Anglican Communion News Service

by Bishop Leo Frade, Bishop of Honduras

A Bishop's Journal

"You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us in answer to many prayers." II Corinthians 1:11

The Lord's Squad

For those of you that have been following our saga from the beginning you will happy to know that we finally have worked out the problems we had originally with the government. There has been a complete cleansing of those responsible for irregularities and things seem to be in order. Our church is now treated more than fairly. Thank you for your prayers on our behalf.

What is more amazing and exciting for us is that in a recent meeting with the Vice-President and a Cabinet Minister in charge of the emergency response for Northern Honduras we were asked to minister spiritually in the many refugee shelters of our area. We ask your prayers for us to be able to respond to this difficult task of caring for the thousands of people that are now without hope and that have lost everything.

We have assembled the Lord's Squad formed by the laity, deacons and priests of the area in order to reach most of the shelters. Can we do it? We will try indeed because this is a unique opportunity to reach thousands in their time of need. Please pray for us.

The dead cowboy

It was his livelihood. He was a Honduran cowboy. He had worked very hard in the mountains of Santa Barbara to care for his family. He knew about farming but cattle was what he loved the most. Finally he was being successful, 15 heads of cattle was quite an investment. Soon things were going to improve even more. Until Hurricane Mitch came, the rains begun and he went out to round his cattle. He was going to be right back. But he never came. He was one of the 20,000 missing. They looked for him throughout the mountains for days, maybe he was stranded somewhere. Yesterday they found him far away where the river had dragged him with his horse and the 15 heads of cattle. The waters began to go down and there he was with his cattle. They were all dead and all was gone.

The Mexican Dogs

We have a love hate relationship with Mexico. I imagine it goes back when we fought them for our independence from Mexican Emperor Iturbide. Maybe because they beat us most of the time in soccer. Today Hondurans are very thankful to Mexico because they came right away to our help. They came with planes, helicopters, rescue personnel, doctors and medicine but they also brought their dogs. They are experienced dogs that can detect persons under the rubble. They had worked in past earthquakes in Mexico but now they search for our dead.

The Mexican soldier in charge of the dogs was speaking the other day. He said that it was only common sense to realize that there were many dead in the capital. They were still under the rubble. The dogs don't have a hard time to locate them, he said. The smell of the dead is easy to detect.

Anglican Road Construction

You can help the people in many ways indeed. The Anglicans of Honduras are in road construction in order to help the villages of the mountains that were completely isolated by mud slides. The government has so much to do and so little to do it with that it will take weeks and months to open the roads so the people can have access to the outside world.

It requires lots of digging and lot of persuasion to get the few machinery available to the areas that are isolated. A little encouragement and being like the insistent widow does wonders to get some machinery to move the mountains. What a joy when people are able to see their town connected with the rest of the world.

Today I had the visit of the village leader of Santa Ana. He walked many kilometers until reaching the nearest form of transportation. He had come down the mountain to the city in order to get supplies and also to thank me for what I had done. I told him not to thank me but the many Christian sisters and brothers that were helping. He asked me to tell you thanks. I am now doing that through the internet. Every one of you: Muchas Gracias

Write to us if you can help

If you are interested in sending a financial contribution to help the Episcopal Church of Honduras be able to meet the needs of many people affected by Hurricane Mitch please write us: episcopal@mayanet.hn