Walking With the Poor - Notes From the Field

SECOND-EVER MISSION AWARENESS TRIP TO HONDURAS

June 25 to July 2, 2005

Heartfelt greetings from the CFCA Projects!

I write this time from Honduras, Central America, as we begin the second mission awareness trip ever to visit this beautiful but struggling country. In Honduras, CFCA has six projects with over 14,000 families involved. Honduras was the site of the long and dedicated missionary service of CFCA co-founder Jerry Tolle.

Ocotepeque project, Honduras: Saturday, June 25- Sunday, June 26, 2005

Our mission awareness trip to Honduras begins with a two-day visit to CFCA’s Ocotepeque project. This project, quite close to the border of both El Salvador and Guatemala, is organized into 11 program sites, with 2,083 sponsored children, 68 sponsored aging and 61 students on CFCA scholarships. CFAC serves 30 rural communities and 16 neighborhoods in the area.

For Holy Mass, our group is warmly received by the Capuchino priest and the people of San Jose parish. American-born Father Lorenzo involves the sponsors deeply in the Eucharistic celebration. I speak to the congregation after communion and we enjoy a song, Vamonos Patria.

Monday, June 27, 2005

We spend this day with admirable sponsored families in the mountains surrounding Ocotepeque. What a joy to see mothers learning sewing and other skills and move forward in spite of countless challenges. Every campesino (rural) child was sharply dressed thanks to the newly-acquired skills of the mothers. We divide into three groups to visit families. With the abundant rains, the roads are interesting, to say the least. In the peace of these mountains and in community with these people, I can only think: There is no place on earth I’d rather be this afternoon.

Indicative of the support CFCA enjoys in this community, both the local Capuchino Pastor and the Oblate Sisters offer us their four-wheel-drive vehicles for the trip to visit sponsored families, knowing well that they will be muddied up and challenged on these back roads. We enjoy the rain even while some of us stand up in the vehicle to better absorb the blows thrown by the rough terrain. All three groups of sponsors do quite a bit of mud hiking, to the gratitude and excitement of the campesino families.

My group visits four families, each one tremendously inspiring. Once past the faithful and ever-present guard dogs, we enter the humble homemade hogares (homes) of adobe walls and earthen floors, with a soul of well cared for children and a wood-burning stove that says “C’mon in.”

Octotepeque to Santa Rosa: Tuesday, June 28, 2005

In summary, our time in Ocotepeque was an outpouring of optimism and solidarity. We gather one last time with the sponsored families underneath the huge Ceiba tree in old Ocotepeque. In Mayan tradition, the Ceiba is also known as the ‘Tree of Life’.

We are welcomed into an intimate setting when we arrive after dark at the CFCA Santa Rosa center. We receive greetings from wall-to-wall affectionate children who are ‘wired’ with excitement to see their sponsors. They treat us to a good supper and a customary talent performance. The sponsors surprise the children by serving their supper. Afterwards, we get the children on their way back home and walk down to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

We spend the day sightseeing and getting oriented in the area. The Mayan Site at Copan (circa 200-800 A.D.) is impressive, peaceful and restful. A flock of free guacamayas (macaws) greet visitors at the entrance.

Thursday, June 30, 2005

Blessed with a sunny morning, we are visiting two communities very much in the Honduran countryside. Of impact in these communities is the strong presence of the fathers who are keenly interested in and very grateful for the project. My wife, Cristina, expressed to all that we appreciate their coming together to greet and share with the mission awareness group. We recognize that these fathers have given up a day’s wage to be here. We break into five groups and visit as many homes of sponsored children as time permits. We speak of their reality, one aspect of which is the lack of clean water.

A thunderstorm is forming at dusk as we arrive in the rural community of Camalote. By lantern light, we are gifted with a loving performance by the sponsored children. A good number of mom’s and dad’s were on-hand to express their belief in the sponsorship program. Five-year-old Miriam danced to a song about angels which was out of this world. We receive healthy rains and experience heavy semi-truck traffic on the way back up to Santa Rosa.

Back at the center, sponsors see the Pilgrimage of Faith video highlighting the spiritual journey of this year’s recipient, Jerry Menard. I pass on a bit of history and something of the spirit of CFCA. Sponsors also speak of their experiences.

Friday, July 1, 2005

Our community prayer this morning includes the personal testimony of a young family with two sponsored girls. At the tender age of six, little Maria Teresa developed life-threatening heart problems. Her parents were to the point of having to sell their home in order to give Maria Teresa the therapy she needed. Through the help of her sponsor, she now receives essential treatment twice a week in San Pedro Sula.

The parents tell us that Maria Teresa is making progress. She really got to the sponsors when she said: “Thank you for giving me a piece of your heart.”

The sponsors on this trip have been good sports about bouncing around in four-wheel drive pickups. We begin our visits of the day with a nice gathering in a small school which a special grant from CFCA helped to repair. It is usually the nine- and ten-year-old girls who take the leadership in these campesino shows.

We tour the cigar factory “Flor de Copan” in the afternoon. Some 1,300 people are employed by this huge cigar factory, including quite a few of the mothers of our sponsored children.

