What did political unrest mean to us?

Within the first six months of moving to Honduras back in 2009, we experienced a political coup. The military forcefully ousted a president from office and then some chaos ensued for a few weeks. There was a curfew, a lot of rumors of terrible things that were going to happen, gas rationing, etc. It was all very scary we learned a lot from it - one of the biggest things was a friend/fellow missionary that said "don't let a political coup (or whatever else) determine where God has called you. If He's called you, then it should be irregardless of a coup or whatever other chaos." That has really really stuck with us.

Fast forward to November 26th, 2017. Honduras presidential elections happened and the people did not like the results - a lot of fishy things happened and people were calling 'fraud'. The people were angry, afraid for their country and that democracy was not being upheld in their country (I'm going to spare you the political details but feel free to google it.) Announcing the president was delayed until December 17th as they worked to recount and evaluate what was happening with the voting. During this time - and up until Dec 23rd, the Honduran people were rioting, 'taking the streets' and burning tires, etc. There was little control and very sadly there was looting and damage done as well. It has been a very uncertain time in Honduras and sad to watch a country that we love so much go through such chaos and panic.

For us, as foreigners in this land, and yet it is completely our home, it has been a weird time for us as well, being outsiders and yet living it with everyone else- ensuring we had extra food in case they blocked the ports and/or the roads to where they couldn't fill the grocery stores, always keeping the gas tank full, making our decisions of where we could go based on the status of the roads each day, and seeing how we could best take care of our staff during this time as well. Other than that though, life was very normal for us in our small little corner of the world - no violence, roads open, people still needing medical care, the community still needing us and life happening as normal.

The effects for this time impacted the poor of Honduras a lot. The agriculture grown around us wasn't picked up by the purchaser so our local farmers lost some profit from their crop, the prices for agriculture went way down, and those stores that were looted and damaged affected peoples jobs, etc.

This time we went back the to same personal evaluation of making sure our calling to live and love people in Honduras wasn't based on political security, but on the fact that God wants us here. The difference this time is that the stakes were raised - we have kiddos and a full staff that counts on us. I found it very amusing/odd how we explained to our girls what was happening and about riots and road blocks - what a different normal for them to process than my childhood. I never imagined parenting would include explaining burning tires and road blocks to my 7 year old.

Now of course -I"m not trying to sound dramatic - we were FINE - but when you run the worst case scenarios in your head, it's still a check point in our minds of what your priorities are.

Today, January 6th, life is mostly back to normal. There are still delays in some construction material we're waiting on, there are tire burn marks on the highways. We're expecting a few ugly days around the inauguration day (the President the people wanted wasn't elected so the people are still mad), but otherwise things are normal. As I look back on these days, I'm thankful for a solid and wise husband that makes it a priority to care for others and provide for his family. I'm also thankful that we share a love for this country and our communities.