participants should be able to do basic diagnostics and repairs of fundamental plumbing systems such as toilets, drains, sinks, and showers.

Course: Carpentry Basics and Power Tool Operation
Instructor: Gregory Thompson – Owner and Manager of Real Estate Investment Company

This course is designed to give a high-level overview of carpentry and other items that utilize wood as a construction material. Upon completion, participants should be able to understand some basic construction concepts to facilitate more in-depth learning. In addition, the proper utilization of power tools will be covered.

Course: Massage for Relaxation and Revenue Generation
Instructor: Karen is a local massage therapist in the Jutiapa area. Eliany, the chief community agent in Jutiapa, has arranged for Karen to join us as an additional lesson to close out the workshop.

This course is designed to give the attendee knowledge of performing therapeutic massage for relaxation and muscle therapy. This is a hands on course in which the participants will learn techniques, muscle structure, and how to operate a profitable business performing massages.

Wow! God really shows out when you give Him/Her/It a chance! Now that Greg has the Rio team on autopilot, it will most likely be time for me to start a new team of my own or continue with the theme of having "A" and "B" teams. If you would like to explore joining the Rio team and traveling to remote locations to serve indigenous communities through educational development, CONTACT ME TODAY!!




And stay tuned for updates from the field.




Thank you to Greg again for taking on this team that I believe is truly the hands of God. Individually, we stand stagnant without the energy to light the way, but together, we are the difference.

Avast ye! The sails be set for casseroles in Honduras!

 

I will return to the mission field after a three year lapse after almost 22-years of traveling to Honduras at-least once per year.  I came back south in January for President Xiomara Castro's inauguration, but I have not traveled on a service trip since before the pandemic began.  Read on to sea why the unsettled seas are stirring up my emotions, matey!

After traveling to see friends and making humanitarian work a part of my life annually for a decade, my identity became infused with the eco-social justice work the people of Honduras crave in their march to justice.  With the travel component lost for a few years, I have been able to analyze my socio-historical consciousness as it relates to mission work.  Years of team membership and then leadership on mission teams gave me life skills which opened up other doors in my career and education.  Conversely, as I became a more successful teacher and graduate student, the direction I sought to serve God became more profound too.  Yet, there is now a gap in my community of practice as my increased professional commitments now limit my time in Honduras just as shut down restrictions have been lifted.

In the next few days I will ask the same questions I would have asked our partners in Honduras upon hypothetically returning in 2020.  In fact, AHMEN stayed in contact with the needs and made concerted efforts to support Honduran communities in 2020 and 2021 without sending a lot of teams.  Nevertheless, I am a different person missing two summers of physically asking those questions of "¿Cómo has estado?" in person.  It is the same feeling people all over the world feel now after not seeing family members after a horrible pandemic separated them for 900 days and counting.  Returning to Honduras this go round reintroduces all those questions of sustainability:

• Is one's physical presence still needed in the mission field?
• Are trips more selfish than about helping others?
• Does our outreach do more harm than good?
• What are we not doing that we should be at this point?
• What data should we be collecting to fully legitimize our work?
• Am I on the right mission for God in Honduras?

This last question is where I want to focus over the next week as I prepare for departure and live the experience of returning to the mission field.  I seek increased effectiveness and metrics to prove the value of our work.  I seek to build a connection between the Alabama Education Association, Alabama Federation of Teachers, and teachers in Honduras.  I dream of developing UVA - United Volunteers App - of Honduras to provide a digital platform for nonprofit workers, NGOs, missionaries, and the greater volunteer community to chart their agenda and actions across the country.  The app will allow greater collaboration among like-minded people in addition to giving the Honduran government an accurate picture of how international aid is truly being distributed.  I long for the glory days of traveling with teams where the positive vibration from person-to-person adds years to my life.  I look for the off-ramp Danny Arnold, Tom Camp, Mary Guffey, and Linda Tripp talked about over a decade ago where "we work ourselves out of a job."

