Newsletter - April, 2015
| April, 2015 Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me." Matt. 25:40 Published by the Society of the Good Shepherd, P. O. Box 122, Amberson, PA 17210. (717) 349-7033 |
We took 11 people along with us on our trip to Honduras this past February. I asked one of the sisters, Jalee Brechbill, to keep a diary of the trip. After we returned to the states, Jalee used her notes to write a recap of the whole trip. Here is an excerpt from it, concerning the Quince Años celebration for the Society. David Bercot
On Friday, our first full day in Honduras, we went down the street to the house of Nancy Barahona, the daughter of one of the Society’s Honduran directors, Dixy Barahona. Nancy serves as the secretary for the Society of the Good Shepherd in Honduras. The Society is cele-brating 15 yea rs of ministry in Honduras this year, and the directors have planned a “Quince Años” celebration for tomorrow. Everyone who has successfully gone through the Society’s loan program has been invited to the meeting.
David and Deborah had suggested that they have a white elephant party during the cele-bration—a new game for most Hondurans. We had all brought down suitcases packed with gifts and prizes for the white elephant game. So Friday morning we unpacked all the suitcases and began wrapping gifts for the sixty persons who will be participating in the game on Saturday. The men soon got bored with the gift wrapping, and they felt like they were in the way. So they all headed for the open market in town to take our boys shopping. The boys came back brandishing machetes and were as excited as any woman over a shopping trip!
Later in the afternoon, we all loaded into Luis’ pickup and went visiting. Our first stop was bringing food to one of the widows the Society supports. Luis knocked on the door of the modest house. The door opened up to reveal a little old lady, all bent over with a wooden walk-ing stick. She sat on the doorstep next to our baby, Mitchell, and beamed a toothless smile from ear to ear. She reminded me of pictures I have seen in National Geographic! Our family was staying with Dixy Barahona and his wife Reina. On Saturday morning I woke up to the sounds of the household in some kind of hubbub. When I came down the stairs, I saw a lot of extra girls running around helping get food ready for the celebration. It had just been announced yesterday that the entire city is going to be without electricity today, and so a genera-tor has been set up at the school where the celebration will be held.
In fact, Reina was taking the last thing out of the oven when the electricity was shut off and everything went dark. It was a rainy, overcast day, but Reina breathed a sigh of relief like everything was under control. The meeting was held at a local school auditorium, and we got to the school about 10:00 a.m. We immediately noticed that a big yellow and white tent had been set up. Music was com-ing out of the school, as the young people were practicing for the program. Ladies scurried about setting things up for lunch.
We sat down in the auditorium of the school, and I was surprised to see so many people. In fifteen years, it is amazing how many lives have been touched by the Society of the Good Shepherd. Luis says that the loan program has probably been the single most effective ministry that he has seen in his lifetime. I think it is one of the reasons that David has had the privilege of keeping Luis on board with him. A lot of other ministries are competing for Luis’ talents! Everyone seemed to have a good time. A minister preached a message on faithfulness, various people sang, and we played a mixture of games. David gave special recognition to those persons who had successfully paid off their loans in the past 6 months. Dixy ran around with his soft voice and big smile, organizing it all!
One of the final events was the white elephant game. Everyone laughed and enjoyed themselves as different gifts kept passing between people. Without telling anyone—even the di-rectors—David had wrapped a 500 Lempira bill (about $25 U.S.) in a small unassuming green paper package. Naturally, no one wanted that inconsequential package. Finally, one sister decid-ed to choose it in order to speed the game along. She and everyone else were quite surprised to find that it contained money. For some time she had been wanting to buy a large print Bible, and this gave her the needed funds to do so.
Finally, a birthday cake was brought in with candles, and then we all posed for a group picture outside. It was a fun day, and we enjoyed meeting so many joyful, loving brothers and sisters. [TO BE CONTINUED]
The Society of the Good Shepherd, P. O. Box 122, Amberson, PA 17210 • (717) 349-7033
Click on the following link if you would care to make a donation to the work in Honduras: Donations
|
|