Muddy Roads, Take Me Home

The team members with Life Community Church were able to visit the homes and families of their sponsored children, in the community of Arenales, during their time in Honduras. Sowers4Pastors always makes this opportunity available to visiting sponsors, when they come down on teams. It takes an hour of driving, most of this on dirt roads, to get from Gracias to Arenales. Allen arranged for me to speak to two of the team members and hear about their impressions. 

Petra’s Visit

This is Petra’s second team visit with Sowers4Pastors, but it was her first time to make a home visit. She was able to see the home of her own sponsored child and “tag along” to two other homes. Getting there wasn’t easy!

Petra was expecting the normal, long and winding trek. But, because it rained the previous night, the roads were very muddy. At one point, they had to park the van, get out, and walk. Since it’s not technically the rainy season, Petra hadn’t packed her boots. She slogged through mud in shoes that weren’t made for mud slogging!

The home of Petra’s sponsored child was what she believed to be, “middle class by Honduran standards.” She described it as having at least two rooms. She sat in a room that contained a mini fridge, coffee grinder, and other humble amenities. She saw a curtain, which served as a wall to another room. This “middle class” house had a tin roof and a dirt floor. She marveled that the tin must have been doing its job because the floors weren’t muddy. Petra believes seven people live in that house with the sponsored child.

The family was welcoming and hospitable. She said, “They had a meal ready for me when I got there and had many questions about me.” She went on to say, “We didn’t lack for conversation!”

She had been told that families come from varying economic backgrounds and she got to see that first hand. Directly next door to her child’s house stands the house of her team member Keri’s sponsored child. The patriarch of Petra’s family is a coffee grower. The father of Keri’s sponsored child is a coffee picker. The economic differences were startling. 

Petra would like for people to realize every visit will be different. She encourages people to get rid of any preconceived notions.

Keri’s Visit

This was Keri’s first trip to Honduras. She described the area by saying, “The town is very poor, but the people do a lot for each other. The pastors do a lot for their church families and communities. They work to make sure people get an education.”

Keri described the churches as, “basically open-air, cement buildings with benches in them.” Dividers separate areas to serve as Sunday School rooms for children. Of the schools, she said, “They are cement buildings with two or three classrooms, where kids are divided by age group.” 

Concerning the home visit, Keri said, “I knew the family was probably very poor, but I didn’t realize how poor. It was a tin shack with dirt floor, off a mud path. The walls aren’t sealed. When you walk in, there’s a table, a stove, and two or three chairs. That’s where you sat.”  Keri’s 10-yr-old sponsored girl lives in the one room house with her parents.  

Keri wants to remind people how much good is accomplished through a $15 a month sponsorship. She said, “I can’t believe the stuff Sowers4Pastors can do! I even got my sister to sponsor an unsponsored child this week, and she is not affiliated with my church.”

 - posted by Christi