Spring 2011 Container Loading

The loading of the 2011 spring container was this past Saturday. As is usual, the task was difficult but with God’s help it was completed without incident.  The containers that we use are empty back-hauls owned by the Dole Fruit Company. Through Dole’s generosity AHMEN is able to ship thousands of pounds of supplies that are used by its various teams when conducting mission efforts in-country.

Several of the teams have ongoing construction projects that require sheet metal for roofing and siding.  We have been fortunate this year to have received several thousand pounds of heavy duty steel building panels from a manufacturer in Florence, South Carolina. This donation was negotiated by our good friend Derinda Conner with the Carolina Honduras Health Foundation.  Once the steel was delivered to the UMVIM Disaster Relief warehouse in Decatur, it had to be loaded onto the container. This is no easy trick.

First several stacks of the steel had to be combined and then lifted into place by one forklift. Then the stack was gently, ever so gently, slid into the container with a second forklift. This process was done twice to cover the bed of the container as evenly as possible.  The goal here is to build up the floor of the container where we could stack other stuff that had to be shipped.

A year or two ago, we did this but didn’t get the steel all the way into the container and the doors wouldn’t close. This wasn’t discovered until the container was fully loaded. As you might imagine, this was a colossal mess.  So this year special care was taken to carefully shove the stacks of steel well into the container. Using multiple boards and empty pallets, Bro Ray was able to push the stacks three or four feet well inside the container. This proved to be very wise later.

With the steel in place the task of loading all the other supplies began. Care had to be taken not to twist an ankle or bump a head, but the work went quickly.  Note that in addition to boxed supplies, we shipped numerous walkers, crutches, and potty chairs in response to a special request for orthopedic equipment. In addition several new hospital beds were loaded.

Close to the end of the exercise the crew took a minute to inspect what had been done and plan for using that last three feet of floor space.  Our loading crew was composed of members of the Livingston Chapel UMC that sponsors the “It’s a God Thing” team. This year the team is going to the Clinica de Los Angeles in Belaire.   

As it turned out the space at the rear of the container was just enough to load three stacks of concrete wall board.  This stuff is heavy and somewhat brittle. But with God’s help it went into place without mishap. Look close and you’ll see that despite the tight fit, members of the loading crew stayed in the container to direct each stack of wall board.

 

The loading is complete with space to spare. Normally we would fill every nook and cranny, but the Honduran Customs Officials have begun to crack down on anything entering the country without prior approval. So we are careful not to ship anything not previously manifested. In the fall we packed out the container and then slid a pallet of much needed food items into the empty space.  Because the food hadn’t been on the prior approved manifest, Honduran Customs held up the container for weeks and charged us thousands of dollars in extra storage fees. Governmental bureaucracy is making it more and more difficult to help people all over the third world.

Thanks to fourteen year old Kayla Cooper, we added a little message of hope to the trailer. This will be the first thing the people at Cruzadas will see when they open the doors (if Honduran Customs doesn’t confiscate the sign).    

Well it was a wonderful morning.  A good time was had by all, and the container was sent on its way.

Incident at Casa Cielo

Well after a couple of extended phone conversations with Evelyn and a firsthand account from Jeannie, I think we now have a pretty good understanding as to what happened in Cacao (I have probably miss-spelled this. It is the general village/area between Sambo Creek and Jutiapa).



Mama, Papa and Joy Jones



First let me recap the who and where of this incident. For those of you who have been with us to Belarie, you will remember Papa (Leonard) and Mama (Marie) Jones of the Casa Cielo Orphanage (http://www.casaderoc.org/). You should also recall the Jones’ daughter Joy and their daughter Jeannie and son-in-law Del Sambucetti.  



Jeannie and Del Sambucetti



Whereas, Leonard, Marie, Del and Joy’s focus is primarily on the children of the Orphanage, Jeannie is the person most responsible for the bilingual school that is across the street from the current location of the Orphanage. She is the person most capable of relating the events of last Saturday. Her powerful testimony follows:

“As I woke up Saturday morning, all I could think of was the list of things I needed to get done at the school, and all the e-mails that were stacking up on me.  I never knew that April 2nd would become a day I would never forget. As I arrived to the school I started on all the tasks I needed to get done printing tickets for the school’s barbeque, responding to e-mails, and going over plans with my mom for my birthday party.
 
A day prior we had a meeting with the parents of the school to find a solution because the classrooms are so hot. One of the ideas was getting air units for the classroom, and we had scheduled for Saturday to be the day to get the price quotes for them.  We were raising the money to purchase them by having a barbecue the next week.  I received a call from Jessy, one of the student’s mom, she had told me she would be arriving in 15 minutes to pick me up. She had picked up the money from the treasurer, who was suppose to go with us, to put a down payment if we saw something affordable.
 
