Mission trip 2017

Saturday, the team went to the bodega to get all the eyeglasses out of the trailer and packed into the duffle bags along with all our supplies and the Bibles we will give out.

Today the team had an amazing opportunity to worship God in a local church - lots of singing and praising God. Bucket preached and was really fired up and excited to share what God is doing in his life and with the team.  We spent part of the afternoon talking about what we will do the rest of the week in the eye clinic. We will have another worship time tonight at another church.

I will be sharing tomorrow about what God is using us to do in the clinics to help the people with their vision problems and sharing the love of Jesus with these people.  Please continue to pray for many to come to know the Lord. Thank you to all our prayer warrior/rope holders for all you do to help the team with your prayers and continued support.

Prayer Calendar for 2017

It’s A God Thing Team 2017

June 16 – July 2

“It’s A God Thing” team travels to Honduras each year under the direction of the Holy Spirit. Larry “Bucket” Guthrie is our team leader.  Our team has one primary goal: to spread the Word of God to the uttermost parts of the world.

Our team this year is made up of an eye team and evangelism team. The Roatan team will arrive in Honduras on Friday. Saturday we will pack the prescription glasses in duffles so that we can carry them on a ferry to the island of Roatan off the coast of Honduras. Saturday we will travel to Roatan and set up the clinics as well as having services.  Monday through Thursday we will have clinics in a church on the island.  Friday we will pack up the eyeglasses and travel back to the mainland at which time we will load all the eyeglasses back in the eyeglass trailer. Our mainland team will arrive on Friday, June 23. We will take the eyeglass trailer to the first clinic location and begin to set up for eye clinics and evangelism on Saturday and Monday through Thursday.

Roatan Team: Weeks 1 & 2 Larry “Bucket” Guthrie Lynn Giedinghagen    Jim Sims   Paul and Jayne Roberts Mainland Team: Week 2 Bill Coons Bonnie Coons   Lucas Hendrix Perry Dial Beth Chambers Emma Chambers Eli Hamby

Florence Team working on Roatan:   Week 1    Betty Achorn Greg Beadle Will Beadle Andy Betterton Carson Darby Connor Darby Kathy Gamble Gil Griggs Lauren Hicks Wayne Hicks Hamp Moore Mary Claire Moore Melinda Moore Becky and Carter Norvell

Matthew 28: 19-20

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

We are asking urgent and daily prayer for the following from our amazing prayer warrior/rope holders:

1.  Pray that the eye team will be able to correct the vision of everyone who comes to the clinic with a vision problem and will be able to dispense eyeglasses to correct their near and/or far vision as close as possible.

2.  Pray that the evangelism team will be able to share the love of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to everyone who comes to the clinics and that many will get saved.

3.  Pray that those patients who don’t get saved will remember what was shared with them about how Jesus died on the cross for them and that they will, at a later time, ask Him into their hearts as their Lord and Savior.

4.  Pray that those who get saved will then go out and share the love of Jesus with others in their family and community and that many others will get saved.

5.  Pray for the safety of the team.

6. Pray for Bucket, our team leader, that he will be able to lead the team in everything God wants us to do in serving the people of Honduras.

7.    Pray that the team will come home with a renewed vision of what God wants to do in each of our lives both in serving Him in missions here at home and in foreign missions.

Thursday - last day of clinics on Utila for 2016

Not to sound too repetitious but it was another great day.  We stopped seeing patients at 12:00 so we would have time to pack up 3,840 glasses into the duffle bags and get all the other supplies packed and ready to go back to the mainland on the ferry tomorrow morning. We saw 54 people this morning in just a few hours! We were amazed. We had to dilate 3 people but we had the chance to test their vision and give them some glasses.