Talk about a mix of ingredients for a complex dough!  Once mixed, let's prove what is true.  Please pray for my individual journey with God in Honduras, our team's safety and effectiveness, and the continued faith of the Honduran people that the justice they want to see is achievable in their lifetimes.  Together, we bake the bread of life.  Would you like a slice?  Come bake your own loaf with us.  Join the Rio de Agua Viva travel, ACSI Community Empowerment Program, UVA design, fundraising, and prayer teams today!  

We are but solo ingredients in God's cupboard each unique and valuable in our own right, but together, we are recipes for sustaining the world.  Together, we are the difference!

  

Río Roars Back in June 2022

Please consider joining either or both of the two parts of the Río de Agua Viva team this year. I will lead an earlier portion of the team which will attend the national teacher union anniversary gathering on June 3, meet with local leadership for long-term planning, and lead water safety sessions.  We then meet up with Greg Thompson’s portion in Jutiapa on June 11 teaching water safety, first aid, business, and English.  There, an essential goal is to bond with the Youth Network.  Finally, our travels take us to the island of Roatan for a little R&R.  Contact us @AHMENinHonduras to join today!

A Woman's Day: The Inauguration of President Xiomara Castro

It was an eerily calm day for such a big event.  Our group was to be in the lobby of the Hotel Florencia at 8 AM to depart for the “estadio nacional” where the inauguration was being held.  The streets were not filled; there was no noise prohibiting anyone from holding a normal conversation.  Even the sun was slow to warm the land the way it can often stifle one’s energy before enjoying the day’s first cup of coffee.  The celebration of President Castro’s inauguration across town was not a cacophony of chants, claps, and screams but a quiet tiptoe to avoid disturbing the peace that the day promised.  Even the most developed nations understand democracy as a fragile institution.  In Honduras, hours before President-Elect Xiomara Castro was to take the podium to formally end the coup d’etat, the survival of democracy hung in the air like a piñata spinning before its coup de grâce.

Our bus from the hotel to the stadium was packed to the brim.  Ride any bus in Honduras that isn’t Hedman Alas, and there will be standing room only.  Nothing was different on this occasion except for maybe a missing chicken or two and absence of traveling salesmen.  Bill Camp and I sat in the back with the cool kids who turned out to be a delegation representing Frente Obrero (worker’s front) and Via Campesina (the rural road) from Nicaragua.  One of the Nicaraguans, a delightful young woman named Mariana, mentioned Dr. Martin Luther Kind Jr’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” when I told her I was from Birmingham, Alabama.  She also knew all about Nina Simone’s “Mississippi Goddamn.”  I could tell we were in good company.  As we approached our destination, the clamor began to rise.  The crowds began to form, and I was getting off a bus with new friends who knew quite well that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”  The gringo security guards checking our passes and patting us down at the stadium’s entrance were there to ensure justice prevailed that day. (Were they CIA, FBI, Secret Service, or UN?)

 

Inside, the festivities had already begun, and we were being led across the field toward the stage.  I had no idea that we would be so close to the action; I almost felt like I was cheating the 30,000 Hondurans who had already filled the stands.  I recounted what my HR chief in Franklin County Schools, Tennessee, Linda Foster, once said to me about how my teaching career came together, “Michael, you must have clout.”  Larry “Bucket” Guthrie of AHMEN would say “It’s a God thing.”  The music of the resistance played.  The sun grew warmer, and the sensation that we had arrived overwhelmed me with emotion.

 

What happened next was as perfectly choreographed as a Cirque du Soleil performance.  However, instead of spectacle, the preface to President Castro’s acceptance speech was about healing.  The MC announced the names of the martyrs of the resistance, and tens of dozens of individuals filed through the stadium as family members carried pictures of their assassinated loved ones.  Each somber loved one paced slowly in and around the rows of onlookers.  The voice on the loudspeaker reminded the crowd that the coup government was the reason the announced individuals were no longer with us. 

