Big Smiles, Big Events & Short Video

October 17, 2022

Many of you have heard us say over the years how wonderful our small sending church, Melbourne Community Church (MCC) is to us. In December of 2021, Chris and I gave our church a list of needs for the Jungle Hospital and Give Hope 2 Kids and they came through above and beyond all expectations! After collecting for three months, our little church, along with contributions from others (e.g., the Honor Society at Calvary Chapel Christian Academy) collected over 700 pounds of goods to send to Honduras!!! In mid-April Ellen and Tim Grogan made a trip to New Orleans with a U-Haul trailer to drop off all these donations at a Honduran shipping company. That was just the beginning of the journey, but everything eventually arrived at our village in Honduras. I have been sorting through them to distribute between the two ministries. The Jungle Hospital will receive many beautiful new baby gifts that will be given to mothers who deliver at the hospital. The dental supplies we received will literally reach almost every child in this valley! The donation of everyday shoes and clothes are desperately needed here at GH2K, as our kids grow fast, and jungle life is hard. The small gifts and toys will be birthday and Christmas gifts for our kids here at GH2K. Just imagine providing gifts for 55 kids every year! Thank you so much MCC…and to each of you who contributed! Your incredible generosity is truly overwhelming! Chris and I, GH2K and the Jungle Hospital have all been blessed. Thank you for enabling us to bless those we are trying to serve!

As most of you know, I (Sharon) went back to the USA on an emergency trip to care for my dad when he broke his hip back in June. Just three days prior to that, however, I had bought tickets to make a trip back to the USA for migraine treatment in July. So, after only one week back in Honduras with Chris, on July 16^th I flew to California for migraine treatment. I stayed with our dear friends, Hannah and Doug, who are the most incredible hosts! All went smoothly with the treatments and I was able to see many of our California friends. I was able to visit our wonderful church, Christian Life Center. I also got to make some individual connections. I loved being back in California and took the time to go on walks in some of my favorite spots. From there I flew to Florida where I had to pick up a migraine medication that is delivered monthly to my sister Kim’s house. I scheduled this trip in time for my supply of Ajovy not to run out in Honduras. Ajovy is a new migraine medication that is seeing great success and through a series of blessings and miracles and I have received it for free for almost 2 years. I am more thankful than I can say in words. My time in Melbourne was very short and I am sorry for the many of you I did not get to see! I would like to thank the Englishes and the Stevensons for airport pickups and drop-offs and to the Honeycutts for a car. Chris and I are blessed, and we know we are blessed. Please continue prayers for my migraines. This is a long haul and everything I am doing is for maintenance and hopefully progress. It is a daily struggle.

Chris is taking over now…In road news, your prayers, and ours were answered in a very timely manner. Literally the day after we sent our update, road workers and machinery showed up and they began repairing the road! The time it takes to travel down the mountain has been almost cut in half (2.5 hours in the bus instead of 4 hours). Keep in mind it is only a distance of approximately 20 miles (so an average of 8 mph now instead of 5 mph :). You can watch the two-minute video we made that shows why we are only considering buying a 4×4 vehicle. No road repair will guarantee freedom from flat tires and Sharon had her first flat tire last month (I got mine last year). Fortunately, it was near a village with a tire repair shop, where they repaired it in less than an hour for about $7.

We were honored with an invitation to attend Instituto El Rey’s Expo Feria this year. This is a special one-day event where four groups of 11th and 12th graders presented an enormous project that they work on for more than a month. This year’s theme was different materials: metal, wood, paper, and plastic. Each group is assigned a different material and must construct everything for their project from exclusively that material! The students from our ministry who participated won double honors and took both first-place awards (one for their verbal presentation and one for their costume). They were elated! The event was lovingly dedicated to Dave & Cindy Sharpless, the well-loved administrators of I.E.R.

Back at our primary school…on the 10^th of September, we celebrated Day of the Child. This is a national holiday centered around young children. It is a day full of field games, a special meal, a giant cake, piñatas, and lots and lots of candy! This year Sharon volunteered to make the cake, using fourteen box mixes; it was enormous. And delicious! This year GH2K invited all the children and parents from our village to join us in the celebration. It was a case of ‘the more the merrier’ and everybody had a wonderful time.

The last big event this past month was Independence Day. This holiday requires a lot of practice and planning beforehand, as all school children are expected to participate in a parade marking the occasion. The one thing I didn’t plan for was passing a kidney stone on the day of the parade! Unfortunately, I missed the parade, but everybody told me that all the kids did great. They were literally excited for weeks leading up to the big day. This was the first time in three years they have been able to celebrate this important occasion! It also happens to be one of our favorite cultural experiences.

We are thankful for: