Friday - work day to get ready for next year

We spent several hours this morning working on the trailer at the bodega to get the eye glass trailer ready for next year. We took inventory and I feel God has us prepared for another trip to Honduras.

Our final totals this year are:
Total patients - 652
Total prescription glasses given to patients - 264
Total readers given to patients - 441
Total saved - 28 (as always - One more for Jesus!)

We will rest tomorrow and fly home Sunday. This will probably be my last post this year. I have some pics from today posted below.  Thank you again to all our prayer warrior/rope holders for all your prayers and support for our team.

We visited Casa Cielo Orphanage and made friends with their monkey!

Some of the children at the orphanage

More children and some of our team members

More of the Casa Cielo children

Thursday clinic at El Pino

We had the eye clinic today in another church in a community called El Pino. We saw 78 patients and gave out 42 prescription glasses and 76 readers. The pastor said that there were 8 saved today. One more for Jesus!

This morning was a little different.  Absolutely everyone that was coming through the clinic had to come to the autorefractor station. We have never seen that before. Many had very bad vision but we were able to help everyone who came to the clinic.

Willie is a local missionary who lives here with his wife and little girl. He shared about an older gentleman who came to our clinic. When he came to Willie's station which is the last station, this patient said that he has been to other eye doctors and no one ever was able to give him any glasses. Our clinic was able to give him a pair of glasses. He was so excited that he began to cry and thanked Willie over and over. Wow!!

A young girl came to the clinic yesterday. The young girl said that she was really blessed by coming to our clinic because she not only got a pair of glasses but she also asked Jesus into her heart. She told Willie that our team was working on a leap of faith that is justified by Christ. She was incredibly grateful for what we were here doing and how it affected her.

Willie's wife, Claudia, said she was pleased that God gave her the opportunity to be a part of this missionary group (It's A God Thing). She knows that God sends us to serve others. She said she knows God will continue to use us to help the people here in Honduras.

Willie and his wife work with the group Missionary Angels. I mentioned them in a previous post.  They visit hospitals, prisons and they go into very poor communities to help people with any needs they have. It could be food or helping them with building a home. They also take them clothing, medications and any other needs.  One thing that Willie said that changed his life was when he found a child named Miguel. He is only 6 years old and weighed 9 - 12 lbs. It was so touching and breathtaking when he saw this child that it made him see life in a different perspective. It changed his eating attitude, his buying of everyday items and his traveling attitude because whatever he does, he thinks of all these malnourished children that he cannot help except in a small way. He wants to mention that this has brought him closer to Christ than he has ever felt before.  Therefore he will continue his life with his family to help others and to keep Christ first place in his heart. Amazing testimony!

Some pictures below of our clinic today.

 

Wednesday clinic at Bonitillo

We had our clinic today in a church in Bonitillo.  The name of the church in English is Fountain of Living Water Church.  We saw an amazing 94 patients. We have only seen that many just a couple of other times (not this year) and we worked until 4:00 to see them.  Today we stopped at 2:30. I could not believe we saw that many people in that amount of time.  We gave out 24 prescription glasses and evangelism said that there were 9 who were saved. One more for Jesus!!

I have included more pictures below from today's clinic.

Bucket working hard as always!

 

And pulling glasses for patients

 

Near vision station with Beth

Triage station with Jayne

Triage station again

Paul working far vision

Some patients at near vision station

Eli at the autorefracftor

Sweet little girl waiting on her mom to go through the clinic

It took a while to get this gentleman the glasses he needed but we finally did.

He left the clinic very happy.

 

 

Tuesday clinic at the church at Crusadas

We had a very productive day at Crusadas. We saw 81 patients and gave out 43 prescription glasses.  The pastor who worked the evangelism station said we had at least 8 saved today!  One more for Jesus!!  I didn't keep up with the totals last week but I know we had at least 3 saved and several who rededicated their lives to Jesus.  Most of the patients were members of that church.  Today we did have mostly members but we had some other people in the community.  One lady came through who doesn't go to this church and she did pray to receive Jesus into her heart. I included a video of the evangelism station singing and praising God. We have never seen that in evangelism in our clinic before. I was getting so excited to see them I just had to record it. Hope it plays well.

We had a group working with us today who have a ministry here in Honduras. It is the Missionary Angels ministry.  They go out to different areas and help those people who are in desperate need with anything they can give them.  They look for any ministry that they can be a part of.  We saw some videos and pictures of some very sad situations - some children who are starving and some who are in extremely bad health.  He showed us a picture of a little girl who was very sick and died the next day.  Those stories are so sad but I know that he and his team are doing everything they can to help these people in those remote areas who need everything.

