Evidence of God's Work in Honduras

To those unaware of our previous trips to Honduras, Bethel's members (i.e. Kim Martin) have been involved with the Honduras Dental Project for over 10 years. Team after team have been sent to help, whether that be working on the dental team itself or working with the men, women and children of the area through various outreach opportunities.

As is custom on our latest trips, we host a Vacation Bible School in the village of Tegucigalpa. This year's Vacation Bible School was miracle after miracle. Not only did we have many more kids this year, but God's blessings seemed also to be in abundance on the people here since we last witnessed. We desperately missed a previous participant - one of the Micah boys’, Marvin, is now in college, and was unable to help us this year. We did not think we could do VBS without Marvin - he is so very gifted. Despite our shortcomings and anxieties, we learned that God had bigger and better things planned.

For example, God sent a Hispanic pastor and his wife from the Dallas area to participate along side our team this year. Rolando and his wife, Angie, were very instrumental in connecting with the youth. Not only does Rolando sing and play the guitar, he is a gifted soccer player (a favorite sport among the Honduras youth). Rolando brought evangelistic soccer balls and explained salvation to the boys, girls and teens. This was a hit. So much so, that the older guys (which usually don't participate) were involved as well. Various soccer tournaments were held throughout the week through Rolando's leadership. He was even kind enough to bring medals for the winners.

While Rolando was entertaining the youth, Angie talked to the women at Villa Linda Miller - many who are young wives and mothers. She gave her testimony, and after her talk, several of the women were moved and asked Angie to pray with them. We learned quickly these women have little to no spiritual discipleship and are in such need. Please pray that the seeds that were planted will continue by other missionaries to them this year.

Lourdes, who attends Bethel and has been on the mission trips in prior years, was instrumental in teaching the ladies to knit. This year a lady from the village, now sells her crafts, as a result of Lourdes’ teaching years ago. What a blessing to see fruit of our labors in full.

We also hosted a Field Day with all the kids. One of the games was to break up in teams with a large trash a bag for each team and see which team could pick up the most trash in the area. O my, O my! Angie, Margaret and I realized we needed to work on crowd control! These kids were having way too much fun.

Another activity during our week in Honduras was to host a VBS at the dump outside of Tegucigalpa. It is called "Afe". For years, the poor and impoverished families have lived in this dump - often rummaging through trash to find things they can sell and eat. Over the past couple years, though, several buildings have been built - even a school for the youth that live in Afe. It is such a miracle seeing the students at Afe; their manners, smiles, participation. Afe now has computer classes for the kids.

Over 100 kids of Afe participated in our VBS program this year. Rolando played soccer with the boys. At one period, there was a little dead time with the teen girls, so Margaret threw a ball of yarn to one of the girls, the girl then held a piece of the yarn and threw it to another girl until the yarn had formed a web with about 40 girls holding a piece of the yarn. Margaret wasn’t sure what to do next or even where she was going with this. Then, one of the Micah boys came over and stood in the middle of the web and told the girls, “This is what our life used to be like, a big mess.” He then took some scissors and cut the yarn and told how Christ has set us free. Whoa! What an example this boy set before the girls. I was amazed.

We went to the streets one day and witnessed where a lot of the Micah boys have come from. Witnessing on the streets in Honduras is quite a sobering experience - street boys are constantly sniffing a coke bottle filled with yellow glue, spaced out. To look in these street boys' eyes and then see the Micah boys (former street boys) attending college, working hard and living for Jesus - WOW!, what an awesome God we have!!! It has changed our perspective on people who use drugs—rather than disgust, we see potential of what God can do in them if they only receive the message of the Gospel.

The dental team worked tirelessly as usual. One person on the team was frustrated because we just could not help all the people. Then, she remembered she was doing this for Jesus!

Nelda, from the dental team, hosted a dental school for the ladies of the village. By the end of the week, several of the trainees received certificates. Consequently, they will be able to find work in local dental offices there in Honduras.

One of the joys of our trip was to see a dedication plaque outside the new Dental Clinic in Villa De Linda Miller, which is right outside of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. There is a long list of names posted on the plaque including many from Bethel.

• Kim Martin
• Theresa Reynolds
• Bill Cunningham
• Ann Cunningham
• Lourdes Jimenez
• Bill Perlmutter
• Carmen Shero
• Carol Maresh
• Lucie Hood
• Margaret Stevens

We also opened a vision clinic this year and many people can now read the Bible because they can see.

It was great reconnecting with the children and adults of the village of Afe. But especially, it is Michael Miller, Becca, John, Dan, Camea and the Micah boys that are such an inspiration and motivate all of us involved with the Honduran Dental Project to come back each year. What a testimony of God’s grace, mercy, love!

THANK YOU for your prayers. No one got ill, money that was lost was found, keys that were lost were found. The morning devotional each day really drew the team (28 of us) together in ways we may never know until Heaven. Also, thank you Bethel, for the money you provided. We purchased many craft materials - flip flops, hats, candy, yarn, etc - to be given away to the young kids while there. I truly wish you could have been here to see the smiling faces of all the kids, teens, ladies and even men receiving the gifts. The men workers at the village came and each picked out a baseball hat. We noticed they put the hats directly to use to shade their faces from the hot sun. How rewarding is was to see them put on a fresh hat. Also, the ladies and children each had their picture taken and it was printed and given to them.

God indeed use us in Honduras again, this year. Thank you for your many prayers and love as we humbled ourselves to serve again on this project. We only hope more of you feel moved to join us next year.

Only by His Grace,