<< Previous   of   Next >> Courtesy of Julie Minnick  (click to enlarge) Chad Minnick of Monroe picks teams of Honduran children for a game of dodgeball. Minnick was part of a missionary team from Heritage Baptist Fellowship.

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Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com

Heritage Baptist Fellowship members go on mission to Honduras

By Justin Arnold
Herald Writer

MONROE -- In January 2006, 10 members of Heritage Baptist Fellowship undertook a mission trip to the La Esperanza area of Honduras hoping to make a difference in the lives of abandoned children.

Coming home, they knew that the experience made more of a difference in them.

Since the first visit a year ago, the Monroe church of 100 has donated more than $70,000 and sent five missionary teams to Honduras. The church plans on doing more.

"You're humbled when you go down there. You don't find the Hondurans complaining, even though for many of them every day is a matter of life and death," said team member Cheryl Minnick, wife of the church's pastor. "When you are in Honduras, your life gets a lot more simple."

Simple, and simply horrifying for children, according to pastor Thomas Minnick. His stories about the abuse of neglected Honduran children is the stuff of nightmares.

Many Honduran children are seen as property, Thomas Minnick said. "In Honduras, they are indentured servants."

Children are often found abandoned and on the streets or in orphanages, even though their parents may work or live close by.

They are called niños botado, or "garbage kids." They have been thrown away by their parents, said team member Chad Minnick, the pastor's son.

"Alcoholism is rampant in Honduras, as is poverty. The parents discard them," Chad Minnick said. "The sentiment among the parents of these orphans is that, 'If we can't feed or help ourselves, then how can we feed or help our children?'"

Missionary work is difficult in the rugged hills and mountains of the Honduran countryside, where roads are all but nonexistent and gas stations are few and far between, he added. Many villages in remote areas required the missionaries to go in on foot because roads are washed out by flash-flooding or covered in overgrown vegetation.

Sometimes missionaries are threatened and vehicles sabotaged by local people who resent the intrusion of evangelical Christians.

"We were in the village of San Lorenzo in the mountains and we were warned that we were not welcome and that they were going to put wooden boards with nails across the only bridge leading to the village," Chad Minnick said.

Despite the threats, the group made it safely up the mountain. Coming back down was a different story, however.

"We were coming off the mountain when we felt the road getting rougher than we remembered, but the incline of the road was so steep we couldn't stop and see what was wrong," Chad Minnick said.

At the bottom, they checked their tires and found that all of them had gone flat, and had nails, bolts and screws sticking out of them.

Regardless of the intimidation, the group continued its work, raising $11,000 to construct a private school for 110 children. The group is seeking donations of computers and computer equipment for the school. A church team plans to return to Honduras in February to scout sites for a home for both boys and girls.

"Growing up in church, you have missionaries speak on Sundays and talk about what it's like, and you wonder how they could sell their house, sell their car, give up all these amenities and just go," team member Christy Dunn said. "Now I know."