Pictures from Honduras

Here is my favorite picture, a real sample of life here in Honduras. This is Marbella, being carried by her mother, Sandra, who laughingly refers to herself as the ¨burrita¨, or little burro. She IS little, all of 4´8¨, but she is a tough little thing. We are enjoying the relationship formed with her. We are hoping that Sandra will trade sutures in the heel for Tortilla making lessons.
Here are a couple of shots of Los Pinos, walking down the pathe to a little cluster of houses. I think that they are getting used to the gringos walking through their courtyards.
This is a PTA meeting (if they still call them that) called by the staff at Santa Elena to go over some of the program issues. It was a gripe session, but turned out very well with a lot of good exchanges of information. Look at the attendance! I know teachers in America that would give their right arm to have that many parents attend such a meeting.
Here is Steve with William from the Santa Elena program.

Yes, we had a major storm that took down part of a tree in Santa Elena, and yes, I took the opportunity to show off my finely honed chainsaw skills, Katrina style.
I would like to introduce you to the children of Los Pinos, a closed community on the mountain above Santa Elena, where Mission on the Move has had a feeding program for the last 4 years with variable results, recently we have made some real inroads into their lives, and I wanted you to have their pictures so that you could better pray for our efforts here. I asked them to hold up their names so that you could better know them.
The last picture is of Carlos. He had no name tag. I hope that you can see the incredible potential with these youngsters that we see.

Finally, here are some of the parents of the Los Pinos program. They cook meals in rotation using food provided by MOM. They are a major thrust of the Los Pinos effort. Getting the parents on board is essential to any program in Honduras, but particularly the Los Pinos program, where, due to inappropriate use of resources by the previous provider of services at Los Pinos, the provider had to be removed from her position, a move made much more difficult by virtue of the fact that she is the grandmother of 31 children, most of which live right there in Los Pinos, and many of which are a part of the program... a very touchy situation. But God has provided us withe a number of opportunities to talk with Ernestine, the previous provider and Los Pinos matriarch, and she may be coming around a bit. The last 2 ladies are Cecilia and Elizabeth, and Sandra is the one carrying Marbella in the first picture. Some of these parents are directly related to Ernestina, and had to buck her authority in continuing with the program there. The Gospel is presented daily to these kids.


Finally, some prayer requests and issues that are coming up. Our time here has been difficult. Wanda and I are used to ¨rolling with the punches¨ in odd situations, but this has really strained many of those abilities. We are amazed at the way that the Lord is using this program to reach out to the children here, but we feel that there is a HUGE need for a missionary couple here, without which the program may encounter some serious problems. We are here on a temporary basis, and can see these potential problems, but, of course, can do nothing about them. Our emphasis on Los Pinos, and a narrow focus on the medical care needed day by day and on the construction efforts, has been born out of a sense that we cannot do a lot to help the Santa Elena program itself, until a missionary couple can come long term to address the issues from a Board empowered and Board supported viewpoint. More on that in future blogs.

We appreciate your prayers and the emails that keep us up to date.

Rick / Wanda

Settling in ... kinda

Well, almost a week has passed, and we are getting into routines. Routines as far as the ministry work here, and routines as far as life. We ARE 53 years old after all, and routines are comforting. Every day, more and more people are hearing that there is a doctor here at the mission house in Santa Elena, and there are constant appeals for help - but so far it has been mostly chronic and unsolvable problems like arthitis or just aging problems, not really much to do about that. We are really trying to keep the medical work to a minimum, as we are convinced that shotgun medicine without follow-up is one of the real problems here, and the future clinic with record-keeping will be the real answer. We are focusing on the mission house and the work efforts surrounding it, with a personal emphasis on the children of Los Pinos.
This is a pre-blog for Saturday, when we will be putting on a complete picture of the children at Los Pinos, and will be able to give some of you prayer warriors a better idea of what to pray for, at my halfway point of the trip. 4 weeks down, 4 to go. We have planned a trip to the beach for the children of both programs for next Friday, Lord willing, and we are very excited and a little nervous to take that many children. Being a week-day should help, and we will have safety systems in place. Lots of sand play and LIMITED water play. There might be 50 plus children going, with 8 adults. Sounds like a good time, huh?
We are starting to make arrangements for the Garden City team coming next Sunday. Lots of work preparing work details, getting materials organized and in place, as well as supplies for the team´s needs. It is totally hilarious, some of the situations I find myself in. As a non-spanish speaking person, I am very often in houses surrounded by no english-speaking people, all with important things to say. Generally, one of the people will become the ïnterpreter¨, that is, the REPEATER. They will say the same thing as the other person, just slower and louder. Then I come in with mangled spanish-english-french-chichewa-swedish and make noises that I expect someone to figure out. That failing, I take out my (or, rather, the Sipes´) Spanish-English dictionary (me poquito amigo amarillo), and say a couple of key words, completely disregarding grammar and tense, and someone in the room lights up, says something, and I agree, no matter what it was that they said. Then we move on to the next sentence. By the time I´m done, very little true communication has taken place, everyone has had a lot of fun, and I am really tired. I think it is just entertainment for the locals, gringo translation.
Marbella, by the way, is doing very well. The tendon that was injured has very little pain on movement, and we are beginning to allow walking short distances. I have a marvelous picture of Sandra, her mother, carrying Marbella on her back. Sandra is all of 4 foot 8, and laughingly refers to herself as the ¨burrito¨(little burro) when she is carrying her daughter. Cindy Patricia has settled down pretty well as far as the bleeding problem, Several other health issues have been raised in Los Pinos. Sandra´s sister is coming in from San Pedro Sula with a cyst on her abdomen, I don´t know if we´ll be able to do anything about it, but I have agreed to look at it. Marbella´s staples come out Tuesday, I do not have the proper tool for removal (I already knew that when I put them in, I have removed staples without the tool a number of times in the past, it is just easier and less painful when you have the right tool.) We are getting used to improvising.
We must go. we appreciate your thoughts and prayers. We will be blogging this weekend with lots more pictures.

