March 2001

Dear Friends,

On February 27, I (Tim) took off from Tegucigalpa in a 20-passenger aircraft headed for the region of Honduras called La Mosquitia, an area with its own distinct indigenous culture and language that is isolated from the rest of the country. I was going to visit the organized women’s group in Uhi in the department of Puerto Lempira. Uhi is located on a narrow strip of land, with the Laguna Caratasca on one side and the Caribbean on the other. The women’s group had made a request to the Presbyterian Committee on the
Self-Development of People, and I had been asked by the committee to visit and write a report.

Nothing had really prepared me for the trip, as I was lifted over the mountains and their beautiful broad-leaf and pine forests. The conditions in La Mosquitia are said to be harsh, with extreme heat and insects. Jokes about the flight didn’t help either—about the irregular schedules in which you may end up having an unexpected extended visit with no expenses paid.

At the dirt landing strip I was met by Christian Development Committee (CCD) personnel who had made my arrangements for the launch ride across the lagoon the following day. CCD began working in La Mosquitia in 1991, originally focusing on community and organizational strengthening in Puerto Lempira and the Wampusirpe area on the Patuca River in about 40 communities. Programs now include gender workshops, agriculture, and health, housing, and infrastructure programs. After Hurricane Mitch struck in 1998, CCD helped people build 96 houses. Now the work centers on developing a territorial planning program in two municipal areas so that the
municipal corporations can get the cooperation of all the public and private organizations in the municipality to work on behalf of all of the communities’ needs as expressed by the people in the communities themselves. This is a very new idea taking hold with promises for a better future for more people.

By 6:00 the next morning we were on our way across the lagoon. The community welcomed me with open arms. With the help of two Misquito translators I learned that the group had grown from 18 women at its founding in 1997 to 80 today. All they had accomplished had been their own doing. They had built a community center to use as a meeting place and for sewing and baking workshops. The school teacher had begun classes in knitting and bread-making, two of the principal activities of the project request. That was why the group had grown: more women wanted to learn. One mother of nine told me that she now bakes bread every day to sell in the community in order to earn the equivalent of $1.50. With this she is able to take care of her children better.

I felt a heat flash when the insight came to me: in terms of religious and social beliefs, I want to do what I was doing then, putting the Word into action. There was much laughter as well as talks about goals and budget. Over a lunch of fish, sea-turtle, and snail (after a relaxing swim in the ocean during which I imagined founding a hotel on the spot and returning with my family whenever I wanted) I heard more about the community. A traditional fishing village, many of the men work as divers for lobster boats. Thirty five out of the 80 women in the group are single heads of families. The obvious interest in the project possibilities were well founded in terms of need. The problems and pressures from the outside world were zooming in on this remote fishing village: these beautiful Carribean waters are the main conduit for drug smugglers coming from Colombia. As I wondered about the future of their children and their culture and was torn by the eternal questions and challenges ahead of them, I was glad to be part of the PC(USA) reaching out across the waters to accompany them at this moment.

We give thanks to all of you who reach out across the waters to us, who keep us in your thoughts and prayers, and who identify with the work of CCD, with Heifer Project International, and with the people of Honduras. We have much to be thankful for: being able to live out our faith and having a healthy, happy, and busy family.

Yours,

Tim and Gloria Wheeler

The 2001 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, page 243