Christmas 2003

So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manager, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Luke 2: 6-7

Dear Friends,

We love the Christmas stories of the birth of Jesus and look forward to them each year as a time of renewal, of new hope in an imperfect world. Christmas gives us the chance of a new beginning, of making new plans to do the things that we haven’t been able to do during the past year, and of remembering the values that we would like to share and adhere to in our relations with all humankind during the whole year. We hope for peace throughout the world with self-respect and equality in human rights and living conditions for all people.

The humble beginnings of Jesus would be very common in Honduras, where many of the homes may be more like mangers than like sturdy homes. This year we are reminded of the humanness of Jesus, that Jesus came as so many children come into the world.

The Popol Vuh, the sacred story of the Mayas, relates to us how the first humans were formed in the Maya tradition.

The making, the modeling of our first mother-father,
with yellow corn, white corn alone for the flesh,
food alone for the human legs and arms,
for our first fathers, the four human works.

They were simply made and modeled …
no woman gave birth to them …
then when they came to fruition,
they came out human.

The nice thing that we can see in this tradition is that people were made out of a food staple. Corn is still a major food staple of the people of Central America. We are nourished and our lives are replenished by the very same material that we were made from at the beginning. The relationship between people and corn is so evident here, where people plant on hillsides just to have enough to eat.

For this coming year we simply hope to be able to carry on many activities that we are involved in that are new. We hope to take a bold step and help some young people study. A young man needs a scholarship to come from La Mosquitia in the remote eastern part of the country to study nursing. A young Lenca girl who has never had an opportunity outside of her community wants to come to Tegucigalpa to study sewing. These things are possible and we can make them happen by providing them some scholarship support.

We hope that our work and its benefits through Heifer Project will reach out to many new people this coming year. We have the challenge of doubling the impact of the project during these next three years to reach 5,000 families. We think this is possible.

We hope that our family will continue to make the small steps necessary in terms of education, jobs, and reaching out to help others during the coming year. This year Pamela and Marsha graduated from college, and both chose part time social jobs as they make longer-term plans. Grace is in the discernment process of choosing a college to begin next fall.

Our challenges are here and now, and they can’t wait.

As we share the Christmas joy may we remember the little things that could be challenges, can we reach out to others and hold them in our prayers. Let us be new again in our thinking and in our ways.

We send our Christmas joyful greeting with hopes of peace in the new year, and that we may carry out our many small challenges to help make the world a more human place.

Tim and Gloria Wheeler

The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 135