Update on Honduras Project and Hurricane Felix

May 2008: Volunteer Work in Honduras

"Love doesn’t need proof... it needs practice." This May, 60 Compassionate Alliance volunteers were demonstrating this active love in Honduras. One group was led by Dr. Michael Carmichael and his team from First Baptist Church in Ocala, Florida. A second Church of God group was led by CA's own Steve Ewing.

A six-room school house was built in just six days: a new project that Compassionate Alliance is sponsoring with Pastor Feto, a disciple of Dr. Nam Soo Kim. Many items need to be finished before the school can be used, but another team will soon be in Honduras to apply the finishing touches. The school should be completely operational within few months. CA is also planning to lead a team of Southeastern University students to minister to these children in December of this year. Much can be done when we all put love in practice.


September 16-24, 2007: Relief Continues in Honduras

CA is taking a team of 5 individuals to Honduras during this period to continue our support of the people affected by hurricane Felix. Our goals this week:

  1. Feed the people affected by the floods, pray with them and share Christ's love.
  2. Make necessary repairs to the clinic, including roof leaks, floors and lighting.
  3. Reach the churches and pastors on the Mosquito Coast. It is our understanding that there are 25 indigenous churches that need help due to the hurricane and floods. This is where the majority of the loss of life is on any given day.

Thank you in advance for your prayers. This is a chance for many people to hear about Christ's love. The disasters give CA a huge opportunity to help the church see transformed lives through compassion. Many in the US see the disaster as being over, but we will continue until the job is finished. We still need financial help to pay for expenses so please consider partnering with CA in this endeavor.


September 7, 2007: Update from Honduras

CA has been on the ground now for 4 days for our response to hurricane Felix. A quick review of what we have done so far:

  1. Provided phones, printers, fax machines and computers to make the COPECO (Honduran Emergency Response Team) office functional for outside communications.
  2. Setup a temporary housing camp for those who lost everything.
  3. Provided assessments for COPECO in areas that are generally forgotten.
  4. Have at least 5 containers of corn meal, canned goods, tarps for temporary shelters being prepared for shipment from Florida (250,000 pounds of relief).

We are working in the poorest areas where little help is ever given. Today I was moved in a very real way on how resilient these wonderful Hondurans really are. In the midst of helping some 17,000 evacuees spread out over 200 miles, I have not met one who has complained. Not one. Even in the heat, the baking swelter of mud and water, they do not complain. Even despite losing everything (houses included) they are not blaming God, they are not blaming the government, they are not blaming others. They just gather their families and start over building homes out of sticks and tarps and smile at you when you greet them or pat a kid on the head. Feel free to come and join me and see for yourselves! These are wonderful people who know the name of Jesus and they simply need help to get back on their feet.

Our upcoming plans:

  1. We have at least 30 towns and villages where containers will be distributed when they arrive.
  2. I have a written letter from the government to receive our containers duty free and free of demurrage.
  3. We will distribute these containers through the local churches.
  4. La Mosquitia coast is an area that has many challenges. We are working with a national missionary to handle communications with at least 25 churches. These churches are made up of indigenous people and travel is difficult and dangerous.
  5. We have a planned medical trip here in October where doctors and nurses will meet the many needs that exist. If you would like to participate, please contact our office. If you are a Pastor that would like to bring in a team, please let us know.
  6. We will continue to work in this area until the work is done.
  7. CA is working in Honduras on behalf of the State of Florida Emergency Response Team, COPECO, Assemblies of God Schools, Luke World Mission and Full Gospel Church New York.
Would you please take a moment out of your day to pray for the Hondurans? Praying makes a tremendous difference in times such as these. We could write a book of stories of a divine nature that happen in disasters. God loves his people. God shows up when people pray.
 
 Steve Ewing (from Honduras)
 

September 6, 2007: Operations Director Steve Ewing Reports from Honduras

During a hurricane, we only have a short window to get the word out on what we are doing with relief and response. As I write this, I have spent the entire day doing assessments for COPECO, the Honduran government's emergency management. Though the storm is over, the major damage is still occuring with flooding in many parts of the country. I have traveled almost 300 miles today and have been to as many as 35 towns and villages were we will bring our relief efforts. Most of the rivers are flooding many of the villages, though many have not crested yet.

One area in particular, Urraco, will get clobbered tonight as the river is about to go over the banks. There are more than 2000 homes in this area that will likely be filled with water by morning. Please pray that these people will be safe. Upon leaving there a couple of hours ago, torrential rain was coming down and making
matters worse.

What we have done so far:

  1. We have supplied phones, facsimiles and printers to make the regional COPECO functional from a communication point of view.
  2. We built / supplied materials for 40 temporary shelters today in a new squatters village where everything was lost to the floods. It is truly a shame that anyone would live in houses made out of broken pallets and then lose even that to the floods. Living in a tent would be better than these pallet "homes," but there are none available today. This brings Matthew 25 to mind in a very real way.
  3.  We are gearing up to send in 5-7 containers of food and baby supplies. We need financial help to do this.
  4. This is far from over for many people. If a hurricane passes over Florida, we start to recover fairly soon. Here the terrain is tropical, mountainous and beautiful, but because the many mountains and rivers are topped off with a lot of rain, the flooding is a major problem and is still continuing. Please don't forget these wonderful people. We are reaching the lost in places that seem to be the end of the earth.
  5. We are organizing to bring in teams from the U.S. to help with distribution. Because we know the area well, we will work in the areas hardest hit where the word "poor" has a new meaning.

We need your help. One way is to pray. Pray specifically for the people going through a disaster right now. Hurricanes, earthquakes (e.g. David Jesson in Peru), floods in Texas, fires in California and floods in Romania. So much is happening that we must believe we can have an impact. Another way to help is to give financially. We are a ministry based on serving the poor with humility, discernment and discretion. Additionally, we are about creating a movement with the compassion of Jesus Christ, not ourselves.

CA does not have large sums of money at our disposal. We are on the frontlines... not headlines. If you want to join us in any way please know your efforts are greatly appreciated and we can and will show you where lives are being reached and transformed.

Finally, we are trying to get as many churches as possible to take up offerings this weekend to help. Would you be so kind as to forward this to many of your friends or churches and ask them to help us?

Two of the schools we work with here have taken in water but are going to be okay. A major problem for many of the people in the floods is that much of the cash crops are lost. In one small town, a group of farmers explained that they will lose 1.5 million lempira (about $80,000). This is not covered by insurance and is 5 months of hard work and money entirely lost. This is one of the long term effects that will hurt for months to come.

We will continue to do everything we can to help these fine people of Honduras. May God bless you in advance for your prayers and generosity. Please continue to monitor our website in the next few days as we will provide pictures and more updates.

 Steve Ewing (from Honduras)