Greetings to all. Hoping your 2020 has had a great start.
Heart to Honduras has used a few phrases to attempt to describe who we are, what we do - "Capacity Awakening" or "Faces of Empowerment." A few of my current favorite pictures that give a visual to those phrases are...
As Heart to Honduras we feel called to be the Aaron to the Hondurans' Moses story. We encourage, walk along side, empower and awaken what God has already given them and called them to do.
Kaleb traveled to Honduras in November to reconnect and accomplish a laundry list of work related items with our Honduran co-workers. From evaluation and planning for the Community Development Department and Communities of Holistic Impact Program, to staff and board meetings. Pastor Eduar invited Kaleb to speak at church one evening, which he did, sharing the powerful, basic reminder of the prophet Micah to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.
As a part of his visit in November Kaleb was able to be a part of the second year wrap up of the Communities of Holistic Impact (CoHi) initiative in Honduras. We launch into year 3 in 2020! To see where most of our work time is invested you can read the 3rd trimester update of CoHi here.
In January we were able to have our Heart to Honduras(HTH) Stateside Staff Anual Retreat in Pittsburgh for the second time! We loved being together with our co-workers, reflecting on how far God has brought the organization and discern together where we are heading this year specifically and then beyond. We were able to brainstorm together some very key topics that will give us clarity on roles and goals.
With only three months of grad school left Kaleb is hard at work in the midst of this last semester of classes at the University of Pittsburgh studying International Development. His classes this semester, are:
Non-Profit Clinic: This capstone course condenses everything that Kaleb has learned thus far into a practical consulting experience with a local nonprofit that is focused on Latin American immigration issues. The class, led by a team of expert foundation, nonprofit, and consulting leaders is rich in practical content and is providing an outstanding opportunity to apply many of the concepts and skills that he has acquired in the past decade.
Financial Management: Focused on the practical tools and components of local government and nonprofit finance, this course is greatly improving Kaleb's financial literacy in those realms. Though this might not have been his first pick of a topic - its lessons are invaluable.
Economics of Development: Taught by Kaleb's academic advisor, (a multi-lingual NGO expert trained at the London School of Economics) this class directly deals with economic issues that improve or impede the development of impoverished countries such as migration, economic development strategies and models, international aid, corruption, and many others.
Planning and Analysis of Sustainable Regions: A part of GSPIA's curriculum for Public Administration, this course emphasizes the balance between ecological, economic, and social sustainability in regions that are currently seeking to grow. In particular, it analyzes the incredible variety of frameworks and policies currently being tried around the world by local governments.
It is probably difficult to really know how much this education has, is and will continue to paint everything that we do at Heart to Honduras. It has broadened our understanding of potential solutions and helped us understand where our organization fits into the worldwide effort for healthy, sustainable development.
Many of you who follow us know a bit about the relationship between Heart to Honduras, Boston Stoker, the village of Lomas del Aguila and COFFEE. We have written up a summary of this beautiful process that embodies a core value of collaboration and what we at HTH see as success in development. Be sure to read:
Like it does for each of you, time keeps moving on and we continue to learn, grow and develop. We enjoyed celebrating Christmas in our little Pittsburgh apartment as a family of four. This was only our second time since we married in 2009 being able to do this and it was a treasured time for us that we are very grateful for. The girls, Eliana now 3 and Alida 5, enjoy being a part of a gymnastics class, story time at the local library, worship services and kid's class at church and any time we go see someone or someone comes over to visit. They are very social beings who love people, relationship, communication and experiences together. Every morning the first questions from them are "are we going anywhere today?" and "is anyone coming over today?"
How you can pray:
- Travel as a family of 4 home to Honduras during Kaleb's spring break from classes March 5-13, 2020
- Kaleb's last semester and April 23rd graduation
- Strength and stability for our family and our future. 2020 will be another year full of change and movement.
- Financial provision for Heart to Honduras operational budget which includes salaries for staff like us and plane tickets!
We are thankful for our generous and faithful supporters! As always, if you, or someone you know would like to be a vital part in the work you read about in our updates or on the HTH website, please join us by giving below!
WHO WE ARE:
Kaleb and Stacey Eldridge - Our shared passion for the people around us and around the world and our common faith in Christ led us to marriage in June of 2009. In 2010, Heart to Honduras offered us the opportunity to step into a full-time International Community Development role. In 2011 we left our full-time teaching and tech-writing jobs in order to move to Honduras and have been there ever since. Why? Our faith leads us to the understanding that we cannot just view people as only souls (to be saved) or only bodies (to be fixed or provided for), but as whole people.
We are all in poverty - mentally, physically, environmentally, emotionally, financially, spiritually – not one of us escapes the grasp of oppression and suffering. We believe that only through hope in Christ can we ever fully escape this vicious cycle. As holistic beings, our response to poverty must also be holistic. We can no longer just engage the world in only church, only poverty alleviation efforts, only counseling, only microbusiness, only education, only medical work, or only environmental advocacy, but work to bring all these elements into one holistic model that ministers to unique needs in each individual or community. This understanding leads us to live intentional lives that focus around relationship with God, ourselves, our environment, and others.