7.1 Earthquake in Honduras damages Our Little Roses

7.1 Earthquake in Honduras leaves six dead
and some damage to the infrastructure.

Unfortunately we have discovered the ministry buildings did indeed sustain more damage then our initial look over led us to believe.

Several of our facilities have cracked and shifted foundations. Our water cistern is not holding necessary water, which in turn is causing other dilemas.

More to come....

If you would like to help us repair the damages that occurred during the earthquake, please send your tax-deductable contribution to Our Little Roses Foreign Mission Society. We gratefully appreciate your help. 

A Letter from our Founder Diana Frade regarding the removal of Honduran President Zelaya

July 1, 1009

Dear Friend of Our Little Roses,

There is much confusion and misinformation that has been on the news since Sunday about the ousting of President Zelaya. Let me give you a perspective from a person that has lived and worked in Honduras for the past 38 years.

When I left Honduras on Thursday the 25 of June, there was a great deal of tension and anxiety over an up-coming referendum that the president initiated to make a change in the constitution that would allow him to seek office again and to dissolve the congress.

The Supreme Court of Honduras had informed the president that it was illegal to have the vote since the articles in the constitution state that a change in term limits cannot be made. When Zelaya could not get the funding for the ballots for the Sunday election, he asked Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to send the ballots.

Towards the end of last week, there were marches for peace led by the Christian leaders both from the Catholic and Evangelical churches to not vote for the referendum and to pray for peace in Honduras. Just in San Pedro Sula alone there were 50,000 people marching last Thursday.

Since Zelaya was ousted, the news has reported that there was a coup d'etat initiated by the military. The fact is that the supreme court and congress asked the military to help arrest the president because he had broken the constitutional law by going ahead with the vote and distributing the ballots all around the country. The military had tried to talk sense into the president to back off from his referendum but he refused.

What most people do not understand is that in Honduran law and constitution there is no process for impeachment of a president like in the US . The law says that when a president breaks the constitution he can be arrested. BUT, the difference here is that because he is the president he is given the opportunity to be exiled to a third country in order to avoid jail.

In my humble opinion, Honduras has followed the law as stated. Zelaya broke the law but now his closest friends from Nicaragua , Venezuela , and Cuba have vowed to help support a "come-back". He has managed to gain support of the UN and OAS as well. The congress along with the interim president have stated that if Zelaya returns to Honduras on Thursday as he has promised to do, he will be arrested.

I ask your prayers for Honduras, its people. The Church, and most of all of a peaceful resolution to this most regrettable situation that affects the lives of millions of the most vulnerable in this hemisphere. I also ask your prayers for my family, Our Little Roses Ministries and friends and missionaries currently in Honduras.

Faithfully,
Diana Frade
SE Florida/ Honduras (previously)
nprdiana@aol.com

Bishop Frade's Holy Land Pilgrimage for Easter 2010

Bishop Frade and Diana will lead a 15-day pilgrimage to the Holy Land, March 23 - April 6, 2010. These dates include Holy Week and Easter, which coincide next year for both the Western and the Eastern Orthodox traditions.

The cost is $4,895 per person, double occupancy, which includes a $300 tax-deductible donation to Our Little Roses. Space is limited, so although this is nearly a year away, early reservations are advised.

Contact Globe Travel, 305-823-3939, and/or click here for complete information.

Helping the Hemisphere's Poorest

An excellent Miami Herald article - mentions Our Little Roses - 07/05/09
By JOAN CHRISSOSjchrissos@MiamiHerald.com

Charitable organizations and committed activists, many from the United States, have been far more effective than the deposed president and his government at helping Honduras' impoverished people.

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras -- It was the divide that caught my eye.
Two weeks before the coup that ousted Honduras' elected president, we were driving down a boulevard here in San Pedro Sula, the nation's second-largest city.
On the left: newly built single-family homes and town houses, modest gated communities you'd see along Kendall Drive or in Weston, without the fountained entrances.
On the right: a river the color of copper, where bare-chested boys with soiled shorts played in the silt-filled water while girls slightly taller than toddlers laundered the family wash. Behind them: a hillside of wood shanties, where corrugated metal sheets were propped precariously atop wood-slat huts, forming the equivalent of a ''front porch.'' The huts were built atop rocks, dirt, trash and tires, where children played and dogs with rib-cage coats picked for food. It stretched for miles, known to locals as el bordo.
A week after the military forced Honduran President Manuel Zelaya into exile at gunpoint, I'm left wondering: ``Who is looking out for those children?''
Read the Full Story Here

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/issues_ideas/story/1126806.html

End Coup Stalemate

A very good article from the Miami Herald: 

End coup stalemate
By MARIFELI PEREZ-STABLE
MarifeliPerez-Stable.com
Posted on Thursday, Jul. 30, 2009
I don't know what else to call it. If a president is awakened by soldiers pointing their weapons in his face, what is it if not a coup? Still, Manuel Zelaya's removal on June 28 can't be treated as if it were a return to the 1970s when brutal coups established military governments, banned political parties and perpetrated massive human-rights violations.Before his ouster, Zelaya was in a tug-of-war with Congress and the courts over the now frustrated referendum. No fourth ballot box will be installed in November's general election asking voters whether or not to convene a constitutional assembly. Under the Honduran constitution, only the Supreme Electoral Tribunal can call a referendum.
In late May, the Administrative Law Tribunal ruled that the president lacked the authority to proceed. All the same, Zelaya barreled ahead. On June 25, he upbraided the Supreme Court, the political establishment and the oligarchy. The next afternoon the Supreme Court issued a unanimous order of arrest against Zelaya for his serial flaunting of the constitution.Read More...