Millbrook and Habitiat for Humanity in Honduras
Millbrook Baptist Church’s (MBC) involvement in Honduras began shortly after Hurricane Mitch devastated the country in 1998. Church members joined a work team on a mission to Choluteca sponsored by North Carolina Baptist Men in 1999.
While on vacation in Honduras in 2003, a couple from our congregation found that the country had recovered little from the devastation in the five years since the hurricane. They shared their experience with the church and members formed a work team that team traveled to Cedeño, located on the Pacific coast west of Choluteca in March of 2004. This team also completed a Sunday School building for a local congregation, again sponsored by NC Baptist Men. During this trip team members developed a strong bond with a pastor from Tegucigalpa, José Rodas, who was employed as our driver and interpreter. He also assisted us in conducting Vacation Bible School for over 130 children. José has come to the US on several occasions, twice preaching at MBC.
In 2005 Millbrook developed a partnership with Habitat for Humanity International Honduras. The church assisted with funding to support their hiring of our friend José as Church Relations Coordinator. Members raised funds and with José’s help sent a team to Siguatepeque as part of a five-home build in the summer of 2006.
Through subsequent fact-finding trips to the country, several members--referring to themselves as Friends of Honduras--entered into a partnership with the municipality of San Nicolas in the Copan Department and another charitable organization known as the Chicago Heights Homeless Shelter Volunteer Team. The Chicago-based group had justfinished building a community health center in nearby El Modelo. San Nicolas has set aside land in a neighboring community or barrio called San Sebastian with a goal of constructing twenty-five to thirty homes for families living in substandard homes or totally homeless. Key to bringing this partnership together was our now long-time friend, José Rodas who was employed as the construction manager for the El Modelo project.
In 2009 MBC’s group secured funding from several other churches across the country, put together a work team and traveled to San Sabastian this past July to build a home for Rosa Elena Isidro, a 36-year-old single mom with five children. Rosa had been sharing a dilapidated adobe structure with only three walls with her sister Margarite and her three children. The group also partnered with a local congregation to lead Vacation Bible School for children of the community.
The group’s current goal is to build a home in June of 2010 for Rosa’s sister Margarite. The current dwelling is situated on a government-owned right of way and is scheduled for demolition to make way for a new road already under construction. The municipality has committed to designate the home our group builds this year for Margarite and her children.