Christian Commission for Development

Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Honduras is a beautiful country! The lush green hills dotted with red-tiled houses yield breathtaking panoramas. The fruits and vegetables are fresh. The crafts yield incredibly detailed, mahogany wood carvings, tightly woven baskets and delicate pottery. The weather does not vary five degrees from eighty and comes accompanied by a refreshing half-hour rain every afternoon.

It is a paradise only to a favored few. To most, it is sheer poverty. People work for frijoles and rice and everything else is a bonus. Literacy is a luxury that few people have. Medical care is in the hands of village healers. Electricity does not extend into the villages. Water is the biggest problem. The village might have a well, but it might be polluted or dry. In the cities conditions are worse because of the pollution and the overcrowding.

The Christian Commission for Development, our partner in Honduras, is committed to rural self-development. Each of its four centers houses a nurse (for teaching), a consultant on agriculture-animal husbandry and a resource person for the pastors on theological reflection and ecclesiastical problems. Each center works in as many as 70 isolated communities. It starts where people are and with what they have, then works with them to help them organize to solve problems. There are no short-term give-away programs or advanced techniques.

PC(USA) Mission Co-Workers David and Dhyan Cassie worked with CCD and wrote the above description. David worked with Honduran pastors, helping to conduct workshops and training. Dhyan Cassie was a trained audiologist and taught others the skills of audiology, a skill almost non existent in Honduras. Both of the Cassies retired in August of 1994. Their trained workers are in place and continuing the work with pastors, with hearing impaired and with the repair and maintenance of audio equipment.

The PC(USA) assists the work through ECO Account # 864607.

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