His Eyes

  • Home
  • About
    • Board of Directors
    • The Team
  • Ministry
    • Churches
    • The Milk Project
    • Coffee
    • Clinic
    • Needs
  • Trips
    • FAQ
    • Sample Itinirary
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Store
  • DONATE
  • Home
  • About
    • Board of Directors
    • The Team
  • Ministry
    • Churches
    • The Milk Project
    • Coffee
    • Clinic
    • Needs
  • Trips
    • FAQ
    • Sample Itinirary
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Store
  • DONATE

try to keep up

6/16/2022

0 Comments

 
My, my, not since March have we blogged eh?  I do enjoy blogging, but clearly, when things get busy, this particular aspect of my job gets put to the side.  

And since March, we were extraordinarily busy.  Many of you know that we (Valerie and Felipe) are now empty nesters and thus are trying to help the mission in a new way this year, spending roughly half our time not in Honduras, but working in the US...visiting churches, coordinating containers, trying to promote Hill Climber Coffee more, attending a few conferences...you get the idea.  Lots of travel, lots of work...plus at least for me, I still have a lot of the work I do in Honduras that fortunately travels with me.  It was good to be in the USA for almost three months, but wow...it is different.  Good different, and also hard different, because that type of developmental work is often times with a long term lens.  We were very blessed to see doors open quickly and God bless us in our doubts, giving us some clear answers to why we were there.  We got funding for one of the clinic projects, in Las Botijas, that otherwise...would not have happened, well, for sure not the way it did, and some other things as well.  But overall, it is a different muscle, and we are learning still how to do things like this, especially long term and as the mission is growing.

The good thing is that everything in Honduras continues when we are gone.  We do miss our live/in person leadership devotionals every Monday, we try to do them via WhatsApp when we are not here, it certainly isn't the same, but beat the alternative.  
Picture
One of the things we are struggling with right now is sharing and getting people in the US involved with Hill Climber Coffee.  We have a great product, it is doing great things in Honduras, but the last part of our goals with it is that we could find enough homes/support for it in the US to actually make it grow and contribute financially.  If it doesn't...it is still an awesome way to support our communities and churches, but it certainly has the potential.

We have been blessed to see road work happen this year, like...concrete poured?...and more fruit trees, and a lot more overall you might have seen on social media.  


The physical and spiritual work in Honduras is going great...but we are still praying, wrestling, and struggling with how to do the end product side yet.  Be praying for us, because it is quite the conundrum for us.  And if you have any advice, or glaring reasons why it isn't working, or we aren't working, on that front...please let us know!  It feels like we are doing things well...but maybe also like there is some glaring issue we aren't able to see, a blind spot if you will.

We are excited to see more groups here this year.  Amazing what more we can do with people here to help.  

We have had three teams already this year, and did our first brigade in Guayavillas, a new church plant that Luis, a pastor who has come from the congregation in Cantarranas (and studied up North with LifeLine for quite a bit as well) has been taking on, with Jonathan's support.  Here is Luis in the picture starting the prayer before the brigade that day.  
Picture
We are hosting three more teams this summer, and two more in the fall...very exciting, and opening lots of doors to some familiar places we have not been for a while, and to some new places as well.  Things are still a little different compared to pre COVID with hosting teams (we are still masking here everywhere, and the hospital visits are still not possible) but for the most part there is a lot we can do and a lot of places to go.  We will be doing more clothing this year with groups, and a lot of construction in Las Botijas and Sampedrana, helping with the new clinics there, and the Milk Project ongoing construction specifically in Las Botijas.  

Overall...things are busy.  Too much going on, and plans for what might be going on, to go over here now, but I will try to keep up better on this great platform to go more in depth than we can elsewhere.  Got something you have been wondering about but that I haven't addressed or mentioned?  Drop me a line!
0 Comments

How do you see?

3/11/2022

2 Comments

 

If you are paying attention, a lot of times opportunities to help are put right in front of you.

Case in point...our optometry tech was on the road and saw someone rubbing his eyes with gusto on the sidwealk.  He inquired...and the person replied that he had been suffering with pain for days.  They chatted, and he recommended he come in to the clinic to get checked out, which he did.

Turns out...he had a piece of metal now firmly in his eye after those days, which...would indeed provide some discomfort.  

Thankfully for him, Luis was there, saw him, and took the time to show him some love.
Picture

Picture

We had a group here last week, doing medical outreach in different Churches, and in a school in one community.  We took some wheelchairs and walkers a couple of days.  This lady was so happy for her new wheelchair, she was crying.  

Thankfully for us, God put us in the right place at the right time for her, with what she needed.  It all worked out without us having a clue when we got that wheelchair where it was going to go months later. 

It is easy sometimes to get overwhelmed and distracted with what we don't do, can't do, don't have the resources to do.  Where to start, being in a rush, etc.

