Subscribe to Christianity Today
Subscribe to Christianity Today
Donate to Christianity Today
November 21, 2009
Free Newsletters:
RSS Feeds | Audio | Twitter

Home > 2009 > July (Web-only)Christianity Today, July (Web-only), 2009  |   |  
Honduran Hiatus
Political crisis disrupts short-term missions season, prompts introspection by church leaders.



ADVERTISEMENT

Political unrest in Honduras is disrupting the peak of one of the world's busiest seasons and settings for short-term mission trips.

Many North American mission groups have delayed or canceled their July trips to the impoverished Central American nation following a June 28 government-sanctioned military coup, leaving some Honduran Christian organizations in the lurch.

Orphan Outreach, a Christian relief organization in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, has sent four mission groups home early and canceled two groups slated to come in July. Another group decided to go to Peru instead. Other organizations, such as the Mennonite-backed Mujeres Amigas Millas Apartes (Women Friends Miles Apart) in the industrial center of San Pedro Sula, counseled groups to delay trips in order to avoid potential social unrest during the heated standoff between supporters of Honduran president Manuel Zelaya and the interim government that ousted him.

Safety of visiting missionaries is an important concern, yet Honduran ministries admit that these cancellations have a profound effect on the local organizations that rely on mission trips to meet operational costs.

"These groups bring supplies, clothes and operational money," said Jeony Ordoñez, director of the Amor, Fe y Esperanza (Love, Faith and Hope) school for children who live and work at the municipal dump in Tegucigalpa. "If they don't come, we don't get it. [Cancellations] are affecting us significantly."

Honduras is the fourth most-popular international destination for North American mission groups, according to Robert J. Priest of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. The bulk of these groups come in June and July.

The events that sparked the cancellations—a proposed popular referendum by Zelaya to change the constitution and his subsequent early-morning ouster by the military—were the by-product of tensions brewing for years in a country long-plagued by poverty, a troubled judicial system, and a powerful elite group of rich families. Yet the coup was dramatic enough to bring to the forefront longstanding divisions in the Honduran evangelical church and motivated church leaders to take their previously private political stances public.

Church and politics: Evangelicals as agents of political change

Most evangelical pastors in Honduras acknowledge the need to speak out against the injustices plaguing their country, but they differ on the appropriate method.

Some, such as Evelio Reyes, pastor of Vida Abundante (Abundant Life) megachurch in Tegucigalpa, have taken to the streets in support of acting president Roberto Micheletti. Others, such as Mario Cantor, pastor of a small church in a marginalized neighborhood of Tegucigalpa, attend pro-Zelaya rallies. Rene Peñalba, pastor of 5,000-member Tegucigalpa megachurch Centro Cristiano Internacional (International Christian Center), says that "neither marches nor sit-ins will solve this crisis."

The ongoing political crisis has exposed divisions within the Honduran evangelical church that have been festering for years. This polarization, according to Cantor, runs deeper than pro-Zelaya or pro-Micheletti leanings to differences as fundamental as rich and poor, urban and rural, "leftist" and "right-wing."

Oswaldo Canales, president of the Confraternidad Evangélica de Honduras, an umbrella group for Honduran evangelicals, says these divisions are overblown. He believes marginalized churches suffer from problems of "low self esteem."

share this pageshare this page



E-mail this pageWrite CTPrint this articlePost a comment





  


Subscribe to Christianity Today and get 3 free trial issues. No credit card required.

Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only.

If you decide you want to keep Christianity Today coming, honor your invoice for just $19.95 and receive nine more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The three trial issues are yours to keep, regardless.


Click here for international orders2-for-1 Gifts!

[Reader Reviews]
Average User Rating: 

Displaying 1 - 3 of 6 comments.See all comments
rick   Posted: July 16, 2009 8:54 AM
Sad that mission trips are being cancelled. This mess would be over if Obama had handled the situation correctly: https://www.mindreign.com/en/mindshare/World-Politics-and-Current-Events/De mocracy-2c-not-Ch-c3-a1vez-2c-in-Honduras/sl34045952bp297cpp10pn1.html

Laurie   Posted: July 15, 2009 1:55 PM
Excellent article. I live and work in Honduras, and I am an American citizen. Much food for thought in regard to the value of short term workers.

Johann   Posted: July 15, 2009 10:53 AM
You evangelicals really disgust me. Why don't you cowards go to the Middle East and try to convert the Moslems, or go to rural India and convert the Hindus? Instead, you go down to Latin America and bribe Catholics into your phony "churches". What a bunch of hypocrites you are. Why don't you stay in the U.S. and convert your own immoral people? Latin America has had the true, historical Christianity before your country even existed.

The allotted time for commenting has ended.

sponsors 








[Browse More Christianity Today]

Search






















Search by Name
Or use Advanced Search to search by program, region, cost, affiliation, enrollment, more!

Search by:





Books & Culture
Christianity Today
Church Law & Tax Report
Church Finance Today
Leadership Journal
Men of Integrity
Outcomes
Kyria.com
Your Church
ChristianityTodayLibrary.com
PreachingToday.com