May is a big month for the Eldridge family, three out of our four have birthdays in May - Kaleb, Stacey and Alida, who just turned four. Our outlier, Eliana, is growing up and nearly 1.5 yrs old. Throughout these past few months we have been much more content in general, having achieved somewhat more balance this year - resulting in more evenings at home as a family instead of most of them working or at church like last year.
Personally, we continue to be involved in our local church and school in Las Lomitas. In response to the ongoing struggle to engage local youth through the church, our local pastor asked us to start teaching a weekly series on Marriage and Family to the adults, so we are in the middle of that covering topics that the church members gave us like: Why marriage?, Finances, and How to Teach/train a Child, etc. Pastor Eduar's hope is that as we firm up the adults, they will help in the lives of their children and youth. English class at the local school continues with great results in verbal communication of basic conversations from many of the children.
We were recently reminded of a study that for a child/youth to fully follow Christ into and throughout adulthood they should have had at least 5 quality Christian adults speaking into their life, being an example and encouragement to them spiritually. We continue to pray for this in the lives of the youth in Las Lomitas. We are excited to see the testimonies and involvement of Heart to Honduras staff (Orlin - Soccer with Values, Marvin- HtH Camp Director, Pastor Fredy and Otto in Community Development, etc.), local Pastor Eduar, us personally, and other adult church members. We hope that this support network will grow to the point that the youth will finally have enough support in their lives to truly believe and follow Christ long term.
On our little homestead, rains have returned and garden has been restarted, more baby goats are due in July. The sole survivor of Pimienta's most recent litter of puppies, Uno, has been getting quite a bit of little girl attention.
The little coffee wood business we started, de Palo Products, has not received much of our time recently, but is alive and well. We recently made a shipment of scoops to the US to stock the de Palo online store as well as our new Etsy store. To order your own or learn more about these unique products all handmade from coffee wood in Las Lomitas, visit the website link below.
Heart to Honduras
The HTH Community Development Program has been humming heartily along in 2018, despite occasional speed bumps with the dramatically-altered political climate. This year so far has seen collaborative initiatives resulting in: water projects, houses, after-school programs, hog-farming microbusinesses, laying hen microbusinesses, public clinic upgrades, church constructions, pilas, and more. The breadth of diversity and depth of impact of this program has grown remarkably in the last five years. We are so excited to see churches and communities continue to understand their true identities as agents of local change as they initiate and execute these dreams.
Communities of Holistic Impact (CoHI) has been making great strides forward since we last updated, with Community Mapping, a Community Unity Camp, and a large training session detailing the responsibilities of each local committee having taken place since April. We have seen and heard remarkable things out of each respective community as they strive forward in this program, and indeed this program has occupied much of our time in 2018.
Instead of taking up more space here, we would love to point you towards the three CoHI Updates. They are full of photos and interesting reading for those of you interested in the advances of this program.
THE BIG NEWS?
This year, much will change but so much will stay the same. For years now we have been solidifying our interests, passions, and commitment to international community development to a point that about three years ago we felt that we would like to further our education in this area. We now have 7 years of experience, but we often frequently encounter complex issues that could be more effectively addressed with formal education in the field. It has been a process, but we have arrived to a place where arrows are pointing to now being the time to get that education. A lot of pieces have fallen into place over the past 3 years that we could never have the time to type out to you here, but if you’d ever like to hear all the incredible stories pointing us to this moment, we would love to share with you personally.
As of August, the Eldridge family will be temporarily relocating to Pittsburgh, PA for Kaleb to study at the University of Pittsburgh. Specifically, he will be pursuing a Master's of International Development with a Major in Non-Governmental Organizations and Civil Society in addition to a graduate certificate in Latin American Social and Public Policy. This is a two-year, in residence program. The decision on Pitt had much to do with the excellence of their program (#7 in the country) and the ability to specialize in the above-stated programs. If you want to read a bit more on why we chose to pursue this degree, you can read (here) a copy of one of the essays that Kaleb submitted during the application process.
Heart to Honduras has been a part of this entire process, and studying at Pitt was actually heavily considered for last year, but after prayer and evaluation of the timing, we put it off. This year God has aligned so many pieces for us to know it is time. A few of these elements are:
- Kaleb received a significant scholarship from the University of Pittsburgh,
- Stacey will continue to work with HTH remotely from Pittsburgh while Kaleb studies and works with HTH part-time, all while we take care of our children too!
- Fredy continues to be more than competent in his role of Coordinator of the Department of Community Development
- Henry in his role as Honduran Director has become increasingly effective and supportive of Community Development efforts.
- Otto (a new hire to our department this past Oct.) has fit amazingly-well and very capably into his roles in Community Development here in HN,
- Micah Chizever, a young man from Ohio that we have known since he was in high school, has grown and matured into a man who is now going to take over our on-the-ground responsibilities with HTH as well as live at and care for our homestead.
Micah has already spent a month at language school here in Honduras refining his Spanish communication and is now living with us as we all begin the transition of job and responsibilities.
Micah took the time to write-up a short introduction of who he is and what he will be doing while he in Honduras, and we would love for you to give it a read.
So specifically, what will we be doing?
We will continue to work part-time as Heart to Honduras Community Development Staff while living in Pittsburgh and Kaleb studies full-time at Pitt. This will be our way to sustain ourselves through grad school. What does our job look like remotely? Practically this means that we will supervise ongoing Community Development efforts and support the planning and execution of the Communities of Holistic Impact Initiative. Specifically, we will:
- Encourage the mission, vision and core values,
- Prepare materials for CoHI,
- Meet regularly (remotely) with co-workers to prepare workshops and other activities for CoHI
- Process and supervise local initiatives in the regular Community Development program
- Stay in regular communication and encouragement for local pastors, community leaders, and Honduran Heart to Honduran staff
- Continue to develop and encourage healthy development within the ministry and our partners.
- During our school vacations (summer and Dec. holiday), we intend to return to Honduras to engage full-time in ongoing work.
How can you support us during this time?
Our studies in no way are an intention of stepping away from work with HTH in holistic community development - in fact, it is quite the opposite. We will take this time to sharpen our axes, to improve our work, and to become even more effective for the Kingdom. Throughout this time, we will not lay down the axe, but in fact remain heavily-engaged in the work of HTH. The CoHI program is off to remarkable start and represents years of planning and preparation, and we intend to continue in full support of it.
We arrive stateside in August to start classes Aug. 27, and have signed a rental agreement for a small apartment in the city just a few blocks from campus to rent. Yet it will likely come at no surprise that even very modest Stateside living is more costly than life in Honduras, and we (and HTH) will still need the ongoing and full support of our donors.
We would like to ask you to continue to walk beside us with your prayers, encouragement, and financial support. These last seven years have seen tremendous trials and fantastic successes, and many of you have walked that path with us since the beginning. We would ask you to continue to walk with us. Please pray for this huge transition our family is about to go through.
Many of you responded to our appeal for monthly support, and we are so grateful. We are still not at full support. Though many new supporters have joined this year, many have dropped off over the years. If you haven't started giving yet and would like to, you can easily do that online. Simply click the button below.
Thank you to each of you who have prayed, donated, encouraged, stayed in touch, visited, and supported us in so many ways over these past seven years. We look forward to continuing to walk this road together.
Grace and peace. Kaleb, Stacey, Alida, and Eliana