 

Next, the MC introduced each of the different indigenous ethnic groups of Honduras.  As Chorti, Garifuna, Lenca, Miskito, Nahua, Pech, Tawahka, and Tolupán groups marched in their cultural dress through the stadium, the voice on the microphone announced each as national treasures to be celebrated and not further marginalized as they had been over the last twelve years.

After the indigenous, came the journalists.  After the journalists came the activists.  After the activists came the political prisoners.  Finally, family members and friends of assassinated environmentalist Berta Cáceres came to the stage, and the MC spoke of how the corruption of the coup government took the life of the earth protector in 2016.  The crowd rose to its feet with fists in the air to chant “¡JOH Se Fue!” – Juan Orlando Hernandez (the dictator of the last 8 years) is gone!

 

Finally, the moment we had all been waiting for arrived.  President-Elect Xiomara Castro walked to the stage with her husband former President Manuel Zelaya and daughter Hortencia.  Traditionally, the outgoing president would transfer the presidential sash to the new leader; however, Juan Orlando Hernandez did not attend the event.  Instead, Manuel Zelaya, the former president who the military removed from power, and his daughter transferred power for him.  This move, so symbolic in its gesture, brought me to tears, and I dare say I was not the only one.

 

Upon taking the oath of office, Castro, without pause, went straight into her inaugural speech.  There was not a moment to waste.  There is no time to lose in making up for lost time.  One point after the other signaled a new day in Honduras.  With promises to end the corruption, stop the narcotraffickers, eliminate impunity, protect the environment, return students to school, among other initiatives to improve the lives of everyday Hondurans, President Castro proclaimed that she would not only be the first woman president of Honduras but also set the bar high for the future female leaders of her great nation.  In doing so, she inhabited a space as a woman who would change the world.

 

President Castro, we are excited to see what you accomplish and are here to help you every step of the way.  We are here to hold you accountable.  For as empowering as this moment in time is for individuals all over the world and yourself, it is together that we are the difference!

Happy International Women's Day, Madam President.

God Tells Jokes on The Way to President Xiomara Castro's Inauguration

I was sitting in Juan Miguel’s living room in Denton, Texas when the news came on the television.  I was in graduate school pursuing studies in ecofeminism at Texas Woman’s University at the time.  A few weeks prior I had received an invitation from Sacramento Labor Council Secretary Bill Camp to join him in Honduras.  I couldn’t go because of school, and I wish I could have been there to lend my voice in protest.

Reports meandered in that the Honduran military had kidnapped then President Manuel Zelaya from his home in his pajamas in the middle of the night in an illegal coup d’état.  The Republic of Honduras had in that moment rejoined the ranks of military juntas running nations left developing by the world’s superrich.  Things could have been different over the last twelve years, but in that moment, when Honduras needed the United States to call foul play, then President Obama did not.  Instead of standing up for democracy, Obama neglected to call the military takeover a coup.  Had Obama used the term “coup” then the United States would not have been able to continue business as usual in the original “banana republic.”  I was not able to be in Tegucigalpa in 2009 to protest “el golpe del estado,” but I made it in time to celebrate the end of it.

The Obama Administration under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton allowed the coup to take place and then elections to be held by the coup government so that democracy appeared to have taken place.  It didn’t.  Pepe Lobo (I do not use the term “President” with the illegal government.) gained power as Honduras had become the murder capital of the world.  Almost overnight, Honduras became a lawless den for corruption and crime to fester like a wound left unclean.  Environmentalists who stood in the way of mines and power plants were murdered.  The journalists who tried to tell the story were left for dead.  Police who tried to do the right thing were removed from power and their families threatened.  The land of small farmers and indigenous groups was stolen.  Men, women, and children faced consequences unknown at the prospect of not being able to pay gang members for the right to walk down the street.  Every aspect of life became more difficult due to the corruption.  People’s close friends got rich finding the price at which they were willing to sell their morals while the rest of the country either tried to survive in the worst of times or fled for the U.S. border.  Obama and Clinton didn’t sit by and do nothing.  The Honduran people would have been better off if they had.  The United States not only supported the overthrow of the Honduran government in 2009, they have been arming its illegitimate government ever since!

