TUMC Missions

See You Later, Not Goodbye

Dear Family and Friends,

Our time at The Leadership Center is rapidly coming to an end. We return home Wednesday night.

A visiting team from Virginia arrived Saturday; Peter, Krystina and John are spending lots of time with the students and enjoying all things TLC. They will lead a special seminar this afternoon for all 47 students.

Second-year Business presentations concluded today. They students have done a wonderful job with their plans, and several are very seriously considering a business after graduation. TLC will likely support them with a micro finance loan and help to launch more entrepreneurs in Honduras.

The sewing room was very busy this weekend. Many blankets are very near completion. Other projects include headbands, pillowcases, cosmetic bags and fabric baskets. The sewing team will continue to manage the scheduling of time and projects in the future.

We had a nice visit from Yesly, our sponsored student from Cohort 11. We are very proud of all she has accomplished since graduating last June. Recently, Yesly has been working for an NGO and translating for mission teams coming from the US.

My short story reading groups finish tonight and I have so enjoyed this special time with the students. They work very hard to read and understand stories in English and are well able to express their thoughts and opinions of our stories in their newly acquired second language. Tonight, we finish with “Celeste’s Heart.”

These four weeks have flown by. We will miss the students and staff very much. Hopefully we will say, “see you later, not goodbye.” We well know how bittersweet Wednesday’s last morning with these wonderful young women will be. But we will carry them home in our hearts!

Blessings to you all,
Chris Moore

PS The Leadership Center will hold a live event on Facebook, Wednesday evening March 8.

Transforming Lives

Buenas Tardes!

This morning at devotional time, Kenia one of our first year students, talked about Jeremiah 29: 11:

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Jeremiah was a young person who God used in a very special way.

Kenia was pointing out that many young women here at TLC can identify with Jeremiah. They are young with limited education and experience, but they are very focused on listening for what God has planned for them after TLC. They all have great hope and a future yet to be written!

Chris and I both taught this week. Me, more business planning work. And Chris, pre-natal health classes for the second years.

Business plans are underway for 21 businesses including several school supply stores, a laundromat, Internet cafe, secretarial and photocopy services, a nail salon, a couple grocery markets and two agricultural supply stores.

We had a great mission team from the Seattle area here this week – 14 wonderful people from a bible church led by the wife of the pastor. They were terrific in so many ways and they bonded their hearts with the TLC students. I am quite sure many lives were impacted forever!

Jasell with Chris and Amy Our Trinity friend, Amy Miller, arrived yesterday. Amy, Chris and I spent time this afternoon over coffee and bread talking with Jasell, the second-year student sponsored by Trinity UMC.

Jasell has 6 siblings – she is the baby. She is 19 years old and one of our youngest students. She is from a very rural community in Lempira and her parents grow coffee on a small amount of land that they sell to a cooperative. This is a typical but very challenging way to make a living here in Honduras. Jasell aspires to start a business and go on to university at some point.

Well the dinner bell has just rung! And I can’t be too late for beans, eggs and fried bananas!

Thanks to you all for your encouragement and support of these brilliant young women at TLC!

Blessings from Honduras,

Dan and Chris

Chores, Classes, and Success

Good evening family and friends

We have been here a week at beautiful TLC! Weather is great – 85 in day 55 at night. Sunshine and wonderful mountain air. But much more impressive are the 47 young women studying here on campus. 21 second year students and 26 first years. They are so loving, kind and grateful for this opportunity.

Devotionals start each morning right after breakfast at 7. Then work assignments. The students work on the campus and farm for 1 1/2 hour each day (not Sunday). Chores include working in the vegetable farm, tending cows, pigs and chickens, working in the coffee farm and cleaning the buildings on campus.

After work and showers, it’s two morning classes until noon and then lunch- usually a big meal.

After lunch , two afternoon classes.

Study halls , tutoring, exercise classes and more activities from 4 until dinner.

Studying in the evening or Bible Study or other team meetings and lights out at 10!

A pretty full day for sure.

I am teaching the second-year students finance and business planning for 4 weeks. Mrs. Chris is managing sewing classes, reading groups and begins teaching second year health class next week.

Here are 3 of our wonderful second year students today. Leonels, Karen and Jasell. All so bright and so loving.

