Honduras 2011...

I've had a lot of time to think about the trip and if I could sum up my time there with one word, it would be encouragement. Encouragement from seeing the Church in Honduras, from the men and women with beautiful and passionate hearts to live for Jesus Christ our Savior. Encouragment of how the gospel of Jesus Christ is unchanged throughout the world. We might worship in different places and cultures, with different languages, and with different ways of expressing our joy for the Lord, but the cross where Jesus died to redeem us and the victory of His resurrection is unchanged. My God is God of all nations. His glory and mercy are displayed everywhere on earth for all people. God is good! All the time! Dios es bueno! Todo de tiempo! I say this phrase a lot, but I hope the truth of the words are never diminished. Because God is good. So very good. Encouragement that if we are ever uncertain of His goodness, we only need to look to the cross where His kindness is displayed through the death of His own Son. The grace of Jesus, who "was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities" because sinless Jesus "bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors" (Isaiah 53). This grace is what I cling to because like Paul says in Romans 7: 21-25, "When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!" The greatest encouragement of all... that I am a sinner but Jesus came to save me. And I surely know that I'm a sinner! But this I also fully know, that Jesus is able to save completely. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ! There is no greater encouragement than the grace of Jesus.

The mission work in Honduras was such a great encouragement to me! I learned new truths of being a disciple of Christ and was strengthened in my faith as well. Praise the Lord. Thank you to everyone who financially supported me and prayed for the trip. Dios bendiga.

Day Nine: bye Honduras!

Isaiah 52 says... "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim, peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion 'Your God reigns!'"

God makes our feet beautiful for his kingdom, to go and tell people about salvation through Jesus Christ. We divided up into 3 teams of physicians, dentists, nurses, and students during our week in Honduras. We went to 22 different villages on the mountains. We saw and treated over 3,200 patients during that time. But the greatest accomplishment was that all 3,200 people heard about the gospel. That out of the great love God has for us, He sent his son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. The punishment of all our sins was laid upon sinless Jesus and by His wounds we are healed and can be reconciled to God through faith in the cross. Praise God for His grace towards us. Jesucristo morio por ti y por mi y resucito in tres dias. Jesus vive. Recibe Jesus.

Day Eight: Alejandra

 This was our last day of clinic so I took out the baseball&bat that I brought to play with the kids... but the boys on the team decided to have a game indoors before we left. Don't worry, it was a hard foam bat/ball so it couldn't be hit that hard or far enough to break anything. It was pretty fun to watch an indoors game though!

 The Texas team! A wonderful group. Our team had been split up into different villages the rest of the week so this was the first time we all got to work together. It was a great day!

 There was a ton of dentists/docs with us on day eight so I decided to play with the kids all day- which was awesome!!! I had been so busy doing medicine work all week that I hadn't had that much time to play with the kids so a full day of coloring, balloon animals, games, and baseball was the perfect way to end my week in Honduras! The kids in this village were incredibly sweet and well behaved. We had a blast playing!

 Oh my... this might have been my favorite kid of the week! He's so cute! He won the guessing game so he got to keep the beach ball! He was about 4, so when we were playing baseball he didn't quite understand the rules... he would run around all the bases and excitedly "score" regardless of getting out or even hitting the ball. It was precious.

 Teaching the kids how to play baseball was so fun. It's amazing what you can teach and understand even if you don't know each other's language. Some of the kids were really good. One kid was even dubbed "the great Bambino" because every time he went up to bat he hit a homerun! Not that he understood our Sandlot reference to Babe Ruth, but he understood that we thought he was an awesome player.

 This is the beautiful Campamento that we got to stay at! Gorgeous! Medmissions was so great to house us in this awesome retreat center.

 The Hill of Light! It truly was. Jesus said in Matthew 5... "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and prasie your Father in heaven." Amen. May people see the goods deeds of that week and turn to praise Jesus. He's the only one worthy of praise!

 mmmm.... our food line. Our cooks were great and served us with such love and beautiful smiles! It was a joy to see them every morning and night.

Day Seven: San Jose de Comayagua

 This is Juan Carlos, a man after God's own heart. He is a Honduran doctor with a life that is filled with compassion for his patients and love for Jesus. It was a great blessing to get to work with him for a week!

