Anthropology and missiology often go hand-in-hand. It is important to understand the host culture. Getting a grasp on what makes a people who they are does wonders on personal relationships. We were granted the privilege to see first-hand an age old tradition; the making of tamales. A tradition that dates back to pre-historic times even before the Mayan civilization. Our church ladies decided to sell tamales as a fundraiser, they made over 200 and sold them all in a matter of minutes!! I found the whole process very intriguing and wanted to share with our readers some insights into how this food is prepared.

Key to the whole thing is a corn meal based dough (made from dent corn not sweet corn). A local miller ground the corn for us. Certain spices are ground into the corn meal.

Vegetable oil is prepared to be cooked into the corn meal.

The corn meal is then mixed together with the vegetable oil and heated over an open fire. The smoke and heat in this little kitchen hut was an experience all its own. You have to continually stir so none of the corn meal sticks to the bottom and burns. We all took turns stirring the pot.

While the corn meal is heating, other people are washing hundreds of plantain leaves (similar to banana leaves). With wet rags they wipe off a milky substance on both sides of the leaf. Corn and plantain were vital to the Mayas and are still a staple food used by Hondurans today.

All the cleaned leaves ready to be used.

After the corn meal is heated and mixed with the oil, then it is removed off of the fire and another pot is heated. This pot contains the meat the filling that will go inside the tamales. There is a wide range of fillings used depending on the country. In our case they used potatoes, a spice called achiote (annatto), and chicken or pork.

The achiote spice comes from these seeds. The taste is described as "slightly peppery with a hint of nutmeg".

The meat and filling is left to cook on the fire.

After the corn meal is heated, the meat is cooked and the leaves are all washed then it is time to "pack" the tamales. Three or four plantain leaves are laid out on the table and then a good size spoon full of corn meal is placed in the corner.

Then the filling is placed in the center.

Then it is carefully wrapped in the leaves.

The little tamales are then tied up like a Christmas gift using strands of bark from the plantain tree. The strands are first soaked in water to make them more pliable and then cut to length. They are careful to not tie the tamale too tight neither too loose so they don't burst open or spill out while they are being steamed.

Once all the tamales are wrapped and ready, then another large pot is prepared to steam them. They line the bottom of the bottom with some small sticks and more plantain leaves.

Then the pot is filled with the tamales and water is poured over them.

The pot is then covered with plastic and left to steam for about two or so hours.

The kitchen felt like a sauna!

The outside of the little kitchen.

The finished product! Ready to be sold and eaten! Mmmm so good and a great money maker! Another activity is planned for later this month. Hot tamales, hot tamales, get'em while their hot!

 

 

 

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It's time to play catch up. Back in May we saw several new people start attending our services. Wendy and her two children Jennifer and Daniel have started to come to church. The kids are close to Joseph's age and have become good friends. Wendy is a single mom trying to raise her family and serve God. We are thankful that we can be part of the their lives and help them to prepare for eternity.

For Mother's Day we bought a set of glasses for each of the Mother's. The lady on the left in the pink shirt is also new at the church. Her name is Andrea. Just a few weeks ago she came to our house and wanted to talk. She said she felt miserable because she had hatred in her heart towards her daughter's boyfriend. We counseled with her and before leaving she knelt down at our couch and got saved!! God is really helping her to overcome and to grow in grace.

Hannah is teaching both the Sunday school class at Tiloarque and at Las Uvas. She helped the children make a special craft for their mother's. These are some of the children from Tiloarque.

We are pleased to see that our numbers in Las Uvas have been increasing. Presently there are about four new converts who are receiving discipleship for baptism. The work here has been slow but we are beginning to see some growth.

The children from Las Uvas with their Mother's Day craft. Pray for the boy in the front in the middle, his name is Pablo. He has been suffering with seizures, pray that God would heal him.



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For sometime I have wanted to visit the national penitentiary, but was never sure how to go about it. Back in December the son of the one of the ladies that attends our church was arrested. She started visiting her son every week and soon learned all the in's and out's. She invited me to go along and visit her son. I was anxious to go along because I also knew two guys from Las Delicias that had been arrested about a year ago. When we arrived, there were three long lines of people at the entrance waiting to see their loved ones on the other side. Most of them were women. Some of them had husbands, others sons and boyfriends that they were coming to see. The women were rowdy and boisterous, some were weaseling their way ahead of others trying to get to the front of the line. Some of these women no doubt were connected to gangs and organized crime. The penitentiary allows visitors to spend the night at the prison over the weekend so some were prepared to spend all Saturday and leave on Sunday.

Finally at about 8 am soldiers showed up to begin allowing the people to proceed to the next checkpoint. They looked into our bags to see if we were carrying any contraband. Corruption rules at the prison. With the right connections and some money anything goes.