That was even before the Juan Orlando Hernandez regime began.  Hernandez, held by many as the political force behind the coup, was president of the Honduran National Congress before being named president.  Midway into his first term, JOH (yes, like the pejorative term for a prostitute) made a secret arrangement with the Congress and Supreme Court of Honduras to allow him to run for a second term.  It was previously illegal for the president of Honduras to serve more than one term and the justification for removing Zelaya from office (for attempting to take a poll on the matter).  Thus began the chant “Fuera, JOH!” or “Get out of here, JOH!”  He would serve four more years.  Ironically, by avoiding the use of the term “coup,” the United States gave Honduras a dictator.  More ironic indeed was the fact that this dictator was so deep in the pockets of narcotraffickers and even facilitated the movement of cocaine from Central America to Europe all from his desk as president.  Obama and Clinton enabled JOH to seize power, and Trump kept it going.  JOH was the first international guest for U.S. Vice President Mike Pence.

So when I heard, when we all heard, that Xiomara Zelaya Castro, the former First Lady of Honduras whose husband Mel Zelaya was removed from power twelve years earlier, had won the election and was soon to be the first woman president of Honduras, a collective sigh of relief blew across the picturesque Honduran landscape.  When I arrived to San Pedro Sula on January 25^th, I could feel people breathing again.  Streets were packed but not hostile.  Things seemed cleaner than usual.  People appeared happy with upward facing smiles eager to speak about the days ahead.  Previously, it might seem like the 2/3 world was a bad place to talk politics, but everyone we encountered was happy to talk about Castro’s victory.  We encountered people on the street who were excited our international delegation had come to celebrate the end of the coup.  Many were confused that there were U.S. citizens who cared enough about Honduran politics to be informed.  Fellow patrons at Power Chicken made jokes about what the names of inauguration day specials on the menu would be.  Even security guards opened up ever so slightly to conversation about life with the LIBRE party in power.  Mostly though, everyone was talking about what was next for them personally.  It wasn’t that people were finally free to openly talk about the failed coup government, it was that Honduran families finally felt free to talk about something else.

Before departing, Sister Larraine of Water With Blessings asked me to consider saying the prayer of Michael the Archangel for “the Honduran government wasn’t so great before the coup either.”  The last words my step-dad, Tom, said to me before I left for Honduras were “Watch, but do not be seen.  Listen, but don’t speak.”  They didn’t have to explain.  I knew what they meant.  The fact that the United States sent a group from the Department of State to deliver an ultimatum to the Honduran military before the election – there will be free and fair elections this time, or we will cut off the money immediately.” – reminds me that additional forces are at work.  With JOH’s brother sitting in jail for trafficking cocaine in the United States, the U.S. may have needed to control the narrative that their long game on the coup worked where stepping in in 2009 may not have.  The pending extradition of JOH certainly favors taking steps to help Hondurans heal, but the country is not healed yet.  Larraine and Tom did not have to explain their message to me because it was right there on the consent form to attend the inauguration.  After name and address and a few more identifying details, the application, as plain as day, asked me to list my blood type.  There was only one reason my blood type would need to be on file during the events of the inauguration … in case something went wrong..

These are the events which ran across my mind in the early morning of January 26^th in the back of a van travelling from San Pedro Sula to Tegucigalpa as Pink Floyd’s “We don’t need no education” began to play on the radio.

 

"Don't Forget We're Having Fun!"

