Mission is a gift from God for those persons  who make this option, especially when this mission is done in another country that is not one’s country of origin. Such is the case of Fernando López Rajadel, a Spaniard who is involved in the mission in Puerto Cortés in the diocese of San Pedro Sula (Honduras).

What was your life like before becoming a missionary?

I have a Masters Degree in History and before coming to Honduras, I worked as an archivist in the Historical Provincial Archives in my city in Spain.

When did you come to Honduras?

I came to Honduras for the first time in 1997. I returned to Spain in 2003 and one year ago I returned here.

How did you come to Honduras?

The parish where I lived in Spain is administered by members of the Congregation of the Mission. They are members of the same Congregation who administer the parishes here in Puerto Cortés and Cuyamel. The priests in my parish invited me to come to Honduras and collaborate in the mission here.

In what countries have you ministered?

I ministered in another country … to be more specific, I served in another mission administered by the Congregation of the Mission in the northern part of Mozambique.

Could you tell us about the services that you have provided people during your stay here in Honduras?

When I first arrived here, I collaborated with the Daughters of Charity and helped them establish a home for street children and for children who had been abandoned by their family [Hogar San Ramón]. Then, for four years I was responsible for a scholarship program which provided funds that enabled boys and girls in the villages of Omoa and Puerto Cortés to attend school. During the last year of my first stay here in Honduras, I was a professor at the prison in Puerto Cortés.

What service are you currently providing?

This year I have collaborated with the work that is being done in Hogar San Ramón. I also accompany the members of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul in Puerto Cortés (this Society is lay Catholic association that was established in France during the middle of the nineteenth century by Blessed Frederic Ozanam (a husband and father and university professor who is viewed as the precursor of the Church’s Social Doctrine).

Source: Webpage of the Catholic Church in San Pedro Sula.