Ten Years of Partnership in Honduras (2006 - 2016)

Carmen’s Place, Part 5.

Members of the church always drive for us in Tegucigalpa. The road system is awful, traffic is horrendous, and finding your way around seems like some strange magic. I am too intimidated to drive here. The few large modern highways, often paid for by American grants, are clogged with traffic. These highways teem with tractor trailer trucks of every variety, many of which belch ugly, black clouds of exhaust. The city streets are filled with old school buses which serve as the principle means of public transportation. It is ironic to see the name of some American school district still printed on the sides of these re-purposed buses. As far as I can tell, there are no marked bus stops and no indication anywhere of the bus routes. I have no idea how one would learn to use this bus system. But most times of the day, the buses are packed to standing room only. (I know about this bus system from chatting with Herbert, a successful businessman who owns of a large bus company in the city and also serves as a leading Elder and Treasurer in the Presbytery. Herbert pays enormous “fees” to the gangs which allow his buses to keep running. This is a cost of doing business.)

In addition to the trucks and buses which are pervasive in the city, there is also a deep, ubiquitous ethos of crime, violence and gangs. It is important to say that I have never, in ten years of visits to Honduras, ever been the victim of a crime; I have never seen any crime; I have never witnessed any violence. I believe to the bottom of my heart that when we are in Honduras our church friends keep us safe. They keep us safe with their powerful commitment to prayer. They keep us safe by very practically watching out for us, surrounding us with their presence, and protecting us. Of course, safety cannot be guaranteed or promised but my experience here thus far has been safe. This is a gift from God; this also includes a careful attention to all the details of personal safety and security. But there is everywhere an uncomfortable sense that this is a dangerous place. The way buildings, stores, and homes are locked up tight with metal gates, razor wire, fencing or high walls is a sign. The presence of security guards, usually carrying shotguns, at most stores, businesses, banks, gas stations and office buildings is a sign. The statistics of gang violence and murder are signs. This may be one of the troubling and nagging spiritual issues for Christians here. We know the reports we hear in the States about Honduras being one of the most dangerous nations in the world; we know about the flow of drugs through these small Central American nations into the States which have gorged streets gangs with money and power. We feel the stressful obsession everyone has to be safe and stay safe. In such a context what does it mean to trust God? What does it mean to have faith? What does it mean to pray for protection and safety? As North Americans we do not live with this daily ethos of crime in our society. Should we avoid the risk and stay home? No, we will keep coming here. But it is essential for anyone considering one of our mission trips to understand that this is a dangerous place.     

Ten years of Partnership in Honduras (2006 - 2016)

Carmen’s Place, Part 6

The Presbytery of Honduras has 25 congregations, three of which are in Tegucigalpa. The number of the congregations in the Presbytery is always in flux given their commitment to evangelism. The pastors and leading church members are always exploring and planting new congregations, typically starting with a Bible study and worship service in someone’s home in a new neighborhood. Some of these projects wither and fail; many develop into new congregations. Often these little house churches will attract Pentecostal or Baptist leadership and go a different direction, never joining the Presbytery. Nonetheless, the commitment to evangelism, to constantly look for opportunities to create and plant a new community is part of the culture of these Presbyterians. This is an important witness to us: these Presbyterians in Honduras can form  a new community and plant a new church without any money. All they need is a deep spiritual commitment to share their faith, the Bible, and someone to host a small gathering in their home.  

We work very close with the three Presbyterian congregations in Tegucigulpa. The Pena de Horeb congregation, which sits on a major city highway, is their leading church and is served by Pastor Juan Rodas; the Roca de Israel congregation (Carmen’s home church) is tucked into a small, poor neighborhood, which we are told is controlled by a gang, and is served by Pastor Edin Samoya; the Tierra Prometida congregation also is tucked into a poor neighborhood and is served by Pastors Fernando and Gloria Huete, who have a small apartment upstairs from their small sanctuary.

Our home construction ministry started in the city, serving families from the Pena de Horeb congregation. That congregation had the vision, leadership and resources to implement our dream of doing ministry into the city. It was their idea to try building new homes for Presbyterian families that were living in substandard housing, essentially wooden shacks.

Our team had an important strategic decision to make. Along with the leadership at the Pena de Horeb congregation, we wanted to expand our housing ministry to the other congregations in the presbytery. Outside the three congregations in Tegucigalpa, all the other congregations in the Presbytery are either rural or located in small towns. (Several of the congregations are only accessible to us by four-wheel drive pickup trucks; the people who live in those communities, of course, walk for miles anywhere – stores, schools, doctors, jobs.) We made a strategic decision, at this point, to only work in the city. A large part of our motivation for this decision is that, in our years of working here in Tegucigalpa, we have never seen another mission team from the States working in the city. We have talked with many, many mission teams. Every flight to Honduras typically includes mission teams; but without exception these other teams after landing at the airport quickly leave the city to do their mission work in some far-flung rural area.

We believe this is our calling: to serve our Presbyterian brothers and sisters in these three, small congregations in the city of Tegucigalpa and by connection the whole Presbyterian Church of Honduras. This calling has been a remarkable blessing to me, and many others actively involved in this partnership. 

Ten Years of Partnership in Honduras (2006 - 2016)

Celebrating Ten Years of Partnership  between the Presbyterian Church of Honduras and the Presbytery of Carlisle.

The family homes in Honduras  to which the Presbytery of Carlisle has contributed:

1. Juan and Maria
    Maria Ellena and Exsel
   Santos and Francesca
   Rene and Mercedes (Mercedes deceased 2014)
   Sandra
   Armando
   Betsabe
   Doris
   Denia and Fernando
   Pocita
   Carmen

Questions for your Mission Committee:

Doing Mission and Giving to Mission:

Challenging Questions

These questions may help guide the discernment of a mission committees as they discern how to define and allocate money from the congregation directed to mission work outside the congregation:

·        How much money which the congregation receives should be turned around and given out beyond the congregation? How is this amount determined? Does the session define and communicate a goal for mission giving beyond the congregation? Or is this amount determined by default, after all other financial obligations are met?