It was the hottest day of my life.  You could feel the proximity of the equator sucked the life out of our gringo bodies like water on the line.  Our band of misfit volunteers had been led on an unexpected journey into the deepest parts of Honduras then known to us.  We were beaten by the road, hungry, dehydrated, and sitting in a closed mud brick room, which was surely warmer than outside, just to get out of the sun.  Our fearless leader came in and calmed a crowd eagerly awaiting information and proclaimed with cheer "Don't forget we're having fun!"

This is Bill Camp, folks! 

In my previous blog I wrote about a relationship that we have seen blossom over the years in Honduras.  However, Dr. Luther Harry Castillo, the new Secretary of Technology and Innovation in Honduras did not march to where he is today without a key alliance of his own.  I also would not have made it to see the first woman president of Honduras sworn live and in-person without the support from the same leader.

Bill Camp is the founder of CHIMES (California Honduras Institute of Medical and Educational Support).  He is also the former Executive Secretary of the Sacramento Central Labor Council.  One thing you notice immediately in conversations with Camp is that titles don’t mean a thing for his ego.  Camp’s sense of self worth comes from the particular knack for making the world a better place around him. 

Upon meeting Dr. HarryCastillo, Camp took it upon himself to make quick friends of the union establishment in Cuba.  He found so much success that he was able to form his own regular delegation to the country called Building Relations With Cuban Labor.  The basic premise of the group is to build mutual trust and understanding between members of the labor movement in the United States and their counterparts in Cuba with the ultimate goal of ending the economic and political blockade of Cuba by the United States and closing of secret U.S. prison facility in Guantanamo Bay.  Over the years Camp has brought dozens of union members from the U.S. to Havana to learn more about how the U.S. blockade has crippled the Cuban people’s economic freedom more than the Cuban government.  In addition, quite a few organizers from the island nation have visited Sacramento over the years to share their perspective with California’s elected officials.

In his approach to Honduras, Bill Camp is no different.  He sees the success of the people of Honduras as fastened to the success of the labor movement in Honduras and the power of unions worldwide.  That is why on our labor delegation to President Xiomara Castro’s inauguration, Camp ensured we met with as many labor leaders as we could during our 3-day trip as possible.

Our group arrived in San Pedro Sula on the afternoon of January 25^th and immediately set out for a meeting at STIBYS with 33 union leaders from:

• CUTH: Confederacion Unitaria de Trabajadores de HondurasThe United Workers Confederation of Honduras
• SITRAINA: Sindicato de Trabajadores del Instituto Nacional Agrario (The Union of Workers at the National Agricultural Institute)
• SITRAMEDHYS: Sindicato de Trabajadores de La Medicina Hospitales y Similares (The Union of Workers in Hospital Medicine
• SITRARENAPE: Sindicato de Trabajadores del Registro Nacional de Las Personas The Census Bureau Union)
• FESTAGRO: Federacion de Trabajadores de la Agroindustria (Federation of Workers in Industrial Agriculture
• FESITRANH: Federacion Sindical de Trabajadores Nacionales de Honduras (National Workers Federation Union of Honduras
• SITIAMASH: Sindicato de Trabajadores de La Industria Mieles Alcoholes y Similares de Honduras (The Alcohol Beverage Workers Union
• STIBYS: Sindicato de Trabajadores de La Bebida y Similares (The Beverage Workers Union)

On the 26^th we traveled to Tegucigalpa to meet with the National Union Federation of Honduras at the Solidarity Center.  In both meetings, our goal was to find out the three “requests” each union would make of their government and what message our group should take back to our unions in the United States.  The requests were different and pertained to each of the guilds' specialty areas, but they all shared a common vein – corruption and murky business practices prevent the people from owning their own labor and accessing wealth. 

We did not make any promises that we could meet the requests of each union and federation.  Instead, we promised to bring their messages home with us to share with labor leaders in the United States.  We also promised we would raise a team of union members to come hear these stories themselves.  

