Epiphany Service Team Arrives at El Hogar!

Hola from rainy Tecucigalpa!

The Epiphany All-Men's Glee Club and traveling Service Team has arrived safely in beautiful Honduras. We were scooped up at the airport by Senor Raul Castro. All the porters at the airport clearly know Raul Castro, El Hogar´s Project Manager-they just came up to us, pointed at our bags, and asked, "Raul?" When we nodded yes, they seized our bags, and hustled us and them outside to where Raul and Matt Engleby, Executive Director of El Hogar Projects, were waiting to welcome us. In no time at all, the El Hogar van was filled high with luggage and people and heading back to El Hogar de Amor y Ezperanza. We arrive around mid afternoon, and since then have settled in, eaten twice (!), and received a guided tour of the facilities from Matt. We met a number of the children during the tour, all friendly, and ranging from shy to outgoing.

My wife and I visited the El Hogar facility in downtown Tegucigalpa seven years ago. Jefferson, one of the little children we met then, is no a graduate, has a job at El Hogar, and has won a full four-year scholarship to a local University, where he will be majoring in Business Administration. Jefferson is not the only one who has grown up since my last visit: El Hogar has some beautiful new buildings, including a lovely multi-story dorm for the children, and a spanking new, greatly expanded dining facility, which is due to open this week!

We're all excited to be here, and a bit overwhelmed. We're headed to bed now. In the morning we'll go to church with the boys, and on Monday head out to Santa Lucia, where we'll be doing some construction for the new residence for the older girls.

Greetings from Tom, Tom, and Tom, Rich and Rich, Bill and Bill, and Josh and Ed!

-rich

Headed to El Hogar

Tomorrow morning about 4:15am, while most of you are sleeping, Kate Reynolds, Pam Chester, Eileen Marks, and Stephanie Terry will be driving their husbands, their priest, and their husbands' friends to Logan for our flights to Tegucigalpa. When we arrive at TGU we'll be met by the staff at El Hogar, and before the afternoon ends we will have settled into the volunteer house.

Who are we? We are 9. All of us are married, 8 of us have kids, 1 of us is gay, 8 of us live in Winchester, 1 in Belmont; 3 of us have been to El Hogar; we are trained in engineering, finance, and theology, and only one of us is reasonably able to speak Spanish. We are all white and our ages span three decades--two of us are in our 40s, 5 of us are in our 50s, 1 of us is in our 60s, and 1 of us in our 70s. all of us are connected to the Parish of the Epiphany. Why are we going? My guess is that our motivations run the gamut. Some of us are going because what we experienced the first time was so compelling that we want to return. Some of us are going because our spouses or our kids have said, "You need to go to El Hogar." Some of us may not know, exactly, why we said "yes," but we did, so off we go. I think all of us believe the Prayer of St. Francis which says, "it is in giving that we receive...and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life." What will we do? Well, pretty much anything we're told. We'll work some every day at the new campus for girls (yes, I have work gloves!), we'll spend time with the children--which means we'll play soccer, take all kinds of snapshots (which the kids love), listen to them read books to us in English, witness their praying, and wonder how it is that such joy can overflow from such poverty. To answer the question, "what will we do?" I would say, "we'll be missionaries." Which is not the 19th or even 20th century expression of mission, but of the way we do it between the Epiphany and El Hogar...a relationship, rooted in God's boundless love for that community and ours, which grows deeper because we believe our friends at El Hogar have at least as much to give us, as we have to give them.

And you...what can you do? Check this blog out every day. Pray for us. Pray for the children and the staff at El Hogar. Be kind to our "left behinds" (our families here in Boston). When we come home, late on Saturday the 20th, please be prepared to see immediate changes in the way we think and speak, as well as the possibility that whatever transformation will occur might not be readily apparent for a very long time. In short, trust that God will be with us...while we're away, while we're there, and when we come home.