Casa Hogar Vida

Translation: "House Home Life"

It's not as soul-stirring when you say it in English, or so I've been told by native Spanish speakers, but Casa Hogar Vida is a life-changing project that Iglesia Gran Comision has begun in Choluteca, Honduras and we got to encounter the construction during its genesis phase.

I'm sad that I haven't posted much yet about our adventure in Honduras. We've been back for a couple weeks now, but life just now seems to be easing up on the accelerator. We've unpacked. Caught up on email. Cleaned the apartment. Replenished the fridge. Sent out our newsletter.

And, likely, we've begun to slip back into our numbed reality once again.

Perfect time to go back and reflect then. :)

A few years ago, the Fawcett family crossed the pond and visited Honduras for the first time. Ian and Julie had finished up seminary near Nottingham and were ready to confront some of life's greatest challenges: poverty and HIV/AIDS. For years, they had a vision to confront these issues in partnership with the Church and after some help from the UN, they began to map out a vision to help transform a community that was suffering under the double-helix of poverty and AIDS. It was a 5-year plan. More than a plan. It was a vision. A God-inspired, Gospel-centered vision. They prayed. They waited.

While in Honduras, the Fawcetts met Giovanni, who is a bi-vocational pastor at Iglesia Gran Comision in Choluteca, Honduras.

For some time, Pastor Giovanni, a successful doctor at a local hospital, had witnessed the horrors of HIV/AIDS. In the past few years, a great team of men and women from his church had started a malnutrition clinic, a daycare, tortilla factory, bakery, construction projects, micro-loans - all projects designed to help the poor climb out of the cycle of poverty and discover the freedom and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. But now, Giovanni believed it was time to reach out to the ostracized AIDS population of Honduras, which is home to one of the highest proportions of HIV/AIDS victims in Central America. He and his team formed a plan. A God-centered vision to begin a community center over a 5-year period. They prayed. They waited.

It is no coincidence that the separate visions of these Honduran and British men and women came together like hand and glove. God was in this.

The Fawcetts, including their two teenage kids, moved to Choluteca after language training in Costa Rica. A large plot of land was purchased outside of town and ground was broke in November 2007 for the first home of Casa Hogar Vida.

The vision for this extensive community center includes: 150-200 homes for families affected or infected by HIV/AIDS, 10 orphanage homes, a brick factory, a clinic, a chapel, a missionary house, a food distribution center, sports fields, fruit and vegetable farms. And most importantly: houses that children and families can call home for life. A place where they will find love and acceptance and freedom.

The gospel of Christ is at the very core of this entire project. It is the gospel that gives those affected and infected by HIV/AIDS in the horrifically ostracized culture of Honduras a foundation of hope.

The Fawcetts and the local church of Iglesia Gran Comision are a part of spreading that hope like a life-giving disease to the poor of Honduras.

You can learn more at http://casahogarvida.blogspot.com

More related posts to come...