About the Campbells - 2019

It has been ten years we have been bouncing back and forth between home here and home there. We want to tell you about what we do when we are living in home there, in Sandy Bay, Roatan Island, Honduras.  Some things have changed so much - we've lived on the beach and now we live up a bumpy road up a hill. We started by working out of the little church we first came to on a short-term mission trip. Our house up the hill is now where we are based. While much has changed, the people we serve has not. We thought we'd give you a little update on how it is with us now, 2019.

We spend about 6 months of the year in Roatan, Honduras and the remaining months of the year during planting and harvest season on the farm, outside of Ridgetown, Ontario.  This allows us to keep up with connections and responsibilities in Roatan, and we can spend time with family and friends at home while at the same time earning our livelihood.

Roatan is an island off the east coast of Honduras, Central America. The population of Roatan is between 30,000 and 70,000 depending on your source.  It is a tropical country and is warm to hot all year.  It is very humid. We live on an island and are always close to a beautiful view of the blue, tropical waters.  Sometimes we are in the blue, tropical waters. 

We work mostly with the Spanish people living in a community (Colonia) of about 5,000 in the area known as Sandy Bay.  Many of these people came to Roatan from the mainland looking for work.  A full-time job is difficult to get, with physical, day-jobs in construction available at times. There is work in the tourist industry but employers are looking for workers who are bilingual. We speak functional Spanish.  We have good friends who will translate for us if we run into problems.

We do not have a place where we “do mission work”.  Larry works from our house or the bodega/shed where we have electricity and he can buzz, and zzzzzutt and do his power tool thing. Materials are frequently delivered to our house to await a building time. By word-of-mouth people know what Larry does and search him out to provide help or advice.  Some days he is busy doing things for others, some days he is busy with our needs.  Larry doesn’t need to make plans for his time – things just happen.  

Susan does not go to a school to teach.  The children we work with go to Honduran schools and have qualified Honduran teachers.  Our students come to our home classroom for homework help, computer /internet/printing assistance, and/or for English lessons. They come for a few hours in the morning or in the afternoon.  This year we are assisting 15 students. They do not all come at once! Usually there are 3-5 students in the classroom at a time. Assistance varies.  For some students we are responsible to manage their sponsorship which includes tuition, uniforms and school supplies, bussing and all other school needs.  Public school students receive help only with bussing if needed, or uniforms and school supplies.  Each is welcome to come to our classroom for day-to-day support. For more information about the where and what we do, you can read from our recent updates.

The Colonia is through the trees behind our house and extends up and over. We walk down our road to the main road and then over to the Colonia road when we go visiting. A visit can be a 10 to 30 minute walk depending on how far up it is.  People also walk from the Colonia to our house.  We do not have a doorbell.  We have a gate, and people call out from the gate to let us know they have come to visit or make a request.  We do the same when we visit.  Visiting is what we do much of the time.  It helps us assess needs - and - it is fun!

We are self-supporting - that means we pay for our own personal needs including food, our house and anything that has to do with us.  We rely on donations to provide for school, building outside of our own property, and mission needs.  What we have come to understand is that when there is a need, God provides the money to meet this need.  If we don't have the money, this isn't our project.

We are not alone without support in Roatan.  We have a very good network of friends working in various types of mission work also.  The church we currently attend on Sundays is definitely mission-focused so we support and are supported by a circle of compassionate, servant friends.  These friends are God’s special gifts to us.

Dinner out with Juan

Since 2009, we have shared our lives with many friends in Roatan.  We continue to have a special relationship with Juan.  He is our family in Roatan. He currently is working in a city on the mainland so our daily contact with him now is by phone or social media – both here and there.  

We feel our most important work is to do our best to model how to live as Jesus’ followers.  Each time we return to our Roatan home, God has a surprise for us – something new for us to focus our attention on - and we try to be open to how He wants us to serve. 

If you would like to help us serve people and are able to provide support, send us a message at roatancampbells@gmail.com    You can send support directly through Loads of Love - to donate - using the Canada Helps button. You can find us there on the drop-down menu.