 Oh my goodness, these little girls are precious! They're coloring pictures of Jesus.

 A great doc from Mexico!

 The amazing and beautiful Dela leading the kids in spanish Christian songs. We all had a ton of fun singing and dancing with the kids before the clinic day started.

 This was one of the families I saw in clinic. They were a very sweet family. They had parasites from the unclean water, so we gave them the treatment. We gave out a lot of albendazole for parasites that week!

 This is Robbie, a 1st year medical student, seeing patients. That baby had the cutest little hat.

Omar my wonderful translator! He also taught me a ton of Spanish. I was very grateful for him!

Day Six: Las Anices

 This is the day that our bus got stuck in the mud trying to cross a bridge that was too narrow for it.

 And this is the team starting our hour hike up the mountain to get to the village.

 I blame this experience on myself... haha. On our "dia libre" I had a lot of time to reflect upon my time with patients and the Lord surely revealed a lot to me! It was the first time that I'd ever seen more than one patient in one day, and I realized that I didn't do a very good job of being the hands of Christ. One of the most common complaints among the women was "headache" and "full body pain" and when I asked the time frame, it was always 5 years or 15 years. So after a while I became frustrated with these women and was not only disbelieving them but had a completely hardened heart against their sufferings. So on Wednesday when I was thinking about these women, I was truly convicted of my wicked heart. I had traveled all the way to Honduras to tell people of Jesus and heal their diseases, and there I was not even caring about their pain! Wowzers, praise God that He continually redeems me of all my sinful ways, teaches and refines me! Before we left for the villages on Thursday, I read several accounts of Jesus' healing ministry in the New Testament and in each of them before the Word gives account of Jesus healing someone it says that He had compassion on them. I can heal people in medicine but unless I have compassion for them, I will not be walking in the path of Jesus Christ. And there is no other purpose in life but to be a disciple of Jesus. So I prayed earnestly that morning that the Lord would give me His compassion for His suffering people. And did He ever teach me compassion that day! Our bus got stuck and couldn't make it any farther, so we hiked an hour up the mountain. When we finally got to the village and I got to sit down I discovered that I had the worst headache and my entire body ached! I then understood why these women were suffering and my heart was changed towards them. So that's why I said that the bus getting stuck was my fault... it is very kind of the Lord to answer our prayers, praise Him.

 Giving out crayons and Bible cartoon stories to the kids. It was awesome because we got to explain the Bible stories to the children. Dios es bueno.

 Gig'em Ags!

 It was good that we made it up to the top of the mountain that day, this village was infected with lice and scabies. Both miserable to have, but able to be treated with the medicine we brought. There was much need there.

 The dental team does awesome work. These people only see dentists/docs when these mission brigades go to the villages so there is a lot of work to be done.

This day two pieces of Scripture shouted at me. Matthew 7:7-8 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." And Philippians 1:6 "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Thank you Lord. Amen.

Day Five: Pulhapanzak Falls

 The Pulhapanzak waterfall... gorgeous! Isaiah 66:2 "My hands have made both heaven and earth; they and everything in them are mine. I, the LORD, have spoken!"

 This was our dia libre... day of rest in the middle of the week. It was a great day! We took a "tour" of the waterfall which was a less than safe walk behind/into the waterfall. I only thought I was going to die a couple of times, but besides that it was a FANTASTIC experience.

 These two are going to be wonderful dentists someday! I'm looking forward to what God will have them do with it, missions?

 The Texas team. A great day of waterfalls, relaxing, ultimate frisbee, and a bonfire!

 Eating the best smore ever made!

Jonathan, one of the funniest people I've ever known.

Day Four: Nueva Esperanza

 Oliver telling people about Jesus on the cross.

 The church that became a dental clinic for the day.

 Our portable pharmacy!

 Brian a dental student providing dental care to villager.

 counting pills for the day

 Juan Carlos praying with patients. He also taught me to share the gospel in Spanish... Jesucristo morio por ti y por mi y resucito en tres dias. Jesus vive!

 with the Honduran translators... a great group of kids!

seeing my own patients with the help of my translator, Omar.