All other ground is sinking sand

A friend sent me a link for a Planet Money podcast from NPR about the breaking down of law in Honduras.  I was shocked to hear a news report about Honduras that was factual, devoid of political influence, and unfortunately accurate.  Here it is should you want to take a listen:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2014/12/12/370350849/episode-589-hello-i-m-calling-from-la-mafia

For those without 18 minutes to invest, the podcast describes what it is like for some otherwise considered non risky professions like bus and taxi drivers to live and work in the "most dangerous country in the world." 

Sometimes I think about the fact that we do, in fact per murder statistics per capita, live in the most dangerous country in the world.  That angers me, because I love this country...or more true is that I love the people of this country.  I would wear or display a country’s flag not because of love for any government, institution or type of land...people make up a country and culture that can be loved, not those things, but I digress.  It does not seem like the most dangerous country in the world to many that come in groups, and we work hard to provide a safe environment for them in which we can work. 

I do not like to think about the truth of the matter of that “factoid” because it hurts...and because of course it is scary.  When they mention in the podcast about calling the police I had to laugh to myself.  When we have had break ins...calling the police after the fact to investigate would be something to do just to boost the statistics, or to make people in the US feel better about it, but it accomplishes nothing. 

Unlike most media reports on the matter...I could find no bias, no fault, and no misinformation in this report.  They did a good job of reporting the facts and just the facts. 

And the fact is...it sucks.  The security issues suck...and more importantly so do the matters regarding the poverty and continued bleak outlook in that regard.  The clinic has escaped, with God’s protection I believe and the witness it gives to the community, such extortion to this point...but opening a traditional business here would be more difficult...unless one plans on hiring private security.  Even in our coffee farming...as more of that comes online, just to protect the harvests a gun will be required, not having one puts the workers at risk more than the alternative, if you can imagine that. 

Few want to hear the truth when it is so real and harsh, nor would I think that it is easy to grasp from afar...so I bottle it up and keep going on down the road...as do millions of Hondurans every day...either down the road trying to survive and eat every day...or down the road to the promised land of jobs, security, and prosperity in the USA (as well as in Canada and Spain) or get sucked into traps of human slavery which takes them not far and/or around the world.

And I find myself with solice then in the words of Edward Mote, who wrote this hymn in part after sharing with a friend's dying wife who was encouraged by it...

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ Name.

 

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness seems to hide His face,
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.

 

His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my Hope and Stay.

 

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh may I then in Him be found.
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.