After the soldiers check us through. Everybody walks about a hundred yards or so to the main door to the penitentiary. There they have to pass another inspection and receive a visitors number and pass.

The lines quickly grow at the main gate.

After being handed a small metal plate with my visitors number engraved on it and my arm marked and stamped with my visitors number, I had to step into a small room for a pat down. Once I was cleared I passed on it to the main facility. The prison is divided up into different sections. There is the minimum security area, where criminals are waiting to be processed, and then there is the maximum security where the "big boys" go. There, they only get out of their cells two hours a day, the rest of the time they are locked down. The guys I was going to see were in the minimum security area. Once I reached the gate for their section a guard checked the number marked on my arm with the number engraved on my plate and then waved me on in. This is what it looks like as you enter. The two men in the picture are Rafael and Noel, two guys from Las Delicias. Rafael was arrested for illegal transportation of arms and Noel for breaking and entering.

Inside this "little village" of prisoners are what they call modular. Two story buildings that are filled with dorm halls. Each modular has a prisoner that is the "boss" of that particular modular. He demands money from the prisoners for whatever he wants and for any privileges the prisoners may want. If they don't pay up they usually have to work menial tasks and lose privileges.

In between the modulars are sitting areas, soccer courts, and small streets. The prison also has three or four chapels that are run by different church groups, there are also workshops where prisoners make shoes, belts, hammocks and wood products.

The modulars have wings of dorm halls. Each halls houses about forty or so prisoners. Inside the hall three tier bunks are divided off with thin wood boards creating little rooms for the three prisoners in that bunk. Here is Rafael's room. He sleeps on the very top bunk. If he wants a lower bunk with more privacy and comfort he has to pay the "boss" of his hall. He doesn't have the money so he stays at the top.

Rafael has learned to survive and pay off "the boss" by making and selling hammocks. It was very interesting to see how they weave the different designs by hand into the hammocks. I think he said he makes three or so a week.

This prisoner has been here for 15 years!! He said none of his family has ever come to see him. He pays his "boss" by shining shoes.

Some of the men make wooden hammock chairs. They sell for about $40.

The guys took me all around the complex. It was nothing what I expected. I thought it would be much worse and extremely dangerous. But all the prisoners roam free in this area from 7 am until 4pm. They keep it pretty clean and organized. They even have little gardens with corn and beans growing around the buildings.

Here is a little pond where they grow Tilapia.

Criminals in this complex range from thieves, and murderers, to rapists, drug traffickers and extortionists. In matter of fact just a few weeks ago a serial rapists escaped from this complex. He terrorized parts of Tegucigalpa and attacked several girls. He escaped police on one occasion by slipping into a sewer drain. Weeks later he was captured prowling around in Southern Mexico. 

 Help us pray about starting a ministry in the prison. We have been invited to come and give classes and preach to the prisoners in one of their chapels. We want God's direction. Also pray for Rafael and Noel as they finish out their sentences. They are soon to have their hearings.

 

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This past weekend we made a trip to San Pedro Sula to preach a weekend open air evangelistic campaign. Despite not having a pastor, the church people have taken the initiative to reach out in their community. This was the first time they had ever done anything like this. They got permission to close off the street in front of the church so they could hold services. Several of the neighbors came out in front of their houses to listen.

God helped in every service. There were seekers in all of the services. In the last service many of the young people from the church came forward to pray.

On Saturday morning Hannah taught a ladies session on modesty. She did an excellent job!

On Saturday night we got rained out and had to have the service inside the church. But we still had a very good service. Bro. Israel brought a group from his church and some of our people from Tiloarque arrived to help out for the weekend.

On Sunday, the church ladies prepared a delicious lunch for everybody. We had such a good time together!!

Some of the cooks serving lunch.

This was Brother Gonzalo's first time to visit the church in San Pedro Sula. He loved it!! He almost didn't make the trip but he was so glad that he did.

This was taken during the altar service the last night of revival. There were six teens that came forward to pray. The girl in the middle with the black shirt started coming to the church when she was a little girl in Sunday school. She prayed to be saved!!! Thank God for His help.

On the way home from the revival we took our time and made some stop along the way to see some of the sights. This was at a train museum.

Inside the big diesel locomotive.

 All aboard!!!!

See ya later!

Later on we stopped at a zoo. Check out the king of the jungle!!

A baby hippopotamus that had died.

 Dan Dan loved seeing the Hippos!!

Momma and baby.

Daniel and the lion's den.

But one of our all time favorites at the zoo was the giraffe!!

Are zebras white with black stripes or black with white stripes?

Hannah had a flashback to Jordan when she smelled the camels!! haha

 



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