Many of you know well these young women of TLC. While some girls graduate each year, it seems the new ones are so much the same. Very similar backgrounds – poor and rural communities for the most part. All desperate to break away from the life they would otherwise have. They work very hard here at TLC . All want to make a better life for themselves , their families and their country. And they are succeeding. With over 100 graduates in the last 10 years- over 85% of them are employed or in university or have a business. We are so proud of them.

Thanks to all of you for your support and encouragement!

Blessings from Honduras

Dan and Chris

Teaching English and Raising Chickens

Sunday, November 6, 20202

Dear Friends,

It is a lovely evening here on this rural Honduran mountain.

Our small team arrived last Tuesday, greeted with hugs, smiles and balloons. Meg, Ann, Michele and I were so glad to be here, and the students are always happy for visitors.

We settled in quickly to a routine of morning chores, classes with students and lots of tutoring. Learning English is a priority for the first-year students and the staff is glad for our help. We helped with speaking, reading, and phrasal verbs (put on, turn off, hang out, clean up)🤦‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️. Hard to explain why the plural of house is houses but the plural of mouse is mice.

We also had time for fun; sewing, hiking, pickle ball, yoga, a movie and long walks.

Next week we will receive 150 new chickens, we are trying for sustainability in our egg production. This meant our existing chickens, no longer laying eggs, needed to be killed, plucked and prepared to eat.

This was quite an education for us.

Ann, a first-time visitor, shared that she believes this to be a unique ministry in all the world. “I don’t know of another place focused solely on the education, empowerment and development of women leaders from poor rural communities.”

Thank you Trinity for a decade of support for The Leadership Center.

Blessings,

Chris Moore

Week 3 from Honduras, February 2022

Our almost 4 weeks comes here at TLC comes to a close tomorrow. It’s been a real blessing to be here.

We have had a small team from Virginia here with us this last week and it has been terrific. The students have embraced them and really gotten to know them in a short time. Last evening, Kathy Albarado and the team led a seminar on Social Capital, how the students might build their network of fellow students, alumni, community members and so on.

We watched the Super Bowl on Sunday and enjoyed pizza and guacamole together. Yesterday we celebrated Valentine’s Day as well!

Business plan presentations have been completed. The 14 young women did an outstanding job over two days and I think we have at least a few future entrepreneurs that will start businesses later this year!

Many other activities and fun in the last week… “English Cafe” for the first-year students, a bonfire sing-along, a wonderful church service on Sunday, corn harvesting, rounding up loose cows on campus, sewing and knitting projects – the list is varied! But the constant is these wonderful young women with strong kind hearts and an eagerness to learn. It’s a pretty intoxicating environment to be a part of for sure.

One of our graduates from 2021 stopped by to visit us; Yennifer lives in nearby Los Valles. Her cousin Helydi is a first-year student here at TLC now. We are very proud of Yennifer and her engagement in her local community. She is now on the local patranado (a group of 11 municipal leaders) and she is an officer. Things are changing!

We just took our covid tests (online telemedicine at its finest) and thankfully we are negative. So, we are cleared to fly back tomorrow evening.

We thank you for your personal encouragement and your support of this ministry.

Blessings from Honduras,

Dan and Chris

Week 2 from Honduras, February 2022

Buenos Tardes!

It’s been a busy week here at TLC. An outstanding week.

The students are doing well.

Second-years are progressing on their community business plans. We have an Organic Plant business, a Finance Cooperative, several markets, a barber shop and more! We will see how they play out. We have been in two classes a day this week with business.

First years continue their ESL studies and small reading groups most nights with Mrs. Chris. This past week was a Hemingway short story, The Old Man at the Bridge.

Coffee harvesting is still in full swing. But with 20 or so picking most mornings they are about caught up!

Our local Honduran staff are terrific – this is Don, husking the just picked beans. They are separated in two piles, beans to dry/roast and husks which are composted.

Some of our local alumni did a project in the local community of Los Valles last week. They met with 18 local women and gave a seminar on women’s rights and taught them how to make a few craft items. They enjoyed soap making lessons.

Mr. Jeff and I have been busy today making two sets of shelves. Things are a bit challenging without a Home Depot, but we will persevere. (We are repurposing old whiteboards for shelving material).

