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Rise and Shine
Today was our travel day from TOCOA to San Pedro Sula where we spend the night. Since the drive is long from TOCOA and we have to be at the airport by 10am, we usually spend the night in the city so we have time to make our flight back to the USA in the am. Since. Knew we would be in the van for 8 hours or so today, I figured this morning would be a good day to get up early and watch the sunrise. Sunrise was at 5:43 so I was out there by 4:50am so I could see it from start to finish. For a while I was out there by myself but later on a few others joined me. But, while i was out there alone, it occurred to me that for the first time, I was realizing how quiet it was. I don’t recall it ever being quiet in Honduras at night so this week has been unusual. But earlier in the week I remember thinking, I never hear the birds here because there is always so much noise. This morning while standing out on the little bridge at the hotel watching the sunrise, all I could hear was rain dripping off the roof and birds. Lots of them. Getting louder as the day broke. I have never heard so many birds! It made me realize that, sometimes in life, you have to get away from the noise and the normal, to hear God and hear what he is saying. Sometimes, I don’t think we do that enough and even though we think we are listening, we are often not removed enough from distraction to hear the things that need to be heard. I made a promise to myself that I would spend more time away from the “noise” in life to listen more. It was so beautiful just standing there watching the sky change color, listening to the sounds as the city woke up.
Once the sun had risen, it was time to shower and pack bags and head down for breakfast. We wanted to be on the road by 8am so we had some time for a team dinner tonight in the city and to relax a little. The team this week has been a huge blessing and I have enjoyed every single one of them. They each brought something different to the team and each brought value. Everyone has really been great.
Tomorrow we hope to make it home to the USA without too many travel delays but we don’t know what we will have to deal with, so patience is going to be key! Prayers for safe travels home tomorrow. Until next time Honduras. 🇭🇳
Final Work Day
Today was our last day here doing mission, until next time. We got through a lot of optical today and the team has been so great to work with this week. I can honestly say it has never been so organized and smooth running having such a great team. It was awesome to have several people trained on the machine so that I could take time away to visit with people and do other things. I love the optical mission but sometimes being tied there the whole time, without getting to walk around is challenging. I’m excited also to come back in February and reorganize all of the glasses!! We saw some challenging cases again today with prescription readings in the -15 etc. Most of the time diabetes related. ITs so hard to see these because this is something that can be prevented and in the USA treatment is more readily available. So many people come through the clinic with uncontrolled diabetes. When someone is just about blind because of it, it can be heartbreaking. I had another women come through who was fighting breast cancer.
I believe our numbers for the 3 1/2 days were around 250 patients in vision. Not all got prescriptions. Some got readers only, some got prescriptions, some got both and some nothing needed. But a good week nonetheless. I have a long list of supplies I need for next time, including some donations of items I am going to start soliciting! I need hats, and sunglasses and readers!
Home visits were a little mixed today. We visited the school in La Ceibita, visited one house and had some home visit time with some folks at the feeding center. Ann had several good meetings with people and the time spent in fellowship with community members was so wonderful.
Construction got done with their construction project for the week and I believe will sleep well tonight! It is hard work working out side in the sun and heat in Honduras, especially when you are not used to it.
After our work days we had a great time at the church service visiting with folks and saying our goodbyes until next time. There were a lot of emotions tonight and it was wonderful to see how much people had connected this week. We returned back to the hotel to share in devotions and team time. Lots of great sharing and discussion tonight and people really opened up. I love this team this week. They have been so great and have connected so beautifully.
Tomorrow we hit the road for the long drive back to San Pedro Sula where we spend the night before our fight home on Saturday. Who knows how long it will take to get there. WE never can predict.
Wednesday Ups and Downs
I don’t know why, but Wednesday always seems to be the hardest day of the week. Everyone is tired, some people recovering from sickness or just needing to rest, and emotions run a bit higher, due to all of the above and seemingly the hardest situations come through. But there are also many positives about the day and many smiling faces still. Today was even more special, because we got to the end the day with the BECAS celebration. So while there were many ups and downs and patience being tested, it ended on a high note.