We had some great stories to tell. One lady came through and as she was leaving the evangelism station, she was in tears. I was standing outside and had the chance to talk to her and hug on her (I haven’t given out as many hugs as I wanted to). She said that she has not been able to see well for a very long time. Her vision has been so bad that she can’t read or see well at a distance.  Our glasses changed all that and she is so happy. Then she said that one of the ladies in evangelism talked to her and prayed with her and then gave her a gospel of John track (she has a Bible).  She said she hasn’t been in church in many years and had lost a desire and reason to go.  She said now she knows that she was wrong and is making the decision to do what God is calling her to do. She patted her chest several times and said her heart has changed. She feels God is calling her to have that relationship with Him that she has missed all these years.  Wow! We were so blessed by her testimony.

Bucket said that Pastor Waldo said that they are setting up 2 people to follow up with people who came to our clinic but they are not in church anywhere.  He wants to make sure that they have not missed any opportunity to encourage these people to be a part of a church family.

Bucket also wanted me to share that the church here was very appreciative of all of the Bibles that we brought to Utila and shared with the people here. My church back home contributed to the team and then Bucket used the money to buy the Bibles.

At the end of the day, our team and the workers in the church got together to have some praise and worship time briefly before we packed up.  I have a picture below.  I had already started replenishing the glasses inventory when they started singing and praying. During the singing time, I was multitasking: singing and scanning the glasses into inventory. I thought I just had to get finished so the team could leave.  I am a very OCD person. Those who know me well can testify to that.  I have to have everything in order and very well organized and timed well.  As we were having prayer, I realized I was being a Martha times 10!!!  God sent me here to do this work in Honduras but I thought that I just absolutely had to finish this work on the inventory - NOW!  I was wrong - big time!!  I needed to stop and just be a Mary for a while - spend some time singing and praying and praising God for what He has done by using a nobody from Alabama like me.  He didn't call me here to be a Martha - He called me to be a Mary.  I am supposed to minister to Him by ministering to His people.  I felt very unworthy and had to ask His forgiveness and determine that I would seek to keep my focus on Him and not my stuff.  God can replenish that inventory without me or anyone else!!  I praise Him for that!  Thank you God for what you have done this week and in every mission trip and for all your blessings to me that I don't deserve except through your Son Jesus.

Our count for today

Total patients:    54 (in 4 hours!)

Total glasses dispensed:   22

Total saved:   14  -  Yeah!! One more for Jesus!!


Our count for the week

Total patients:  354

Total glasses dispensed: 158

TOTAL SAVED:  46 - YEAH!!  46  MORE FOR JESUS!!
 

Our registration station - lots of happy people waiting to get glasses

Heather playing with some of the children whose parents came to the clinic

Children at the Methodist school

More children at the Methodist school - some of the team went to the school and prayed with the kids.

Some praise and worship time at the end of the day

 

Campanado - a community on Utila that is in a swamp

Many families live in Campanado

 

Some of the sweet children in Campanado

Campanado

 

Wednesday on Utila

Wednesday on Utila

Today has been a great day in the clinic. We had one man come in whose daughter came to our clinic several years ago when we were on Utila.  Our team made a referral for her to Dr. Ponce on the mainland because she had crossed eyes (strabismus).  Dr. Ponce was able to do surgery and correct the problem and now she is doing great. She is on the mainland in school.  Rosa told us about a little 3 year old boy (William) we saw in our clinic with his mom in 2009. I told Guf that the little boy had strabismus and he made a referral to Dr. Ponce.  His mom took him to Dr. Ponce and a team from New York that was working with her was able to do the surgery to correct the problem and now he is also doing great.  Today the mom brought William back to our clinic and we were able to meet him. I have a picture of William below.  We love these amazing stories we hear about on our trips. Bill shared last night in devotion – God doesn’t call the equipped – He equips those He calls.  I don’t know what I am doing sometimes (I am definitely not equipped since this is not my field) but God makes it work. He blesses me with these sweet people who welcome us and then we get to help them have a little better life with better vision.

