This Lent, the Lord has invited me to reflect in a new way
on the sufferings of Christ and of his mother, Mary. Pain, sadness, loneliness, and anxieties have
riddled these days to make them some of the hardest.
Coronavirus has made its way to Honduras, and, as with other
countries, it has brought with it a craze and sort of hysteria. However, the hysteria here is different…It is
less obvious because there are no televisions, no real internet, etc. It’s shocking how lack of information causes
craziness, just as to much information does.
As Dr. Julio explained to me, as a third-world
(tercer-mundo) country, Honduras does not have the capacity to treat or contain
this virus in the way first-world countries do.
We do not have testing, except in the major cities (7 hours away), so
the specimen gets sent to the lab via bus, and we wait for a week to find out
the results. Life is different. The Honduran government has been begging
other countries for N-95 respirator masks, to no avail. Hygiene is difficult here because water is
not guaranteed, especially running water; soap costs money; and there is a lack
of education about hygiene. These
differences make it easy to spread such illnesses.
As of last night, there are 267 confirmed cases of
Coronavirus, and that number is growing.
From the beginning, Honduras has been on high-alert and has taken strict
preventative measures to avoid the nation being swept by this aggressive
virus. Since the confirmation of the first
two cases, the travel has been banned, the borders of Honduras and of the
cities have closed, masses have been cancelled, and every non-essential
business has been temporarily closed.
Gatherings of more than 10 persons (outside the same house) have been
temporarily banned. Madness…
The Finca is in a tough spot. The Finca has closed our school, clinic, and
gate. No one is allowed in (except
emergently), and no one is allowed out until further notice.
Nemo, another missionary who started with me, decided that she
was going to leave Honduras when the borders reopened (due to personal reasons),
and Melissa, Megan, Adam, Ryan, and I are continuing here as missionaries at
the Finca.
What a tough transition.
In addition to losing our strongest part, Emily, the “oldie” who stayed
back to help us out in our transition, we lost another community member and
friend.
And so, life goes… meanwhile the world goes on.
With some reflecting, I was able to relate this time of suffering and pain, desolation, isolation, and sadness to the feelings of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Jesus offers to us an unloading of all these weighty
crosses. Jesus willingly and lovingly
carried his cross and the weight of our sins so that we’d have a way out. So beautiful.
Today, Domingo de Ramas (Palm Sunday), we listened to the
Passion of our Lord. It was so beautiful
listening to this recount of the Passion in Spanish. Throughout my life, I have heard all of the
stories of Jesus’ life time and time again, and growing up with these stories,
they have gotten worn down (like a frequently worn pair of shoes. The grooves and details level out and they
start to lack traction. This is how
these stories had become for me.
However, listening in a new language (for some reason) re-enlivened the details
of the story, like bringing a camera into focus.
If you give Jesus an
inch, He’ll take a mile.
~~~ Jesus, meek and
humble of heart, make my heart like yours.~~~
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