What a day!

Well, things have been very quiet here in Honduras with the Springfield team here... until today! We have enjoyed the steady work of the team, and had little to do except to go for supplies and then stay out of the way of the workers. Today started like any other day, until 7 AM, when Wanda and I arrived at the mission house with Gerson & Lourdes, two workers that we bring from the clinic to the mission house each AM. Waiting for us there was a mother and daughter, Sandra and her daughter Marbella from Los Pinos. This mom had carried her 10-year-old daughter from Los Pinos to Santa Elena the night before with an ankle injury. Marbella had cut the back of her heel on a piece of metal, and had a piece of old sheet material binding it up. I took a look at her, picked her up (literally) and carried her to the truck, back to the clinic, and washed and cleaned the wound. She was amazingly good during this process, but anesthesia was needed, so I gave her some novocaine and cleaned the wound well - finding a partial achilles´tendon injury. I tried testing the tendon, but this caused too much pain. My options were: 1. do the best I could. 2. take her to Peña Bñanca to see a doctor with less experience than me, or 3. take her to San Pedro Sula to sit and wait the day to see someone whose qualifications were unknown, maybe be treated properly but likely not, after a 2-hour drive to getthere, or 4. Take her to Sequatapeque at considerable expense to see the private orthopedist and be treated. I asked my Father for wisdom, discussed the case by phone with Steve and Pablo, went back to the room with Marbella and squeezed her calf. To my great surprise, her foot moved downward, indicating a good achilles´function and little pain. I proceeded to close the skin with 3 widely-spaced staples, carried her back to the car, back to the mission house, then back to her home in Los Pinos. The novocaine was just wearing off, so she was in some serious pain, but I had given her some acetaminophen and some antibiotics, and told her that I would check back on her later. In the meantime, I had been given an open door right into the heart of this little village that will be the subject of many future blogs. No roads, just paths. But the house was well kept, apparently a lot of pride.

We returned to the mission house and found Dennis, one of the Springfield workers, standing in the driveway with blood running down his hand. He had jumped into a ditch and split the skin at the base of his thumb, deep into the subcutaneous tissue, and needed stitches. So, off we went to the clinic again, and closed the wounds with 8 stitches. Thankfully the materials were available and in date. He was back in one piece, and we were only a little late for our trip to Los Pinos to the feeding program there. We went to the program, then met one of the mothers with a daughter having bleeding problems for 24 days. We had tested her for pregnancy 2 days ago and the test was negative, so we were not worried about that, and we had given her some strong vitamins, but she was in a lot of discomfort. Once again, the opportunity was presented to get into another house. We did not directly speak the gospel, but there was no question of the love of our eternal God displayed to this little community. We also stopped back at Sandra & Marbella´s house, and found her stretched out in the living room on a hammock, foot elevated, grinning ear to ear to see us back again, bringing her a bag of ice, with instructions.

We then returned to the mission house in Santa Elena, thinking that we had about enough of emergency home medicine, gave pills to a worker for tendonitis in the shoulder, treated an impetigo with wound cleansing and antibiotics, gave meds for cast-related pain in an elderly woman post wrist fracture, and treatment for amoeba, of all things, in a worker. Finally, we removed the stitches from Pacita 9 days after removing a cyst from her back. We reconciled with Kevin, the little boy who had a cyst removed by Dr. McCloskey in Seguatapeque 12 days ago, and from whom we removed the sutures 2 days ago, making us temporarily the enemy. But he forgave us today and played ball with us in the side yard. We took some pictures, to be displayed below, and then showed them on the laptop screen (which is hanging in for now, probably thanks to many of your prayers) for the children to see. They were thrilled, as they are with almost anything!

We are preparing a major blog analysis of the work here, which we are convinced is inspired by the mind of God Himself, and has a great many healthy aspects and some real needs. For now, we are placing a few pictures on the blog, with descriptions, to let you know how things are going for us. Next week, with the team gone, we will be able to put a little more time into communication.

How about these 6 children shown here - they were so happy to pose for the camera. They are, in order, Amy, Gracie, William, Michelle, Kayla, and Carlita. It is absolutely amazing to experience the wide-open spirits of these kids.

Here is Kevin, waiting for the neck surgery, back when we were still friends. Sylvia, the teacher who works with him at the mission house, is sitting with him, with mother in background. Look at that hair!

Here are some pictures from Los Pinos, small village up on the mountain which, until recently, had little penetration with feeding programs or hygiene teaching, but has really stepped forward now with daily Bible teaching and feeding, as well as basic hygiene and parasite treatments. We have had a number of head lice treatment clinics with great success and many dead insectos! The kids are very grateful, it has been said in jest that there are now no head lice in Los Pinos!

Here is Xiomara, the teacher of the school classes in Los Pinos, a solid Christian young lady. Also Sylvia, who teaches the Bible stories every other week. She and Gerson will be alternating weeks in Los Pinos.

For those of you who don´t see enough men working (or standing around leaning on shovels, here are a few more:

Here is a picture of what Rick is doing:

And a picture of what Wanda is doing (she will love this on the blog!)

Here are some of the workers at the mission house, where we spend the majority of our time. Gerson & Lourdes, Pacita, Sylvia, and Pablo hold down most of the fort here.

Thanks for your prayers and your patience to reach the end of this section! More next week!