Friends of Honduras Outreach
The recent political turmoil in Honduras, on top of the continuing economic pressures on our U.S. donors, are significantly challenging the ministries and finances of Honduras Outreach. Knowing that you love the people of Honduras, would like to stay informed as to the situation there, and want to learn how you might help, we want to give you a concise view of the situation as we understand it.
The one thing we have learned, again, is that God is in control and He is certainly sufficient!
There has been little movement in the political situation in recent days in Honduras. The interim government has refused to allow the return of the ousted President, and the U.S. Department of State has issued an alert recommending that U.S. citizens avoid non-essential travel to Honduras and unnecessary travel within Honduras. That alert and uncertainty about how things will develop in Honduras have led the Honduras Outreach Board to wisely halt group travel until at least such time as our government has lifted these travel alerts. We suspect this will occur sometime after the upcoming regularly scheduled Presidential elections in the late fall.
As you would expect, this change in our operations has the real potential to deprive our friends we serve in the valley around the Ranch of much needed support. It has also placed a severe financial strain on HOI. In response to this drop in funding we have had to reduce our staff and salaries, both in Honduras and the United States. Suspension of group travel has sadly also brought to a halt many projects to improve life for our friends in the villages. To save money, I have been asked by the Board to take on the additional role of volunteer Executive Director of HOI.
We have every intention to resume group travel to Honduras as soon as possible. In the meantime we are trying to keep our core staff and infrastructure in that vital community ministry in place so we can serve the people as seamlessly as possible when group travel resumes. Additionally, we are working to keep our other critical ministries and programs in place.
Most notably we feel we cannot allow our Spiritual Life, Education, Medical, and Agriculture ministry’s to cease. We are serving thousands of people in the Agalta Valley and are their sole means of securing medical care and schooling for their children. We have no plans of stopping these much needed services, but we have a staff of 50 people (down from 65) still in Honduras we must pay in order to provide these critical services. Many of our staff members in Honduras have voluntarily reduced their compensation in an effort to help. We are also asking for and receiving support from the citizens in Honduras. For example, the parents of the children in our Aldersgate Elementary and Hope Middle Schools have voluntarily assumed responsibility for paying for the electricity costs in the schools. These parents, even with minimal resources, desperately want us to keep the schools open…and we plan to!
That said, we need your help…now. Our funds are running out quickly, and unless we immediately raise a significant amount of contributions, we will be forced to make some very difficult choices. We don’t believe anyone wants this to happen, and we don’t believe it’s in God’s will.
What is being done to raise money? First, our Board of Directors, while always giving sacrificially to HOI, has stepped up even more by giving generously and asking others to do likewise. We have also made a request to all of the Churches and Groups that travel with us to Honduras, to make appeals to their congregations and constituents for emergency funds. We are thankfully seeing an excellent response to those requests. As one example, the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Decatur which just sent us an emergency relief check for over $15,000. We were especially humbled by this generous response, and there are many other groups stepping forward to help.We have also received from an anonymous donor a $25,000 matching grant for Education for funds received by September 10, 2009, for our school system.
To be specific, in addition to the generous response we’ve already received, we still need to raise an additional $200,000 to be able to operate to the end of 2009. Our operating budget for 2010 will be approximately $950,000, down some 40% from the run rate of the past year. All of these funds will need to be generated from our generous donor base if we are to continue operations.
What can you do? We are asking everyone who has the ability, to prayerfully consider a regular gift to HOI to enable us to continue our work, even if at reduced levels, on your behalf in Honduras. These people have no other resource to fall back on. It’s us! We will be contacting you soon as part of a grass roots giving campaign built on the theme that HOI has just celebrated its 20th year in service to Honduras. In the meantime, if you feel so moved to help, you can mail checks to:
Honduras Outreach Inc. 4105 Briarcliff Road, N.E. Atlanta, Ga. 30345 or visit our website www.hoi.org where contributions can be made online. God bless each of you and pray that we will be able to continue the ministry that has changed so many lives, both in Honduras and in the United States.
HOI has completed its first 20 years, and with God’s help we plan to be here for many more 20 year anniversaries. Our desire is to stay in God’s will in Honduras, and to raise the money needed to continue our mission to serve the people there. This most definitely includes group travel, for that is where lives are changed and relationships are born. To do that, we are asking for your help, right now!
In His name, Sue Church Chairman of the Board of Honduras Outreach
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