Postcard from Honduras: Milky water stirs Mark Richt’s passion to help
A sign clearly marks the dirt road leading to Mark and Katharyn Richt's visit to the small village of San Antonio. (Steve Hummer, steve@ajc.com)
POSTCARD FROM HONDURAS
Mark Richt is nearly 1,400 miles away from the Georgia Bulldogs’ practice fields this week, touring impoverished areas of Honduras served by the Christian charity organization World Vision International. It is his third visit to Honduras , but the first time any media has accompanied him. This week AJC reporter Steve Hummer will be providing daily postcards as the Bulldogs’ coach views the world beyond the narrow focus of football. Look for an in-depth report on Richt’s journey in Sunday’s AJC.
GRACIAS, Honduras — Much of Tuesday’s tour involved areas long served by World Vision, but Wednesday was all about showing the “before” picture of poor rural life in Honduras.
It was an emotion-charged day for the Richts as they visited locations where World Vision had only just arrived. Several times Richt and his wife, Katharyn, choked up while surveying the scene around them. The place that seemed to evoke the most reaction lay at the end of a half-mile hike from a school in the village of San Antonio.
The source of water for San Antonio is a two level concrete catch basin, its contents looking more like milk than water. (Steve Hummer, steve@ajc.com)
At walk’s end was the main community water source — a two-tiered catch basin collecting a trickle of milky, almost opaque water from up the hillside. The top basin was for drinking water, the lower one for washing clothes.
All the need around him seemed to light a real fire in Richt. Meaning that if you are a Bulldog, prepare to hear and see appeals from the coach and his wife to help out this cause.
To a gathering of school children in San Antonio, Richt said, “I coach American football and our fans are very passionate about our team, just like Honduras’ fans are passionate about their football versus Mexico [there was a big match between the two Wednesday night].
“I’m going to challenge our people to get involved to help this community. I think they’ll take the challenge.”
The Bulldogs just gained a whole new set of supporters. Knowing that happy fans make better donors, Zack Aspegren, World Vision’s National Director of Philanthropy declared, “Believe me, I am an Oklahoma Sooners fan, but this year I am a Georgia Bulldog fan, big time.”
– Steve Hummer
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123 comments Add your comment
kevin
June 23rd, 2011
2:51 pm
Angus,
Well, if God is all knowing, I am not sure how humanity has a choice/ can be responsible, since by definiton, all-knowing entails knowing everything. Hence, we are not free–known commonly as the in religious discussions as the problem of freewill. So, either God is all knowing and it’s on him or he is not all knowing it’s, at least in part, on us.
Assuming God is not all omniscient, how are hurricanes, tsunamis, etc. man’s fault? How is an epidemic man’s fault? How is an infant dying of cancer, man’s fault.
See, the trouble with trying to defend God in the face of reality, is that you run into logical roadblocks all over the place. That’s why faith is required. Despite the world, you must have faith.
Snoop Dawg
June 23rd, 2011
3:14 pm
Why are we seeing pictures of da Preacha Man and Water Girrrulll every day in the AJC from Honduras? Is this truly selfless service or a PR stunt? Who’s training up the team in Athens this week? Is there an AJC reporter or a UGA public affairs specialist down there with them?
Gimme a break, this is a joke.
Snoop Dawg
June 23rd, 2011
3:18 pm
Mark Richt is making more money than any missionary in the world today. He’s probably raking in more dough than Robert Schuller or Billy Graham and son.
Surely you folks can figure this one out…
Is the Bulldog Nation that stupid?
Delbert D.
June 23rd, 2011
3:23 pm
Steve, this should be in The Neighbor newspapers rather than the AJC sports blogs.
Angus
June 23rd, 2011
3:40 pm
Kevin, freewill means the ability to select among choices, and omniscence means knowledge of all possible outcomes from those different choices. Sorry to attack your strawman, but they are not inconsistent at all.
According to BusinessWeek, Americans spend in excess of $40 BILLION dollars annually on weight loss drugs and programs. Our pets eat better than much of the world’s human population. Those are but two very small examples of choices the people make about allocating the world’s resources.
