Sometimes life at the clinic can be...well not quite boring, but perhaps routine.  Every day there are difficulties, and patients with needs that outstrip what we can currently do, in every area of the clinic.  Last week though we had yet another patient that is almost becoming routine...the ones where we are very concerned they might die.  

Jennifer is 13 and was having extreme breathing problems.  We are working on getting our own oxygen system (an investment of about $1,000...not sure yet how that will come about) but in the meantime somehow the family knew a neighbor with a portable system we used until an ambulance could show up to get her to the hospital, which sometimes can be a very lengthy process.  This time it was under an hour total, which was amazing.  

We won't speculate here as to what provoked this near heart attack, but it was scary for all involved.

This is just one very extreme example that reminds us to ask you to pray for the staff of the clinic, that ministers to the patients that come seeking answers daily.  Answers for physical problems, but also often for problems that run much deeper.

Also join us in prayer for the ambulance we are working on buying.  That will be a future blog post with all the details once it gets here and we start the process of putting it to work, hopefully by late May.  Already though we see its needs for our community.  

To say this is a dream a long time coming might be a bit of a stretch, but it is certainly a very welcome change.  

You see, we now have our own cement mixer, thanks to Crossroads Community Church.  Mixing on the ground will still happen of course, but for the big jobs, having this will save time and backs.  It is quite the useful tool.

We were able to purchase it, and then get it right to work this week, pouring the beams/footers/headers for the Milk Project building, a task that will need 70 bags of cement/concrete to finish.  

After pouring, there are other tasks to accomplish (like stairs...stairs to go up from the "basements" would be much easier than using the ladder!) while that cures for a few weeks, and then the work can continue by the much bigger task...doing all the prep work and then pouring the roof/second story floor.  

That will be a huge step for us in terms of expense but also completion.  Once that is done (hopefully by May) we will be able to see how warm the building is in terms of cooling need (false ceilings, fans, and hopefully seeing if we can avoid AC because of the one time and long term costs associated with it) and be able to start tackling interior walls, electrical, etc.  

Please join us in prayer as we continue on this big project...we are on schedule and on budget, just needing "a little" more money to make sure we can finish everything properly and move in by the end of the year!  

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Grace is so important to our lives.  God's grace sometimes is overwhelmingly felt, sometimes seemingly absent, and sometimes the gap between the two can be easy street or deafening in silence.  

When visiting Valle de Angeles with the last team, Valerie and I ventured off to see more of the town.  We have had the pleasure of being able to go together for these trips the last several times, so we are definitely seeing more and more of the town, not that it is huge.  

This time we found the cemetery.  I have always had an odd, hard to explain fascination with cemeteries.  Always wanted to live next door to one...quiet neighbors.  

Walking through this one is like many in Honduras...markers representing every level of wealth and/or affection, and many places of seeming overlap.  

Long lives, short lives.  Full lives, and bad breaks.  I could write a book what I think about all this.  But instead, as often happens, this will be a themed post...bad breaks. 
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Our first is our sister Maria Esteban.  This woman lives in a perpetual state of trusting the Lord for everything.  She and her family have constant bouts of illness and she lost her husband last year.  

She fell and broke her arm and came to the clinic.  I was impressed how everyone sprang into action to help...eventually reaching my ear to authorize some money she would need if she was going to be able to visit the public hospital to hopefully get the surgery she needed.  As often happens here though, the appointment was missed for one reason or another, and the surgery did not happen as the clinic had arranged.  After finally getting her back into the clinic, we found out the pain had subsided for the most part and some mobility has returned...as the bone tries to heal itself.  After three weeks, it was too late to do surgery.  So, for ow we will keep an eye on her every month, start helping her with some monthly food stipends, and praying she does not fall again.  
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There are times when I really wish God would open doors for us to have someone with the time and expertise to start a Co-op or savings program among our staff and any other friends/Church members.

Saving here is hard, especially when it is not a skill passed on/taught (Honduras being far from alone in that regard.)  Here is a house that belongs to one of the mission's employees.  It was broken into last year.  Thankfully we were able to loan them the money to buy blocks to build a proper security fence around the property, with them starting to do all the labor required in the evenings and on weekends.  But that is not a long term fix really in more ways than one. 


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The clothing shipment that came in late January, we came to discover, suffered from a hole in the roof of the container.  Not sure when it happened, but that hole allowed enough water to enter to ruin about 10 boxes of shoes.  Here you can see the imprint of some of the shoes to get an idea how much water was inside.  The smell and sight of mold made salvaging anything of those boxes not possible.

The worst part is that to make a claim on the insurance, we would have to spend $300, and take a chance (a big chance I was told) that the company in the US would actually even compensate us, and if so...hard to tell to what extent.  Rather than gamble on taking all the time, fuel, and $300, we decided to suck it up, so to speak.