Sewing and knitting projects are in full swing with Mrs. Chris. The girls love time with her and are learning a lot. They are making blankets, bags, beanies and more.

We send each and all of you our best wishes and greetings from the 37 wonderful students here at TLC!

Blessings from Honduras,

Dan and Chris

Week 1 from Honduras, Jan. 2022

Good morning Friends and Family,

We have been here a week and it seems like it just flew by.

There are 37 young women here – 23 first year students and 14 second year students. The first-year students are in 4 classes a day learning English. And the second years have 4 classes a day in community development, Leadership, business and agriculture.

I am teaching business and we are working on profit margins, break event points and beginning work on their business plans. Each student will prepare a PowerPoint presentation of their business plan and an excel financial forecast.

Chris is working with the first years in a short story reading group, 3 evenings a week. And she has all the girls sewing and knitting in the Crafts Room.

This has been a big week in Honduras – especially for women. The new president was inaugurated yesterday and there is much hope and excitement for their first woman president, Xiomara Castro, who has promised to stamp out corruption in this country. The students held a celebration after our devotional yesterday, with flags and singing of the Honduran national anthem.

On Wednesday it was Honduran Women’s Day. The second-year students presented the life stories of 7 influential Honduran women. It was very well done.

The nights have been quite cool but the days sunny and hot. It provides the right temperature to dry our coffee beans.

The coffee harvest on the farm is in full swing with over 20 of the girls harvesting (cutting they say) coffee fruits each morning. The coffee is then shucked (husk removed) by a machine and the beans dried. Then we take it to a roaster.

It has been wonderful to get to know some of the new students. I spent time with Jasell earlier this week. All are from rural communities, and most have challenging backgrounds. They are so appreciative of the opportunity to study and learn here. Jasell told me that her family could never afford to provide her an education after high school. And she is so grateful. (Trinity UMC is her sponsor).

Things are well here a TLC. Everyone is healthy. Covid remains a problem in the country of course, several students have lost family over the last 2 years. We require all students and staff to be vaccinated. But once on campus we all feel safe.

We appreciate all of your personal encouragement. And we appreciate your continuing support of these wonderful young women.

Blessings from Honduras

Dan and Chris

Week 5 from Honduras

Buenos Dias Familia y Amigos,

Well, it has been a wonderful 5 plus weeks here at TLC. We fly back to Virginia later today.

We had our final exam yesterday in the Business Planning and Finance Class. And after our 50th and final class we celebrated with donuts, chips and Coca Cola. All the young women passed the class, and I can assure you it was a blessing to teach them.

The students did their final business plan presentations earlier this week and that was a lot of fun. I bet we have 3-5 students who will seriously consider starting a business later this year (after their graduation in June and upon completion of their internships in September.

The first-year students gathered at our casita yesterday to thank Mrs. Chris for all their sewing projects. Many smiles and hugs.

Last weekend was a pork fest. We slaughtered one of the pigs and filled the freezer with pork. Here are a couple of the girls frying pork for lunch earlier this week.

We had a special visitor to campus this week, a Trinity church friend who has been working here in Honduras for 3 years with USAid. Sergio is responsible for primary school education through Honduras. He was very impressed with what we have accomplished over the last 10 years and is going to make a few introductions that might benefit our students and alumni. But most importantly, he graciously spoke with all our students and strongly encouraged them in their educational pursuits. Here is Sergio with our second-year class.

As we get ready to pack up our casita, here is one of our friends that I won’t miss too much.

It’s always a bit of an adventure here. For the last few days, we have had about 5 horses on campus. Neighbors’ horses who are very interested in our gardens. They were last drinking water from a laundry pila!

I know we have shared with you before about the love and gratitude these young women express every day. It is such a blessing to be with them and teach them and learn from them. They really have their priorities right. They know what is important in life – and at such a young age. They are always hopeful, always grateful and always loving.

We wish you all the best and thank you for your support of these young women!

Blessings from Honduras.

Dan and Chris

www.leadershipmission.org

Week 4 from Honduras

Dear Family and Friends,

Today marks 28 days in Honduras for Dan and myself. I feel as though I just arrived and yet we will leave in a week.

Business students will begin their presentations tomorrow. Each student will share her business plan as a power point presentation with fellow students and staff. They (and Dan) have worked hard on their presentations and regardless of whether they start a business soon, at some future date, or not at all, this learning process has been so valuable for them.