Our day was scheduled as a half day due to the BECAS celebration so we did the best we could in optical to get through as many folks as possible. The majority of today seemed to be people mostly needing readers. We did have a truly difficult need in the vision clinic when a gentleman came in almost blind. He really wanted glasses to improve his vision and said his glasses were not working for him any more. He could not even see the largest letter on our vision screening test. When I scanned his eyes, the retinomax had a very hard time picking up a reading. Eventually we got one but it was such a high prescription that there was nothing in our system that could help and honestly, Im not sure they would have helped anyway. We spent some time talking with him and learned he was diabetic and had been untreated. He is on medication now but his vision is lost. I shared information with him about our medical clinic in February and encouraged him to come. We spent some time in prayer with him and then said our goodbyes. The team needed a minute to reset after that as emotions were a little high. It’s hard to watch sometimes the things that are so treatable in the USA and people here not having access. The next hour or so it was a little bit of a welcome respite as not a lot of people need prescription and most just readers, so there was a little time to breathe. Since it was a half day for us we packed up at around noon and headed back to the hotel to eat lunch and then clean up before the BECAS celebration.
We headed over to the church in the afternoon to attend the celebration of the BECAS kids and he 3 students graduating from the program. It was a really beautiful thing to watch all these kiddos enjoying the celebration and seeing the fruits of their labor as they worked hard in school to stay in the program. The BECAS program has been such a valuable thing to the community. Helping kids stay in school and helping to break cycles. It’s exciting to see and exciting to think of the possibilities for growth and additions to the program. I’m excited to see where it goes. The coordinators that help with all the kiddos are amazing and do such a good job. WE couldn’t do it without them!
Home visits were a little different okay as the families came to the church to receive their blessing baskets. They were very grateful. The home visits/BECAS crew spent time preparing food for the celebration also.
Construction had some time to exercise patience since they lost power and were unable to work. But they had some good opportunities to talk to community members and spend time in fellowship
It’s been a long day and everyone is tired. But tomorrow is our last work day which is crazy!
Time for rest!
Shelley
A Smile Is a Universal Language
Today was even busier! When we arrived at the Tocoa site we already had quite a few people waiting to be seen for the vision clinic. It’s always a little daunting because you hate to get to the end of the day and have to turn people away or tell them to come back tomorrow. But they are the most gracious and patient of people and never complain if this happens. I love that about this culture.
We started off the vision clinic sorting some glasses and restocking inventory to give us the best possible chance of finding glasses that might work for someone. It took me a little while to remember the steps because it’s been a while but I soon got into a groove and had some fantastic help putting the glasses in their correct space. I have really loved having as many people as I have had in the clinic this time and our translators are invaluable.
I spent some time training Jenny on the equipment today so she could spend some time with the patients, scanning eyes and helping their vision improve. She was nervous but soon got the hang of it and got into a groove also. Her very very first patient happened to be a special needs girl whose right eye was shut and unable to open. Not the easiest way to start the day off. But we managed to get a reading on the good eye and the little girl did very well with the whole thing. She was barely verbal and unable to communicate whether the glasses worked or not but it was obvious the first pair did not work. She made a displeased expression. When we put the second pair on her, she paused and then there was a smile that developed almost in slow motion. Her eyes lit up and she looked around the room and turned towards her sister and said hi sissy! It was the most beautiful thing to see. She could not explain but she could smile. We wanted to be a little more certain that they were actually helping her so we had her put the other pair of glasses on, and the displeased expression came right back. Back to the other glasses and the smile reappeared. While we did know for sure that these glasses were the exact right prescription for her, we certainly did have some pretty strong indications to believe it was the case. Earlier in the day in our devotions we had talked about how its ok to not know and that being will to be okay and admits that you didn’t know, is a form of humility. And here and always we are to have humility in everything we do. Jesus knew everything and he was humble. The definition of humility is : freedom from pride or arrogance : the quality or state of being humble. And that I believe can lead to vulnerability. I trusted her smile and trusted that the Lord had her in His hands. Being vulnerable and having humility I believe is something we all need to be and can lead to great things. I’m ok with not knowing. Someone mentioned tonight in bible study that its exactly like our faith and what we are supposed to do when we share the word and spread the seed. We don’t know the outcome most times, but we are to trust that God has a plan.
