Mission Trip 2014 - Clinic at Pastor Mario's church in La Ceiba

Thursday and Friday

Today is our last clinic day. We were at Pastor Mario’s church in La Ceiba.  We had a great clinic day today.  We saw 52 patients and gave out 27 prescription glasses. The people were great and I hate to leave today.  I put my hands on Nana’s shoulders again this morning and she laughed because she knew I was putting the weight on her shoulders again about evangelism. We both laughed and she said she would do her best. I walked up to her later and she said that one more got saved – one more for Jesus.

Many of the people today seemed to have the worst vision problems that we have seen on this trip. We discussed the possible reasons why.  Pastor Mario said that the people won’t wear any sunglasses. We noticed that they rarely seem to wear the sunglasses we give to them. That is a major cause of cataracts and pterygium. Also genetics could play a part in it but I think it is mostly the environment and lack of knowledge of personal eye care. When Mary comes on the trip with us, she makes sure they know about personal eye care. We miss you Mary (you too, Guf)! 

We had a young boy who is 13 come to our clinic. He had 20/200 near vision and had difficulty reading the far vision chart. We had to dilate his eyes and then use the retinomax. We got him corrected to 20/40 with the eyeglasses we had available. He was very happy to be able to see so much better.  Later after we left the church as we were driving down the road, we saw one of our patients walking down the road. He had on his new glasses and had a big smile on his face. It is these kinds of responses that make this so incredibly rewarding.

Yesterday we went to the bodega (our small warehouse) at the girl’s dorm at Cruzadas. We had a work day where we swapped out the old cardboard trays with the new plastic trays in our inventory trailer. We also replenished the inventory. Finally we went to the girl’s dorm and tested all the girl’s vision. Everyone’s vision was very good so we didn’t need to give out any prescription glasses. Tomorrow will be a brief work day again at the bodega and then a day of rest. We will be flying home on Sunday. This will be bitter sweet as it is every year. I want to be back home with family and friends but I always leave a part of my heart here.

Summary of totals:

Total number of patients: 581

Total number of prescription glasses: 242

Total number saved: 15

Es una cosa de Dios! It’s a God Thing

 

Bucket, our team leader, with a couple of the children

Pastor Mario and some of the youth who helped us today with their new sunglasses

 

Mission Trip 2014 - Clinic at Diamante

Wednesday

Today we had a clinic at the church in Diamante. This is Florence’s (Nana’s) church. She and her husband were the pastors here many years ago. The people here were so sweet and helpful and the day went great. I laid my hands on Nana’s shoulders this morning and told her that I wanted to see someone saved today so that meant the weight was on her shoulders. We both laughed about it but I told her that I didn’t want our primary reason for being here to be in vain. We haven’t seen anyone come to know the Lord the last two days so we had to do something different. She said she would take this on. She shared with them, prayed with them and praised with them. By the end of the day, two more came to know the Lord as their personal Savior. One more for Jesus!!!

We connected with a little girl named Cindy that came to our medical clinic last year. She was very malnourished to the point of dying. The medical team worked with her and then Evelyn got her to a hospital. She is now living at an orphanage and is doing awesome. Her hair has grown back and she is actually walking now. They said that she would not survive. She is more than surviving – she is thriving. Another one of God’s precious miracles.

We saw a total of 59 patients today and gave out only 15 prescription glasses. I noticed that the visual acuity of the people in this town is much better than most areas we have worked in. We are not sure if it is the environment or something else. So far we have seen 517 patients and given out 215 prescription glasses and we have seen 14 come to know the Lord as their Savior. God has blessed us beyond belief with what He has brought across our path. By this time on our trip, we usually average seeing about 450+/-, but 517 people is awesome. I praise you God – thank you for this opportunity for us to be blessed.

One last note: today I received some not so good news from back home. Bucket told me to stop looking sad and get happy because I just made the enemy mad at me. Bucket and I talked this morning after prayer time at the clinic about how we got goose-bumps during prayer time because we felt the power of the Holy Spirit. I was claiming one more for Jesus and I knew something great was going to happen today and it did. He was telling me someone was going to get saved. So now instead of feeling pitiful about myself, I am praising God for what He did and is going to do – and I know He will take care of all my stuff back in Alabama too. The Sunday before we left for Honduras, I had asked that a music video be played during offertory. The song was “We Believe” and the pictures were last year’s mission trip. The video played great before the church service, but it wouldn’t play during the service so Brother Chris, our pastor, got up and started his sermon. He apologized later for the video not working. I told him that it was ok because it was an attack by the enemy because he doesn’t want anyone praying for our team but that was fine with me because that just meant that Brother Chris had more time to preach the Word of God. Well, I guess the enemy just lost that one!  he is losing this battle as well. In a devotion we used during Lay Renewal at our church, one of the devotions (Day 2) was “How can praise help us share the Gospel?” This was written by Erik Lutz. In it he said that praise is essentially the opposite of complaint. It requires us to take our eyes off our difficult situation and focus instead on the God who upholds us. Misery and self-pity cannot last in the light of who our God is and all the blessings He daily pours out on us. Paul later wrote the following to the Philippian believers: Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. Philippians 2:14

Es una cosa de Dios! It’s a God thing!