We learned just this week that pastor Edwin (seen here happy that the clothing is back in January since he does not get a salary and depends on the clothing to provide for his family while he works as a pastor full time in Danli) lost the bicycle that he got last year from another ministry.

Turns out, while he was visiting the clothing store and had it parked just outside...it was stolen.  

Bikes are a common way to get around here...when the part of the country you are in is relatively flat, such as it is in Danli.  Now we need to see how we can help get another bike to use.  




I posted this picture before, but did not explain the rock seen below.  While we were leaving Sampedrana, the group reports this rock was thrown at them in the back of the truck.  Thankfully it hit one of the bars and broke in two.  

Was it thrown on purpose at them?  At the truck?  At the motorcycle?  Was it an accident?  Hard telling.   It did happen in the right spot to be from some that are continually not thrilled with a Christian Church presence, but it is impossible to know for sure.  What we do know is that there is resistance to the Church in this world...more in some places like Sampedrana, less in others perhaps.  

Bad breaks happen.  I believe there is another shorter way to express that, but we won't cover that here.      

Theologically speaking we can talk about why, the causes, etc. but the real takeaway should be...

1.  I post these things because it is real life.  Real life is not like social media or other ways we usually share things, only the positive, happy, look-at-me-doing-everything-right, things.  We have things we regret, that we wish we could do better, that we struggle how to handle.  

2. God is bigger than the bad breaks.  He uses them to mold us, to change us, to help others, to live more like Him. Man, sometimes that sounds so hollow, so trite, but it is true.  If we change our point of view, and our attitudes, these things can be flipped on their head so far as to be comically hard to understand.  

Case in point...Acts 5:12-42

Here you have two guys working for Christ, doing good stuff.  Some other guys come down on them, tell them to shut up about this Jesus stuff, and then even flog them (originally wanting to kill them), and when Peter and John leave...they rejoiced, after just having been flogged, for being counted worthy to suffer for Christ.  

And they kept proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.  

So bad stuff happens, sometimes it hurts, sometimes really hard as to break your heart.  May God give us the grace, strength and perseverance to keep proclaiming His good news!

Good transportation for our pastors has been an ongoing issue for years.  We have wrestled with it for a long time, and finally think we are on the right track to help the pastors, the Churches, and in the long term not creating a situation we will have to fix again anytime soon, and hopefully foster the Churches long term providing replacement themselves if they choose.  

Trying to balance the needs of transportation, the locations, reliability, and...everything else related to vehicles, we have come to a realization:

When buying pickups for groups...stick to the Ford SuperDuty.

When buying vehicles for Churches, ambulances, and just about every other need here...the Toyota Land Cruiser 78 (aka here in Honduras "Land Cruiser Ambulance" because of its wide use by the government and Red Cross as ambulances) is the way to go.
 
These vehicles seat 13 (with seatbelts, but for Honduras I believe that has been stretched to 20...even though some might say fitting 13 North Americans in there would be a stretch.)

The rock solid reliability of these vehicles, which have had the same very durable 4.2L inline 6 cylinder diesel engines since the mid 90's, is legendary.  Not built with luxury in mind, but definitely to work and last.  Parts availability is pretty good for the most part, and they are not overly complicated.  

The first of these we bought was from the Peace Corps for Sampedrana back in 2009.  It is still in the "fleet."  We bought a slightly nicer but almost exactly the same one from Oscar for Talanga, and amazingly found another former Peace Corps vehicle that we bought for Cantaranas.  (These do not come up for sale often.) The gentleman that bought it from the Peace Corps that we did in 2009 basically had not used it since then, so those two are identical with two fuel tanks, built in winch, and all three have the very handy roof rack which is quite functional and necessary.

We have signed contracts of use for the vehicles with the pastors, who will do the regular maintenance on them, fill out milage reports, and pay the registration every year.  We will cover getting them all registered with insurance as part of the mission's support.  

You can see in the pictures that they are taking Bibles back with them as well.  These monthly pastor meetings have been great for teaching (does baptism really matter? was this month's topic) encouragement, and as well to help get supplies we have out to them...this month needed Bibles, corn for distribution, and more school shoes that we received to bless all the Churches with, which was great and they got to share and see which were best for each area.

This month was extra special because the pastor in San Juancito has a full time job and thus cannot normally come to the meetings, but this week he was on vacation, pastor Noel (who happens to be Jonathan's brother) so all five Churches were represented.  

All these pastors are going through transition, challenges, and different tough times.  Please join us in praying for each of them, for the Churches, and the continually development of leadership in each Church and how we can encourage them in their steps towards independence by God's grace.

Every year our struggle continues with Hill Climber coffee.  That is not a frowny face struggle, just an honest one summing up the situation.  How to properly use this ministry opportunity is something we are growing into, and finding.  It is taking longer in some ways than we want, but for some things you have to wait on God, and I have found overwhelmingly that God's timing is better than ours, no matter how much we may get confused on that point from time to time.  

