Yes, We need your help!
by Timothy Paul Posey
Well, it’s 3:30 am in Tegucigalpa, Honduras and I cannot sleep due to the tremendous pain that I am experiencing, it’s the same pain that I have every single day but for some reason it is not responding to any medication tonight. I am also a little stressed about the situation with our children’s ministry in Honduras and I want to tell you what is happening.
Our partnership ministry is called The Centers of Faith, Hope and Love which provides a feeding center, school uniforms, shoes, and school supplies to some of the poorest of the poor children in the communities which we serve in Honduras. In the past 6 months prices on every single thing that we purchase to operate our center has at least doubled in price.
That is due to an action by the Honduran President and Government who increased the minimum wage from L. 2,500.00 to L. 5,500.00 in one day without any advanced notice. That means that the salary of every single person in the supply chain has at least doubled and that has caused the price of beans for example to more than double.
In fact as an example, I can remember when we first started in Honduras a 1.8kg bag of beans cost L. 18 today that same bag of beans costs more than L. 80, we are able to purchase them for cheaper than that because we buy beans in 100lb sacks. But they are telling us that in June the price of 5lbs of beans will be L.90
There is another factor and that is the 13th and 14thmonths salary that we are required to pay to all employees. I know you can’t comprehend that but every employee in Honduras except for this missionary and his wife receives 2 extra month’s salary every year and there is actually a bill right now before the national congress that would give them a 15th month salary.
Another problem that we cannot control is the ratio of the value of the dollar to the Lempira, this is complex, but the dollar has been losing value in currency so that we lose purchasing power, again this has contributed, but is not something that we can control in anyway.
I tell you this to say one thing, our ministry in Honduras is in the red, very simply we have spent more than we have taken in and we need some help to catch up. As bad as I hate to make this analogy, I guess the ministry in Honduras needs a bailout. Wow, just saying that can’t help! But, I wanted you to hear me say or write that before you thought of it yourself.
You are probably asking, What will your donation do?
- It will help us to pay the employees in Honduras what the government of Honduras requires that we pay them; at this point we will not be able to comply with these requirements in the month of June which is when we have to pay the 14th month salary.
- It will allow us to pay back other funds that we have borrowed money from in order to keep our commitment to the ministry in Honduras and the employees.
I know that many of you are wondering how we will continue in the future and I want to address that also.
· First, we need more children sponsored. With our current staff we can handle an additional 50 or so children in our program immediately, with this increase in sponsorships we will have more cash flow in the Honduran ministry available to pay employees and meet additional expenses.
· There may need to be in the future a reduction in services. We have already cancelled any medical help and are referring the kids to the hospitals. This is not an acceptable option but we have no other choice because of the finances. There will be many other requests for help that our answer will be no.
· There may be a need in the future to raise the current $35 per month sponsorship donation. If any of you would like to give an extra monthly amount to help cover our added expenses that would be greatly appreciated, however we will exhaust every option available to us before we do this, because we feel this could really hurt the ministry due to lose of child sponsors.
As the founder of this ministry, and it’s Executive Director, I want you to know that I review every single expense that this ministry has in Honduras. Our ministry director Bro. Victor puts his life on the line every week to go into the market place to buy food for the centers because we can get it cheaper there. We are watching every cent that is spent in order to be the best steward of the offerings that you all have entrusted to us. We are 100% Christian and unlike some ministries we will never change our name or goal of winning children and their families to Christ.
If you are willing to help us be Jesus to these children, then I invite you to give and give generously. If you can make your gift a monthly recurring gift that will be even better, and if you could do both you would bless our partnership more than you could know! You may have never heard of this ministry and God is leading you to give, I want to be the first to thank you for being obedient. Possibly you are considering sponsoring a child, please go to our website and take a look at all the children available for sponsorship. That website is www.centersoffaithhopeandlove.org
To give online now Click Here
You can also mail your donation to
Freedom Ministries International, Inc.
P.O. Box 3928
Brookhaven, MS 39603
God Bless you all,
Bro. Tim
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