 

Mission Trip 2014 - Clinic at Rio Esteban

Tuesday

Today we had another eye clinic day at a village named Rio Esteban. It is a very remote village - so remote that we had to drive through (not cross on a bridge) two creeks to get to it.  We saw over 80 patients today and gave out 38 prescription eyeglasses. Our clinic was in another church and we saw many of the members of the church. We had only 7 team members today so it was tough trying to get everyone seen in the near vision station, far vision station and those who had to go through the retinomax station but God gave us the wisdom about how to plan and organize today's clinic and things went very smooth with only a couple of minor issues that we have discussed and we will have a better plan tomorrow. The thing that concerns us is we don't have an evangelism team with us so we have decided to try to spend some time praying with our patients as they go through the clinic tomorrow. 

We had a devotion the last two nights on the Great Commission and we have discussed the meaning of this. The verse is in Matthew 28:19-20. "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age". This was one of the devotions that we used for our Lay Renewal Weekend at our church back home. In this command in Matthew we are supposed to do more than just witness to others and lead them to the Lord. We are also to make disciples of them. A disciple is one who will mentor and teach the one who got saved so that they, in turn, will go out and witness and disciple others. We are supposed to make more disciples who live in obedience to Christ. This devotion is on the www.answersingenesis.org web site and was written by Tim Chaffey. We discussed the fact that short term missionaries can't really disciple since we will not be here long enough. We talked about our two local interpreters who could be those disciples. Please pray that the ones who have been saved these last two weeks will have someone who will disciple them as they continue to grow in the Lord and then they will go out and witness and become disciples also.

Es una cosa de Dios! It's a God thing!

Mission Trip 2014 - 1st day of week 2 at Dr. Dodson's

Monday of week 2

Today we were in Belfate working at the church at Dr. Dodson’s. Dr. Dodson runs the School of Christ here at his home. He trains pastors and other leaders in the different churches how to be disciples for Christ. He puts them through an intense three week training. They stay in the dorm on his property one week at a time. They will stay for one week and go home for three weeks and then come back again for the second week of training and then later for the last week of training. He has a tremendous ministry here and he and his wife take this School of Christ to other countries in Central and South America. 

Today we saw 75 patients and dispensed 30 prescription glasses.  A number of the people who came to the clinic today attend his church here. Nana and Marlene, our local interpreters, helped us at our different stations and also shared the Word of God.  No one was saved today unfortunately.  Many of them were already saved.  I heard Bucket sharing the Word with a patient all the way on the other side of the church. He was getting so pumped up and excited for Jesus! Tuesday, Dr. Dodson will take us to another location to have another clinic. Dr. Dodson told us today that he has been so excited to see what our eye clinic has done for his people in this community and his church. Our team was here two years ago. He said that he has seen people who could not read a Bible before because of bad vision, finally take their Bibles and start reading. He said this has made a positive difference in his church and community and he can’t thank us enough for being willing to come here again. We feel that we are the ones who are blessed because of these people and how much they love and welcome us. Seeing people read their Bibles for the first time in a long time has happened over and over again at our many clinics in the past. That is such a joy and a blessing to us to see the look on their faces and the excitement in their voices as they read God’s Word. Serving Him here in Honduras is a blessing and an honor I can’t describe. I can only thank God for the opportunity to come here and serve Him in this way.

Please pray for the evangelism ministry. In past years, we have seen more people get saved. Evangelism is our primary goal. It is rare for us to not see anyone get saved during a clinic day. Last week, we encourntered many Catholics at Belaire for our four days of clinics. I took the time to work with Gloria for a while at her evangelism station. I loved that opportunity. The ladies that were with her said they were already saved but she shared God’s Word with them anyway. Please pray that we will be able to go out and save one more for Jesus this week.

