modern day Mother Theresas

We have met the most incredible people when we visited three clinics,yesterday. The women who run these clinics have a heart so big and they have such a  strong believe in what they are doing. Just talking to them you can see the love they have for the poor. One of the clinics was St Paul's,  it  started as a mission of St Paul's Church in Damascus, Maryland after Hurricane Mitch. Joanny the Center's director is a Honduran lady who went there from Maryland to help her family  when the Hurricane wiped out a lot of Tegucigalpa. The devastation was so huge that she stayed and has been helping the poor since then. We will be collaborating with a brigade that is coming from Maryland in the middle of February to travel to some villages and provide medical care. I can not wait to help with that mission.This clinic takes place in the community center and is having trouble with a  leaky roof that between other things damaged their Odontology chair and equipment. They see about 20 patients a day and charge them $2 which cover examination and medications.
The other clinics we visited were the Divine Providence and Notre Dame Clinic. The Divine Providence is a village to the north of Tegucigalpa. It was started by the Archidiocese. The people seem to have pride in their homes. I saw them sweeping their yards, taking out the trash. Their children were outside playing! The clinic's personnel were very interested in all we could offer. Marilena, our boss, has been visiting these clinics in the past trying to get the catholic clinics to unite so they are able to acquire medications etc at better prices and also be able to collaborate with each other.
The third clinic we visited, Notre Dame, is located in the Notre Dame Church building. As the director,Dr. Coscas said, they started in one room and now the priest is scared they may take over all the building. She is another special woman. We were in awe of the strength of their faith and of their love to the poor. They seem to be tireless in their labor of love and in their enthusiasm for their work.
God Bless these people they live their faith in action.

First day at work, first dinner at home

Today we visited the CMMB office here. It is about two blocks from where we live, so eventually we can walk there, once we get our bearings. There is also a church nearby, which we need to see if we can go on Saturday or most probably Sunday morning.
We also visited a clinic in the center of Comayaguela  which is kind like a twin city of Tegucigalpa. Very poor area, the clinic is right in the middle of the marketplace ( the market is several blocks and there are vendors all over the periphery selling used shoes and all sorts of things new and used. The clinic as such charges patients  200 Lempiras which is about $10.00, but they barely make enough money  to cover the rent and the medications they give to the patients.The building where it is located is in pretty sad shape and the landlord will not fix it. I will be going there next week  to offer a Diabetes in- service to the clinic personnel and then after that to give classes to the patients with Diabetes. I think it is sad that they can not offer the service for less since the people they serve are so  very poor.
Tomorrow we will be visiting three other sites, two churches and a hospital, this is all within the planning stages. Keep up the praying!!

Oh yes, and I cooked  our first dinner in our hot plate! Can't complain we also have a microwave which I did not expect!!

Landing in Teguz

We left Winston-Salem and Atlanta  in the rain and  arrived in Tegucigalpa on a very sunny and comfortably warm afternoon, where we were greeted by members of the CMMB team who took care of us and of our bountiful luggage. (Counting our backpacks we had 12 pieces of luggage, 4 of which were medical supplies.)  Marilena and Yanin took us to our new home and we met our landlady , a delightful lady  who made us feel at home  right away. The cottage is very cozy and we have access to her beautiful  flower garden. We couldn't have asked for more. They  took us to get our local cell phones and then treated us to  an early dinner (late lunch for us) at one of Yanin's favorite Italian restaurants. The food was delicious and the conversation was very  informative. Tomorrow we will be going to the CMMB office in the morning to start planning our work for the year.

Nearly ready...

