{"id":4198,"date":"2025-11-04T19:07:48","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T19:07:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reachhonduras.com\/?p=4198"},"modified":"2025-11-04T19:12:42","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T19:12:42","slug":"extortion-murder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reachhonduras.com\/?p=4198","title":{"rendered":"Extortion & Murder"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Extortion & Murder<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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6\/07\/2016<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Extortion here in Honduras is a major concern to the population.\u00a0 I can\u2019t imagine anyone not being familiar with the problems of extortion in Latin America.\u00a0 However, unless you live here, you\u2019re going to feel a sense of separation from it.\u00a0 Extortion has been here as far back as 12 years ago when I first came to this country, but it has increased in the last few years to an epidemic. \u00a0 In order to help you understand the environment of the mission field that we serve in, I want to give you some details about the situation.<\/span><\/p>

The definition of extortion is the taking of something, such as money, by force or threats.\u00a0 A bus company here in La Ceiba, called Cristina, was being extorted by a gang to pay about $10,000 per week.\u00a0 That\u2019s unimaginable.\u00a0 When the Cristina company, perhaps, ran out of money and could not make a payment, one of the bus drivers was shot and killed by a female assassin who was posing as one of the passengers while the bus was full.\u00a0 I saw the video posted by the news.\u00a0 This happened in our city.\u00a0 Just a few weeks before, I had used this bus company to send some personal documents to another city.\u00a0 The bus company shut down operations completely. \u00a0 This should have been the end of it, but the bus company resumed operations just a few weeks later.\u00a0 Today at about 6:30 AM, we were awakened by several gun shots in the distance. \u00a0 A Cristina bus was stopped by armed men, the passengers forced to get off and then the gunmen opened fire, wounding several of the people before setting fire to the bus.\u00a0 The location appears to be right at a point on the highway that the police use as a checkpoint to stop traffic.\u00a0 Strange location for the bad guys to choose because the police and military responded with their weapons and there were fatalities. \u00a0 Think about this.\u00a0 The employees probably did not know on the first go around that the company was being extorted and that their lives would be at risk if their employer did not pay.\u00a0 They certainly would have been now. \u00a0 This is happening to many businesses.\u00a0 Now try to imagine if this were happening to your employer without your knowledge and they stopped paying the criminals, but did not tell you. \u00a0 Your life would be in danger and you would not even know it.\u00a0 In case you don\u2019t know, these same gangs have a large presence in the USA.<\/span><\/p>

We know an unsaved man who was supposed to be on that bus, but for what could only be the result of the mercy of God, he was not.\u00a0 I would say it was because God is granting this man time for repentance.\u00a0 I will surely be talking to this man about this.\u00a0 By the way, I want to express my deepest gratitude to our faithful supporters.<\/span><\/p>

Now let\u2019s talk about neighborhoods.\u00a0 Individual\u00a0 neighborhoods have been abandoned because of extortion.\u00a0 They come in and begin to extort residents and the people understand that if they don\u2019t pay at the appointed time, they will be killed right then.\u00a0 It\u2019s that serious.\u00a0 You might ask, \u201cCan\u2019t the police help?\u201d\u00a0 Not really.\u00a0 There is, unfortunately, suspicion of corruption with the police that makes them unreliable.\u00a0 However, you still have to deal with them according to the Word of God.<\/span><\/p>

Extortion is not something new.\u00a0 Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees that they were \u201cfull of extortion\u201d in Matthew 23:25.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t carry weapons, but their guards did.\u00a0 Jesus confronted them and was delivered from them before they could touch him.<\/span><\/p>

Now the Bible also talks about extortioners in 1 Corinthians 5 and 6.\u00a0 In chapter 5, Christians are called to avoid anyone who is practicing extortion and calls himself a Christian.\u00a0 We are instructed to choose not to be with them if they will not repent, and this is talking about repentance unto God.\u00a0 Repentance unto God is where someone understands they have sinned against God and, after rejecting the sin, will make restitution to as many victims as they can.\u00a0 Regarding the people who are extortioners and don\u2019t claim to be Christians, the Bible makes it clear that our life in this world is going to be lived out in existence with unbelieving people who are in bondage to this sin (1 Cor. 5:10). \u00a0 While practicing separation from the world, we preach repentance and remission of sins (these types of sins) in Jesus\u2019 name (Luke 24:47).<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Extortion & Murder 6\/07\/2016 Extortion here in Honduras is a major concern to the population.\u00a0 I can\u2019t imagine anyone not being familiar with the problems of extortion in Latin America.\u00a0 However, unless you live here, you\u2019re going to feel a sense of separation from it.\u00a0 Extortion has been here as far back as 12 years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reachhonduras.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reachhonduras.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reachhonduras.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reachhonduras.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reachhonduras.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4198"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/reachhonduras.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4241,"href":"https:\/\/reachhonduras.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4198\/revisions\/4241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reachhonduras.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reachhonduras.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reachhonduras.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}