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TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (UMNS) -- Two United Methodist folk singers returned to the United States on Nov. 8 after spending a week touring Honduran villages ravaged a year ago by Hurricane Mitch.
Jim and Jean Strathdee, music directors at St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Sacramento, Calif., were invited to Honduras by the Christian Commission for Development (CCD), an ecumenical organization supporting reconstruction work in more than 400 Honduran villages. CCD is the main partner in Honduras for the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR).
"We went to share some of the music we sing in our own churches in the north, though translated into Spanish," Jim said. "But the music was mostly a tool to gather people together, to give us an opportunity to listen to their stories of horror, of how they survived the hurricane and how they've been rebuilding their communities and lives. And it was also an opportunity for us in a small way to remind people that they are not alone, that their sisters and brothers around the world are praying for them and supporting them in many ways."
Everywhere they sang, the couple asked villagers to share the songs they sang in their community gatherings and religious meetings. Jean said that while many villagers were shy at first about participating, the "power of the music usually broke down the walls, and we enjoyed good moments of sharing."
She particularly enjoyed singing with CCD staff members, both in the countryside and at the organization's headquarters in Tegucigalpa, she said. "We sang with them songs of justice and love, and you could tell that they were singing about what they were living every day in their work."
The Strathdees had been to the region before. During the 1980s, they traveled to Nicaragua three times, singing songs of peace and justice in the middle of the Contra war. In 1995, they visited Nicaragua again, and also came to Tegucigalpa to lead singing at an international gathering sponsored by Heifer Project International.
St. Mark's financed the Strathdees' trip to Honduras. They were accompanied by their daughter Julie and five other congregation members interested in exploring new ways of understanding mission in the region.
The group visited reconstruction projects under way in the rural provinces of Santa Barbara, Intibuca and Valle. They also visited housing projects in the capital city. In addition, the group visited a workshop where rural farmers are being trained to use diesel-powered block machines provided by UMCOR.
The Strathdees spent Nov. 6 leading an all-day workshop on music and liturgy at the Honduran campus of the Latin American Biblical University.
Jean claimed it was hard to return to California. "It would be easier to stay here and continue singing than to go back home and help people face up to our lifestyle decisions and how we support an unjust world," she said.
Jim said he now faces the task of composing music that would describe their visit.
"We met with groups of women who refused to see themselves as victims, who lost all to the storm but who came together to rebuild their houses, to rebuild their lives, to fight for dignity," he said. "I'd like to find a way to connect their refusal to be victims to our refusal back home to be accomplices, to make connections between their reality and ours.
"Our relationship with them needs to go beyond just sending money to build houses," he said. "It also needs to look at our public policy decisions and the environmental impact of the decisions we make as consumers."
*Jeffrey is a United Methodist missionary in Honduras.
Source: United Methodist News Service.
