Last January, at our church, during the “Mission Moment” in the morning
worship service, it mentioned that there would be teams going to Honduras
this summer and fall, and that if anyone was interested in going, to contact the "Mission Moment" guy, Daniel. I’ve always wanted to go on a mission trip,
but never felt that I was in a place, either financially or professionally,
where I could afford to do it. So when
Daniel mentioned this, I started thinking about it and wondering if this might be the year.
Then life intervened, my uncle got sick and passed away, and I forgot
about it. But Scott Strouse, the guy who organizes and leads these teams for General Baptist International Missions, came to
our worship service and spoke with Daniel about the mission trips, and again, I was
just feeling like this was something I should do. So during prayer I told the Lord that if this
was something He wanted me to do, I was game, but He needed to make sure that
my tax refund would cover the expense for both this trip and the plane tickets
to Ireland (which I’d just purchased online the night before!) I talked to Scott after the service and got
the information about the trip (specifically, the cost) and then went home to do my taxes. Of course you know that God made my refund
come out almost to the penny!
I told Mom that I was thinking about going to Honduras on a team –
her response was, “well, you’re going to Ireland this summer, maybe you should
think about going next summer.” So I
told Mom about my discussion with the Lord and how I felt I was supposed to go
THIS summer – her response was, “well, I guess you’ll be going this summer!”
Now, here it's less than a month away, I’ve had my shots, and I’ve got my passport warmed up. I will be among three people from my church
serving on a medical/dental mission team going to Honduras this fall. We’ll
be leaving on Friday, Aug. 29th and will return on Saturday, Sept. 6th.
I realize that those of you who know me well are saying to yourselves “but
Rose, you don’t like children and aren’t particularly fond of people in
general! What up?” And you’d be right! But then I figure the Lord knows that too,
and I’m sure He knows just the perfect way to use me.
Although the team will be using Faith Home Orphanage as a “home base,” we will
traveling out during the days to villages where we will set up clinics to
provide medical care from real doctors and nurses, dental care, eye doctor
care, and medicines to the inhabitants – some for the first time in their lives. Medical care and dental are one thing – one very
good thing, don’t get me wrong – but I am blind as a bat without my contacts or
glasses. And frankly I
cannot imagine
living in a world where everything was so blurry and out of focus with
no hope
of ever seeing the simplest of things… unless said thing was like an
inch from
my face! I would think that being given the opportunity to have glasses
would be almost as terrific as it was for the blind guy when Jesus put
the mud on his eyes and then when he washed it off he could see. Makes
me goose-pimply!
Of course the true purpose is to bring the Gospel Message about Jesus
to the people. All persons coming to the
clinics will attend an adult or children’s worship service where a clear Gospel
Message is preached in their native language, and each family receives a
Spanish Bible. (I think it would have
been nice of the Lord to bless me with the gift of speaking/understanding
Spanish for this trip, but he hasn’t felt the need to do so as of this writing… should this change, I’ll let you know immediately.)
So would you like to help?
Please pray! We’re
going to
a third world country and I’m sure there is danger - heat, bugs, bizarre
viruses that my safe American body has no defense against - and what
about restless natives!? I know the Lord will keep us safe, but
prayers to that effect would be nice, too.
And prayer that while we’re doing our thing, the Lord will be doing His
thing and reaching those in need. What
else? Well, as I said,
we’ll be staying
at Faith Home, but the goal is for us not to drain their resources in
any way, so we cover the
cost for everything (meds, food, Bibles, etc.) and it's something like
$11,000. Per our last team email, only about $3-4,000 has
been donated so far. God will provide. But if you feel that you have
the resources to help out
financially, please make your check out to “GBIM” and put “Medical Team”
on the
memo line. Checks can be either given to
me directly or mailed to:
Scott Strouse, Summer Medical Team
701 Colony Rd.
Evansville, IN 47714
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