The home visit crew/BECAS crew had a great visit with the ladies that help coordinate all the kiddos and spent the morning shopping and preparing for the celebration on Wednesday in La Ceibita. After lunch they visited about 5 homes and brought baskets to each of those family members. One of our group shared that the first house they went to had just had a huge house fire and that they lost everything. But there was one thing that survived. In the room where the fire started, the family bible survived. Only a few pages were not readable but almost the entire bible still was readable. The team shared with us that the family believed that they were being protected by God and even after everything they have been through they are still being protected. Wow, what faith. To lose everything like that and still have a faith that’s unshakeable. Amazing.
Construction continued on and they had the concrete pillars poured by the end of the day and are ready to put on a roof! It was a hard days work for them and we were down a missioner who happened to be sick and was resting back at the hotel. But they managed and they rested when they could. They have a great crew of people working with them.
What a wonderfullt busy and exhausting day! God is good!
Blessings
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Fruits of the Spirit.
Monday November 3rd.
Today was busy! But fullfiling and fruitful and full of love and God moments.
We began our day with breakfast and devotions and then headed to the Tocoa site to begin our various different missions for the week. Optical got busy getting ready to see patients and all in all we saw a total of about 76 patients today. There were many moments with some challenging cases and difficulties finding the right glasses for someone but for the most part we were able to send anyone that needed them home with some good glasses to improve their vision. There were so many moments of happy smiles and even tears and lots of love to go around. Too many to list. One particular moment was when I had gone through about 60 pairs of glasses to find the right fit for a girl that had a very difficult prescription in one eye. Her other eye barely needing anything. She was struggling in school to see and was clearly getting frustrated that every pair we tried didn’t work. She was only 12 and it broke my heart to see her break down and cry. But I hugged her and told her it was going to be ok, and we would not give up trying to find her something that would work. We kept changing the rules in the program and changing allowances and doing everything we could to try to find the right pair. I was internally starting to feel at a bit of a loss but was trying not to show it. We got a text from one of our other team members. Catherine had gone out there to grab lunch and was talking with the other team members and explaining the situation, when one of them said, just pop the lens out of the other side of the glasses, on the eye that doesn’t really need the prescription. Goodness, that was something I didn’t even think to do. But it was brilliant. We clearly were not going to find what we needed and a simple solution could solve our problem. So I did. I popped the lens out of the non prescription side and had her try them. She smiled so big and looked around the room. She was focusing so much before on how blurry the other side. But with that lens gone she could actually see – out of both eyes! The lesson that I seem to be slow to learn, is ask for help! Don’t try to solve it all on my own! A simple solution from another team member saved the day. I was grateful and happy that this worked out!
We saw people from several far away places too. They had come from at least a few hours away to be seen and were very thankful that we were able to get them glasses.
The construction crew got busy digging the holes, bending rebar and preparing to put up posts for the new covered porch area on the caretakers house at the Tocoa site where the Crie is. They had a few hiccups along the way, but had a good day working with some of the local folks and solving problems.
Home visits and BECAS crew had a very fruitful day with meetings with the coordinators and spending time visiting local families and bring in care packages. We had several amazing moments during the home visits. One little girl we met last year who was struggling in school due to some medical issues, we met at a home visit and didn’t know we were going to see here today. She was thriving in school and was healthy! The BECAS program is doing wonderful things keeping kids in school and encouraging education.
I’ve been having a few problems blogging on the web site so my blog has not had pictures and I’ve been keeping it short due to the issues. But I’m hoping to have it fixed soon. I’ll add more to the previous blog posts and catch up as soon as i do!
It’s late, I’m tired! But my heart is full
Day one – Preparing for the Week
Today, Sunday, we enjoyed a quiet slow morning after our long travel day, We all met for breakfast, rested and ready for the day. We then piled in the vans and drove to la ceibita to enjoy a church service and lunch with the community members. It’s always a blessing to worship with the people here. They are uninhibited when it comes to their faith and outwardly expressing it and they have passion for it. The church service is always loud but in a beautiful way. The kids run here and there and people sing and pray their hearts out! We enjoyed communion today with the church and then enjoyed some time of fellowship, lunch and catching up afterwards. The kids enjoyed playing and the new members of the team enjoyed getting to know the kiddos!
