Honduras SMT

Submitted by Daniel…   Thank you so much for praying for the Honduras mission trip.  It was a short but quite an intense trip, and we really felt your prayers.

This year, there were 10 people from Gracepoint Berkeley who joined BMDMI for the Honduras medical mission trip.  There were so many lessons and realizations that I myself have experienced through the trip as well as all the team members.  But for tonight, I wanted to share one particular lesson that was especially impactful for me and many of our team members, a renewed perspective about suffering for the gospel, a perspective about having an appropriate point of comparison when thinking about our own Christian lives.

In order to share with you this lesson that we learned, I need to back up a bit and describe what our experience of the week in Honduras was like.

As soon as we landed on Honduras, the first thing we saw was another BMDMI short-term team leaving Honduras after their one week of service.  After saying our good-byes to the departing team, we were greeted by the full-time missionaries of BMDMI at the airport, who said with excitement and a huge smile, “Welcome  to Honduras!”  We were then joined by 42 other short-term missionaries, then we went to the mission home about an hour away from the airport, which is sort of like the headquarters of all their operations, and then after spending a day there, we picked up some translators and some more Honduran doctors and then went on an 8 hour bus ride to the city of Erandique.

All along the road, we saw many instances of abject poverty, but one thing that was obvious was that life was simply just harder in Honduras, including work itself.  For example, the BMDMI Mission Home was this beautiful place about the size of 1st Pres church campus.  Later, I found out that the entire place was made out of concrete and every single ounce of concrete, about 50-70 truckloads, were mixed and poured all by hand, without even a wheelbarrow.  For those of you who have done some concrete work, you know how unbelievably difficult that must have been.  In ways like this, life in Honduras is simply hard.

As soon as we arrived at Erandique, the work began.  I thought we were pretty good at setting up and taking down, but these BMDMI people were like Shaolin masters of setup.  Because it was BMDMI’s first time in that city, as soon as we arrived, the team leads of each department went to the facilities to scope out how they can set up and convert Erandique’s school to sleeping quarters, medical and dental quarters, children’s church, etc.  Then we got to the work of setting things up.  We unloaded hundreds of boxes of medical supplies, the huge tent to hold services in, an incredible amount of food, enough to feed 120 people for 3 days.  It sort of reminded me of big sierra lodge retreats, except for BMDMI, they had to carry their own water.  As we unloaded about 500 gallons of water, it humbled the brothers of our group, as men double our age were unloading these jugs and boxes fast.  Thankfully, because of the fact that we are a mobile church and know how to set things up, we were well trained to move things and know what to do.  We are thankful for the setup rotations.

Also, because we were going into an unknown territory, we had to be quick to change things and adapt to new situations and needs, so that we can become more effective.  From early on, the BMDMI motto in that city became “blessed are the flexible.”  From that point, the work picked up to a feverish pitch.  Each day started at around 6 to 6:30am, which then meant that it started around 5am for the kitchen crew.  Waking up early wasn’t so bad, because the roosters started to crow quite early and woke us up anyway.  The Erandique people in need of medical care started to just pile in for the entire day.  For many of them, they had never in their entire lives seen a doctor.  All in all, we took care of 3,176 people, filled out 14,151 prescriptions, with the biggest percentage of people being in the 6 to 12 year old kids. We also gave out hundreds of eye-glasses, gave out hundreds of pounds of clothes and toys.

Here are some samples of sharing from our group to give you a glimpse of the situation there.
One person in our team wrote:

I expected the work to be physically demanding, but I didn’t quite expect that it was going to be this hard.  I don’t think it was necessarily the schedule of waking up early or even working most of the day, but instead the energy and heart it took to fight through the sheer pain of working on my feet all day with a smile on my face.  There were three seats in dental, all only for patients, so the doctors and assistants stood the whole time.  The fast pace environment of constant preparation and extractions kept everyone on their toes.  Each dentist had a 5 patient cycle where we would anesthetize the patient and while they were getting numb, they would wait in a line to get their extraction.  Then the next one, then the next one.  Even though we were seeing so many groups of patients, the long line of people waiting outside never seemed to get shorter.  My feet throbbed so badly, I had never felt pain like this, but there was no time or even place to sit.  At this time, I remembered and wanted to embrace the servant mentality that we learned about in John 2, no complaints, no hesitation, just quick obedience and joyful service.

Another team member writes:

One particular family of a young mom with 6 children really struck me as representative of not only the poverty but also the brokenness of families there.  Many times, the father will leave the mom and children, and so they are left to fend for themselves.  As a result, given the impoverished conditions, it’s not uncommon for these young single moms to get diseases like arthritis and fungal infections, while the children are commonly are commonly malnourished and infected with parasites.  We provided a small amount of medicines and basic supplies to them, but this made me think about the importance of all the church plants that are happening there, as the church will be the only lasting source of both spiritual and physical support for these families.