All through my life people have asked me two things. One, how do you manage- my answer: I play it by ear. The second , mainly by my family, are you ready?- the answer ( just like when we were kids, playing) ready or not .
Well, Monday is the DAY, and that is FOUR days away!  Suitcases are packed ( some fine tuning is still needed to make sure no suitcase is over 50 lbs).  Hopefully we have all papers ready and inside my binder (kidding I am sure we do.)
We are looking forward to it and all the more now after we were blessed one more time today. Father Bill Robinson , Pastor of Our Lady of Mercy Parish, gave us a special blessing as a send forth at the morning Mass .  It was so special!! Thank  you Father Bill.
As for me, I was prayed over two more times at the Women's Bible Study and was able to say Good Bye to some good friends I will miss this coming year. Hopefully some will e-mail me from time to time.
Last  night  we received an email from Emily's mother, Marye,and she included  this prayer for Emily  (who left yesterday to go to Nepal) and for us and for all those who continue to try in this trying world.

        The light of God surrounds you,

        The love of God enfolds you,

        The power of God protects you,

        The presence of God watches over you,

        Wherever you are, God is,

        And where God is, all is well.

 Isn't it beautiful to have these thoughts and prayers sent your way. Wherever you are...God is. And where God is, all is well. May He stay with you as He goes with us. God bless you.

Reliving Christmas

This is a belated post. But I was so blessed this Christmas that I can not keep it to myself! Among other  gifts, our children gave us calendars with family pictures so we can see them every day while we are gone on our mission trip, magnetic picture frames to stick to our refrigerator ( yes, we are going to have a refrigerator) and  our son David gave us his very own book that he wrote and published. Wow , he made us all cry. I will be posting some of the pages of his book soon. At the suggestion of our new friend Pat, Hernan gave me some sketching books and pencils to take with me to the mission trip. Well , I know  she mentioned it, but I know he had already thought about it (he is really good at knowing what I would like to have)!
Carmen, our daughter, prompted me to do a three minute sketch, I looked around and sketched one of our bookshelves, she looked at it and added the verse at the bottom. The verse has stucked to my mind and I wanted to share it with everyone, because THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, NO MATTER WHERE WE GO, WE ARE   A VESSEL TO CARRY CHRIST. 
 Like Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta said  and I dare to paraphrase, our job may be a drop in the sea, but there would be no sea if it wasn't for all the drops. God Bless you wherever you are!!!

12 days and counting....

  After having week after week of mishaps since December 7 ,our luck has turned, today was an awesome day.   I mean it, we were plagued with let's say  some" unfortunate events" that kept us from being able to get ready for our mission trip. Our basement flooded, the crews working on it left  Dec 28. We got sick , my brother had an emergency gall bladder surgery and although not a contagious condition  three weeks later our grandson had an emergency gall bladder surgery! Last week our son had sinus surgery and Sunday we got  a  ticket for driving a truck with expired tags ( we had borrowed the truck to take stuff to our storage !!!.)...and the court date was set for March 8 , more than a week after our departure for Honduras!

Like I said  today was an awesome day!
It started with coffee with my good friend, Christine, where she prayed over me , that I would always feel a voice behind me and to know that it was our Lord's voice. Christine is an awesome woman and we enjoyed being co-workers for over five years. She is an inspiration for all those around her. Thank you Christine for all your wise words of encouragement!
After that, Hernan and I had a meeting with  Father Cook, our pastor, and we couldn't have asked for more. He prayed over us and reassured us that we will be in our parish prayers. It was an amazing feeling to be blessed and sent forth with so much love and  encouragement. Thank you Father , you don't know how much your blessing means to us. We will keep St. Leo the Great and its parishioners  in our hearts while we are away.
Then we went by the District Attorney's office to see what they could do with the ticket, since the truck's owner had already complied with  the requisites, and lo and behold they were able to dismiss the ticket! Alleluia!!
To top it all off. Hernan and I went to my former place of employment ( the free clinic where he also volunteered) to say good bye to our friends there and we were blessed with a lot of supplies that they did not need and could not use. I mean now I have glucometers!!! And believe me for a Diabetes Educator a glucometer is a necessity. We also got some prenatal vitamins  and some glucose tablets for those patients on Insulin.
What an awesome God! I need to keep this feeling in my heart and make it last....it was an awesome day and now Hernan and I are off to sort out the supplies and start packing.  12 days and counting......