After lunch we put together the baskets for the home visits and then drove over to our site in TOCOA to prepare the vision clinic and get things set up and ready. I did a little training with the people who were interested in helping with the vision clinic. It will be great to have new people learn the ropes! The vision clinic is a well oiled machine but it’s Time to do a little updating. My plan is to do some organizing and cleaning up of the inventory in February for the next mission! But we will make it work for this week!
After set up we all climbed in the vans and went back to the hotel where we had a little down time before dinner and devotions. Dinner and devotions are such a special time, because it brings us all together to reflect on the day and to share our stories. Even though we are tired by the end of the day, it’s a great way to wind down and spend time with Jesus.
Tomorrow we hit the road nice and early and begin the work for the week!
We Arrived Safe and Sound in Tocoa
Saturday November 1st. A team of 10 of us arrived in San Pedro Sula yesterday after a long day of travel. Delays in Atlanta, customs hold ups and slow roads, made the arrival late and exhausting but we made it nonetheless, safe and sound. We have a team of 7 women and 3 men here this time and our work this week will be some light construction, vision clinic and home visits. This is a great team and it’s going to be a great week. I’m excited to see our church family in La Ceibita this am and get set up for the week.
Reflections from the Week
I’m sitting here on the bus as we start the journey north to San Pedro Sula. Last night I was too tired to write a blog post so I’ll catch up from that too.
Thursday was a half day as we have to pack up the clinic in the afternoon and return the church back to being a church! It takes some time to get that done. Still even though it was a half day, optical and the rest of the clinic was busy.
The last day is always bitter sweet. You are tired and missing your family and are happy to be going home but also sad to be leaving the people we call family here………….
Got derailed and got car sick while writing so I finally am finishing this post! I’m feeling slightly squirrel like tonight.
So after a long day of driving we made it to San Pedro Sula. Im not going to lie the large bus that we have had this trip to do that long drive has made all the difference. Being able to spread out and rest comfortably and catch up on some sleep was awesome. I do enjoy having that time in the bus to reflect on the week and process everything also.
Once we got checked into our hotel in the city of San Pedro Sula, we freshened up and went down to meet for dinner. We grabbed our food and then all ate together in one of the large meeting rooms. This was a night of sharing stories and reflecting on the week. It’s also great to hear from the newbies on the trip and get their perspective. Many come with us and don’t know what to expect or have an expectation and its not at all what they had thought. Always people leave with a heart full of love and compassion and wanting to do more. Wanting to come back. They get hooked on mission, whether its here or back at home.
Someone said tonight, Gods love is universal. It doesn’t matter what language you speak, Gods love is universal. I loved that and had to write it down so I wouldn’t forget it!! It truly is. There’s no need for google translate when it comes to His Love for his children. Such a beautiful thing to take home.
The testimonies everyone shared tonight were heartfelt and loving and some, life changing. Some emotional and some entertaining. It’s always so good hear all the stories. Another team member said, “sometimes you don’t realize the road blocks or bumps in the road put us exactly where we need to be”. This is so true. We might not realize it at the time but it’s pushing us in the direction we need to go.
Sometimes we see cases or people where that cause us to struggle in that we don’t know how to help. We do hit a road block or we do struggle with the bumps in the road – figuratively and literally here in Honduras! But God has a plan, a universal plan and his path will be paved for us. The seeds will be scattered, even if on hardened ground, and that is all that is asked of us. Scatter the seeds, love people and share the gospel. He holds all of his children in the palm of his hand and even if we see a road b. lock, He’s just re-directing us.
It’s been an amazing week. I’m tired and ready to see my family at home, but my heart is full and I’ll be ready to come back! ‘
Tomorrow we take the journey home to the states but we leave a piece of our hearts here.
Until next time Honduras!
Blessings.
