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August 08/year 2
in Honduras
Janet Alcántara
“Assemble the people. I want them to hear what I have to say…” —Deuteronomy 4:10
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Three workshops this month!!
 Participatory techniques prepared leaders for the upcoming Assembly in the fall. My task: the “spiritual part”.
I used worship teams and by the end, even those with no prior experience led worship with dignity and grace. A dramatized reading of Nehemiah proved what can be accomplished with vision, community, small steps.
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Team leads Morning Prayer liturgy
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 Diabetes Control through Diet with the Promotoras de salud (health care volunteers). Hands-on “games” helped the women sort foods into food groups—a difficult challenge. A week later, one of the participants critically eyed the plate served to her at Workshop #3: “I’m thinking about the Diet Workshop: this is not balanced; it has four carbohydrates: rice, tortillas, potatoes, bread!”
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 Models of Church Leadership. ELCA Global Mission staff led ICLH church leaders in evaluating the current state of our congregations, dreaming of what we wish they were, and adjusting that vision to our Honduran reality. Thrills for me: hearing how much the congregations have grown and developed in the past six months since I last visited… how all the participants happily took
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Church leaders from six different ICLH regions meet with Global Mission Staff Raquel Rodriguez, Stephen Deal, and Lutheran School of Theology professor José David Rodriguez. (I’m the one in the yellow dress...)
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turns in leading Morning Prayer liturgy… how everyone flocked to the late (and optional!) nightly service of Evening Prayer. Moments of closeness: cheering Honduras’ soccer goal against Mexico … watching another late-night Olympic soccer game with Inmer … keeping Enma company while she sat glued to a telenovela … conversing frankly and spontaneously with some of the youth about sex and counter-cultural Christian faith … talking past midnight every night with roommate Rubí about ICLH concerns…
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In faith and service in Christ, --janet
Deaconess Janet Russell Alcántara/Iglesia Cristiana Luterana de Honduras/ dcsjanet@hotmail.com
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Heat. In Tegucigalpa, it can be quite hot, but at least it normally cools off somewhat once the sun sets. But In San Pedro Sula, it is a different story.
In charmingly mountain-ringed, sunny San Pedro, about 40 minutes from the Caribbean, the humid heat shimmers day and night. I spent five days there during the last conference. I would wake soaked with perspiration to find my bedding drenched. I tried stretching out on the tile floor in search of coolness, only to find it warm—and quickly heating to body temperature! Even the “cold” water in the shower was tepid, and felt like just more sweat--not at all refreshing.
I came away with intense admiration for the people who survive such conditions as a constant way of life…
Convalescence update. I was sentenced to 5 more weeks of physio-therapy to work on residual weakness on the inner ankle. The last week of the month I laid aside my crutch, although I still tire after walking a mile to a mile and a half. But as you can see from the news this month, I’m getting around!
(But still have not found a suitable program vehicle...)
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Janet Alcántara
I.C.L.H., Apdo. 2861
Tegucigalpa, Honduras
C.A.
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