One year later…

Today marks the one-year anniversary of one of the most important political moments in Honduran history.

On June 28, 2009 current President Mel Zelaya was forcefully ousted from public office for legitimate constitutional reasons.  The rest of the world called it a coup d’etat.

Dr.’s David and Florence Yoon were in route to Honduras on this day last year.  At their layover in Miami they received a call telling them all the airports were shut down in the country.  That day they learned about the ousting.

Even now the effects are still being felt.  A missions-group would be here at the clinic right now were there not picketers and protesters blocking the bridge into El Progreso from the airport.  Hopefully we’ll see them by dinner-time.

If you would like to read an opinionated (but largely, I feel, correct) piece summarizing the events, go here.  The article is helpful in summarizing the events and lends an insider view on people in the country.

MEDA and back again

We don’t want you all to feel left out.

So here is an update.  In the span of four days we have had the privilege of attending a conference on the book of Ephesians and celebrating two birthdays.

MEDA, the conference center and seminary, is located in Siguatepeque halfway to the capital, Tegucigalpa.  We have visited the complex twice before to see our friends, the Patterson’s.  You can read more about our prior visit here.  But this was our first conference at MEDA.  The theme was the book of Ephesians which was wonderfully expounded upon by Pastor David Diez from Miami.

Our reasons for attending the conference are varied.  For one, it’s always nice to see the Patterson’s.  Mark and his family have become welcome friends here in Honduras.  We were fortunate enough for our visit to coincide with the Patterson’s foster daughter’s, Iris’, birthday.  Nine years old.

Second, if we are going to serve our local pastors well here through conferences and the like, then we should make a study of an institution like MEDA that has been hosting quality conferences for years.  We learned a great deal during our short time there.  Third, it was a pleasure devotionally and linguistically to listen to Pastor David plow through my favorite epistle, in Spanish.

Finally, Siguatepeque feels like paradise compared to where we are living right now.  The evenings at the conference were in the high 60′s and the temperature during the day never rose above the high 80′s.  The heat index here yesterday was 113.  Need I say more?

And to top off the terrific conference we returned home to the news that a close friend of ours was celebrating her birthday as well.  So, no sooner did we unpack our rental car before we dashed to the store for cake and ice-cream.  The party felt very Baptist – devotional first and sweets to follow.

If you would like to see some more photos of the past few days, follow this link for a slide-show.