 Since 1998, the United Methodist Church has had a growing presence in the developing nation of Honduras and Central America. Started by the General Board of Global Ministries, this mission represents the only united Methodist presence in Central America. Over the years, the mission has flourished and has expanded to 23 different congregations and several United Methodist-affiliated organizations. Bishop Elias Galvan had Episcopal oversight in Honduras for 18 years prior to North Texas Conference Bishop Michael McKee taking on this role in 2019. With this transition and leadership, there now are natural and exciting opportunities for partnership between the North Texas Conference and the United Methodist mission in Honduras. This budding partnership has already led to conversations between United Methodist congregations in Honduras and their sister churches in North Texas. What would it be like for us to expand our world? It's not just the 21 counties in North Texas, but our brothers and sisters in Honduras and we do not know, but God knows them as well as God knows us. And we probably could learn something about sharing the gospel with people in our own areas. I can see our church partnering with congregations here, especially congregations that want to expand and multiply in ways of helping to create resources to purchase more land or to fund projects. To send teams, to be a part of the work that's happening, to build relationships with churches. Honestly, to learn from our Honduran friends what it means to go beyond the walls and what it means to enter into a relationship with our community and to be more intentional about our discipleship and about our evangelism. Honduras is a beautiful country with an abundance of natural resources. Centuries of colonization and exploitation, however, have stunted the growth of its economy and the effectiveness of its government. As a result, gang violence plagues many urban neighborhoods and people throughout the country struggle with access to education and adequate healthcare. They're people with hopes and dreams and skills and gifts and graces and they'd like to share those. I think sometimes I have gotten such a negative picture of what the country is like that being here has really given me hope for what God is doing in Candu and Honduras. And so it's inspiring to see how much they do, that they don't wait for the perfect situation, the perfect circumstances, all of the resources to follow God's call. What does being in ministry with a neighbor more than 2,000 miles away look like? It's not just about writing a check or deploying a short-term mission team. It's about establishing relationships between North Texas and Honduran congregations, relationships based on values of mutuality and empowerment. We visualize it as an agreement on both sides, to share and grow together. Not necessarily sharing in the same aspect, but each one of us putting something in this mutual growth agreement. Well, we always think that the fact that they know more about our context helps us, because when we don't know anything, we don't know how to help. So having a relationship like this with more churches benefits a lot in terms of Christianity too. Many times when you're not accepted, you try to lower your spirit of feeling that it falls. But when you're accepted, you feel like bringing more, more, not only to the church, but to the brothers, both from other churches. I really look forward to a time whenever our missions team in our entire congregation not only looks at the amount of money that's dispersed to the mission or to the individual church, but also looks at the relationships they've formed and the benefits that that relation has garnered for both sides. So that ideally, prosper UNC or whatever church could get to a point where they say, yes we gave this amount, but we've been in this kind of relationship. And these are the things that we have discussed and prayed for for each other. I think that would be super powerful and be a great witness to the world. Your church has a fantastic opportunity to partner with the church in Honduras. It is sure to be a transformational experience that will expand your vision of what it means to be in ministry with others. To learn more, visit the website below to discover ways that your church can partner with the United Methodist Mission in Honduras.