Mission Trip 2014 - Day at Los Laurales

On Friday we went to Los Laurales which is the community around the dump. We had the opportunity to work the soup kitchen provided by the church at Cruzadas. They do the soup kitchen here every Tuesday and Friday. Another mission group does the soup kitchen on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. For some of these children, this will be the only food they may get all week.  Most of the children did not eat their food there, but rather took it home to share with their families.  These are the poorest of La Ceiba, surviving by wading through the refuse at the dump for whatever they can salvage to sell or trade.  Most have no hope of anything better.  They are born there and may never leave.  It is heartbreaking.  Please pray for the missions that provide the food and especially for these precious children.

Mission trip 2014 - (4th day of clinics)

Thursday

We have had another great weather day in Honduras.  So many sweet and precious people have come through our clinics today. We have seen 88 patients in the eye clinic and gave out 31 prescription glasses. This was a total of 301 patients in one week which is more than we usually do in one week.  God seemed to make time stand still again, as He has before, so we can see all the patients who came to us. We had a patient who was blind in one eye. He could not see anything on the far vision chart. After going through the retinomax station, we were able to give him a pair of glasses that corrected his far vision to 20/25. That was nothing but a miracle from God. He had the right person donate the perfect glasses at the right time. We had so many other miracles like this all day. The team went to Yellow Rock in the cloud forest a couple of years ago. We had a devotion about the Jabez prayer and we prayed for God to increase our territory as well when we went on the trip to Yellow Rock. We knew we were asking God to possibly bring in more patients but we knew He would make us ready. We saw 90 patients that day. We usually average around 60 to 65. We knew it was a miracle that we were able to see that many patients in one day. Yesterday was a miracle as well - to be able to see 88 in one day. We see miracles that God brings in our path every day.

Medical clinic saw over 150 patients today and over 600 for the week. Barbara said that a little girl fell out of a tree and she has a broken arm. Barbara said they put a splint on her arm and immobilized it. The team is taking her to the hospital for possible internal bleeding. Bucket, our team leader, thanked the local doctor who has been working with us this week for what she did for the little girl and what she has done all week. She responded, “It’s my joy; this is my world”. We are asking for prayer for this little girl. Besides her broken arm, she may have damage to her spleen. Another lady came through the clinic with a lump in one breast and she has asked for prayer for her healing.

Evangelism: There were 7 people saved today and one redicated their life to Christ. Gloria said that 4 got saved at one time as she was witnessing to them. One more for Jesus.

Friday, the team will return to La Ceiba and the Alpha team will prepare to go home on Saturday. Omega team will continue to Belfate to work with Dr. Dodson. We will then have a work day at Pastor Mario's church and finally a clinic day with Leonard Jones at the school near his Casa Ciela Orphanage. We are excited to see what God will do with our team again this week.

Es una cosa de Dios! It's a God thing!

 

 

Mission trip 2014 - 3rd day of clinics

Wednesday

Another amazing day at the clinic. The weather was very clear. We saw a total of 80 patients in the eye clinic total and gave out a total of 34 prescription eyeglasses. The medical clinic has seen over 450 in the last 3 days. Today we had one man come into the clinic who had 20/200 vision and we were able to correct his vision to 20/20. God provided the perfect pair of prescription glasses in our inventory for him. Another man left the near vision station with his new readers. He immediately went over to the waiting area and sat down and started reading his Bible with a big smile on his face.  We were so excited to see his excitement.

 Evangelism: Carlos, one of the patients in the medical clinic, asked Drew, who is one of our new team members, a question in English. Drew stopped and asked him if he was a Christian. He responded, “Trying to be”. He said he goes to church occasionally with his wife but he has not been saved yet. He told Drew that he didn’t think he was ready to get saved because there are so many things right now that are enticing him. Drew’s response was that the devil paints a pretty picture but all those things just lead to spiritual death. Drew also told him that this will also lead to pain, guilt and shame.  He told Carlos that today is the day of salvation because tomorrow may never come.  Drew said he talked with Carlos for a period of time and finally Carlos said that if today was the day that God is calling him, he was ready. Drew and Marlen and Michelle prayed with him and he accepted Christ as his Savior! One more for Jesus!! Praise God. This is why we are here and experiences like this make a difference in our lives as well.

Es usa cosa de Dios! It’s a God thing.

Mission trip 2014 - 2nd day of clinics

The weather has been great today. Rain in the forecast but it we didn’t see a drop of rain. We began our day in the clinic with prayer and we asked the patients who came first to pray with us. That was a great beginning to a very productive day. We had a total of 68 patients come through the eye clinic today and gave out 42 prescription glasses plus readers. I will share tomorrow about the number of patients who got saved today.  We saw some people who have come to our clinic last year and we were excited to see them again.  Ken Peeples, the newest member of our eye team, is becoming quite the expert. He knows exactly what to do when he is working with the inventory. He may decide to become and eye doctor some day when he grows up! We are look forward to another great day and we can’t wait to see what God has for us tomorrow. One more for Jesus.

