Christ Redeemer Mission in Dawsonville has a sister mission in Honduras.

Father Emil Cook, OFM, Conv., updated the North Georgia Catholic community on the progress of its Central American outreach in a visit Ash Wednesday.

After celebrating Mass and joining parishioners for a Lenten meal, he showed a video of Mission Honduras and progress made on its bungalow for students. The Dawsonville mission has donated funds for the bungalow. Three families in Christ Redeemer also sponsor orphans at an orphanage in the Honduran mission.

Father Cook, a native of Kansas, first came to Dawsonville in 1992 as a guest of Joe and Marilynn Hirsch. He presented a video of his work in Honduras to members of Christ Redeemer and their pastor, Father Ed Danneker. Returning in 1993, he celebrated Mass in their new church. Each year he has brought students from Honduras to share their experiences with the Dawsonville mission.

The Central American mission was founded by friends of Father Cook after he went to Honduras in 1970. Now it flourishes with five senior high schools, a trade school, two boys’ towns, two orphanages and three university houses for students from rural areas. In 1983 professional Hondurans educated by Father Cook formed a non-profit charitable organization to help the rural poor of the country by providing educational opportunities. The students contribute according to their means to their education.