Many people ask me what I do here in Honduras. It is hard to explain in a few sentences. I just wrote a report and thought that you might be interested. I hope that it won't bore you.
I have just completed 28 happy years here in Honduras. I work in a parish in Puerto Cortes on the north coast. Our parish, Sagrado Corazon de Jesus, is a community of many smaller communities. It covers an area of 375 square kilometers, much of which is mountainous. In the rural area we work with 65 communities, most of which are in the mountain. Some are along the rivers and others along the seacoast. They can be reached by four-wheel drive vehicle or by boat to go down the river. Some of the mountain villages can only be reached by a foot path. In the city there are some 60,000 people, divided into 14 urban barrios. The people in each barrio form their own small basic Christian community. The communities are organized as basic Christian communities, coordinated by a community council.

In our parish we have three Vincentian priests from Spain. They are very dedicated and very active. They get to the villages for Mass at most once a month. Some villages have Mass every two months and some every three months. Meanwhile the faith is kept alive by Delegates of the Word who conduct a Celebration of the Word in the village on Sundays and sometimes during the week. The Celebration of the Word is a liturgy similar to the Mass, except without the consecration. Some of the more experienced Delegates have the ministry of the Eucharist, so they have the presence of the Eucharist in the church. The community council is coordinated by a Delegate of the Word. There are catechists who teach the children, leaders of the youth group, officers of the Legion of Mary, and leaders of family reflection groups. The council is divided into three committees - the lirturgy committee, the evangelization committee, and the social action committee. My principal work is the coordination and training of 95 Delegates of the Word and 85 catechists, Most of my work is with the people in the rural villages. Besides my work with the Delegates and the catechists, I coordinate a radio education program for young and older adults who have no other means to continue and finish their education because of distance or financial problems. The program goes from first grade through basic high school and is approved by the Ministry of Education.

Our people in the rural area are extremely poor, living on what they can grow on the sides of steep mountains. Their homes are very simple, most of which are made of mud or bamboo with a roof made of palm leaves. They live on what they can grow on the sides of steep mountains. Their main crops are corn and beans, and sometimes rice. The best land in Honduras is owned by the rich. So I also look for programs to help them with agricultural programs. Among our mountain people there is a serious problem of malnutrition, especially among children. Recently with the help of Heifer International and some generous donors, we were able to provide cows for 24 families in the highest part of the mountains. This is the beginning of what we hope will be a chain which will last for a long time and reach many more families. Each family who receives an animal has a commitment to pass on the first offspring to another family. Soon we expect to have 48 families with the benefit of milk for their children. We are working to coordinate the program so that it will continue even after we leave.

Our people in the villages have little access to medicine. We are trying to promote the use of natural medicine which can be provided by the many medicinal plants which they have all around them. We had a workshop with representatives from the each of the villages where they shared their knowledge of the various plants and their uses. We ended up making a booklet with 85 different recipes for all different kinds of ailments. The people names the booklet "El Medico del Pobre:", (The Poor Man's Doctor").

Thanks be to God, all our projects are going well at this time. We are coming to the end of the school year and the beginning of vacation time.