Es una cosa de Dios! It’s a God Thing!

 

 

 

Mission Trip 2014 - Monday (1st day of clinics)

This has been an amazing first day for our team. The weather was perfect and we had quite a number of patients come through the medical and eye clinics. Today we saw 65 patients in the eye clinic and gave out 25 prescription eye glasses. We had so many patients who had major vision problems but we were able to help everyone but 1 patient with eyeglasses.

Rosa, who worked in evangelism, told the story about one of the patients who came to her evangelism station. She was talking to this one lady who came to her. Rosa said the lady was very shy and wouldn’t talk very much. The lady went into the eye clinic and Rosa talked to the lady’s daughter. She told Rosa that her dad would not allow them to go to church. Her mom went one Sunday and the dad became very angry. The mom is afraid to talk to anyone now about her salvation. Rosa talked with her again and told her that you don’t have to go to church to love the Lord and be a Christian. The lady then hugged Rosa for showing her so much love and attention.  The daughter told Rosa that she knew that our team was sent there today just for them. Neither of them accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior but they promised Rosa they would read the Bibles she gave to them. Rosa asked for prayer for these two ladies and the situation they are in.

Gloria said that many of the people who came to her evangelism station were Catholic. They felt this was going against their beliefs. Gloria did share with one who did receive Jesus and was thankful that we were here. Gloria and Rosa said that a total of only 3 accepted Jesus today as their Lord and Savior between both their stations. I know this number seems small but it is “One more for Jesus”. I read a story in Rick Warren’s book “Purpose Drive Life”. He told the story about his dad who had been on the mission field many times and had planted over 150 churches around the world. During the last week of his life, he was in a semi-conscious state and dreamed a lot. Rick would sit by his bed and just listening to what his dad was saying. One night his dad tried to get out of bed and Rick’s wife asked him why he was trying to get up. Rick’s dad said “Got to save one more for Jesus”. He began to repeat that phrase over and over. During the next hour he said that phrase probably a hundred times: “Got to save one more for Jesus”. As Rick sat by his bed with tears flowing down his cheeks, he bowed his head to thank God for his dad’s faith. At that moment, Rick said his dad reached out and placed his frail hand on Rick’s head and said, as if commissioning him, “Save one more for Jesus! Save one more for Jesus”. Rick said that is going to be the theme of the rest of his life. Nothing matters more to God than for his lost children to be found. The Cross proves that. Let’s always be on the lookout to reach “One more for Jesus” so that when we stand before God one day, we can say “Mission accomplished”.  (Taken from day 36 of Purpose Drive Life).

Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Matthew 28:19-20 (NIV)

Mission Trip 2014

The team arrived in Honduras on Friday. We had a very productive work day on Saturday. The medical team went to Belaire where we will be having clinics next week and got their supplies set up and ready for Monday. Three of the new team members had the opportunity to go up into the mountaints to bring back a young man in a wheelchair to the clinic for wound care. He will stay with Evelyn for a week. Both of his caregivers have passed away. The eye team went to Cruzadas where all of our supplies and our inventory trailer is stored. We had a great day getting the trailer ready for Monday and even had the time to put together some new inventory eyeglass trays that we hope to use next year.

On Saturday night we went to Pastor Mario's church.  The scripture was Proverbs 31 and we noticed that there were only a couple of men at the service. We finally found out during the course of the service that is was a women's conference but the men enjoyed the service anyway.  This was definately their first women's conference!

On Sunday morning we went to the church that Leonard Jones and his wife and his children at the orphanage attend each week. It was a great time of praise and worship. We had to walk about 1/2 mile from the vans to the church on a dirt road and the church was held outdoors under an awning. We sat in small children's chairs and there was a generator used to run the speaker system. Would we consider walking a 1/2 mile in the extreme heat and sitting outside with mosquitos in small children's chairs for that long to worship God?  I don't know how quick I would have done that back home but I was so thankful for the opportunity to be able to praise and worship Him during this service. It was an experience I won't forget. The praise time was awesome and we haven't stopped talking about it since. God keeps reminding me to praise Him everywhere in every circumstance.

Prayer request: Please pray for the rain to stop so that the people in the community will be able to come to the clinics. We have had rain since we have been here and we want the opportunity to minister to as many people as possible.

 Es una cosa de Dios! It's A God Thing!