Bay Community Church Keeps on Giving

(copied from old blog. entry dated: 5/31/2009 3:20:00 PM)

Bay Community Church came to serve with us in March. They brought an all-star medical team who saw over 500 patients in 4 different villages and a 5-star cooking team who cooked at each brigade and no one left without a full belly! We had an incredible time with old friends and new friends and we can't wait to see them again!

Giving medical attention in the village of Los Limpios.       Ron and Rob manning their stations at the pot.

God is giving us the opportunity to see some sooner than others. Rani Richardson is a nurse that served with us on the medical trip in March, and she is back! Rani is going to be our nurse at the clinic for the next year and we are so grateful for her obedience to God's call. Our current nurse, Sharon, is returning to the States in June and without Rani's obedience we would have been left without a nurse.

                                                             

                                                                                    Rani, Dr. Teresa and Jerry, their translator.

Another blessing from Bay Community is the arrival of our old friends, David & Cindy Sharpless. They visited us for Christmas last year and have returned to help out at the school across the street for a few months. Cindy is an ESL teacher and David is an electritian and they are interested in coming alongside Earl and Sharon Washburn who are responsible for Isntituto El Rey...although we do have a growing list of things for Dave to do while he is here!

Bay Community is an incredible church that keeps on giving to our ministry. Thank you Pastor Jerry, for your commitment to us and for keeping our ministry before your church. Your dedication to the ministry and the people of Honduras is reflected in your attitude of giving and your spirit of generosity. You make it possible for us to reach farther and work harder than ever before. Our capacity is increasing not only because you send us help, but because you send us the best of your flock.

                                                           

                                                                  The whole gang on the hike to the village of Los Limpios.

All is Well....

(copied from the old blog. entry dated: 5/28/2009 10:23:00 AM)

We finally got a call from Martin and the medical team in Las Minas - they are all fine!  They got shaken around just like us but the buildings are standing and so are the people. When we talked at 6 a.m. people were already standing in line  for the brigade today!!

 They had a great day yesterday, fed over 550 people, 450 people signed up for medical and 128 for dental.  They were swamped!  The need is great and the team is working as hard and as fast as they can to see as many patients as possible before they leave at 3 p.m. today to come back to Rio Viejo.  Thank you so much for your prayers!  We thank God for his protection over our family and our group.  Pray for the country of Honduras today!

Earthquake in Honduras

(copied from the old blog. entry dated: 5/28/2009 5:37:00 AM)

All is well in Rio Viejo after the 7.1 scale earthquake shook us out of our beds this morning. We currently have a team from Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, LA serving with us and we all had a little get together in the dining room of the dorm at 3:45am. We are safe and sound, as we watch the internet for news of how the rest of Honduras and Central America fared.

Please stand with us in prayer for the protection and safety of the people here.

The medical and cooking portion of our team, with the exception of Bro. Larry and Mrs. Mary Ann, are in the village of Las Minas tonight in order to host a medical brigade tomorrow. There is no cell phone service there in the mountains so we do not have contact with them at this time. Please pray with us for their protection as well, we are expecting them to return to Rio Viejo this evening by 6pm and we will give you an update once we hear from them.

We believe God's hand has been upon us this morning, and we praise Him for His protection. Thank you all for your prayers.

Saying Goodbye to Our Interns

(copied from the old blog. entry dated: 5/11/2009 3:17:00 PM)

                                   

                                                                  

                                                             Our Interns: Allison, Claire and Heather.

We have made incredible progress this year toward our goal of covering the Cangrejal mountain valley with affordable medical care and community education, and it is largely due to the help of our interns, Allison Ippel, Claire Carpenter and Heather Stewart.

Allison and Heather came to us last November and Claire came to us the following January. As usual, time has slipped away from us, and we can’t believe it is already time to say good bye to two of them. On April 24^th, Claire left us to return home to begin preparing for medical school and Allison will do the same on May 15^th. However, we do have a bit more time with Heather, who isn’t expected to leave until September.

We have learned a lot about what it means to have interns working alongside us, and above all we have realized that we can no longer do this on our own. The vision that God has given us, to provide comprehensive medical, dental and spiritual care to people in the rural, underserved areas of Honduras is much bigger than we ever imagined.

We thank God for increasing the capacity of this ministry in ways we never knew possible, by means we never thought possible. We also thank Allison and Claire for sacrificing their time and energy to serve here with us. We pray God’s blessings on them as they begin the next chapter of their lives, and hope that they won’t forget their time here in Honduras.

                                                   

                                                                Saying good bye at Claire's send off dinner.

Toronto District Christian High School

(copied from the old blog. entry dated: 5/7/2009 5:14:00 PM)

         Ally Kwan & Rachael Weening at Hospital Atlantida.                The group on its way to paint a school in Los Limpios.

This year has been one of many firsts. This has been the first year to have a dorm, the first year with so many teams, and the first year with a team for 8 weeks. That's right...we are a little bit crazy! 

We hosted a team of 15 high school students and their 3 leaders for an 8 week missions experience. They spent their time serving with the 4 different ministries in the mountain area (The 600, Instituto El Rey, Give Hope to Kids and HHIM). We organized for them to rotate through the different ministries every 2 weeks in order to learn what it is like to live like a missionary. 

While they were here in Honduras they: painted murals in two village schools and at the government hospital in La Ceiba; poured concrete foundations and driveways; dug footers; planted tomatoes, pineapples, vanilla, beans and corn; built and maintained a compost pile; assisted in minor procedures at the clinic; observed live births in the Honduran hospital; cut, bagged and labeled pills; packaged soap, tooth brushes, toothpaste, band-aids and alcohol wipes; taught community education classes on basic hygiene; administered antiparasitic medication to over 400 hundred children at 4 different schools; learned Spanish in a total immersion setting; participated in 5 different local church experiences and lived for two months in a culture very different than their own.

We were all stretched out of our comfort zones and pushed past what we thought  our limits were. We watched as the students, AKA “mini-terns”, expanded their spiritual and cultural horizons, and began to wrestle with some of the tough questions in life. One of the incredible things about mission trips, regardless of their length, is that they shake your world up a bit; you have to make decisions in your life based on what you have seen and touched not just what you have heard about.

It was an all around incredible experience and we are praying about what God would have us do with our new found relationship with Toronto District Christian High School. 

An Old Friend Brings New Water

(copied from old blog. entry dated: 5/5/2009 12:20:24 PM)

             Martin and Tony at the Canadian Hotel.                                     Sam, Tony and Martin at work on the water system.

In April we had the pleasure of visiting with an old friend, Tony Nucaro. He came to spend Easter week with us while our Canadian group went to Copan to tour the ancient Mayan ruins. While he was here he wowed us with his culinary skills and we ate, ate and ate some more. Of course we did a little bit of work too 

While Tony was with us he and Sam worked tirelessly to install a water purification system for the hospital and the dorm. He also installed a coarse filter system for the whole property. The coarse fitler catches all of the dirt and leaves and the purification system uses UV light to kill the bacteria in the water. Now we have a sourse of clean water right here at the medical complex.

What an incredible week! We worked hard and played hard...a perfect combination. Thank you so much Tony, we miss you already!