·        What projects beyond the local congregation do you support that do NOT involve giving money?

·        How much of your giving beyond the congregation supports local projects and how much supports PCUSA projects?

·        Of all the projects you support financially – both local projects and through the PCUSA – with how many do you have a personal and spiritual connection?

·        Do you perceive in your congregation now any difference in the level of commitment to our Presbytery and the level of commitment to the General Assembly?

·        Presbyterian World Mission has focused their work into three critical initiatives: Evangelism, Global Poverty and Reconciliation. Which of these areas would be most important for your congregation? Into which area do your mission projects fit?

A Doctrine of the Trinity

I read a daily devotion from Father Richard Rohr which is delivered by email. Today he includes this wonderful poem from Meister Eckhart. What a fabulous doctrine of the Trinity!

Laughter, Liking, Delighting, Loving
Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Let me share an astounding bit of poetry from Meister Eckhart, the wonderful fourteenth-century German Dominican mystic:

Do you want to know
what goes on in the core of the Trinity?
I will tell you.
In the core of the Trinity
the Father laughs
and gives birth to the Son.
The Son laughs back at the Father
and gives birth to the Spirit.
The whole Trinity laughs
and gives birth to us. [1]

God has done only one constant thing since the beginning of time: God has always, forever, and without hesitation loved “the Son”—and yes, you can equally and fittingly use “the Daughter”—understood in this sense as creation, the material universe, you, and me. The quality of the relationship toward the other is the point, not gender or even species.

God cannot not love God’s self in you (see 2 Timothy 2:13)! The “you” that holds the indwelling Spirit, which many of us call the soul, is always considered eternal and intrinsically good because of its inherent connection to God.

Report to the Presbytery, September 27, 2016

Financial Planning requires good communication!

Several different financial reports were distributed to the September 27 meeting of our Presbytery, including a First Reading our 2017 Presbytery Budget. I would like to talk about money for a moment.

Per Capita Assessment: Per Capita is a very dependable and important source of income from our congregations to the presbytery, the synod and the Office of the General Assembly. But I must share with you some difficult conversations which we have had at our Administration Committee. Because Per Capita is such a precise formula, we would like to think that it makes our budget consideration easy. Just plug in the total Per Capita assessment for the year; we know that number. The problem is that we do not receive all of our Per Capita from our churches, and we do not know how much we will receive. So the 2017 Budget has an income number for Per Capita that is only 86% of the total Per Capita for our presbytery, this is the percentage we actually received from our congregations the previous year.

There is a report on 2015 Per Capita giving in your Presbytery meeting papers. Of course, we are grateful to the 33 congregations that contribute their full Per Capita. You will also see there are a number of congregations that do not contribute their full Per Capita. The problem is that not one of the congregations who were not able to contribute their full Per Capita actually communicated that fact to us in 2015. This makes our financial planning very difficult.

I believe this is a very healthy presbytery; there are very good and trusting relationships among us. We know each other. We want to be connected. Please communicate with us. I encourage your session to have a conversation about Per Capita, and please make a commitment to it. Please communicate your intention to us! This is doubly important since our Presbytery is committed to contributing our full Per Capita contribution to the Synod and the General Assembly whether or not we receive it from our congregations. This creates a significant deficit for our presbytery.

Mission Support: As you know, our Presbytery is not only financially supported by Per Capita but also by your Mission Support. Unlike Per Capita, we do not define the contribution amount. This is fully a session responsibility. It is the area of Mission Support that we are seeing the great shift that is changing the whole church.

Shared Mission Support: We have congregations that continue to be generously committed to Shared Mission Support. Thank you! Our Presbytery has approved an 80/ 20 sharing percentage. If you make a Shared Mission gift, 80% is used to support the Presbytery; 20% is used to support the General Assembly Mission Agency.

Designated Mission Support for the Presbytery: We now have congregations that are moving away from Shared Mission support and are making what we call Designated Mission gifts in support of the Presbytery. Very simply these gifts to the presbytery are not shared. All of your Designated Mission gifts in support of the Presbytery are used in support of the Presbytery.

I am asking each congregation for three things:

Please support our Presbytery both with your Per Capita contributions and your mission support. Our Presbytery does good work, and the Presbytery is worthy of your support.

    Please understand our funding system and discuss your support at your session. If you look at our Budget proposal, I am asking you to study and understand Notes 1, 2 and 3 which I provided there.

Please communicate with us. Please tell us your intentions with both Per Capita and Mission support. Communication builds trust; communication builds community. Like every year, we will be sending out pledge forms to each congregation. Please communicate with us. 

The Directory for the Public Worship of God, 1645.

Our Presbytery will consider the proposed new Directory for Worship as an amendment to our Book of Order. The proposed Directory passed our General Assembly and will now be voted on by all our presbyteries. I have been reading and studying the new Directory, a task which sent me back to consider again the Directory for Public Worship which the Westminster Divines wrote in 1645. The Church of Scotland approved and widely used the Westminster Directory for Public Worship. Thus from the Church of Scotland, that Directory has been widely influential in American Presbyterianism.

It is a fascinating, intellectual exercise to consider the cultural and theological changes from 1645 to the present. This sentence is part of the section on the Lord's Supper in the 1645 Directory for Public Worship:

"The ignorant and the scandalous are not fit to receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper."

Interesting discussion questions would be: Why do we not talk this way today? What changed and why?