There was a very young girl about 6 months in age who came to our clinic who was found to be in respiratory distress.  Terry (our team lead doctor) quickly realized that she needed much more advanced medical attention, and had her routed to a nearby hospital where she could receive IV fluids and antibiotics.  It turned out she had pretty severe pneumonia, and probably would not have survived for another week.  Unbelievably, the monetary cost to save her life was a mere $27.

Anther person writes about the pharmacy:

The cards arrived at the pharmacy when a villager would walk up to our doorway and hand over their card.  One of us would tell them “El otro lado por la medicina” which means “the other side for medicine”, and they would hurry around the corner and wait in the alleyway to wait in line for their medicine, sometimes for an hour.  As soon as they left, their card would be put in a stack of cards which often grew over 3 inches in height — literally hundreds of cards.  With a small basket in hand, we’d grab the top card and quickly scan the information on it: weight, age, what medicine they needed.  Then, like a very rushed grocery shopper, we’d zoom by bins of medication and pluck out whatever we needed, tossing them into our baskets.  At the end of line, we’d empty everything from our baskets into a bag, hand the bag and the card to an interpreter, who would in turn shout out the name of the card’s owner.

Another person recollects the pharmacy lead Kay Kay, who was an inspiration for all of us:

Every second, someone is yelling at her to mix this and mix that and get this ready.  I literally don’t think there was a period of a whole minute that someone wasn’t asking her for something.  Yet for each person, she replied joyfully — “all right!  Well let’s get that person some of this!”  And quickly with a smile on her face handed one of us the medicine.  Occasionally she would crack a joke and just laugh as she was working.  This really amazed me because I think her job was the most stressful job of the whole mission team.  Yet she responded in a way that really lifted the spirits of those around her and humbly served.  I know she must have been tired — she didn’t take a lunch break, we had to bring the food to her from the mission house.  But she just kept on at it, giving it her all.  This particularly spoke to me because many times when I work, I get really stressed out and as a result stress the people around me out.  But seeing her work showed me that it doesn’t have to be like that.  No matter how stressful the situation is, you just have to give it your all and be thankful to serve.

Not only did we provide these medical care, there were also 3-4 evangelistic services being held every day.  Through these services and the children’s church services, we had the privilege of witnessing a conservative total of 406 salvation decisions and 180 rededications.  Here are some sharings from our team members:

During the afternoon service on our first day at Erandique, Marlina, a native Honduran missionary, was giving a gospel presentation to a group of elementary school aged children.  My outward enthusiasm masked my cynicism — Marlina is going to ask the kids who wants to accept Christ, everyone’s going to raise their hand because that’s how these things work, but no one will really understand what’s going on.  Well, that’s not what happened.  For the children who raised their hands, Marlina took them to the side and asked them to see if they fully understood the gospel.  What surprised me even more was that she sent some of them back, explaining to me that they did not yet understand the gospel.  I was slightly taken aback at first, but quickly understood why.  Unlike myself, Marlina was taking the kids seriously.  In reflection, I’m ashamed to have lost the simplicity of the gospel.  A few of the children were crying as they admitted to Marlina and to God, for the first time, that they were sinners in need of a Lord and savior.

Another person writes:

I waved to this one girl who was standing in the line to the dental clinic.  She shyly waved back at me and smiled, and I headed back to the pharmacy, not thinking much of the incident.  But I saw her again during that night’s revival service.  So I waved to her again, hoping she would recognize me.  She enthusiastically waved and came up to me.  With my inability to speak Spanish, all I could think of saying was to ask her where her mother was.  But she immediately led me to her friends and family.  It turned out that girl, a thirteen-year old named Alba, had accepted Christ earlier in the day at the children’s church, and her friend, Sylbia, had accepted Christ that night during the service!  And the next day, Alba and Sylvia invited their friend Gwendy to our children’s church service, and she ended up meeting Jesus and giving her life to Him.

Regarding the adult tent services, one of the brothers writes:

Another way God showed me his glory in Honduras was through the amazing power and simplicity of the revival services, in the people’s responses to the messages.  They all led back to the saving grace of the cross, and every time there were those who came to accept Christ.  There were so many broken-hearted people in need of a savior, and the effect the gospel had to stir their hearts can only be described as God-inspired.  In short, the work of men alone does not produce over 400 salvations in the course of 3 days.

For me, what personally impressed me the most was the full-time missionaries there while all this busyness was happening.  They were constantly working behind the scenes.