These two events just remind me that sometimes while we are planning, thinking, doing...we have to look around us and see where the Painter is already preparing the canvas.

"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."  (Ephesians 2:10)
2 Comments

Clinic reach

2/24/2022

1 Comment

 
It's hard to share what the clinic does on a daily basis via a blog or photos on social media.  Usually the biggest things for God that they do (or you could say that He enables them to do), are also the hardest to "capture."  

Here are a few recent "histories" though
Cristian lives just a 5 minute or so drive from the clinic, probably a 15-20 minute walk.  Darwin asked if I wanted to visit him at home a week ago.  Darwin had first visit him shortly after he had been shot while working on a bus in our neighborhood.  We went back recently to check on his ulcers.  His mom takes very good care of him, but being paralyzed from the waist down he is susceptible to these issues. We took them some gloves, some diapers (we always ask for adult diapers to put on containers...they are so expensive here. We didn't have any the XL size he needs, because of the ulcers), we spent some time talking, and then prayed for all of them.  Then...his mom sent me home with a big rose bush for Valerie.   
Picture
This doesn't look like a clinic, but a hospital.  It is Doctor Carlos, doing a "minor surgery" for a patient with a lipoma that was bothering her.  She had been looking for a place that could remove it for her...and then she found a place that would take the time, effort, and had the people with the skill and materials to do it.  

Picture
The optometry clinic sees patients literally from all over the country, and sometimes patients from other countries.  

This week, a regular visit from the Micah Project, another ministry here that helps young men that have/had been living on the streets of Tegucigalpa.  

Helping people...and helping people in other ministries help people, is a very cool thing.  
Picture
We got an initial estimate for turning the clinic into a hospital from the construction firm.  To do everything needed to go to three stories, double wide from what we are now...from about 8000' to 24000', done to a hospital standard and built to withstand adding more floors in the future...over $500,000.  

That might be more money than we have raised in the last 20 years combined for building projects.  Just looking at the number, it seems unlikely.  

It seems that way, it really does.  The word "daunting" comes to mind.  

Time to pray to Him who turns what seems unlikely or impossible into possible, start working on a plan, and see what He does.  And keep helping people in His name as we go.  
1 Comment

Hospital visits

2/3/2022

0 Comments

 

Picture
Picture
Picture
We get updates from the pastors and farm managers fairly regularly, depends on the week and what is going on.  

This week was different.

We received these pictures from Rony in Las Botijas and a brief explanation.  

I'll translate:  "We went on Sunday to take a sick sister to Zambrano (the town down at the main road) who was in pain."  (Later found out she went from there to Comayagua to the hospital)

"Then we brought her back today (Monday) and she came with a baby."

Wow.  

So they used the Land Cruiser as an ambulance (not the first time in these areas) but it appears everyone was in for a surprise.  

My bigger surprise is that she went down on Sunday on that somewhat, oh who are we kidding, VERY bumpy road, and then right after giving birth went right back up the next day.  

Darwin then sent me some pictures of using the actual ambulance here in Tegucigalpa to help a family whose grandmother had broken her hip.  The hospital was sending her home because there was nothing more they could do for her, she could go home to die.  But she couldn't walk, and the family had no funds or way to get her home.  He stepped in to help.  
​
Hospital visits here are scary things, regarding the reason.  Some things are available for a price, some specialties or treatments just aren't available no matter the hospital you can afford.  One visit may end well (whether quick or exhaustingly long) and another quite differently, often without answers or reasons.  

The realities of that are faced every day throughout the mission, throughout Honduras, in different ways.  It gives us pause to pray, to see how we can do more in the clinic and Churches, and to focus ultimately on each moment we are given and not look too far down the road, as bumpy or smooth as it might currently seem to be.
0 Comments

En Del af noget stØrre

1/25/2022

2 Comments

 
I was thinking today about what I needed to get done.  I briefly was thinking about the multitude of things being done for Christ throughout the mission.  As the mission has grown, I find it harder and harder to visualize that in my mind.  

That isn't necessarily a bad thing.  

Another thing is trying to keep up with God on what will happen.  Someone asked me recently if we "ever tried to do something, and didn't pray about it, and it didn't work out?"  They asked because their experience (someone very close to us) was that everything always just came together.  

I agree...God has done amazing work in the mission throughout the years.  But of course, not everything has worked out, or at least as how we thought/planned.  And certainly we got ahead of ourselves, ahead of God, at points along the way.  Hopefully, with growing in Him and His wisdom, less now than when we started, but it happens.  Plus there are times you think you are as sure as some other time...and the plans fall flat.  Or...seemingly fall flat. 

