Summer Honduras Mission Trips Advance Gospel, Deepen Relationships

The Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida‘s longtime Companion Diocese relationship with the Episcopal Diocese of Honduras has found many avenues of expression through the years. From financial gifts to church partnerships to Honduran and Central Florida bishops participating in each other’s annual Diocesan Conventions to the work the Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida’s Institute of Christian Studies is doing to share its Spanish-language training modules with Honduran clergy – and more – the relationship has deepened and the gospel has advanced. Mission trips offer amazing opportunities to cultivate this partnership and extend the kingdom of God, and representatives of diocesan churches have often traveled to Honduras for kingdom ministry, including two recent trips that showcased God’s work.

May 21-25: Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Orlando, to Catedral El Buen Pastor, San Pedro Sula

Just as the Diocese of Central Florida has a companion diocese in Honduras, the Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Orlando, has a companion cathedral in the Catedral El Buen Pastor (Cathedral Church of the Good Shepherd), San Pedro Sula. After a long pause in this relationship, two members of the Cathedral, who both work for Cru®’s Jesus Film Project, visited the church last year to reestablish ties. This May 21-25, they led a team of eight – seven from the Cathedral plus Mrs. Heather Palumbo, a member of St. Mary of the Angels, Orlando, who also works for Jesus Film Project, back to El Buen Pastor for a whirlwind few days of mission service.

“Most of the mission work done in Honduras revolves around mercy, but the people said last year that they really need help on how to share their faith,” said the Rev. Canon Patricia Orlando, canon for spiritual formation at the Cathedral and one of this year’s team members. “Evangelism is a big push in the Diocese of Honduras.”

“We had Melissa Hunt with us as well,” Orlando said. “She is a longtime Cathedral member who sings in the choir. Not only did she participate in the outreach visits, but she led all the children’s activities during the trip.”

On Saturday morning, some members of the Honduran congregation learned how to share their faith using the Jesus Film app; mission team members unfamiliar with the app also received training. That day, the attendance was small but mighty, and within an hour, “We had the God tools,” said Orlando. “And then we broke up into four or five groups, and we went out into the neighborhoods, and we started conversations with people.”

“The app is filled with resources,” Palumbo said. “It has all of our Jesus films on it free for anybody who wants them. … We have short films; we have specialty films – there’s just tons of things on there. The Jesus film is broken up into 61 short segments, clips of certain parts of the film. … I like to say the app gives you digital courage! We went with the people into the community and used the app to show a film or two and then have conversations with folks. After that, we came back and shared stories of the people we connected with.”

With a busy afternoon planned, the team had to return to the church after only a short time in the community, but not without protest. “One of the ladies from the church, Dilma, was sad because we had to leave,” Orlando said. When Melissa said, ‘We’ve got to get back,’ Dilma started crying, telling us, ‘No, no, we’ve got to keep going. There are so many more.’”

But more ministry lay ahead. The church had invited students from El Buen Pastor Episcopal School, its educational affiliate, to spend the afternoon with the team.

“They brought in 50 teenagers,” Palumbo said. “They all came in, and we did what we call the ‘Short Film Festival.’ We gave them a list of questions to help talk about what they experienced – all geared toward having spiritual conversations.”

“One of the kids said, ‘These are the questions we want our parents to answer,’” Palumbo said.

Sunday morning included more training on the Jesus Film app at the request of the Most Rev. Hector Amilcar Ortega Caballero, cathedral dean, since so few had attended the day before. But the church still had its regular Sunday-morning worship service, where Orlando preached, followed by a two-hour training on fundraising for the vestry led by Palumbo. Sunday evening, the team visited a small church in an impoverished area in the mountains and showed the Jesus Film.

For Palumbo, who has been on numerous mission trips with the Jesus Film Project, the trip also held an unexpected blessing. This came in the form of the Rt. Rev. Lloyd Allen, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Honduras, who paid a surprise visit to the Cathedral Saturday evening on his way to a more rural church. He asked to meet Palumbo and requested dinner with her the following night. Confused about his interest, she eventually learned he had previously served as rector at St. Mary of the Angels in Tegucigalpa.

“I’m so excited,” Allen told her. “I’ve been longing for years to get these two churches back together again.” Later, he sent the following information to Palumbo: “Over the decades, St. Mary of the Angels, Orlando, has initiated and supported many Christian ministries … and sponsored church growth in the Diocese of Honduras. In the 1970s Bishop Hugo Pina-Lopez of Honduras named the largest new church ‘Santa Maria de los Angeles’ after the Orlando one.”

“That history had gotten completely lost,” Palumbo said.