Something about Wednesday
on mission, there is something about Wednesday. It seems to be the day you are most tired, you are most busy and a little bit weary. But not in a negative way, just that the week catches up and before you know it you are coming close to the end of the mission. Always feels like there’s so much more to do but so little time. I think the heat and the emotional stuff and busyness if the day just makes you tired. Thursday will be renewed and refreshed and we will celebrate with our church family at the end of the day. Everyone loves this mission and the people here and the relationships we have formed. When we see a patient, we can genuinely say to them we will see you next year and check on your progress, We will be back, we always do come back. Because they are important and they have needs not being met and we do what we can. We may not be able to do everything, but we can love and we can offer hope.
Optical was very busy today. I think we saw around 40 prescription patients and about 20/30 for readers. It’s incredible to me how many people walk around not having good site. Some not hardly having any site. Kids sitting at school struggling because they can’t see the board. Or a person can’t read their bible because they can’t see it. Such a simple thing, and it is such a blessing to be able to offer the gift of site.
All the other sites reported back today after dinner and it sounds like things have been going great. The School clinic has seen around 450 kids for well checks and ear cleanings are happening. Gardens being dug and fun times are definitely happening. The women’s clinic is bustling and the water ministry had 30 people come in for the class to Learn how to use and take care of their filters. Miss Pearl taught the kids a lesson about planting a seed and nurturing it by recycling water bottles. With a little dirt and some seeds the kids had a blast. There was a special session in the community tonight for the young women of the community, with some speakers talking about their choices in life and what they can do with their lives. Their options their future etc. I’m excited to hear about how that went.
That’s all I have for now. Tomorrows clinic is a a half day so we have the time to tear down the clinic and return the church back to its normal state before the service tomorrow night. So the morning will go fast. Hard to believe our week is coming to a close
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Light Light and More Light.
That was the title of our devotion for Tuesday am. Since our theme is based on planting seeds, we have been going through the different stages of plant growth and what you need to do to nurture seeds to grow strong and fruitful. In every step, we can relate this to the life of faith and what we need to do to scatter seeds and help nurture seeds to be fruitful. Lots of good discussions about the right kind of soil, base, ground. The light it requires, but also the darkness it requires. Seeds need a lot of light to grow, but they also require darkness for rest.
Our discussion question for the day was this. “Are there any spiritual truths you can see in this description of seedlings need of light and our need of spiritual light to grow and flourish?”
Our reflection for the day was “ how can you be a light in someone’s life today?” Today as we went out to our various mission locations, we were asked to find ways to be light or see where the light was shining.
In optical there were several moments like that, and some that were a struggle. The most beautiful light I saw was a little girl who was referred by the school clinic to get her eyes tested. She was struggling to see the board at school and was getting headaches. I tested her eyes with my autorefractor and sure enough she need glasses. The first pair she tried on she grinned because she could see clearly. I wanted to be sure we had the right glasses for her so we tried a few different pairs. We ended up right back at the first pair and she said those are the ones. It is such a blessing to be able to provide this simple thing to her to ensure she grows and flourishes at school. Another gentleman came in and I could not believe the machine at first with his readings. They were at least a -15 in both eyes. For reference in the US to be considered legally blind, you have vision that is anything less than -2.5 This gentleman was only 30 years old but he had never had glasses and struggling his whole life. I ran the program to find the glasses and could find some pretty closer to his prescription, but not perfect. He was happy with his glasses as his vision was improved significantly. I have a copy of his prescription and i am hoping to be able to find the exact strength for him in the states to bring back next time.
The clinic was bustling again today and several folks came back for repeat tests etc to make sure their meds were working. The School in Ceibita is almost set up with a computer lab. This is a huge thing, as it enables the school to be able to continue through 12th grade. As it is right now they only go through 8th grade cause one of the requirements is a computer lab. Sara worked with the kids to help plant seeds and create a garden. Sounds like the kids had a blast.
The school health screenings went smoothly with them being on track to get through everyone.
The crie continued with their neurological screenings and vbs with the special needs kids. VBS also continued in la Ceibita. Ms. Pearl witnessed to 4 more ladies today and was able to have a bible study with them. Kurt spent time visiting the homes that got a water filter for clean water last year, to do maintenance checks.
The television reporters showed up again and did interviews and videos of the group working. They were particularly interested in the water ministry.
It’s been a wonderful week so far and I can’t believe the week is half way done. Time is flying by.
Im signing off for now, because I’m tired! I feel Iike I could write so much more though!
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