This isn't Lucy pulling the football though.  Occasionally it might feel like that, but knowing all the other times He kicked the football Himself, you can still hold to the right perspective when what you see would try to convince you otherwise.   

Hebrews 10:23
23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.



All this spawned from my thoughts, the question, and then finally...from my work shirt choice today.  

Translated: 
"A part of something bigger"

(That cross you are seeing is not accidental either)

Picture
2 Comments

Ending and beginning

12/22/2021

2 Comments

 
We are rapidly approaching ending another year.  I say rapidly, because I am aware mostly in what we have yet to do as a mission, and it is a bit yet, and how I am losing touch with the holidays that are involved.  

Going in to 2022, we have a lot of irons in the fire.  What I love about ministry is also what makes planning and predicting the future difficult...people.  ​Plans are great...but they all depend on people.  
Seen here is Bible institute graduate Luis, who we are praying will be the next pastor for His Eyes, continuing a burgeoning work that Jonathan has started in a village Jonathan spells "Guayavillas."  I say he spells it that way, since I can't find it on a map, because it could be spelled about five different ways.  

He will be moving there (we bought him a bed) and working on that...we pray God's favor over him and the work there how that might develop. 

Picture

Picture
We met with an architect a while back, and had a follow up meeting this week.  We are not ready to share publicly yet how this is all going to look (and cost) but since this is just between you and I, this will take our existing clinic building, more than double it, and add a full third floor.  This to make room for more areas of attention in the clinic (more optometry, dentistry, new services) and everything needed to do surgery.  
This hospital expansion could end up being bigger in scope/cost/involvement than every other construction project combined we have done in the last 20 years. 

Already for Janaury 2022, the clinic will go from working 8-4 Monday to Friday, to 7-5 Monday to Saturday.  That will tax the existing staff, and require adding more staff...a big leap on both fronts, and praying/planning some of the extra cost will be offset by seeing more patients.  We should be hiring another pediatrician soon, and interviewing another medical doctor to train in optometry, not to mention nurses that will be trained to float in different areas.  

Another new staff member will be coming on board in January, as we go back to cooking in The Milk Project.  Our director resigned during the early periods of COVID, and our cook Consuelo stepped in and stepped up to take her place.  Now...we need a new cook!  So meet Sulma Karina, who upon interviewing, not only can cook...but would also be a good teacher, and that will be key since she will end up pulling duty doing both, especially with the kids struggling there as well as here with not having in person classes for now two years
Picture
Picture
On the farms, we have people...people that are working on trying to finish the housing for those other people who will be coming from afar to work on the harvest for the next several months.  Once this is done...then we can hopefully have the vehicles in place (an ongoing struggle...still have two down) to start moving more materials to do many weeks of concrete work on the road.  I will be one people who will be very happy when that happens.  
I promise, the plans that seem to come up and grow year after year are not born of personal ambition or desire for more work, more people, more ministry.  Some days, we already seem to have more than enough going on.  But...this is not my ministry, and not using my vision.  Some things are seasons, some things may not work, but we keep pushing forward trying to keep in step with the boss.  

I think of Paul in Philippians 3 "...forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."  

May we finish this year, this day, this hour...straining forward to what God has ahead for us. 
2 Comments

It matters

11/5/2021

2 Comments

 
Picture
Hello again!  

I'm here briefly to give you a special Milk Project update.  As you can see above, the first pad for the future Milk Project location in Las Botijas.  More work will be coming, but the usual major hold up is first getting all the supplies there.  For this pad, there were 9 different trips...by two different trucks.  It is time consuming, but worth it.  

We had a group here, the second of 2021, last week, a huge blessing to all of us.  For some, more than we knew...

Maria shared with me today that Mariza, one of the children in the project, will have to be changed in 2022.  Why?  There is no one at home to watch her, and so her dad made the tough call to take her to live with her grandmother a few hours from here.  That is a bummer, but, understandable.  

But she was there on Friday for the brief activity the group did with the kids (we had about ten minutes with each child, separately, to talk with them and pray with them...we wanted to do something even though we can't do what we normally do yet.)  

Maria clarified that Mariza knew the group was coming and what activity we had planned.  There was no way she was going to miss that.  So her dad went and got her and brought her back, just for those ten minutes.  Four or more hours of her travelling for those ten minutes.  

Good thing we didn't know that at the time, because there would have been waterworks.  

Bottom line for today...sometimes what you do doesn't seem to matter, or that no one cares or is paying attention.  

They are...and it does matter.  

2 Comments

September 20th, 2021

9/20/2021

0 Comments

 
I have just had a great devotion meeting with our leadership team.  Every week's isn't great, some are just good or ok, but this one was over the top.  We laughed, we cried, we shared, we talked about getting angry and sinning, and avoiding that fine line.  We talked about death...of loved ones, a missionary, a father, a mother.  It was deep, rough, and raw at times. 