Not only did this trip rekindle the previous partnership between the two St. Mary of the Angels parishes, but it may well have begun a connection between the Diocese of Honduras and Jesus Film Project. Palumbo arranged for Allen to tour Jesus Film headquarters in Orlando when he visited the area to preach at the June 8 ordination of the Rev. Wes Dubic. Discussions are ongoing about training for Honduran priests and use of the Jesus Film throughout his diocese. During his visit, Allen also met the Rev. Kevin Bartle, one of the three diocesan youth coordinators and rector of St. Mary of the Angels, Orlando, and had the opportunity to visit the Tegucigalpa congregation’s Florida sister.

For Orlando, one of the most exciting parts of the trip was watching Cathedral acolyte Mr. Bryson Cuthbertson, 18, give his testimony of coming to faith in Christ. “The Lord has just grabbed hold of this young man’s heart, and Shannon worked with him on sharing his testimony,” she said. “His part in Honduras was sharing his testimony in different places.” He had saved his written testimony on his phone, so the first times he shared, he simply read it. But after the film, when he got up to speak again, “He put it down and just gave his testimony without even looking at it.

“It was amazing,” Orlando said. “I’m sure he’s already had an impact on the youth group here at the Cathedral. It was so powerful to everyone for him to be with us in Honduras.” Plans are ongoing for the team to share with their fellow parishioners about the trip, including a visit from Amilcar.

“This needs to be more than just giving money,” she said. “It needs to be personal connection. This isn’t just for them; this is for us as well. … It’s imperative in spiritual formation for our parishioners to be involved in some kind of outreach, for their own heart and for their own spiritual growth. This is a perfect way of creating that space for them to engage and for their hearts to grow.”

May 29-June 8: St. Peter’s, Lake Mary, to Quince de Enero

Another diocesan church has a longtime connection with Honduras. St. Peter’s, Lake Mary, has continued its relationship there for more than 30 years, largely through the nonprofit Mountain of Hope Inc., begun by one of the church’s founding members, Mr. John Millinog.

“Bishop Allen had come to St. Peter’s and talked about building a church in one of the remote areas,” said Mrs. Emily Fletcher, a cradle Episcopalian, seminarian and registered nurse who, with her physician husband, Dr. Brandon Fletcher, joined St. Peter’s in 2013. “They somehow came up with the money, and they built a church in the village of Quince de Enero, which is in the mountain regions near San Pedro Sula, about 45 minutes outside the city.”

But the team from St. Peter’s soon discovered other needs in this remote village that lacked both electricity and running water. “Our children are sick; they’re dying,” a woman told Millinog, a general contractor. “They need doctors and medicine.”

“Well, I’m not a doctor, but I’ll see what I can do,” he said. His subsequent search for medical partners led to a greatly expanded team when he returned to Honduras, one in which doctors and dentists treated more than 3,000 people in a week. Eventually, Mountain of Hope was created, and by 2001, the organization had raised enough money to build and staff a clinic and pharmacy that serves patients throughout the year, employing two part-time medical doctors, two part-time dentists and additional staff.

St. Peter’s continued its regular mission trips to the village, and along with the medical concerns, another issue soon surfaced: a lack of clean water. The bacteria in the water, determined as the source of many of the diseases and other medical concerns common to the village, was also responsible for an unusually high infant mortality rate.

This news prompted a discussion among the members of the mission team that year. “It seems like they need clean water, so what are we going to do?” Millinog asked.

“Well, why don’t we drill some water wells?” answered fellow team member Mr. Keith Ratchford.

“Well, that’s a great idea,” Millinog said. “But do you know a well driller?”

“Well, yeah – I’m a well driller,” said Ratchford. Not only was he a well driller, but he also owned a drilling company back in Central Florida.

“God provided, one step at a time,” Fletcher explained. “They got back from that trip, and Keith had an old well drilling rig sitting in his yard that was not being used. They fixed it up and shipped it down to Honduras on a container, and then they collected a team of guys down there and got them all trained in well drilling.” Today, the well drillers still work for Mountain of Hope and have now drilled more than 100 wells in Quince de Enero and surrounding regions.

Despite a desire to participate in the mission effort, the Fletchers did not become involved until 2022. “For 10 years, we couldn’t make it happen,” Fletcher said. “Three years ago, it was our turn to go. We were both so humbled, and we got to see how our very small efforts were really impacting this community.”

Her husband now serves on the board for Mountain of Hope and has made several trips to Quince de Enero. “St. Peter’s tries to support the church and community there in a number of ways,” she said. “This year, just a few months ago, we sent money to build bathrooms in the church. … It’s these little things that we’re able to do a little bit at a time that add up to a whole lot. God has provided in abundance over and over again. It’s really cool to see how he’s revealed a need, and then he’s fulfilled the need.”

