Where there is despair, hope...

Dear friends of Christ,

God is very much alive. On Wednesday AJS-supported justice workers and 150 residents of affected neighborhoods in northern Honduras met with top officials from five different Honduran government bodies urging them to address the killings earlier this month, the death threats against four community leaders, and serious problems with the land-titling process. And they listened. All these officials promised to act quickly to improve the situation.

I am pleased to tell you that security measures for our threatened friends, including a government body guard and increased patrol are among the promises from the Ministry of Security.

Please read the article adapted from a Revistazo (the AJS online journal) article detailing the talking points of these visits.

Read the full report by clicking here.

Thank you for all for your notes of encouragement, especially for your prayers and advocacy efforts on behalf of these justice workers and community leaders. God is moving.

I haven’t shared any poems, liturgy, anything in many months—very sad. I have this prayer taped on the wall at the office and I see it as I type away. In times like these I find it especially fitting. Dare we start acting the very opposite of what we see in the world? Dare we ask God to help us be instruments of justice and peace in our communities? Pray that God gives us the courage to pray this prayer.

A prayer

“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace

Where there is hatred let me sow love;

Where there in injury, pardon

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

Where there is sadness, joy;

--Saint Francis of Assisi

Love, Love and more Love,

Grace

Speak Out for Justice

Hello friends,

Thank you for your prayers in these last few days for our friends in danger in San Pedro. A brief re-cap: ( more information in the post below "Friends Under Threat" ) Three community leaders were murdered in the last two weeks for their work with the AJS-supported Land Rights Project and more continue to be threatened.

Now, I'm asking you to take action and Speak Out for Justice!

Please go to the following AJS webpage to send an email to Honduran Government and World Bank officials urging them to address this situation.

More on the Land Rights Murders

Write More Officials

Write Letters and Faxs and Make Phone Calls to the World Bank

Pray

Friends under threat

Beloved community,

Yesterday I sent an email out to many of you asking for prayer on a special security matter concerning the work of AJS here in Honduras. Please feel free to post this letter in your own blogs or forward it to others so that we may all join in prayer. Thank you for those that have already responded with much care and concern.

I will be updating this blog more frequently to let other know about news on the situation and how you can send letter to the Honduran government to take action. The letter reads below.

Love, Love, and more Love,

Grace

[The letter]

Dear friends of Christ,

I pray that you are all well in mind and in spirit. Thank you for all your prayers this last year for me while I have been living in Honduras and working at the Association for a More Just Society, a Christian, non-profit justice organization supporting the work of doing justice for the most vulnerable in Honduran society.

I ask that you direct your prayers to a security matter concerning our ASJ staff and supporters.

Three community leaders working with the AJS-supported Land project in the city of San Pedro Sula have been killed this month. Four more community leaders continue to receive death threats. One woman has been told that she will not live to see this Christmas and another has received routine nightly visits by a black van at her home. Last week, our San Pedro Sula lawyer reported being followed by a man for several hours and the rest of the Land Rights team is worried for their security and that of their families. Yet these justice workers press forward in the struggle for land security for thousands in San Pedro.

The Land Rights team works in Tegucigalpa and in San Pedro Sula to assist residents of poor neighborhoods in obtaining a legal title to their land—a highly sought after investment in Honduras. The Property Law passed in 2004, thanks in part to AJS-supported advocacy efforts, has set a system in place to register and issue titles for land for hundreds of people. But not everyone supports the changes that will come.

Supposed land owners in the Cofradía sector are indignant that hundreds will have the land expropriated by the government and then have the land appraised at a lower value than these scheming owners would prefer.

For over ten months the Land Rights team and community neighborhood presidents have been pushing to finalize the expropriation process but opposition was given. Community leaders were offered bribes from contested owners to stop their work but they refused. They knew the work wouldn’t only benefit themselves but many others in Cofradía who were and continue to be threatened with evictions from supposed, contesting land owners.

Please pray for strength and peace for the families of slain community leaders Ubense Aguilar and Elías Murcia.

Pray for courage and security for currently threatened community leaders in Cofradia.

Pray for wisdom and perseverance for the Land Rights team as they forge forward in the expropriation process in order that hundred may receive legal land titles.

Pray for diligence and conviction of heart for government officials and police so that security and protection are provided to those under threat and that the expropriation process does not lag.

Thanks you body of Christ for your prayers. Please remember with us God’s promises: Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you –Deuteronomy 7:8

Go to the following link (Spanish) for more information.

http://www.revistazo.com/Articulos/search_results.php?misc=search&subaction=showfull&id=1224100145&archive=&cnshow=news&start_from=&ucat=1

Blessings,

Grace Miguel

Communications

Association for a More Just Society (AJS)

Hanging out in the kitchen

I realize that I haven't posted anything in several months and that I haven't taken any pictures of where I am living in Nueva Suyapa. Enjoy the picture of an early Saturday breakfast at our kitchen. ( I don't have a camera and just relie on friendly visitors to pass me their pictures.) Featuring clockwise left: Abram Huyser Honig ( fellow co worker and boarder at the Venegas house), Susan Venegas ( Honduran sister and confidant in matters that are silly and serious), Russ Jacobs ( visitor to Hotel Venegas and AJS board member,), Yolanda Venegas ( AMAZING cook and fellow cohort in laughing at all thing appropriate and inappropriate), Grace Miguel ( special guest: my lovely grapefruit I was ready to devour) not featured Gary Nederveld ( visitor to Hotel Venegas and AJS board member).