Thank you, Bill, for inviting me to see you in action.  I have taken your mentorship for granted and know I have a lot more to learn.  Camp’s strategic thinking, political bend, and one-track-mind for completing the mission make his leadership one to admire and utilize in our own contributions to society.

If you would like to join my teaching team to Honduras to partner with communities of educators in Honduras, contact me today!  If you would like to volunteer to teach a class on a special topic in Honduras, let me know!  If you simply wish to donate to, fundraise or pray for the progress we are making, send me a message!  Individually we can make the world around us different, but together we are the difference we want to see in our culture.  (I know..I know…I didn’t sign off with my tag line.  Instead, I want to end with one of Bill’s!  Happy Birthday!)

Don’t forget we’re having fun 😊

The Vines are Growing (President Xiomara Castro's Inauguration, Part 1)

As I sat in the 85° heat in the Estadio Nacional under the full heat of the sun without a cloud in the sky on January 27, 2022, I reflected on a relationship God brought into our lives almost seventeen years ago. 

It was a long day in Punta Piedra, a small Garifuna pueblo on the outskirts of Colón, Honduras.  I was again on a medical mission team with the Alabama Honduras Medical Educational Network as I had been each summer since I was just barely a teenager.  My cousins, parents, aunt and uncle, and the rest of our team had treated over 250 patients who had not been seen by a comprehensive medical staff, much less one with medicine to treat and prevent illness, for a very long time, if ever.  We were tired, sipping on Kool-aide filled water bottles, eating beanie weenies straight out of the can talking about all of our adventures from the day.

Just about the time we thought about getting antsy enough to pack up and make the dirt road trek back to the Carolina Clinic in Limon, a young man in a stark white doctor’s coat came strolling up to the undone tailgates of the rented pickup trucks where we were resting.  While the unstained ivory jacket stood out from the dusty ambience, it was his demeanor that struck us most.  It turns out the young man was a Honduran Garifuna medical doctor recently graduated from the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana, Cuba.  Conversations commenced about why he was there, why we were there, the politics of going to school in Cuba, and how we might expand our medical team to additional underserved areas.  We concluded the day by exchanging contact information and both extending offers to collaborate in the future.

Today, that doctor is the Secretary of Technology and Innovation for the Republic of Honduras under the nation’s first female president of Honduras, President Xiomara Castro.  Yes, Dr. Luther Harry Castillo, my dear brother, has risen in the ranks from a teacher’s son in Tocamacho all the way to the President’s cabinet in Tegucigalpa.

God works in mysterious ways, and the Lord did not put Dr. Luther in my life merely for friendship and inspiration.  Dr. Luther invited me to attend the inauguration as a friend of AHMEN and as a favor to our late founder Dr. Tom Camp.  I attended with Uncle Tom’s brother, Bill Camp, to represent all of the work AHMEN has done for the future of Honduras because this new administration stands for ensuring Hondurans have a future.  In the coming days, weeks, and months, I will be leveraging my relationships and experience to not only position my actions as a lifelong volunteer in Honduras on pathways of legitimate sustainability, but I will also continue pursuing the creation of UVA-Honduras (Uniting Volunteers App ofHonduras) in order to make volunteer work, mission work, the efforts of NFPs and NGOS more appropriate and effective.  To hear my passion for creating this app click the above link and share widely!  Make it viral because God is making it happen. 

In my next blog I will be sharing action steps for strategic outreach from the meetings I participated in during the week of the inauguration.  In preparation, I ask that you consider donating to AHMEN and our long-term educational efforts in Honduras.  I also ask you to pray about joining one of our many teams, including my own Río de Agua Viva teaching team this summer.  Contact me for more information.  Honduras is not alone.  The world is paying attention.  Our mission to ensure the liberty of God spreads deep and wide continues, but we cannot ensure social and economic justice for Honduras alone.  Yes, one single person can change some things around her, but together, everything is possible.

 

Together, we are the difference.