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!