Greetings and blessings to each of you,
We hope your summer has been a season of renewal for you and your loved ones. Perhaps, even in a small way, a break from your normal routine to do something different.
Our summer as a family was a very full one - with an international move in the middle. We wrapped up more than a decade of life in Honduras, and have since then been resettling in the States - back to our work from home routine in addition to travel to see family we hadn't seen in over a year. Our summer did end with a lovely week long vacation in South Carolina which we are truly grateful for.
Note: If some how you missed the news that we are finishing our time living in Honduras as well as with the ministry Heart to Honduras you can read about that here:
Leaving Las Lomitas
It is hard to put into words how difficult it was for our family to leave our home in Las Lomitas in July. It was an extremely difficult day with many tears shed and unanswered questions. But, before that hard day we had many times to say good bye with co-workers, school, church, friends and neighbors.
Program Developer
In Kaleb's role as HTH's Program Developer, he has spent much of his past few months designing, executing, and processing community surveys that HTH will use as a compass to orient future work. After initially creating the surveys and protocols, he then trained fellow staff members and spent several long days in the field, visiting local families and listening to their life experiences. Two surveys were created, one which will be used to direct the development a new program oriented towards Personal Transformation and another towards Local Economic Growth.
Listening to the struggles and triumphs of a diverse set of Hondurans was a privilege that reminded Kaleb of the possibilities that exist. Even though we will not be around to implement these future programs, we continue to believe in the tremendous dignity of the Honduran people and what they are capable of when they recognize their true identities in Christ - not as poor people - but sons and daughters of a King, born into this world with infinite value, looking for home - just like all of us are. As he has gone about his work in this area, he has been frequently reminded of the powerful refrain of a Jon Guerra song entitled "Citizens."
I need to know there is justice - that it will roll in abundance, and that you're building a city where we arrive as immigrants, and you call us citizens, and you welcome us as children home.
Our prayer is that - whatever the future of these programs look like - justice will roll in abundance.
In addition to developing these program frameworks, he has also remained closely involved with the existing HTH Community Development programs by creating materials and designing workshops.
Impact Advisor and Evaluator
In Stacey's role as HTH's Impact Advisor and Evaluator this year she is running point executing the evaluation systems she created last year in collaboration with program coordinators and facilitators. These systems are built on the theories of change and indicators that were also created last year both of which are born out of our core Impact Goals. These evaluations will help HTH to know on a yearly bases if they are reaching these impact goals and at what level.
Practically this means getting feedback by working with staff to collect data, apply surveys, make observations, talk with participants and realize evaluations. A lot of patience has been needed as this is the first year Heart to Honduras has applied evaluation systems. A lot of time is invested in communicating with staff, keeping track of data, and pacing to be sure all seven programs are on track month to month. A lot of pointing us back to our "true north" as an organization and keeping that ever before us.
Ups AND downs
A big "up" we had on June 24th was to be witness to a legal Honduran marriage at the municipal building. Our next door neighbor Nahum and his wife Hellen. This is the first and only wedding we have attended (or be invited to for that matter) in 11 years of living in Honduras. Marriage, unfortunately, has not been a high value or priority in the people group we work with. Part of our efforts have been to lift marriage up as something important to God through the years. You can join us in prayer for their marriage to mark the difference in their families and culture.
We have always tried to be honest with you in this Kingdom work with people and our journeys of sustainable holistic development - that it is truly full of "ups" AND "downs." Since we have returned to the States we have had two large unexpected disappointments relating to the work we just left physically. We may be able to share more specifics toward the end of the year in our last update, but for now please join us in prayer for all those affected by the fall out of these complications.
Coming Up...
Upcoming activities outside of the norm for us include a visit Stateside from staff member Community Development Coordinator Pastor Fredy Martinez in September. He will be traveling to at least four different States to visit with Heart to Honduras partners and we will be accompanying him several of those days. Also, as a part of Stacey's job, she will travel back to Honduras in early November for a week of executing focus group evaluations related to the evaluation systems now in place for each of the Heart to Honduras programs.
Wrapping up
As we have explained previously we are wrapping up our time as Heart to Honduras staff and will be finishing our roles by the end of 2022. Until then we will continue to work with Heart to Honduras full time virtually from home. We plan on sending one more final "Eldridge Update" before the end of the year. We appreciate your prayers for us in this full time of trying to finish well.
A BIG THANKS...
...to each of you that have been a key part of these years of growing His Kingdom together through Heart to Honduras and participating rural Honduran communities.