Fletcher is careful to note that the work in Quince de Enero is more than a mercy mission. Every year, the team runs a Bible school for the children of the community and also spends time talking and praying with people. This year, the nine-member team was significantly smaller than most of the teams that have gone in the past – but God used that to his advantage.

“With the larger group, we got there and put our heads down and did the work,” Fletcher said. “And of course, we hung out with people, and we loved on them and prayed with them. But we didn’t really feel we had the time to do the real work God was calling us there to do. This year, we had fewer people, and somehow we had more time and more resources to attend to the spiritual needs.”

Typically, the mission team includes a group who help provide the noon meal for the team members, well drillers and clinic staff. This year, Fletcher and the team recruited women from the village to plan and prepare those lunches. “It was really more of a partnership than just ‘We’re here to serve you,’ Fletcher said. “They absolutely loved it. They had a ball, and we ate great; the food was terrific! It was really beautiful to just be able to nurture the relationships.”

The Bible School ministry this year used a Spanish curriculum on the attributes of God developed by team members Mr. Carlos and Mrs. Emily Mejia, which the Rev. Jeremy Bergstrom, rector of St. Mary’s, had reviewed. Prior to the trip, the two Emilys used the curriculum to select and organize crafts, activities and games to support it, including preparing, printing and collating more than 200 children’s coloring books.

“There is only one school in the village, and it only goes up to 12 years old,” Fletcher said. “They teach the younger kids in the morning and the older ones in the afternoon. … After the younger kids got out of school in the morning, they would come over to the church, which is across the street, and do Bible School for a couple of hours. They would play games, and Emily would teach the lesson plan from her curriculum. Last year, Emily and Carlos started a youth group for teenagers through early 20s, getting them together, talking and doing activities with them, and then trying to follow up with them throughout the year and support them. … This year, we did the Bible School and left them with supplies to do Sunday school for the next few months, and then we’re going to send them some more supplies.”

The church needs support not only because of its size and its home in a remote village but because the parish priest serves a total of nine parishes. “Father Carlos only gets to come and do church in Quince every few weeks or so,” Fletcher said. “And then there is Deacon Carlos, who lives in the village but is not a priest. He’s a little bit limited in what he can do, and he’s also retired. He’s done a great job of being a support person and a leader in the community, but he can still only do so much. St. Peter’s is trying to help support him to support the community.”

Fletcher’s favorite ministry time on this trip occurred on the team’s second day in Honduras. “We were having a big fiesta for the entire village on Sunday after church, which was something we had never done before,” she said. “We thought, ‘We’re trying to connect with these people, so we’re going to have a big party. We’re going to buy the food, and we’ll invite everybody and pray there’s enough food, and God will take care of it.’”

As the team invited people to the fiesta, “We walked down streets we had never walked down,” she said. “We met people where they were, and they just stopped. Instantly, they were opening up to us, and we were praying for people there on the side of the road, and they appreciated it. There was this beautiful moment that God had orchestrated. … There were tears, but there was also a lot of joy and laughter.”

“There was a guy with an alcohol problem,” Fletcher added. “There was a lady whose son had been arrested. There was someone whose family member had recently passed away tragically – all these things that were weighing heavy, and God allowed us to be there to provide an outlet for them to voice these things and to feel like they were being cared for. We were able to pray over them and speak a word to remind them they’re not alone, that God is with them.” Just as in the Gospel stories of Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000, the team had more than enough food for those who attended.

Fletcher and St. Peter’s encourage other individuals and churches to join them in Honduras. “We’re trying to get more people involved, because times are changing,” she said. “Considering that our diocese has a relationship with Honduras, every church doesn’t need to build a church … We can work together and continue to serve the needs of something that already exists. I would say that if you are remotely curious about this, that’s God speaking to you and telling you it’s something you should take a little leap of faith and try out.

“If you just go willingly, it doesn’t matter what your skill set is,” she said. “We actually took a 10-year-old child with us as one of our nine people. If you are willing, God will make you able. He will put the things in front of you that you can help with. You don’t need to be a doctor; you don’t need to be a nurse. You don’t need to be a teacher or a well driller. You can be anybody, and God will use you for whatever he thinks you can be useful for. He will equip you.”

“It’s not about us; it’s about what God wants to do,” Fletcher concluded. “It’s all for his glory, and he’s going to make beautiful things happen.”

For more information on the Mountain of Hope ministry in Honduras, visit mountainofhope.com or contact St. Peter’s, Lake Mary. For more information on future diocesan trips to Honduras, contact the Rev. Wes Dubic, chair, Honduras Commission, wdubic02@hotmail.com.