Humility; a desireable virtue

 

Humility...Humbleness...not Prideful.

noun: 

the quality or condition of being humble; modest opinion or estimate of one's own importance, rank, etc  Dictionary.com

I write another blog besides this one. Not many people follow it, but several months ago, before we moved to Honduras I wrote the following post on the virtue of humility. Living here these past five months, my need to pursue this virtue of humility further in my own life has become even clearer and more important to me. Although humility is often tied to a religious sentiment, it should not be seen as exclusively so. To me, there is nothing more desirable in any individual than this virtue of humility. Here, where all Americans are in the top 10% of the wealthy...even if only by perception, true humility of character makes a difference.

Below is my original post, with a few corrections and additions.

In my lifetime I have met many very successful men. Men who have accomplished great things. Men who have accumulated vast amounts of wealth and power. The ones who have made the greatest impression on me are the ones who have been down to earth, regular guys. Those who have not been overly impressed by themselves, their wealth, intelligence or success. The ones who have taken a genuine interest in me and my life. In other words, the ones for whom humility was a character quality. As John Ruskin put it, "I believe the first test of a truly great man is in his humility." I couldn't agree more.

This character trait of humility is one of the most desirable qualities a Christian, or anyone for that matter, can posses. It is one which, sadly, I often fail to exhibit. Think on this quote from St. Augustine for a few moments or a few days...or maybe a lifetime.

"Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance." Saint Augustine   

 In A Book of Psalms,  Steven Mitchell beautifully adapts from Hebrew the 15th Psalm in this way.

"Lord, who can be trusted with power,
    And who may act in your place?
Those with a passion for justice,
    who speak the truth from their hearts;
who have let go of selfish interests
    and grown beyond their lives;
who see the wretched as their family
    and the poor as flesh and blood.
They alone are impartial
   and worthy of people's trust.
Their compassion lights up the whole earth,
   and their kindness endures forever."

I want to be that kind of man. A man who can be trusted with power, who considers the poor as flesh and blood, who has a passion for justice and has let go of selfish interest. I want my compassion to light the world around me. From the very bottom of my heart, that's who I want to be.

Residency!!!!!!

Today we became official residents of Honduras! (Not to be confused with citizenship) This means that we do not need to leave the country every 90 days to renew a visa. It also means we can: get a Honduran drivers license, have a bank account, have our own cell phones, etc.

Three and a half months after being inscribed we now have residency. That may be close to a record! An hour and a half at the Honduran Immigrations office in Tegucigalpa today and two hours at Applebees to celebrate the occasion. It was a good day.

Many, many thanks to John and Adrianna Mattica and Honduran Fellowship of Missionaries and Ministries for all you do for us, and not just with the residency process. You are making a difference.

The Week in Review

Team NGF at Baile Brea elementary school after installing a water purification system 

Puro Catracho: a commentary

Only in Honduras

So how long does it take a group of STMrs to become puro Catracho? (That's what Hondurans call themselves.) My answer...one week! Let me explain.

At the beginning of the week:

Team leader is Richard.

Everyone was particularly unhappy with the early bird behind the hotel. This rooster, as most roosters do in Honduras, lives in another time zone. They live by the old beer drinkers motto, "It's 5 o'clock somewhere." Of course these roosters mean 5 am, but somewhere in the great time zone of life, they have lost the idea that crowing should happen at daylight.and should be synchronized with that. Instead they merrily begin crowing as early as 2 am. But hey, it's 5 o'clock somewhere.

Driving here is a bit different than in the States. There are a lot of slow moving vehicles which translates to a lot more passing on short distances (that's why I love American V-8 power) and a lot of other people passing towards you at very, very short distances. So on the trip from the airport there were lots of third party brake stomping, awh ohhs and then sighs of relief.

The language barrier at first seemed insurmountable. Just ordering a coke required an inordinate amount of effort.  Forget trying to ask for an extra room key or hot water to be available at 5 am.

Seven days later:

Team leader is now known as Ricardo.

Everyone sleeps through the early morning cacophony. Catrachos or just too tired to care? Don't know. If Richard, perdon...Ricardo, gets a rooster for his own back yard in Florida, then definitely Catracho.

On the way back to the airport the team is cheering as we come in to a blind curve and find cars passing three wide at us. They urge me to, unsuccessfully I might add, pass on a blind curve also...just so we'll fit in.

In one short week, my team became fluent...in sign language. Sometimes it felt like we were playing at charades. But it didn't stop there. By mid week "buenos dias'" filled the morning air and each night we parted company with tired but confident "buenas noches". I even heard a few "alohas" thrown in for good measure.



Sorry Pastor Steve, not sure how this got in here, but...

So I promised in my last post not to tell about zip lining, but I can tell you that some of the more daring, and need I say younger crowd, did go behind the waterfall. I chose not to, not because I'm too old, but because I'm a non swimmer. Those that did go reported back that it was awwwwesome!


The following four days included visits to schools, mornings spent preparing for VBS and the actual VBS in Oriente with Pastor Allan and Nicole. This part of the missions trip was a joint effort with Community Church in Orange, TX. As I was not with this part of the group much, I can only say that everyone had a great time. Harriet and her mother made over 200 hand sewn soccer balls to give to the kids. They really where a work of art as well as love.

My half of the group, with the help of Paul Hosier, installed a water purification system at a public school up in the hills on the other side of town. This ended up being a great "hands on" project for the men in our group. I will write more about this project and our desire to continue it, but all I will say for now is that this is a great project for a family to fund raise for and then come down to help install it. The entire system is very reasonably priced at just over $1000 and the health benefits of providing perpetual clean water to schools and communities, priceless.

Building a shed around the tanks, moving a lot of concrete blocks, installing the system, purifying the water and then drinking water from the system was all part of a job well done. Lauren and Emma where even able to go into the classrooms and give a brief explanation on why drinking purified water is important to health.

 

 

Author's note: Although all facts in the author's commentary are based on truth, the author may have used a storytellers right to embellish or exaggerate slightly.