Hello,

Some have asked me to talk about my time in Honduras.  I find that to be a daunting task as it is so hard to put into words the many wonderful experiences that I had in that country.

Originally, I was going to be met by 11 other individuals from the Diocese of Washington.  The original purpose of our trip to Honduras was threefold.  We were going to study Spanish through a Spanish language immersion program.  We were going to experience the Episcopal Church in Honduras.  And finally, we were going to help with community service projects in three remote communities.  Unfortunately, due to the political unrest in the country, the rest of the group was unable to join me.  So, I was able to accomplish our first two goals by myself but not able to do any actual community service work in the remote communities.

The majority of my time was spent in a town called Copan Ruinas.  It is the site of some famous Mayan ruins.  I must admit that my interests do not lie in ancient meso-America, so I did not spend much time at the ruins.  Undoubtedly, this will shock and dismay those of you for whom this period of time holds great interest for you.  I am sorry.

Nonetheless, I found the country and people of Honduras to be wonderful.  The people in Copan were extremely nice.  I have to say that it is an ideal location for an immersion program because most of the people do not know English.  Thus, you have to speak Spanish in order to accomplish basic daily tasks.  However, the people were very, very friendly and patient with my broken Spanish.  I stayed with a family for the entire time and was able to enjoy delicious home-cooked meals and lots of mealtime conversation.

Perhaps the most shocking aspect of my trip was the amount of work that the priests in Honduras accomplish.  Padre Arnoldo is the dean of Copan, and he is responsible for 30 missions in that area!  While a couple of these missions are near the town of Copan, most of them are far up in the mountains and only reachable with his very durable 4-wheel drive truck!  They rely heavily on the help of lay pastors because there are just not enough priests for all of the congregations.  They have lay pastors who have graduated from seminary and are ready to be ordained, but they don’t have the funds to ordain them.  I was very much reminded of Christ’s statements about the fields being ripe for the harvest!

It is my hope to return to Honduras one day.  I would love to bring a group of teenagers with me for the immersion experience.  There is nothing like experiencing another culture to get a better understanding of our own.  I am going to try very hard to keep up with and improve my Spanish.  I would be overjoyed if I could one day become fluent.  I don’t know if God will ever call me specifically to ministry with a Spanish-speaking congregation, but I do know that I am very grateful that God has laid a burden on the heart of my bishop to prepare all of his ordinands for that possibility.

In Christ,
Shawn