On to Honduras

Though I am still in Ames, Honduras seems more and more present.

The Parish Council and Finance and Administration Commission of St. Thomas Aquinas have given permission for me to start fund-raising. The Parish Council has put aside several thousand dollars to help with the Honduras Ministry. I feel so blessed.

There are a few major details - selling my house, disposing of possessions, storing a few boxes of materials, making the arrangements for transfer of funds, etc. But I pray that these will fall into place soon.

A few weeks ago I had dinner at the house of some friends and the father of the wife asked me, in Spanish, "Como va el despojo?" How is the detaching going?

It is actually going fairly well. The more I give away, the easier it seems. I expect there will come a time when I will have to make hard decisions, but I pray that I will be ready to make those decisions with a spirit of detachment.

This past week I did a lot of cleaning up in the attic. I went through several large boxes of notes and files and threw out many pounds of paper - some from the sixties. Thank God that Ames burns trash for fuel; I don't feel so bad about throwing out all that paper.

It is a blessing to go through all the old files. I have found any number of letters or messages that give me a sense that God has been working in me for quite some time. The temptation I often have is to think less of my capabilities than God has given me.

And so Honduras nears. I expect to be there at the beginning of June - a little more than 100 days from now. In fact, Ash Wednesday is exactly 100 days before my birthday, June 1.

And so this is a time to prepare - and to keep open to all God's calls and blessings.