At 3:00 we had already seen 92 patients!! We have never seen this many patients in that amount of time.  This is another one of those experiences where God is making time stand still as I mentioned on Monday about the experience on Yellow Rock. One of our team members called it the “five loaves and two fish experience”.  God gave us all the time we needed to see all of the patients who came to us.  We praised Him and thanked Him for blessing our team in such a way that we could help more people. There were a number of people who came today who were corrected to 20/20 with the right pair of donated glasses. Thank you to everyone who has donated and for your prayers for our team.  God may have used your glasses to help someone have better vision.

Our count for today

Total patients:    92

Total glasses dispensed:   36

Total saved:   12  -  Yeah!! One more for Jesus!!

Some of you who have followed my blog for several years may remember why I used that phrase all the time (one more for Jesus). It came from a book by Rick Warren (The Purpose Driven Life). He tells about his dad who was dying and at the very end, he laid his hand on Rick’s head as if he was commissioning him for a ministry. He then said “One more for Jesus”.

This is William who had the surgery. He is doing great now.

Far vision testing

Near vision testing

Evangelism

Near vision

Sunglasses and plan of salvation cards we give out to everyone

Autorefractor room with our inventory of glasses - 3840!

More far vision testing

Brandon with one of the patients that we got to 20/20

Tuesday on Utila

We have had a morning of blessings and sorrows.  We had one man who came through our autorefractor station to see if we could find a pair of prescription glasses for him.  He is a carpenter and had an accident with a nail that hit one of his eyes about 8 years ago. He had very little vision in that eye. We tried to find him a pair of any kind that might work for him.  After numerous tries, there was nothing we could do.  We hated to tell him we couldn’t help him but we had no other choice. He went on his way and was very happy that we tried.  We were not so happy.  In fact, there were a few tears.  It is rare that we can’t help a patient at all. Many times the glasses might not be perfect but if they can see at least a little better, that is a blessing to all. Later we had another older man who came in with the same vision problems. We went through the same process and we couldn’t find anything for him either but he left with a smile on his face and said that we are a blessing. Both still received sunglasses, the plan of salvation card and a Bible as well as going through the evangelism station so at least we could do something special for them.

There were a number of other people who came through that we were able to help. There was one patient yesterday and another one today who had 20/200 vision and we got them to 20/20!  One woman came through who is a Christian but she doesn’t have a Bible because she can’t see to read one. We got her to 20/20 and gave her a Bible.  She was so happy to be able to read and get the Word of God to take home with her.

Bucket said he had a really big blessing today. One lady came through our clinic with her 8 year old daughter. She recognized Bucket immediately and told him that she came through our clinic the last time we were here in 2010. She said that her daughter was only 3 then and someone told them that Bucket was having a lot of pain in his knee. They asked for Bucket to come to the evangelism station. The mom said that her daughter would pray for Bucket’s knee. She proceeded to lay hands on Bucket’s knee and pray for him – a 3 year old! Bucket said his knee did get better and he was able to finish the mission trip with very little pain!  He was very excited to get to reunite with the mom and the little girl today. He said that was his biggest blessing today so far.

I asked Marie in the evangelism station about any stories she might have for today. She said one young man came through and listened to what they had to share but he said he wasn't going to pray the prayer to get saved. He told them they could pray it for him. Marie told him that this is a decision and prayer between him and God alone. No one could prayer the prayer of salvation for him. We would like to ask for prayer for this young man. He is involved in some things that are a negative influence in his life and may cause him to stay firmly against this decision. He definitely needs our prayers. He has the prayer of salvation card with him. Let's just pray that he will read it and decide to make this decision on his own.

Our count for today:

Total patients: 79 (this is a lot for us in one day!)

Total glasses dispensed: 37

Total saved: 8

I have one correction to make to yesterday’s total count for those who are saved: 7 – yeah – ONE MORE FOR JESUS!!

Total prayer warrior/rope holders:  way too many to count!!!  Thank you all!!

