Giving and Receiving the Gifts of the Spirit by the Sweat of Our Brows

by Charles Absher

The Holy Trinity Team returned from Honduras on July 24, after a week in the country participating in a full suite of construction activities in the village of La Colonia. There were seven members of the team this year: myself and Lindy, Linda Abraham, Jake Abraham, Wayne Ledbetter, Ann Watson, and her son Dylan. A small group to be sure, but a group well founded in the mission we were accomplishing. I have made several trips to Honduras, the last three times as the group leader. Lindy has been several times as well, and Linda and Ann were with us on the last trip in 2008. Jake, Wayne, and Dylan were the rookies this year, but it didn’t show in how they responded and participated in the work we were doing. In fact, the whole group was tremendous as everyone jumped in where they could to help in the best way possible.

La Colonia is actually a break-off community from La Higuera, the community where we worked in 2008, and is just about a mile or so further up the same road. Many of the same folks from La Higuera worked with us on this trip as citizens of La Colonia. We saw many familiar friends and recognizable faces during our visit this year to La Colonia; this meant we were building on already established relationships, making it easier to bring those we did not know into the fellowship.

Our opening ceremony in La Colonia was a festive one. Note the schoolhouse dirt floor.

For those who have been to Honduras, the work we did is very familiar. We concreted floors, built septic/latrines, and mudded walls. The first concrete floor we built was in the schoolhouse, replacing the dirt floor with concrete. This was quite an undertaking for the first day of work, but we completed placing the concrete shortly after lunch. We then began on two additional floors in other houses that we completed before the end of the first day.

The next day was spent building septic/latrines. The system is actually a hybrid of an American septic tank and infiltration field. There is an outhouse with a porcelain toilet, a manual flush toilet using a bucket of water (you can do the same thing with toilets here—try it sometime). A PVC pipe connects the toilet in the outhouse to the septic pit a few feet behind the outhouse. The septic pit is an approximate 6 feet by 6 feet hole dug about 10 feet in the ground. The pit is already dug by the time we get there and it is dug by hand. It has to be a tremendous effort. The pit is lined with concrete block, leaving a space between the block and the ground around the outer perimeter of the block. The block allows liquids to seep through the block and into the ground while the solids stay within the block lining. Lastly, the pit is capped with concrete to contain the smell. These pits last for many years serving as a sanitary and odor free alternative to a typical outhouse.

Our third and fourth days were spent mudding walls for new houses. A lattice work of bamboo is built between the supports of the building. This lattice work is filled with mud from a pit worked very near the building. Once dried, this mud will serve as a very good insulator, keeping the house cool during warm weather and warm during cool weather. This work is the most fun as everyone participates— and after all, who doesn’t like to play in the mud!

On Monday and Wednesday mornings, Lindy and Linda conducted Bible School with the village children. This is fun for the kids, and we always see in the homes the things they have made in Bible School.

Of course, evenings are spent at the ranch relaxing and eating dinner. There were some electrical blackouts on Sunday when we first arrived, and the water pumps were not working properly so we ended up without water in our dorm that first Sunday. We survived very easily, however, using buckets for flushing and washing. We just had to carry the water from the laundry house where water was readily available. This was only a minor inconvenience since water and electricity were abundant at the ranch for the rest of our stay.

In my experience it has always been a very rewarding and profound experience, and I don’t think there is anyone who has gone who disagrees with that description. It would be well worth the time to consider traveling as part of a Holy Trinity Team in future trips to Honduras.

Susan Hunsinger, The Trumpet, June 2009

On Russ Wallace’s first visit to Honduras in 1993 he met Salia, a young 15-year-old girl with a serious medical problem. What was initially thought to be a tapeworm was actually a tumor, large and growing, and serious enough to cause paralysis. Dr. Wallace and others at Honduras Outreach arranged for Salia’s treatment. Today she is a schoolteacher in her thirties, married and the mother of her own thriving five year old. Russ knows because he’s enjoyed seeing her almost every year for the past fifteen years. And he smiles when he tells you the story.

Salia’s is just one of the lives positively impacted by Honduras Outreach, one of the many people giving back to Honduras and one of the many people touched by Dr. Russ Wallace.

On May 17, Holy Trinity honored Russ at the 10:30 service, giving thanks for his ministry through Honduras Outreach. For 16 years, Russ has traveled there bringing medical care and more to the people of the Agalta Valley. Holy Trinity’s annual trips are an outgrowth of his work.

Honduras Outreach is a non-denominational Christian non-profit whose projects include medical clinics, education, construction projects, economic development and more. Their mission statement is “to improve the lives of the citizens of the Olancho in central Honduras and the lives of the North Americans who visit there.” Honduras is the second poorest country in our hemisphere and the average family income in Olancho is less than a dollar a day. Although the poverty is overwhelming, it’s the spirit of the people and the richness of the experience that draws Americans back again and again.

And when you ask most people at Holy Trinity why they first became interested in Honduras Outreach, they’ll tell you it was because of Russ.

As a neurologist, Russ was one of the first to prescribe anti-convulsants to effectively prevent seizures in the clinic at Ranch del Paraiso, the home base for Honduras Outreach’s operations. He was puzzled on his next visit as to why patients whose seizures had been non-existent or controlled for the first 10-11 months he was away experienced recurences the month before he returned. He discovered that their medicines had run out. After he shared the story with Holy Trinity’s Brotherhood of St. Andrew, they generously donated funds to stock the clinic with medicine year round.

Jack Kinkade was the next parishioner to get involved. He traveled with Russ and a Newnan, Georgia, group and their work included not only medical outreach, but construction projects in a village as well. Impressed by the work there, Jack went on to share the projects with associates at Emory and expanded and coordinated a public health dimension with his colleagues.

Six years ago, Holy Trinity sent its first mission group to Honduras. After traveling to Tegucigalpa, they stayed at the ranch at night and spent the days with their partner village. There they worked on construction projects, such as laying concrete floors to replace dirt ones, building latrines and constructing walls for houses, typically the size of one of our American bedrooms.

In 2005 Holy Trinity sent two groups. That year church members alongside Hondurans helped construct a water project, spearheaded by Holy Trinity parishioner Ed Buckley, bringing clean fresh water to Los Hornos’ citizens. They continue using the clean water system daily and are no longer forced to rely on the drought-prone creek they shared with their livestock.

That year Holy Trinity visitors also began offering a Vacation Bible School to the children. The Rev. Dr. Deborah Silver was involved, and with others went on to form an economic development project selling prayer beads and jewelry handcrafted by Honduran women. They market the jewelry at American fair trade sales, including the popular one held annually at Holy Trinity the weekend before Thanksgiving. Income generated from these items help women to support their families, buy food, and send their children to school.

Although Russ is not planning to return to Honduras this year, his impact will continue to be felt and his presence missed by Hondurans and traveling Atlantans alike. He cites better nutrition due to family gardens and other sources as the single greatest improvement since he began traveling there 16 years ago. Other accomplishments such as new clinics, the new high school, and improved medical care also make the list. There are many ways to measure the benefits of the partnership materially, but the real sense of accomplishment and friendship run much deeper. Those who travel there all agree their lives will never be the same.