Efraín

Submitted by Reverend Linda Hanson, Global Ministries missionary serving at the Theological Community of Honduras, where she is a professor.

Roberto Efraín tells of his arrival in Costa Rica to study with a scholarship through the Theological Community of Honduras at the Latin American Bible University (UBL).  We didn’t bring dollars, he says, and nobody would change our Honduran lempiras for us.  After three days we were finally able to go to an exchange house, but they gave us a terrible exchange rate.  For our first few days in Costa Rica we were hungry.  We couldn’t buy food.

For many students like Efraín, the opportunity to study in another country at a prestigious university is one they could only dream of.  Many never had left their village until they came to the capital city of Honduras, Tegucigalpa, to study, and then they were invited to go to Costa Rica to study at an accelerated pace, with world renown professors, for two months. 

Efraín struggled at first not only with knowing how and where to exchange money or buy food, but also with his classes.  His elementary and secondary school preparation were not up to standards needed for success at UBL.  But his professors patiently worked with him, giving him needed intensive reinforcement in basic reading and writing.  They also helped him to learn to manage a computer, and helped him learn how to do research in the library.  With great pride he tells us that he was able to maintain a B average in his classes while in the UBL. 

Efraín now returns to continue studying at the Theological Community.  He continues pastoring at his small church in rural Danli where he uses what he has learned in the UBL and at CTEH in his sermons and Bible studies.  He travels to his church on his motorcycle, and sleeps on a church pew two nights a week — on the nights when he has evening prayer service and youth group meeting at the church (and Efraín is a BIG guy!).  Efraín is excited to share what he learned at UBL with his congregation in rural Danli.  He says he knows how it changed his way of thinking and he is excited to tell others!

More about this project: Theological Community of Honduras