Fire In The Market

The week I was in Texas many things happened in Honduras.  There is a huge market area that sells everything.  Tools, clothing.  Everything.  Marc says if you can't find it at that market, it can't be found.  I have never been there, so I am taking his word.  On February 18th, the day I left, there was a huge fire in this market.  We could see the huge pillar of thick black smoke rising above the city from the airport.  But, at that time, no one knew what it was.

Since I had delayed flights and was wondering about the Houston airport for so long, most people knew what had happened long before I did.  It was posted all over facebook.  There were 2500 small businesses lost in this fire and, some reports say, somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000 people lost jobs.  In a country where most people live below the poverty line, this is staggering.  That kind of loss would be staggering any where. 

The dump trucks were rolling into the dump with the debris for days.  Marc was in the market Thursday.  He said there are hulls of the shops everywhere.  It will be a long time before everything is completely cleaned up.  And, even longer before everyone is back in business.  To try to maintain some level of income, some people are selling their wares from tents that have been set up in the streets.  With so many tents in the streets, it is hard to negotiate on foot, much less in a vehicle.  Marc had gone to buy some items for our store.  He soon discovered one of the vendors had lost everything in the fire.  That, suddenly, made it much more personal.   

We complain and complain about our containers not being released.  As always, God's timing is so perfect.  A food container was released and Marc was able to donate the whole container to the city to help these people that lost their businesses. After losing everything, a little food to feed your family would be welcome.

We hope to have a group in April that will spend their days helping to rebuild some of the stores that were lost in the fire.  If you are interested in this trip, please let me know.  Please pray for the thousands that have lost their businesses and/or jobs.

Terri