2023-Monday (Persistence versus Impatience)

We have had some problems with the autorefractor equipment laptop in saving and transferring the eyeglass inventory.  I have had to spend more time getting everything to work correctly and I have been worried that we may not be able to help the people with prescription eyeglasses. I started praying and asking God for guidance and a miracle with the laptop.  I finally got it figured out and everything is ok but I have been relying on my own abilities instead of trusting God and having faith that He will work everything out.  God was in charge as always. 

Lately I have been reading The Battle Plan for Prayer by the Kendrick brothers. I have read the book  several times but a chapter stood out to me today.

Persistence versus impatience: chapter 19

Persistence is a necessary part of praying effectively. Whether God answers in twenty minutes or twenty years, we should never give up on Him.  In Scripture, God reveals that He wants us to trust Him patiently on our knees. He delights when we walk by faith and show our dependency on Him as we come before His throne. In fact, He may use delays in our life to reveal our hearts and our level of trust in Him. In the meantime, we must wait upon the Lord in faith.

Matthew 7:7-9 -  Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Luke 18:1 says we ought to pray and not lose heart.

Isaiah 40:31 - Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

I have to put my trust in my God who sent me here instead of trusting in myself. I am going to pray and not lose heart. God is in control and it is for His glory.

2023-Monday

 In memory of Paul Roberts:  Today we went to several stores to buy shoes for a number of children in the area we have worked with before.  We will get the shoes to the kids this week.

We will be doing more eye clinics Tuesday through Thursday in different areas around La Ceiba.  Last night we went to church at Crusadas. I am including a picture of Bucket preaching. Great sermon.

2023-Sunday Worship Service at Harriet and David's church

 We had an awesome worship time this morning. There was lot's of praise and worship music. Two of the Shalom girls did another praise dance. Joe Hastings preached a great sermon. 

We went to lunch at a restaurant that a young lady owns who has worked with us years ago during one of our trips. She is now working on her medical degree in brain surgery while she owns and runs two restaurants. The food was great and we had a great time talking with her. Her name is Shashkia. 

Me, Bucket and Linda will be going to another church tonight where Bucket will be preaching. The rest of the team went to the island of Utila until tomorrow afternoon. We have some other plans for tomorrow. We will be getting shoes for a feeding kitchen for the people on the street.

Last Thursday several team members gave out 25 pairs of shoes to Maria and Eber's family and some other families.

Sorry I don't have any pictures for today. Maybe I can get some later. Thanks to everyone for your prayers for our team.

2023 Mission Trip - 3 days of eye clinics

 We have had a great mission trip so far. Today was the third day of doing eye clinics. We conducted clinics at churches the first two days. Today we were able to go to Cruzadas where some young ladies live for safety purposes. Marie Jones brought the children from Casa Cielo orphanage to have their eyes checked also.  We then bought school shoes for the Casa Cielo children. We have also had members of the group participate in two different feeding ministries run by members of our Honduran ministry partners. 

  

 

 

Next mission trip to Honduras

 We will be leaving for Honduras Wednesday, March 8, 2023 and we will return Friday, March 17.

We will be doing eye clinics in remote areas as we always do. We ask that you be in prayer for our team and especially for the people that we can hopefully help have better vision. Also, please pray that many will get saved at our evangelism station and will hopefully take the plan of salvation cards home to share with other family members.  Thank so much.  I will be posting while we are down there.

Friday clinic at El Pino

Today we had another clinic at a church in El Pino.  On the way, we ran into one of the demonstrations where the road was completely blocked.  Shane Cooper drives the truck that pulls our trailer and then we have a driver, Polo, who drives the van that everyone rides in.  I was in Shane's truck when we got stopped. Shane jumped out of the truck and went up to the place where they had the road blocked. He told them what we were doing and our clinic would be just a very short distance. He promised them that they could come to our clinic later to see if we could get them a pair of glasses if they would let us through. It turned out that Shane actually knew one of the people doing the demonstrations. These are mostly teachers and doctors.  They did let us through!  We made it to the clinic and set everything up and then some of those who were doing the demonstration did come to the clinic and we were able to help some of them.  They asked if they could be seen first but the other patients didn't want to do that.  Shane explained to the other patients who were waiting that these people let us through and if they had not let us through, we would not even be there to have a clinic.  They worked everything out and everyone was ok with it.  God worked out a miracle today that we were worried about at first but He had a bigger plan. Glory to God for his goodness to us and the people of Honduras!

We have decided to leave tomorrow to head towards San Pedro but not sure where we will stay. We are wanting to get close to the airport so that we are not stopped by demonstrations Sunday morning which is when we will be flying out to Atlanta.  All prayer warriors - please pray that we won't run into any more problems with traffic, demonstrations or anything else that would stop us from making it home Sunday.  Thanks so much for all your prayers.

Great clinic today. Totals and pics below.

Total readers - 74
Total prescription glasses - 51
Total patients - 80
Total saved - 4

Totals for the whole trip:
Total readers - 351
Total prescription glasses - 251
Total patients - 508
Total saved - 40
That's 40 more for Jesus!

This is Shane who helped us get through the blocked road

 

 

 

Thursday clinic at Municipal

Today we had a clinic at a church in the town of Municipal. I have pictures below about our clinic adventures today.  We saw a total of 86 patients and gave out 49 prescription glasses and 63 readers.  Most of the patients were older patients who were in need of glasses. There were only a few that we could not help because we didn't have the right prescription glasses.  We did not connect with the pastor of the church to see how many were saved.

We did make it to the church with no problems as far as demonstrations blocking the roads. Everything was fine.

 

Another pic of the inventory trailer with 3840 prescription glasses

 

Rick and Emilie testing prescription glasses with patients

 

 

Joe checking a patient in triage (checking for cataracts and other eye problems)

 

Near vision station

 

Autorefractor station with the equipment which will check the

patient's vision and match them with prescription glasses (hopefully!)