El Progreso Project: Saturday, July 2, 2005

With the sponsors delivered safely to the airport, Cristina, Rafael (regional project coordinator) and I spend the morning with 43 of our community promoters in the project of El Progreso. We meet in the hall of the same parish where co-founder Jerry Tolle spent his missionary years.

These 43 promoters are CFCA’s community contact people. I am very favorably impressed with their level of awareness regarding CFCA. Of note, too, is their self-confidence and facility of expression. Some of the women left their mountain homes early, traveling on foot or horseback to be present here today. Only two men appear in this group. I consider these formation meetings essential to the forging of CFCA identity and the creation of community.

Cristina, Rafael and I give presentations, but mostly we listen to the beauty and strength of their faith and struggle. They speak in glowing terms about the quality of attention and service they receive from the central office team. We finish our morning up with hymns, prayers and a shared lunch. Under a gentle rain, we drive the two-plus hours to Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara Project: Saturday, July 2, 2005

When we arrive, the central office staff is waiting for us in the recently completed home of Manuel and Xiomara, and three-year-old, Guadalupe. This gives us a chance to catch up on things in Project Santa Barbara and to prepare for tomorrow’s activities—Holy Mass, meeting with sponsored rural youth and meeting with community promoters for the Santa Barbara project.

Sunday, July 3, 2005

The town of Santa Barbara is in shock. We have learned that earlier this morning, on the same road we had just traveled, a bus over-loaded with local people suffered a high-speed accident, with many deaths and injured. Their coffins are placed out in state at Mass this morning.

After Mass we meet with 20 or so sponsored teens from the rural areas. During the week, they work hard in the campo (countryside) and receive instruction by radio. On weekends, they walk into town, meet with teachers and participate in CFCA activities.

I love the gatherings we have with CFCA contact people, whether rural or urban. I’m inspired by their character, honesty, strength and commitment to the CFCA program. I reflect on the phrase, “You are the salt of the earth.”

Cristina, Rafael and I participated in a lively and formative give-and-take with the CFCA community contacts. After lunch, we enjoy a community sing-a-long and begin a four-hour drive to Tegucigalpa.

Tegucigalpa Project: Monday, July 4, 2005

We spend this Fourth of July working with the ten members of our local staff of Project Tegucigalpa and the 25 volunteer community contacts. They express tremendous gratitude and enthusiasm for the CFCA program. I hear statements like, “The presence of CFCA has united our community and changed our lives.”

It is 5 p.m. when we begin our battle with traffic to get out of Tegucigalpa and head for Juticalpa in the state of Olancho. Cristina’s mother was born and raised out here in the small town of Manto. This is the first time Cristina has visited this area—quite a sentimental journey.

Juticalpa Project: Tuesday, July 5, 2005

On July 5, we negotiate logging roads in the back country to the small town of Guata, the most distant CFCA program that is part of Juticalpa.

A missionary priest from El Salvador has been organizing people to stop the excessive cutting of the pine forests in the area. The wood barons and loggers have organized too. A tension exists in these hills. Local loggers ask, “What right does this foreigner have to come in here and cause trouble?” Blood could flow here; it’s not unusual to see men toting pistols.

In Guata we found 47 sponsored children, youth and their families. These struggling, campesino families expressed great gratitude for the CFCA presence. “Before, we lived isolated from each other. You are bringing us together”.

A conversation with the two sponsored children impacts me greatly. Their mother had been bludgeoned to death in their presence just before Christmas 2004. After this tragedy, their grandmother took the children in. Shortly thereafter, the grandmother took ill and died. Now an aunt is caring for the children.

We are delayed on the mountain roads after a truck loaded with cement and a bus got stuck and blocked the road. This is one of those days when you feel like you’ve really been somewhere. It is after dark when we gratefully get back to Juticalpa safely.

Wednesday, June 6, 2005

Today is another very full day among the campesino children and families in the countryside of Juticalpa. Inspiring us is Erlinda, the abandoned mother of four who is building her own adobe home. On the four sides of the house, she and the children plant crops of beans and squash that are looking strong. The father of the children took off with a younger woman. Special project monies are helping Erlinda and the children with the house.

For several hours this afternoon we take part in a formation meeting with 17 enlaces or contact people, for the subprojects close to Juticalpa. In our dialog, I am strengthened by their depth of commitment to the sponsored families and to promoting hope in their communities.

This afternoon, we have the good fortune to hold the newborn little girl of Juticalpa team members, Jose Carlos and Gina. Today precious Aminda Beatriz is 10 days old. She is a survivor, born at 7 months, as well as a pilgrim, born in the car on the way to the hospital.

Thursday, June 7, 2005

July 7 finds us traversing the country of Honduras: Juticalpa, Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, Santa Rosa, Ocotepeque. Tomorrow we will cross over into Guatemala and make our way to the capital city in order to receive a large group of sponsors on July 9.

Thank you for traveling with us. I wish you God’s blessings.

Bob Hentzen
July 7, 2005