Church of the Epiphany Mission Team submitted the following report on their trip to Honduras.

MARCH 11-15, 2013. This was our first eyeglass mission trip, and we weren’t sure how things would go.  The first day was a little hectic and confused, as we got everything set up.  We could not do as suggested, having only 6 persons inside the room where the clinic was held.  There was no space outside for people to wait, so it was pretty loud at times.  The last day, we were at a different site, and were able to follow the suggestion there.  and it was much more orderly and quiet. 

Also, on the third day, we lost electricity for about 2 hours.  Neither this nor the noise of the patients and their families kept us from our mission.  We reached our goal of seeing 400 patients in 5 days.  That was about 200 readers and 200 prescription glasses.  We had many “Alleluia” moments.  The photos will show some of them.  One shows an old man receiving his glasses and looking at his hands as if he were seeing them for the first time in a long time.  Another is a precious little 3-year-old girl, whose mother told us she could see well enough to run around for the first time.

This is a report from our mission team visiting the Divine Mercy parish in Honduras.

Day 1

Landing in Tegucigalpa was memorable as always. We are here and it has been a long day. Got here on time and that landing was a Lou Lou. We didn't have one of those the last time, but have heard about them. It was wild. After a great lunch, visited Divine Mercy where we dropped our things, and then went shopping for supplies. Now putting together our "cells," and preparing for a fantastic Mission.

There is great news about our August Mission visit to Divine Mercy in Honduras.

FIRST:

• The $ 5420.00 donated by the members of Epiphany for Propagation of the Faith Sunday has allowed the Divine Mercy community to make a lot of progress on the Youth center. The front wall with holes for windows and doors is up. Internal walls from a very small house that was on the property are down and bricks are being salvaged to complete other walls. The concrete floor for the second floor is finished.


• Denis, a Delegate of the Word (like deacon but more) is doing a great job in designing the youth center as well as running the job with his work crew. Suyapa whose son you might remember was murdered by gangs just a few months ago was very happy to know that the youth center was being built in her son’s honor. The Center may be finished in 2 months.

On the weekend of July 7-8, 2012, Epiphany made the focus of this year’s Propagation of the Faith collection, our friends in Honduras. The theme this year is “Rebuild the Hope in Honduras”. 

In early June, we received news of the death by street violence of the 24-year-old son of one of the very active members of Divine Mercy parish in Fuerzas Unidas. This is the parish we have been helping in many different ways for more than 4 years.  Suyapa, the mother of this young man, has a prayer partner here at Epiphany – Susan Williams.  Our whole parish, as well as her prayer partner, have been praying for Suyapa in her grief.

For years now, Suyapa and her community members have been dreaming of a Youth Center, a place where their kids could go instead of to the streets, where gangs and violence await them.  So we have decided it will be our dream, too.  We’ve know many families affected by this violence. [Click here for information.]

On our first trip to Honduras, we helped start this Youth Center.  All that remains to be built is one wall, a floor, and a roof.  We have a delegation going in August, and they would like to bring the money needed to finish the project.

My Mission – In My Own Words by Kathy Thistleton

Honduras Mission trip? Me? Should I do this? I was 64 then. Why not? My friends think I’m nuts? My family
thinks it’s cool. It’s too dangerous?

 Sitting in church about three years ago I overheard a conversation about an upcoming mission trip to Honduras? Where was Honduras? The person who was talking about the trip was telling another person how much she would like to go, but giving a number of reasons for not being able to make the trip. Uh oh!, the first seed was planted. I scooted over next to my husband and I remember telling him, “you know, I always thought about going to some far off place to help people but never took myself up on it. Maybe I should inquire about this Honduras trip"? My husband was immediately supportive and said, well why don’t you just do it?

That being said, I attended a trip planning meeting a few weeks later. I got all excited about all of the stuff that I could participate in to help “fix” the problems of the Hondurans. Needless to say, I got the wind knocked out of my sails early on after Sr. Larraine gave us a book to read, “The Great Omission” by Steve Saint. Basically, it was how to do missions the right way, not the North American way. Wow, the book was powerful and spot on. Fact number one, I wasn’t going to “fix” anything. My purpose was “ to be in relationship with”, connecting, becoming one with the people.” I really didn’t understand that yet, but I do now.