For me, sewing classes, weekly reading groups and Algebra tutoring continue in earnest. Second year students are completing a blanket project. Sairah Tovar, wife of our campus director, will continue to teach sewing after I leave. She is an accomplished seamstress and the students love working with her.

Last Friday several students cleaned the large aquaponics tank on campus. First, about 80% of the water was pumped out. Next students jumped in to begin catching the fish with weighted nets. Two hundred small fish were then transferred to a secondary tank and full cleaning proceeded. Quite a process. Hopefully there will be enough large fish for a meal in a few weeks.

I consider it a privilege to be here among so many young, hard-working and lovable young women. They are inspiring. Their stories are heart-felt. They and their families often struggle but their futures look promising. You, our family, friends and TLC supporters are making all this possible.

Blessings to you,

Christine Moore

Leadership Mission International

Week 3 from Honduras

Buenos Dias Familia y Amigos,

It is a glorious morning here on our mountain campus. Very bright and fresh. A wonderful way to begin our Friday.

As our third teaching week draws to a close, the second-year students are working with me on individual business plans and the first-year students are getting ready to take their usual Friday English test (written and oral). And everybody is looking forward to the weekend and hopefully a bonfire tomorrow night!

We lost power for a day and a half this week. Late afternoon storms most days and one took down a power line about 45 minutes away. But no matter, evening activities including Bible Study, Reading Groups, etc. went on – a bit dimly with flashlights and small lanterns. But the students unfortunately told me they just could not complete their homework the other night. Amazing!

My 15 students are working hard on their business plans. We have 2 markets or bodegas, 2 chicken farms, 1 pig farm, a clothing store, 2 school supply / paper stores, a bakery, a laundry, 2 internet services/ cafes and 2 auto/ motorcycle parts businesses. (This picture includes one of my 4-legged guest lecturers earlier this week).

The type of businesses generally reflect the sorts of needs that these girls and their families have in their mostly rural communities. Many of them are from communities with less than a couple hundred families. And most employment in their families is as farm or field workers. So there is very little disposable income for wants, just basic needs.

We grow many of our vegetables here on campus, red beans, green beans, corn, carrots, onions, and cilantro – to name some. Thought you might enjoy a picture of our young pineapple plantation.

There are two larger farms very nearby. Right now, both farms are harvesting tomatoes. Workers from nearby communities come most mornings and pick the tomatoes (including women and children). Typically, they are paid 4 Lempira for a 5-pound bucket of tomatoes that they pick. I am told a good worker can pick 60-80 buckets in a full day. So maybe they earn 250 or so Lempira – $10, while there is harvest work. To put that in perspective, eggs cost about 3-4 L each (one bucket). Gasoline is about the equivalent of $3 a gallon. School supplies that are required for a student to attend public school are about 7-800L each year. Chicken meat costs 25 L a pound. A bag of chicken feed to feed 15 chickens for a month or so costs 400 L. So, this is a bit what real poverty looks like here and in many rural communities across Honduras. For hard work, people can make some money, but life just seems to always cost more than they can make. That is the sort of hard reality that our students come from. But honestly, the hope and faith they all have in God and in a better future for themselves and their communities is inspiring. It’s a genuine feeling that they express in many ways and it surely motivates me every day.

But back to the tomatoes. Most of the farmers’ tomatoes go to market as they are picked. But of course there are many picked that are not able to be sold. They are left in piles along the road. So two days ago a few of the students, one of our workers and Chris and I headed to a pile. Our objective was to glean what we could for the kitchen and gather a lot for the pigs and chickens.

Many were spoiled and not usable. But we sorted some for the animals and a bucket or two for the kitchen.

When we put the tomato piles in the chicken pens – the chickens ran away. But a couple days later they were pecking away at the bugs that had come for the tomatoes. The pigs ate all their tomatoes.

And best of all, Mrs. Chris made real spaghetti sauce (Italian/ with a touch of Honduran) that we all enjoyed yesterday at lunch. For most of the students it was their first taste of Italian (other than pizza)!

Well off to my morning class soon. So we will say goodbye for now.

Thanks for your continued support.

Blessings from Honduras,

Dan