Grace and Peace to you in
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ:
Well, Labor Day has come
and gone, and life has taken on the routine of the “real” year……school days are
back!!! We are into our 3rd
week here at St. Mary’s Episcopal School in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The teachers, students and staff are getting
adjusted at being back at school. The
beginning of school is a mixture of sweet and sour emotions….it’s good to catch
up with your friends since last school year, but mixed feelings about the work
that is before each student. Then you
have the children that have to make a break from their parents. That’s always hard on the little ones…..and
the parents!
As many of you know, life
is hard for the people here in Honduras.
So what we would like to do is to help our teachers to have their
children here at St. Mary’s. In order to
do this, we need to give their children scholarships. We have 15 students that need help. At present, we have 3 students that have
scholarships from those who helped out last year, so only 12 more to go. The fees for the children are as follows:
Pre K, K, and Prepa $2,000.00/year
Grades 1-3 $2,400.00/year
Grades 4-6 $2,500.00/year
Grades 7-10 $2,600.00/year
Grade 11 $2,700.00/year
This amounts to $200-$270
a month for a 10 month pay period.
When I look at the “price
tag” for the students; I start thinking, “How can I help one of these children
get a quality education?” As an
individual, it is beyond my capacity; but if I can get a few others to join
with me, then it is indeed possible to support a child. If you are in a Bible Study group or some
other group, maybe you could be the “champion” to challenge them to support one
of our students.
In a recent article that I
was reading, Pope Francis is asking the Church to “Help Kids Break the Cycle of
Poverty” saying that it “Is our duty to do good.” The article went on to say, “Well prepared,
morally educated students can break cycles of corruption and poverty; the root
causes of world hunger. The educated
students are the ones who will end these cycles in their communities.” This is so true for the people here in
Honduras.
Then I was reading a
newsletter from a friend of mine who works in a hostile country in Asia and he
wrote the following prayer which I’ve edited for his protection:
Lord, please move in me and in all who (read this letter), that
we will spontaneously give ourselves first to You unreservedly and then also
give ourselves to one another. Work in
us in such a way that all our giving of money, time, and talents would flow not
from emotions and not from the excitement we feel when we hear a story from the
field and not from some sense of obligation, but may our “ giving” flow out of
Your purposes working in our lives and our obedience to whatever You tell us to
do; whether that is for our churches,
for some other ministry, or for however else You might direct… Amen
So, the bottom line of this letter is to ask you to pray for the Lord’s direction in this matter and
if so led to help one of our teacher’s children with a scholarship, please
contact us.
Be Blessed to be a
Blessing,
Fr. Joe
