Holy Comforter's Mission in Honduras

When Holy Comforter sent its first mission team to Honduras in May 2003, we had no idea of what we wanted to do in that country. Since then, we have sent two large teams back to Honduras, specifically to the towns of Copan Ruinas and Santa Rita.

The first team led a joint mission with a group from Hope Episcopal Church of Melbourne, FL during the summer of 2004. The second team went during the summer of 2005. We have a third team scheduled to go this summer.

During the past two years, we have focused on construction projects and activities such as Vacation Bible School and distributing toothbrushes/toothpaste. The intent has been to assist our sister congregation at the Iglesia del Espiritu Santo in Santa Rita complete construction of their church and to begin to develop a personal relationship with the community there, as well as a few mission church communities in the nearby mountains.

At the same time, we have been providing funds to support Concepcion Santos, who is the Deacon of the Iglesia del Espiritu Santo and also to two young seminarians in Copan Ruinas. None of these individuals receive funding from the Diocese of Honduras, so we thought it made sense to provide something to enable them to provide for their families and thus be better able to serve the spiritual and social needs of their communities.

Separate (but related) to the work we have been doing in Santa Rita is our sponsorship of a medical clinic for the poor which we helped build in 2004. This clinic, which opened in the summer of 2005, is now serving an average of nearly 400 people per month. Holy Comforter is providing $50 per month to help pay for the salary of Dr. Lagos and his nurse.

We are working in partnership with other donors to support this clinic. The sponsorship does not cover all of the expenses of the clinic, so Dr. Lagos charges about $2.30 per consultation. The fee includes any needed medications -- medications which Holy Comforter has donated in the past and hopes to continue doing in the future.

A central part of the vision behind the medical clinic is to attract medical brigades from the US to use the facility as a homebase from which to send small teams into the nearby mountains to provide education, basic healthcare, including eye and ear examinations. The clinic itself may be used by these medical brigades for performing minor surgery.

We fully expect that with this flow of physicians and nurses from the US, we will develop some good contacts that will eventually lead to attracting support to help us build a small hospital next to the clinic.

On the agenda for this year in Santa Rita are plans to build a small school behind the Iglegisa del Espiritu Santo and a small bakery. We are also going to try and fund the purchase of a pickup truck so that Concepcion will have regular access to the 36 mountain mission churches that he serves.

Currently, Concepcion is getting around on a small motorbike donated by a gentleman named Bill McMahan of Baton Rouge, LA. The pickup truck would allow for transport of people,
materials and equipment. The mission churches are made up of some of the poorest in the world – people with an average income of $300 per year (… less than $1 per day). These people have almost no contact with the outside world, and that one pickup truck would go a long way to improving this situation. We're looking to spend about $5,000 for the pickup or perhaps have someone donate the vehicle.

The school is important for obvious reasons. Most the children in the Copan Ruinas/Santa Rita (and surrounding mountains) area do not attend school or go for only a couple of years. In Honduras, there is only a requirement to attend up to sixth grade. But most children either live too far away from a school, can't afford the materials, or must remain at home to work and help support their family.

The bakery is a high priority project because it would allow the Episcopal community in Santa Rita to start to become self-sustainable. The profit gained from the venture would help support the physical maintenance of the church and also be used for social service projects in Santa Rita and the 36 mountain communities.

The beauty of the work we are doing in Santa Rita is that we are doing it in partnership with two other Episcopal churches – Trinity Episcopal in Staunton, VA and Trinity Episcopal in Baton Rouge, LA. In addition, there is Bill McMahan and Deborah Matherne and two other ladies, who have begun a sewing project with the women from the Iglesia del Espiritu Santo. One of the ladies Deborah may bring into our circle is Elizabeth Morgan, who authored the book "Sewing Church Linens" (Morehouse Publishing).

The point here is that groups and individuals have come together naturally and are working together to support the Episcopal community in the Santa Rita/Copan Ruinas area. We have established an online forum called the "Copan Support Forum" (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/copan-support) and a Blog for the Iglesia del Espiritu Santo (http://www.concepcionsa.blogspot.com). We are communicating weekly and coordinating mission trips so that we truly understand (not guess) the needs of the people whom we're trying to serve. We are working together, rather than blindly in isolation.

During Holy Comforter's second mission to Honduras in the summer of 2004, part of our team focused on painting the medical clinic in Copan Ruinas, while the other part organized and led a four-day leadership training workshop at a hotel conference room in town. The workshop was attended by about 60 priests and seminarians from the Diocese of Honduras and Bishop Lloyd Allen. This was almost the total number of Episcopal priests and seminarians in the country.

A segment of the workshop was led by Suzanne Shultz of Five Talents (http://www.fivetalents.org). The focus of this segment was how to develop one's own micro-enterprise. We are hoping to find a way to work with Five Talents on the bakery project for Santa Rita. Otherwise, though, we would still try to fund the project directly.

Probably the most important problem that needs to be addressed in the Santa Rita/Copan Ruinas areas, as well as in all of Honduras, is access to clean water. In October 2006, projecthonduras.com, which is run by a parishioner of Holy Comforter, will present its seventh annual Conference on Honduras in Copan Ruinas. The focus of the event will be education, healthcare, and community building.

The central theme this year, however, will be developing an integrated, comprehensive clean water strategy for Honduras. One or two full days of the conference will be dedicated to clean water. This segment will be presented in partnership with Pure Water for the World (http://www.purewaterfortheworld.org) of Rutland, VT and various Rotary Clubs from the US and Honduras. Other clean water organizations such as Water Missions International (http://www.watermissions.org) of Charleston, SC are currently being approached to join the effort.

Marco
Church of the Holy Comforter
Vienna, VA