Rain, rain go away! But wait… snow?!?!
December 27, 2024
Greetings from back in the U.S.A.! We've been blessed to be back since before Thanksgiving, and enjoying the holidays with family - especially our oldest daughter and her new husband, and our 2 college kids.
But, thanks to you, things are still happening in Honduras and we wanted to give an update on the past couple of months, and what's coming up… and to show you what your support has been able to accomplish.
Since my last blog post on October 30th, the rainy season arrived in Honduras with a vengeance. Mid-November saw Tropical Storm Sara create widespread flooding, downed trees, and washed out bridges. Even after the storm passed, the amount of rain this year has been staggering.
Here is just a sample:
As you can imagine, this creates a whole host of problems - affecting people's ability to work and provide for their families, get to a doctor, get to town for food and supplies, etc. They are a resilient people, but please keep them in your prayers during this season.
On a happier note, I'm thrilled to report on the success of our ornament fundraiser and our Christmas Food Basket project. Thanks to all the people who purchased ornaments, we were able to raise enough money to provide for over a dozen families. Many of these families have multiple children, and they received enough food and supplies, if used wisely, to last over a month.
The other beautiful side effect of the sale of the ornaments has been raising awareness, which has led to additional unsolicited cash donations. We can now allocate those funds to ongoing food assistance, as well as assisting our partners at Operation Backpack as they gear up to start the new school year on February 1st. We will be helping to purchase essential school supplies, backpacks, and required school uniforms for many sponsored students.
Speaking of sponsored students, we are so happy to share this photo of Lilian, one of the students and single moms that we help sponsor, as she completed grade 9 and graduated in November! Stay tuned for what's next for this amazing young woman!
Here are a few other examples of what we've been up to…
In other news, Pat has accepted a position with the Diocese of Ogdensburg in northern New York, as Director of Youth Ministry and Campus Ministry. This change will have us primarily based in the US for the foreseeable future, but will not deter our efforts in Honduras. I (Shannon) will still be managing our non-profit organization, Cumbre Family Missions, and my primary job will be fundraising and continuing to raise awareness for our projects on the ground in Honduras. We will continue to work with our partners there, to sustain and grow the programs we've established. And now that our family has an income source again, we will no longer require donor support for our family to live and volunteer abroad - so every dollar raised can directly fund the people and projects we support, in addition to us being able to contribute more of our own funding to the organization. The other added benefit of Pat's new position, in his role working with teens and college students, is the prospect of organizing and leading short-term mission trips to Honduras. As you can imagine, we're all adjusting to this life change, so knowing that we will continue to return to Honduras makes the transition easier! The jury's still out on which extreme climate is preferable… we went from 90 degrees and constant pouring rain, to 10 degrees and constant snowing!!
We wish all of our friends, family, and supporters near and far a wonderful Christmas season. May God continue to bless us all in 2025!
Con cariño,
Shannon and Pat and the girls
xoxo
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