Bamma Ramma
June 23rd, 2011
3:50 pm
Richt’s in honduras doing missions. Saban’s in Tuscaloosa getting ready for another SEC title run.
kevin
June 23rd, 2011
4:13 pm
Angus,
It’s not a straw man at all. If God is omniscient, it means he knows everything, infinitely–from outcomes, to thoughts, to feelings–all encompassing knowledge of the universe. So, that being said, God knows all that will occur. On this point, we seem to agree. So, how can you reconcile man’s freewill in the face of an all-knowing God? Or, put another way, in what sense is man free if God is already aware of his choices? The answer is, he’s not. At best, you might say man is ignorantly playing out God’s plan, but that’s clearly not equivalent to having a choice.
Regarding your other bit about weight loss and pets eating better than humans. If God were all powerful, he could have created a being that did not make poor choices. The bottom line is quite clear. If God is an all knowing, all powerful God and saddled us with this world, wrought with famine, pain, suffering, natural disasters, murder, rape, incest, etc., he cannot be all good also. If God is all knowing, man is not free. If God is all good, you have to explain evil in the world, e.g millions dying from horrible disease, natural disasters, etc.
Like Kierkegaard, the philosopher and theologian said, faith in it’s most pure form, is purely irrational.
damngoodawg!
June 23rd, 2011
4:20 pm
FanSince59 and the rest of you likeminded goobers. Listen up…We’ve got one of the best coaches, on or off the field, in the nation. You recruit the best kids out of high school and bring them to a first rate school where they can play for a great program and get a top notch education and they haven’t had the upbringing and discipline instilled in them to take advantage of it or to perform with dedication and…did I say “Discipline”??? Yeah. I hope you guys are happy when Richt says he’s got better things to do and moves on. Then we’ll get a real coach like….well Fran T thinks he could do a better job. Or maybe one of you guys….nah….
Angus
June 23rd, 2011
4:44 pm
Kevin, if my kid is standing before a hot stove, he has two choices: he can decide to touch the hot stove, or he can decide not to touch the hot stove. I know his options in that scenario and I know the outcome of either option before he acts. But my knowledge doesn’t affect his ability to make that choice.
Yes, God could have preferred automatons. I don’t know if you are a parent, but I would compare that to the difference between having a relationship with a child and interacting with a toaster. The toaster always will do what you instruct it to do, but you can never have a relationship with it because it is not free to reject you.
Any decision regarding theism (other than agnosticism, I suppose) lies outside of the scientific method, and in that sense relies on faith. A decision to get married is a leap of faith, but that doesn’t mean that there is no value in getting to know a person before getting married. That doesn’t eliminate the unknown (faith) component, but it does show that a decision that is ultimately made on faith can be rooted in experience and rational thought.
shane#1
June 23rd, 2011
4:46 pm
If faith were rational it wouldn’t be faith. As to Saban, from what I have heard he has taken some time off to play golf, so sue him. Richt had his camp a couple of weeks ago and had four recruits commit including two four star players. One of those was a 315lb tackle that is rated the best in the state. UGA has limited schollys this year and is on the list of some star players that aren’t going to commit this early. They have to wait and see what AU’s free agent contracts look like.
kevin
June 23rd, 2011
4:58 pm
Angus,
Your analogy does not work because your presumption of how your kid may act is not certain, finite knowledge. If it were, by definition, again, there you kid would not have a choice. We’re toasters or God is not all knowing. It’s called theological fatalism if you care to look it up. It’s been universally accepted as a fatal critique of God’s omniscience.
Angus
June 23rd, 2011
5:58 pm
Kevin, I’m familiar with that argument, which obviously has not been accepted universally. Perhaps you found a particular side of the debate to be persuasive and chose to take its irrefutability on faith, but the debate that has been going on for centuries is alive and well, I can assure you.
If God has has knowledge of all possible outcomes, but doesn’t force us to choose from among the options, then I don’t see an inconsistency.
