Feliz Cumpleanos

Tonight we had the privilege of celebrating a birthday with a family in the community. One small house + 60-70 people(5 men, a dozen women and mostly children) + Loud spanish childrens music + rice and bread and birthday cake + One Smurf pinata = A Honduran Birthday Celebration! After a slow, lazy day we were stimulated to the MAX at this party! The energy was contagious and we all had a great time!

Yesterday began the new labor room project. We emptied the new room of its original items and added some power outlets for all the equipment the room will require. Now we wait....The room will get paint on one wall on monday then a good floor wax on tuesday. Our last day will be spent moving everything in and getting it operational.

Amber and Kathy found a procedure gurney and were able to get it cleaned up and working. This will be great and take the place of the examination table for delivery until the official labor and delivery beds arrive next month.

We had our first tarantula sighting last night just outside the Hoopers room! He was a big one! Kathy also had a huge roach hiding under her bible on her bed! Bugs everywhere!

Thanks for all your continued thoughts and prayers,
The Team

Blessings

What a couple of days we have been privileged to enjoy. Along with the sweat of hard work comes the joy of blessing others. My question is....who is the one who receives the gift? The giver or receiver? Maybe both! Dry, parched throats with have wet refreshing water....laboring and new moms will have compassionate, competent care.....and all those who helped through finances or prayer will have the joy of blessing others. We all get blessed and that is how our Lord planned it.

Well, the drinking fountains are in fine working order. Richard did NOT injure himself during that project (a true answer to prayer). The patients will have years of blessing from them.

Labor and Delivery/Postpartum Care 101 went off without a hitch. Amber and Lori taught 11 RN's, LPN's and Aids the ins and outs of how to care for a laboring patient through delivery. We pray we can give them the information in a way that is easily understood and the confidence to care for patients properly. After class our blessing was to assist John and some of our students in a delivery of twin girls!

Lots of fellowship happening too! Thanks to our celebrity chef Swell Nell we have had quite the social life. Dinner with the Fields family last night, Missionary fellowship food and service (our very own Pastor Richard officiating!) tonight and Pizza with the Younts tomorrow night....Party, Party, Party!

Blessings to all our friends and family at home. We are missing you.

The Team

Monday and Tuesday

Please excuse the delay in our update. Our blogger has been under the weather but beginning to feel better now!

MONDAY: Our first official work day! Mike started working in the pharmacy and was also willing and able to donate blood for a labor patient who needed it.

Richard, Pastor Richard and Jerry began the water fountain project. What a blessing that will be when completed.

A pregnant woman was admitted and induced for post-dates and low blood count. She received a unit of Mikes whole blood to correct the blood count issue and started on pitocin which is common for inductions. She began having contractions right away but had no change in her cervix, so the pitocin was turned off and the patient was able to sleep through the night.

Kathy and Nell rode to La Ceiba with John. Monday is his normal "run to town" day. He takes pap smears he has been collecting to the lab. He takes people to town if there is need and on this day he was transporting a baby with a cleft lip and palate, her mom and her moms friend to an appointment to evaluate for surgery. John is so committed to the people of this country.

TUESDAY:

So, the labor patient had a cesarean for a beautiful "round headed" baby boy! He was not coming out the conventional way! Currently we have a labor patient in the hospital expecting twins. We expect her to deliver in the middle of the night.

Kathy, Pastor Richard and Jerry went with John today to the mountain village of Satal. Kathy helped John with his clinic and the guys were building benches for a church that is being planted in there.

Nell was able to spend the day organizing her kitchen and getting all her ducks in a row! She also made the best chocolate chip cookies! Yay!

Well still under the weather so that is all for now. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. We all know how blessed we are to get this experience.

God Bless, The team

The Lords Day

Off to church we go. We went out to the church in Margarita this morning for an inspiring teaching in spanish :) Norma, who is one of the missionary nurses, taught the sunday school lesson. Her spanish is beautiful and it was such a pleasure listening to her. This church in Margarita is the one that our original teams came down to work on. It is amazing to sit in it completed and fellowship with its members. What a blessing.



The kids of the church are so much fun and love us "gringos"! Our cameras are there favorite and if you leave church with your camera intact, you are lucky! Some of us have watched these children grow up. Many of them live in the children's home and have sad and tragic life stories. It is impossible not to want to take them home and shower them with love.





In the afternoon God blessed us with an amazing downpour and the gutter system here in staff housing blessed us with a waterfall! For dinner Nell prepared delicious hamburgers with a strawberry desert to die for! Yes, all you honduras missionary wannabe's....we eat like kings! Last night was the best chicken ever! We are so blessed to have our awesome chef here with us.




Hope all of you had a wonderful Lords day,

The Team

Your 2011 Honduras Mission Team

Jerry and Nell Mathern, Mike and Kathy Hooper, Amber and Richard Shields, Richard Evans and Lori Bell

Day 1,2 and Fabulous 3!

Day 1...Put on safety orange shirts that were supposed to be MANGO! Get on flight out of Medford after learning our weighing skills leave something to be desired! Dinner in Portland then loading up just after midnight for our red eye to Houston.

Day 2...Attempt sleep on red eye flight....fail! Arrived in Houston with a couple of hours for breakfast then loaded our last flight for San Pedro Sula, Honduras. John and Penny were waiting there to celebrate with us that for the 5th year in a row...all bags made it! God is good. Uneventful drive to the grocery store in La Ceiba then on to Hospital Loma de Luz. We dropped off the suitcases we all brought full of supplies at the hospital then off to staff housing for some much needed sleep!

Fabulous Day 3...

Feliz Cumpleanos Miguel Angel! We drove up the mountain road to meet Miguel and his family for a celebration lunch. Our team of 8 plus another 9 and Miguels family of 6 plus another 10 community members met on the side of the road near a river for a birthday feast and cupcakes too! Miguels family walked hours to get to our meeting place, all dressed in their sunday best. Miguelito got lots of attention from his Tia Lori and Tia Amber and all his adoring fans! What a blessing to see this fat, bright, beautiful boy and KNOW he is only there by the grace of God. We will be smiling for days.

After all our fun we had to get back to work, so to the hospital we went to unload all 16 bags full of medical supplies. Pray our trip continues to run smooth and we all stay safe.

Dios Bendigo, The Team

This past Sunday Sept 11. The team met and packed the donations for the trip.
It took almost 4 hours and 16 heavy bags were packed up. Here are some photos...