Mike, one of the full-time BMDMI people, was constantly going back and forth between the faciliites, troubleshooting problems, making sure that the lines were moving efficiently, making sure that shower stalls get hot water, pulling wires and setting up electricity, chasing away stray dogs, moving boxes of supplies and materials.   There was not a moment of rest.  If he was not moving boxes or driving a truckload of supplies to replenish the teams, he was sitting down with some Honduran trying to translate with his really Southern-accented Spanish.

Dwight, a 64-year-old president of BMDMI, was with us during this trip.  From the first day on the field, Dwight was right there inside the truck loading and unloading boxes, making fun of the younger ones among us for being so weak.  He carried around him 2 huge bins of electrical supplies, screws, tools, which he jokingly called his “magic box”, because he said he can solve any problems with that box.  His wife Margaret, a 63-year old grandma, was also there, and she was also constantly on the move.  It amazed me how strong she was, as she was often helping me lift giant coolers of water to the lip of the barrel to reuse the water.  She said, “That’s a 2-man job.” and then would grab the other end and lift it up with me.  My suggestion that these coolers were too heavy for her was quickly rejected, as she said, “Daniel, I’ve been doing this my whole life.”  I noticed that her hands seemed swollen, and when I asked her about it, she said that she doesn’t have use of her thumbs anymore, but that the Lord’s been good to her for keeping her rest of her fingers and body healthy.

One of our team members shares about Marina, another full-time missionary there, who is a native Honduran:

Marina, she is forty-three and still single, yet she has no sense of self-pity or remorse for the kind of life she’s living.  She goes frequently on the short-term missions with BMDMI and in her time not in the mission field, she spends her time teaching bible classes in elementary schools and also leading women’s retreats with Margaret.  One thing Marina mentioned as I talked to her was that she loves what she does, and that her passion is for souls, to teach about Jesus and the Bible to children.  The way she would care for the kids and how she presented the gospel message with such confidence in its power to save was a source of inspiration for me.  What drove her could not have been youthful energy, or a desire to fulfill personal ambitions, or to please other people, but a deep love and reverence for God and his gospel.

Throughout the short mission trip to Honduras, that’s one thing that I kept on noticing.  The nature of the short-term mission trips is that it’s intense, and it’s hard, because there’s a strict time limit within which we’re trying to accomplish a lot of things.  For those of you who have gone to short-term mission trips before, you know what I’m talking about when I say that in short-term mission trips, you end up pushing your own limits.  But what I saw was that these full-time missionaries were hosting a series of these intense short-term mission trips back to back to back.  On our way to Erandique, our buses stopped at a rest stop, and we ran into John and Tina Woods, who came to our church prayer meeting before to give a short testimony.  They were on their way down from another town.  I asked them, how many short-term mission teams have you hosted this time around?  He said he’s currently on 3 of 4, and then there will be a one week break, and then there will be 6 in a row.

On the Saturday that we were coming back, as we were getting dropped off at the airport, I thanked Mike and Dwight for their hard work, and our team asked them how much break they would get between sending off our team and receiving a new one.  Dwight looked at his watch, smiled and said, “about 45 minutes.”  He said that he and his wife Margaret are currently on a streak of 9 short-term trips in a row.   We had a deja vu moment, where just a week prior, as we were coming into the airport, we saw another team leave.  Now we were leaving, but another team was coming in, which these full-time missionaries were now receiving.  By the end of the week, we were pretty tired and we were ready to go home.  But these full-time missionaries were now getting ready to greet a whole new team and say, “welcome to Honduras!”  And they would do it with a genuine sense of excitement, because the God that they serve, our God, is a God who does new things, a God who can bring 400 people to salvation, a God who can resurrect the dead, a God who can strengthen those who love Him.

Dwight recently posted a message asking for prayers as the political situation in Honduras is getting tense.  They are committed to staying through the turmoil, and on the last day with us, Dwight asked for our prayers, because he said that more than just the physical hardship, his heart needs protection because it’s been hard to not see his children and grandchildren for a long time.

I was so inspired by these full-time missionaries there, as they provided a proper perspective on what I consider to be “enough” in laboring for God’s kingdom.  In these ways, these heroes of faith really confirmed to me so many things that I’ve been learning through our church.. That labor in the Lord is not a matter of just talk or correct doctrine, but consists of hard work and sacrifice… that we ought to get our standard of “what is enough or too much” from the bible and the great cloud of witnesses and Jesus, rather than the comfortable lifestyle of the top 5% of the world population that we currently enjoy in California.  The presence of such people on the mission field as well as people who work hard for the Lord in our midst — they provided for me an important corrective on what a proper point of comparison should be, and I was inspired to labor for God’s kingdom with all my might, as a way for me to honor them.

Hebrews 12:1 states:

1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.