How does a ministry respond to crisis? On June 28, 2009, Suzy McCall and the rest of the LAMB staff in Honduras faced that very question. In the early morning hours, the President was removed from his home and exiled to Costa Rica. Some called it a coup, most Hondurans agreed it was the proper response to a unanimous congressional vote upheld by the Honduran Supreme Court. In truth, to the children of LAMB and the impoverished families supported by LAMB’s CAP program it didn’t matter. Escalating threats of violence mattered. Fear and uncertainty mattered. Drastic reduction of foreign aid and mission teams mattered. To Suzy and LAMB, continuing their service to God mattered. This is what they did:
They celebrated. Aaron Joshue, whom doctors gave up on as an infant, had his second birthday party. Xiomara, who marched into a police station at age 10 demanding to go to school, graduated from 6th grade at the LAMB school at the Children’s Residential Home where she has lived for the last 3 years. Franklin, a beloved staff member, got married at the newly completed Church of the Good Shepherd at the Children’s Residential Home!
They mourned. Alonzo Salgado, who worked in LAMB’s offices in Flor del Campo as an intern, was shot and killed very near there by a couple of thugs who wanted to steal his cell phone. Alonzo came up through LAMB’s scholarship program, and his internship was the last step in becoming a lawyer. He and his wife, Ericka, were in Suzy’s youth group years ago when she first started working in Flor. They have a little girl, Alejandra, who is in LAMB’s day school, El Cordero.
They acted. Within a week of Alonzo’s death, Gladys, one of LAMB’s leaders in Honduras, was moved by the Holy Spirit to start Alonzo’s Movement -- a street-by-street, grassroots movement focused on young teenagers. Plans include a soccer league, tutoring, music and art, and, of course, evangelism and discipleship; it would be a highly relational ministry for young people who feel disconnected from their families and churches. One month later, Suzy writes: “Tomorrow, the "Alonzo Movement" is graduating the first 24 volunteers from the training program for reaching children and young people in the inner-city for Christ. God will turn our mourning into dancing!”
They cared. They arranged for Jorge’s (age 14) lifesaving kidney surgery and nursed him back to health. They arranged for treatment for an elderly lady with a broken pelvis and subsidized the brace which will allow her to walk. Suzy took in two abandoned newborns, each under 5 lbs.
They prayed. For peace in Honduras, for our own Jackson Greene, for St. David’s, for their children, for water at San Buenaventura, in thanksgiving for God’s gracious blessings and for Jorge’s miraculous (per his doctor!) recovery. They praised the Risen Lord and prayed some more.
They built. Two homes for homeless people, a new roof for Oralia – the last wish of a dying mother to shelter her young children, moved a elderly woman’s home to a safe location, installed a bell in the Chapel bell tower, painted the school at the Children’s Residential Home.
They worked. They continued caring for 60 bright, happy children at the Children’s Residential Home – children who came to LAMB broken, abandoned, and abused. They provide a good academic and Christian education to 300 impoverished children in Flor del Campo. They provide food for 20 desperately poor families in La Cantera, they continue training young people to take the Good News of Jesus Christ out into the world.
On November 29, God heard their prayers and provided a peaceful election day, with over 70% voter turnout and a clear winner, recognized by the US and other countries as legitimate. Now that the crisis is over, what will LAMB do? They will celebrate, mourn, act, care, pray, build, and work in the service of our Lord. Thanks be to God!
