Not a trip for the faint of heart!

This morning started before the sun was up. The bus picked up us at 6:00 and we went to Tree of Life for breakfast and our morning devotions. Then, we boarded the “seen better days” school bus and headed up the mountain (seriously, we had to step over the hole in the floorboard to get back to the seats!).

Honduran driving is tricky at best, but riding in an ancient school bus up the mountain, taking hairpin turns while traffic is coming down the mountain, all the while avoiding the multitude of bicycles, horses, other cars and trucks and all the pedestrians is a little scary! But, our driver was an old pro and we arrived without incident.

We went to the same town today (Sunday) that we went to yesterday. Only today there were a lot of people waiting for us when we arrived! Pastor Guy told us that they didn’t have to work in the coffee fields today, so they were able to come.

We were planning to only stay today until about 1:00 so that we could return to our hotel, get showered, and back to Tree of Life for their service. But, by about noon it was obvious that if we left at 1:00 there were patients that wouldn’t be seen. The leadership team met and decided that we would stay as long as there were patients to be seen. After lunch we jumped back into seeing patients. By God’s grace, we had seen every patient by 3:00. We were sure we would go until 4:30 or 5:00. We made it back to the hotel in time to shower, rest just a little, Skype with the Sunday evening service at Crievewood, and still made it to worship service at Tree of Life. Pastor Dan Hunt, one of our team members from Eastview Baptist in Hopkinsville, preached a great message. Ask him about his blind date when he was in high school!

Everyone of the medical folks has their own story of a particular patient that touched their heart. For me, I just continue to be overwhelmed and saddened by the number of teenage pregnancies. There are girls 13 years old coming in saying they are pretty sure they are pregnant, and what do they do now? Sometimes the best medicine we can give is some loving advice, including practical steps to deliver a healthy baby, and suggesting lifestyle changes that can keep it from happening again. Hugs are a great medicine for hurts of the heart, and we dispensed a lot of those today!

It is now way past my bedtime, because I have to be up at 5:00 again tomorrow, but I’d like for you pray specifically for the health of the team. Montezuma’s revenge has set in on several team members. This affliction is never pleasant, but it is even worse when bathrooms are primitive at best.

Make sure to take a look at the brief video we posted today. It will give you a real quick overview of where we are and what we’ve done for the last two days.

More tomorrow, Libby