We had several patients who came through that we could not help. This happened yesterday and last week.  I haven't seen this many people that the autorefractor could not read.  But they always leave with a grateful smile on their faces and usually give us a hug for just trying to help them. 

Tomorrow we will be at another church in the local area.  More pictures to come (I hope!) I'm trying not to be a Martha again (like last year) but I found myself getting a little to caught up in the paperwork today. I'm going to do better tomorrow.

Willy who works with the Missionary Angels

Near vision station

A young lady who came through our clinic. We had to dilate her eyes. She wasn't happy with

that but she was very happy with her new glasses.

 

 

 

Praise and worship time in evangelism station

 

 

Monday clinic in Corozal

We had our eye clinic in a building that is used to minister to single moms. We saw 67 patients today and gave out an incredible 44 pairs of prescription glasses.  It has been a long time since we gave out that many glasses in a single day but we saw so many people who had more vision problems than we usually see in one day.  There were several who we tested that our autorefractor could not find any glasses that would work for them.  That was sad for us but they still left with a smile on their face because we tried to help them.

Jayne told us this weekend about one of the men we saw Saturday.  We were able to help him with his vision so that he could read his Bible.  When he went to the evangelism station, he received a Bible from us.  Later as we were leaving, she saw him out by a house and he was apparently reading his Bible to some other people who might have been some of his family.  She got very excited about that and knew that we were able to change his life at least in a small way.

I have had a hard time getting the information about how many are getting saved each day. I know that some have been from what I heard. That is what this trip is all about - seeing the lost saved and then giving them a Bible.  Thank you to New Temple Baptist for paying for the Bibles we give out.

Below is some pictures for today. I didn't take but just a few because it was such a busy day.

Eli working with Jefferson at the autorefractor

One little girl who got her first pair of glasses

Jefferson trying to look busy. He was our runner today retrieving glasses from the trailer.

Karen and Breysi helping with the post test station and autorefractor

Paul just gave this lady her glasses and she was so excited that she could see so well.

 

 

Saturday clinic in El Cacao

We had a clinic today at El Cacao which is a very remote area. We did our clinic in an outside open air church. I have included a picture of it below along with a number of other pictures.  I loved the clinic today and we had plenty of extra help.  Several people who live in Honduras have helped us with interpreting and also working some of the stations themselves.  They picked up on how to test far vision very well. 

We had an older gentleman who had a hard time walking into the clinic. His vision was 20/200 and we found some glasses that would work for him. We got him down to 20/50 with bifocals.  He was so excited that he asked if he could have more glasses.  We love being able to help people have better vision for their daily lives and then we can give them a Bible in evangelism. We also give out the plan of salvation cards with eye care on one side and plan of salvation on the other side.  This is the whole purpose in our mission trips – sharing the love of God with these people. I think I have asked this before but please pray that those cards will be multiplied meaning that as the people take the cards home, they might share them with a family member or a friend and then they would read them and pray and then pass them forward to others.

 Our team has talked this week about the story of Peter stepping out of the boat. I shared this on Facebook.  I talked about that this week when I was afraid of getting into the boat on the island of Roatan when we had to travel up the water way (called the Oak Ridge Bight) in order to go to church on Sunday and Wednesday night.  I really didn’t want to do that because that is one of only a couple of things I am afraid of. Nothing else really scares me but I told everyone that I was having a hard time stepping into the boat and shared that Peter wanted to step out of the boat but took his eyes off Jesus and began to sink. I said that I would keep my eyes on Jesus and I would get into that boat.  I did just that and now I can get into boats at night.  I knew my problem was faith. I took my eyes off Jesus and my fear grew.  Now I know I have to focus on my Savior who died for me and I can handle anything that comes my way.  That is what we should all focus on when problems or other situations come at us and we feel that we can’t deal with this alone.  We are never alone when we have given our hearts to Him and we trust in Him to carry us through every storm in life.  I love the song “Praise You In This Storm”.  I know He will lift me up and carry me through anything the enemy throws at me as long as I trust in Him and praise Him through everything.

Bucket being his very happy self as always

Very satisfied customer

Another happy patient

Our inventory trailer

This is the church where we did our clinic today

 Well enough for today. Check back tomorrow for more pictures and stories. Thank you for all your prayers for our team and the people of Honduras.

Pictures of the clinic on Roatan for week 1

Wil working triage with a patient

Far vision station

Most important station - evangelism

House behind the church where we were working

Some of the team working in the feeding kitchen for the children - Rebecca's Table

Some of the work done by the team in Rebecca's Table

More triage

Autorefractor station - checking a patient's vision for the right prescription

Hamp working at post test station - testing the glasses that might work for this patient