We are seeking to use this coffee ministry as a way to provide employment, some land for community/Church use, and yes eventually make enough money back to put that into the other ministry efforts of the mission without requesting more US funds (helping the clinic, plant more Churches, grow the Milk Project)  Providing employment is certainly there, and more in the November to February rough time frame when so much labor is needed for harvest.  

The work in these farms is hard stuff, not for the faint of heart.  Gustavo and his family leading the work currently in Las Botijas...it is hard on them.  They are from Tegucigalpa, but have learned tremendously working there...but being so isolated and with so much to do and so much to keep going, it is difficult.  We have been praying about a pastor to start a Church here...the building is already there for meeting, but God has not opened that door yet.  

The work in Sampedrana has the advantage of where the Church is as well...but the main farm property there is quite a distance from the Church building, at the end of the road (that we had to have made.)  It is beautiful...and as is often the case here, beautiful means hard to reach.  

Both are above 5,000 ft.  

Alfonso working in Sampedrana has the main property up top, but also the plants at the Church and the small 1 acre field just down the river (that you need the log bridge that the CIY team helped build last year to get across when it has rained recently.)  

It is hard on him though as well, and hard for Oscar to help them both being so far away on a daily basis.  He gets to visit, not as often as he or they would like, and things have definitely advanced considerably in the past few years, but there is still much more to do.

Not just planting more coffee...but continually seeking how to use this opportunity we have to honor Christ and share His love along the way.  

Be praying for us in 2017 and going into 2018 for God's direction on the staff, their safety, the seed planting (physical and spiritual) and the long term plan how this can grow to do much more than just help the mission be a little more financially self sufficient.  

It will be hard.  It is hard.  

But often times, good things are.  

Pray we make the right decisions, wait for God's timing, and are wise about taking steps in the future!



Oh and if you are coming in a group...try to buy as much Hill Climber coffee as you can!

Seriously, while we sell almost all our coffee at the local markets here (as you might of heard, at not the greatest prices), the more we can sell as our brand means the more money we can put right back into the work...and all the more great coffee you can drink at the same time.  We call that "win-win-win" trade coffee.  It is high altitude, specialty grade (we have had it cupped a few times in the US to scores of 87-88), robusto/arabica hybrid coffee.  (Why the mix?  Much more resistent to diseases is the main reason farmers in our areas tend to plant this.  We may experiment with other varieties in the future when can afford to do so.)  

Now that we are roasting in very small batches, we can almost guarantee what you order before you come...will be roasted only a few days before you arrive to pick it up!  It is sooooo much better this way!  


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We hosted two groups in February.  The first was via Bring Good News, where our friend from lo so many years ago, Rick Wolford serves as Executive Director.  It was a medical group, one that helped us continue to evolve and look at how we will do "medical groups" differently.  We used to do "brigades" which was doing rural work, seeing as many patients as possible in rural areas.  We switched things up last year, seeking how to use these groups to continue to bring health to those that need it...but balancing more the physical and the spiritual.

We are far from perfecting this per se, and doubt we ever will, we want to change our focus to seeking constant tweeks and/or improvements and not be set in our ways.  This means giving ourselves feedback, working with the group, and as well the pastors that host the rural events.  

In rural areas we start with a Church service (scripture, songs, sermon) and then give health lessons, and then after lunch see the patients in that more traditional setting of the past.  We have been limiting then who can attend...by invitation only via the Church 50, sometimes 75 people.

This medical group also brought readers, and with Valerie able now to spend more time with groups (since Dra. Alejandra can see optometric patients back at the clinic when Valerie is gone), she was able to give a very brief eye exam to everyone and get the readers to those that needed them, which was a great surprise/change from years past.  

The health care topics this time included HIV and STDs, as well as covering breast, testicular and prostrate cancer.  We split the people up into male/female groups for those topics and it went so well with many questions/clarifications.  

We will be talking, thinking, and praying about how to continue to improve these types of groups in the future, there will be more to come!

The Fellowship of Christian Optometrist group from Illinois College of Optometry was a small but mighty group this year, just three students, along with another doctor from Indiana that came to help for several days.  

Being such a small group, rural work would have been somewhat problematic.  While thinking about that...we had another idea, to use the group in the clinic and do some promotion into the surrounding neighborhoods to let more people know the clinic is there.  Unlike seventeen years ago when you could see the clinic easily for the stark countryside, now if you live just a few blocks from the clinic you might otherwise never know it was there.  After posting signs and handing out 3,000 leaflets...we saw patients all week, the vast majority of whom had never been to the clinic previous, and some with some complicated or serious problems that were not previously diagnosed.  We might also be thinking about how to use these rare optometry groups even better in the future, including perhaps some more time in the clinic as well.
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These type of specialist groups take more time, planning, training and thought...but they are so rare for us to get that we are just grateful for the opportunity!
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