I just returned from a wonderful trip to Honduras. Honduras is a warm and beautiful country. I wore jeans and tee shirts. I put on sunscreen and insect repellent.

At the same time many of you were wearing your long johns and your heaviest winter coats. Kathie even had to ask Brian Johnson to come over with jumper cables on Tuesday morning.

While I enjoyed beautiful weather, I also worked hard, eat well, and learned much. I slept on a concrete floor in a room with fifteen others, some of whom snored loudly.

After a day of swinging a grub hoe, shoveling dirt, and mixing concrete by hand I slept soundly despite the snoring. Incidentally, I suspect that I contributed to the snoring chorus on occasion.

We helped the people in the village of Canguacota build a new church. The new church is next door to the old church, and when the new church is complete the old church will become a kindergarten.

We didn't work on the church on Sunday. We attended a morning worship service in another town, and in the afternoon we toured the nearby coffee fields.

Our tour guide could have passed for Juan Valdez of the Colombian coffee commercial fame. I saw burrows loaded with coffee sacks just like the pictures in those commercials.

I got to pick coffee beans from coffee plants growing on the side of a mountain. The coffee plants grow in the shade of the banana trees and the multitude of other trees that thrive in the Honduran climate.

I got to see the coffee beans go through the machine the separates them from their hulls. I watched as they were spread out on a concrete pad to dry in the sun for five days.

I purchased ten pounds of coffee that was hand roasted for me in the village of Camguacota. I paid 25 Lemperia per pound. The exchange rate is 17 Lemperia per dollar. That means the coffee cost me about $1.47 per pound. The people of Canguacota gave me an additional pound of coffee as a gift.

On a good day a person can pick four baskets full of coffee. If prices are good, people earn a wage that will sustain them during three-month harvest season. If prices are not good, the coffee sells for less than the cost of growing the beans.

In our conversations with the people of the village, someone asked what they did to survive when the harvest season was over. After a bit of discussion our translator said, "it is then that we rely on the grace of God."

It was a wonderful answer. They know something about faith and trusting God that wealthier people do not know.

Unfortunately they know some other things wealthy people are often not aware of. They know what it looks like to see their children die of malnutrition, parasites, and diseases that are generally prevented or cured in the USA. They know what it is like to watch the children of the village move away to work in sweatshops that are springing up all over Honduras.

They know what it is like to have many people leave their country in an effort to earn a living. They know what it is like to watch their young women turn to prostitution outside the gates of US military bases. They know what it is like to have some of their children turn to gangs and try to solve financial problems by involving themselves in the drug trade.

There are huge economic forces at work that generally help the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It often seems that individuals are powerless against them. I believe that I do not have the power to change this situation. By myself I can do very little. I also believe that with God all things are possible.

I now have a better understanding of the first few verses of the fifth chapter of James. I know what it means when James says, "the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts." James is speaking to us.

There are things I can do. I don't drink coffee, but Kathie does and we purchase some on occasion. I can refuse to purchase coffee unless I have some assurance that the coffee farmer received a fair wage for his or her labor.

For those of you with Internet access you can learn to do this by visiting the Lutheran World Relief coffee project at www.lwr.org/coffee/pandg.html

You can probably find less expensive coffee at many area stores, but when you do, you are most likely purchasing from someone who did not pay a fair price to the coffee grower.

Many congregations refuse to use anything but fair trade coffee, and when they sell fair trade coffee to their members they use the proceeds to fight hunger or suffering in the world.

This is one small step that will help, but I am hoping that we will do more. I want to make another trip. I want to bring people from St. Mark's and some of our neighboring congregations along.

I want to learn more, and I want to do something to help my newly discovered neighbors in Honduras. Please let me know if you are interested in taking a trip or helping in some other way.

The trip was a wonderful experience for me. I appreciate being sent. May God bless each and every one of you, and may God bless our newly discovered neighbors in Honduras.

Sincerely,

Pastor Birk