Spike 80DF
June 23rd, 2011
7:34 pm
the roster will be stacked next year when Grantham takes the helm. his D will show out this year and he’ll be HC next year, count on it.
gahillbilly
June 23rd, 2011
8:07 pm
To everyone who says “Richt is a great guy but …” — if he delivers the wins that you want, is your life really going to be complete? When you come to the end of your life, is it going to matter if the Dawgs lose another four in a row to the Gators — or win 10 in a row, for that matter? Seriously, try to get a sense of perspective. We all love UGA and want the Dawgs to win, but still, it’s JUST A GAME. Coach Richt is the same big-hearted Christian gentleman today that he was when he won the SEC in 2002, but nobody was taking shots at him then. Win or lose on the field, he’s a man who will one day stand before God and hear the words all Christians hope to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” And THAT is what matters, and all that matters.
Mobile Dawg
June 23rd, 2011
9:14 pm
Snoop Dawg @ 3:18, yes. Hillbilly, we’re not paying Richt to be a Christian! It will matter whether we win or lose, it’s entertainment, bragging rights. In “Gods” world why do the Gators have a right to win all the time. Come on dumba$$es, we all make choices, we believe or don’t. It has nothing to do with the game of football. Richt has nothing to prove as a Christian, as a football coach, that’s another matter. Some of ya’ll are nothing more than ignorant.
kevin
June 24th, 2011
9:31 am
For theologians and religious folks trying to preserve God’s omniscience, the debate is perhaps still on. But, having come from a philosophy and religious studies background, I can tell you that in the academic world, the debate is more or less over.
“If God has has knowledge of all possible outcomes, but doesn’t force us to choose from among the options, then I don’t see an inconsistency.”
Yes, this has been the popular response to theological fatalism. The problem is that if God knows all possible outcomes, and lets us choose, then he does not know our choice prior to our making it. Hence, he is not all knowing. And, if he does know what choice we’ll make, we are still not free to choose and the various “possible outcomes” really are not possible at all. This type of response gets nowhere.
rj
June 26th, 2011
9:12 am
As a life time Tech fan I offer kudos to the Richt famly. I would love for Richt to coach at Georgia Tech as opposed to the lack of an example we currently have. Some will say it is about winning, which we don’t do at Tech-remember Johnson said the Ga-Ga Tech game was just another game-but it also about raising men with an example on serving their community and others with needs. No more rooting against Ga. (except of course one time a year) for me
Love UGA
June 26th, 2011
9:27 am
STAY THERE, RICHT! YOU CAN FIND A GOOD JOB THERE! UGA, LET’S START OUR SEARCH FOR A COMPETENT FOOTBALL COACH.
DAWG FAN
June 26th, 2011
9:48 am
DAWG FANS: VOTE FOR Uga AS THE BEST COLLEGE FOOTBALL TRADITION ON ESPN. WE ARE UP AGAINST THE NOTRE DAME SIGN. MANS BEST FRIEND? OR A SIGN? COME ON DAWGS. VOTE!
http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/post/_/id/6681916/1-notre-dame-vs-8-georgia
DAWG FAN
June 26th, 2011
9:51 am
DAWG FANS: VOTE FOR UGA AS COLLEGE FOOTBALLS BEST TRADITION VS NOTRE DAME ON ESPN. VOTE NOW!
http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/post/_/id/6681916/1-notre-dame-vs-8-georgia
mission man
June 26th, 2011
9:56 am
Please keep mark richt—he’s a good missionary man.
signed,
florida gators, auburn tigers
Matt
June 27th, 2011
11:38 pm
I’m also in Honduras for the same reason and the photo does not began to show how in need this country is of loving people to help with water housing. We went to an orphanage today where the government will not help the lady that runs it and there is one of her and 15 children. She handles it all by herself and there house is falling apart so any help you could send to mission camps or orphanage’s would mean the world to them.
salparadise
June 28th, 2011
10:39 pm
It’s good to know Richt puts the Lord first. Roll Tide.