Five years ago Jose and Célida responded to God’s invitation to move into one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in the capital of Honduras—an urban area so far up the mountain that electric wires don’t reach it and the trucks that deliver water often turn back before getting there.
Though Jose grew up in poverty and has served with InnerCHANGE, Novo’s missionary order among the poor, for more than 20 years, he describes La Guzman as the most intensely impoverished context he has ever witnessed. One aspect of their ministry has been a nutrition program to help feed the most malnourished children and live out the compassion of Jesus among their neighbors.
Poor neighborhoods like La Guzman have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, as people who were barely surviving before have been commanded to stop work and stay home. This is Jose and Célida’s moving account of living out in word and deed the presence of Christ in a setting of enormous suffering:
What an incredible tragedy all humanity is experiencing with this pandemic! Every day, we receive sad and painful news and we ask ourselves, “Where is God in all of this?”
Honduras, in all its poverty and suffering and with a health system gutted by corruption, has also fallen prey to this tragedy. Even before the coronavirus arrived, the country was experiencing civil unrest. Then, when the first cases of contagion appeared, the authorities decreed an absolute curfew. They did so without measuring the immediate impact it would have on the poorest families who scrape by day-to-day. Living in this extremely poor neighborhood, we feel firsthand the anguish and despair of our people.
Obligated by the decree, we had to close our children's feeding program. But children are still coming. They ask, “When are you going to open the dining room? Can you give us something to eat?”
There is a single mother with two daughters named Mrs. Bessy, whose situation has touched me deeply. Living in a borrowed 13x13 foot shack, she fights for her daughters and their future with all her strength. Every day she walks countless miles selling bags of purified water to earn the equivalent of $1.25 per day. And now with this quarantine, she has to stay home. The cost is terrible for her and her daughters.
Hunger-provoked desperation has led many to protest in the streets, sometimes violently. Blocking the main streets with burning tires, they cry out for the government-promised food aid that is slow to arrive, and sometimes does not arrive at all.
Where is God in all of this?
Even in the midst of this suffering, God has made his invisible love visible through sisters and brothers who have generously donated money so we could distribute food to those most in need. This generosity, inspired by God, has given me and Célida courage to confront the risks and adversities of the chaos as we search for food for our neighbors.
On our first trip we were stopped by a street blockade—a volatile protest in the barrio adjacent to ours. A young man, one of the organizers, approached us and aggressively confronted me. He alleged that the Church is not doing anything for his neighborhood; the Church has abandoned them.
My first instinct was to jam the truck in reverse and get away as quickly as possible, but I felt compassion for this young man and the others with him. So I stayed and listened empathetically as he poured out all his resentment. As a result, their attitude softened, and one of them even gave me directions on how to get around the blockade!
As we returned with food and supplies, one of our volunteers informed us that there were now three other protests raging. In the confusion, we ended up very close to the first barricade, and we could not see any way to avoid it. I stopped and asked Célida: “What do we do?” And we prayed. After several minutes a person emerged from a nearby house and said to us, “Just offer them some money and they will let you through.”
I could see the fear in Célida's face, but she resolutely encouraged me to move forward. So, I rolled down the car window and stuck my arm out with some clearly visible bills in my hand. Then, I began to inch forward as Célida prayed out loud. The screams of the protesters and smoke from the burning tires flooded the interior of our car.
Thankfully, protesters began to remove some of the roadblock and showed us how to get through as they took the money from my hand. Their youthful faces reflected a combination of profound discontent and powerlessness. Paradoxically, I could not detect even an ounce of fear with regard to the coronavirus.
We arrived home, exhausted yet grateful that we’d made the trip safely. Despite the many complications, we continue to discover little-known ways and means to purchase, pack, and distribute the food. Every single time we leave home it is a risk. Please keep us in your prayers because through your prayers and faith in the God of life, we are confident that our mission of love will continue. Pray also that these acts of compassion will result in abundant opportunities to share about the one who is The Bread of Life.
ABOUT
Jose and Célida Penate-Aceves have been with InnerCHANGE since 1997. They invested years working with gangs in San Francisco before launching a team in Oakland, CA among Honduran youth who were dealing drugs. They moved to Honduras in 2015 to work among the very source of the problems pushing young Hondurans toward life on the streets in North America. As InnerCHANGE staff, Jose and Célida are committed to seeing movements of the gospel among the poor and marginalized in each of these settings.