We need more of that.

This year has seen all the emotions for all of us in Honduras.  Highs, and lows, and some in-betweens.

The clinic has been going gangbusters helping people, especially as we are still seeing so many that can't get even regularly scheduled visits at the government hospitals/clinic.  Our staff has seen more illnesses, some COVID, and some family members also suffering quite a bit.  

We have a pediatrician now, another dental chair (now seating three patients at once) and moved the optical to make more space for dentistry.  

This hasn't been easy, but so encouraging to see this progression, and to see the architect working on plans for a future surgical/birthing center building.  Trusting God to work all that out...all in God time.  

We have had vehicle issues...like four of the mission's vehicles down lately, varying from brakes, overhauls (yes, more than one) and wiring harnesses needing replaced.  That part always sucks, for what it does to capabilities, abilities of pastors to get around, and to start to doubt on the vehicles.  

Prep work continues to get the new houses for migrant workers in Sampedrana before harvest time.  The rain has been relentless this year, making progress slow, and harder than we would like.  Rome wasn't built in a day...but they had better roads.  Another thing that will need investment, this winter.  It can be frustrating some times to see what you want done, but be held back.  At those times, again, we have to lean back on God's timing, and not our expectations.  
​
Harvesting and giving away avocados I love to see personally, because in the midst of road work, trying to find people to drink Hill Climber coffee (which isn't easy, and can be quite demoralizing), this is a tangible way we can remind ourselves why we do what we do with the farms...to show people Christ loves them, in many different ways.  

The Churches are continually working, week after week, although it has been difficult with COVID, to get pastor's meetings going well, and just to get the interaction we are all used to, and need. 

One thing happened recently, we put the need out to our monthly email recipients for a family in Las Botijas that needed a roof for their house.  It isn't something we do normally, but felt like we needed to stop overthinking and put it out there.  Several people donated, to the point we had enough for their roof, plus to help with the houses mentioned above for the migrant workers.  

2021 has been full of expected, unexpected, gains and loss, and frustrations and expectations surpassed.  I don't see that changing. 

​After today, I am a little more at ease about that.  Not 100%, but one day at a time.   


Picture
Picture

Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Church news

5/4/2021

0 Comments

 






​
Picture
0 Comments

Grow

4/26/2021

0 Comments

 
I was having a conversation this week and accidently came upon the realization that life never gets easy.  Duh. 

I guess the realization was more that the curves that life throws at you, the things you don't know how to do, how to react to...that there isn't an age or level where those things go away.  It was one of those comforting and terrifying realizations. 

Sometimes you just want things to be easy, or known quantities.  ​

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
So that is some uncomfortable growth there.  

In other news, we are praying for some more comfortable growth.

After a lot of work over many months, we are ready for some more fruit trees on the Tegucigalpa property.  More room for birds to perch, more shade, more oxygen, and maybe even some fruit eventually, presuming we can keep them alive and well.  

We put some money in the local economy buying nine clay pots to put around the property.  Big pots though, about a meter by meter.  Big enough to plant trees in them and maybe some plants eventually around the base.  

There is some other space we have though that have the rest of the trees without being in the way long term. 

I say long term because we will be meeting soon with an architect to see how we can plan for the next 5-20 years on the property with expansion of the clinic, probably big expansion over a couple decades,  a proper meeting area (for pastor's meetings, etc.) and a non-clinic office area for Oscar, and more parking, extra space.  

Should be interesting.  I am guessing there will be more to hear on this in the coming months as we work out a plan. 

The white Ford keeps taking a beating but keeps ticking up in Sampedrana on the farm.  One recent casualty was the back bumper which got a big dent in it.  But...we didn't need the seating area in the bed, so Pablo is "modifying" one of the seats to be a beefy strong replacement.  



We are experimenting with some leather projects with a friend in the USA, he might have a market for leather journal covers, etc.  During the experimenting, Maria had some bits of extra leather to make some key chains.​
There seems to abound new things to contemplate and work on, and a bunch of old things that require help beyond our scope of knowledge (website improvements, legal paperwork and errands, insurance, etc.) that certainly can add stress and unease to the days...and nights.

The struggle is to remember that in the middle of the battle (of what to do, or the battle of the mind) to remember who is in charge, and who has control.  
0 Comments
<<Previous
Forward>>
    If you want to sign up to receive these blog posts in your email inbox, email us here and we will add you to the list!  

    Blog writer:
    Felipe Colby

    Executive Director 

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Location

How can you find us?

In the USA:
His Eyes

9903 Indian Lake Blvd. North Drive
​Indianapolis, IN 46236

In Honduras (see the map to the left)

Contact Us

Got questions?  Want to request being added to our monthly updates?  Something else?  You can email us or visit our social media clicking below!