Monday clinic on Utila

We had our clinic at a church on Utila. The pastor and other people in the church have done an amazing job in helping us set up and run our clinic.  We have seen almost 70 people today and given out 38 prescription glasses and a lot more readers.  We actually saw everyone by 3:00 and still had time to spare so we could work on replenishing the inventory.  I couldn’t believe we finished that many patients in that short of time but we saw the same amazing thing happen several years ago at Yellow Rock.  We were afraid we would not be able to see everyone by 4:00 so that we would be able to pack up and leave to get back at the hotel by 5:00 for safety reasons. We prayed for a miracle and God brought it on!  Time stood still it seemed and we saw more patients than we had ever seen and finished just before 4:00. That was a blessing to us and the people of Yellow Rock.

Today, we set up a triage station and near vision station, far vision station and autorefractor station then finally evangelism.  We have given out Bibles today and cards with good eye care on one side and the plan of salvation on the other side. It is always exciting to see how happy people are as they leave the clinic with new glasses, sunglasses and a Bible.

The most important reason we are here is evangelism. We have seen 2 people saved today.  The pastor and others in the church are going to follow up with these people later.  One other man says he is ready to get baptized and another said he wants to join a Bible study.

Bucket said his blessing today was a couple of people he met who got saved. Brenda Hyche gave us a list of people to look up on the island. These are people she met on our last trip in 2010. She wanted us to follow up with them to see how they were doing.  One is a man named Hank. He is the son of Evelyn who was on the list. Bucket met with Evelyn and she told him she had asked her son to come to our clinic. Hank came and had his vision checked and then he went to evangelism. Bucket talked with him and he prayed and asked Jesus into his heart as his Lord and Savior.  Evelyn came in later and got saved also. One more for Jesus!

I can’t say thank you enough to all our prayer warrior/rope holders. You have been a blessing to our team as well as the people of Honduras.   Hope to blog again tomorrow.

Total patients: 69
Total prescription glasses: 38
Total saved: 7 (found out we had 5 more saved)

Joy at the autorefractor

 

Me at the autorefractor

  

Area in front of the church for registration

 

More registration

 

Near vision station

 

Guf and Brandon at post testing station

 

Guf at post testing

 

Emily in far vision testing

 

Ladies leaving our clinic with their new Bibles

 

 

 

Clinic at Cacao - Mission trip 2016

We had a clinic today at a town called Cacao.  We had the clinic at Pastor Guillermo's church.  We saw around 60 patients and gave out about 20 prescription glasses.  Many patients who didn't need prescription glasses did get readers if they needed them.  The most exciting part of the day was Pastor Guillermo sharing with us about 5 people who professed Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  He gave everyone who came through his evangelism station a Bible. He said one young man who came through said he wasn't ready to get saved. Pastor Guillermo told him that if Jesus was ready to die for him, then he should be ready to ask Him into his heart.  He said he was going to follow up with this young man as well as some of the others who came through his station. We were excited to hear about those 5 who did get saved. One more for Jesus!

Today was a challenging day with the autorefractor equipment.  We had a problem with the program that runs the autorefractor and I couldn't figure out the solution.  I told Bucket how important it was for us to have this solved so that we could be better equipped to help those who come through our station.  I want to make sure we give them the best glasses we have.  He came over to the laptop, he told all of Leonard's kids from the orphanage to gather around and everyone laid hands on the computer, on me and on each other and started praying that the problem would get solved. Later this afternoon, I was able to connect with the person who wrote the program and long story short - it is fixed.  I didn't know if I would be able to talk to him on Saturday but he answered the phone and he remotely connected to the computer, connected to Skype and talked to me through the whole process.  I totally did not expect that.  From Kentucky to Honduras!  The Lord connected me to the right person at the right time and everything is working! Thank you, Jesus.  Now we will be ready for next week.

Thank you to all our prayer warriors/rope holders who have prayed for us back home.  I will try to post some pictures tomorrow evening and let you see our eye clinic in action.