My mom was trying to finish telling me all the details, and to go ahead and take advantage of the trip to La Ceiba to pick up the piñata and cake for my birthday.  After I kissed my mom goodbye and warned Joy that she better finish her homework, I walked out of the school to head for the truck.
 
I opened the back door thinking the Treasurer of the PTA would be in the front seat, but at the last moment she had decided she couldn’t go. I went around the truck to get in front, waved and smiled at the bodyguard in the back of the truck. My smile was the last smile Kenneth ever saw.
 
As I got in the passenger seat of the truck, I started to look at the paperwork with her to make sure I didn’t forget anything. Something caught Jessy's attention; she turned around and saw a truck that had started opening fire on us. While she was getting her child on the floorboard of the car she started screaming, “They are shooting at us, they are shooting at us.” I immediately started to repeat the name of Jesus, and started to pray for protection. I slouched as low as I could in the passenger seat and continued to pray as Jessy screamed for her daughter, who was in the back seat. I looked into her eyes, and told her, “We are going to be ok.”  I thought they were never going to stop shooting. Glass and bullets were flying in the car.  By this time all I could see out of the front window was a shadow of a man with a gun, the window had shattered and it was very difficult to see through it. I thought, “ Now they have come to the front to shoot.” I started screaming the name of Jesus even louder.
 
The back door opened in the car and Jessy started to yell, “ Not my daughter” over and over again. By this time, I could hear they had taken something with them, and I thought they had taken the little girl. I thought, “Ok, God I’m ready” as I thought they were going to open my door next, they didn’t though. They opened Jessy’s door, and that is when I realized her daughter was still in the car. They had taken her purse and when they opened her door they wanted mine. I quickly passed the purse to them. Seconds had passed when we didn’t hear anything, as I turned around I noticed they were closing the doors of their truck and backing away.
 
 As soon as they left we ran into the school with Sofia, who was bleeding severely from several different areas. As her mom fell to the floor of the school my mom caught her, and started praying for her. As I took Sofia to the bathroom, I started to examine her. Her head was bleeding from the glass that had shattered, and their was a bullet hole in her back. As I opened the door of the bathroom, I looked at the floor and could see the locks of hair that had fallen from her hair.  I’m assuming it was from the glass that was flying in the car.  As I went outside, the bodyguard was laying face down, in the font of the truck. My mom was screaming for someone to help. Joy was frantically calling my dad and Jessy was calling for someone to pick them up to take them to the hospital.  All I could hear was screaming, Jessy for her daughter, and my mom mom who was now praying for life for this 20 yr. old boy.
 
As her husband arrived we jumped into the car.  Sofia started throwing up and was having seizures. I had one hand on Sofia, and one on Jessy as I was fervently praying for peace, healing, protection, and that God would reveal himself to them.  While we were in the car the Mayor and his bodyguard were looking back and forth to make sure no one was following us. I thought to myself, “Why did I get in this car?” but I knew that God wanted me there. Sofia had lost a lot of blood, and I had not stopped praying. Moments later we were at the hospital and Sofia was being looked at.
 
 At this point, I was settling down and could feel pain in my chest and back, I hadn’t thought to check myself for bullets. I quickly went into the bathroom to wash the blood off. I could not find one bullet hole in me, my only injury was a 2mm opening from glass that had hit my hand. I had just experienced a MIRACLE!!! As I sat in the emergency room I prayed until I knew Sofia was stable.
 
I had taken my mom’s phone, as mine was stolen, and called my dad to pick me up. Del was cancelling our credit cards and checkbook. At that point I broke down. I didn’t have to be strong anymore, as my dad was on the phone with me.
 
Only by God’s grace was I able to come out of that truck alive. Only by His grace was I able to keep it together for so long. I replay the incident over & over in my head, and have wondered how can I thank God enough. I’M ALIVE!
 
As my dad and the police inspected the scene, it was concluded that the truck was shot with an AK47 and another revolver. They had found over 22 shell casings, and people at the scene had picked many others up. The attack was meant for the mayor as an assassination attempt on his life.  It just happened that his wife drove his car that day.
 
I’m sharing my experience with you because I want you to know what Jesus did for me, and to say that He would do the same for you. As only 24 hours have past since this experience, I am gratefully eternal to God for protecting me through it all. Please, continue to pray for me as I deal with all the emotions that someone goes through when something like this happens. Also, for my mom and sister who witnessed what happened. We need continual prayer for our safety.
 


I pray that my experience touches others, so you can see how special we really are to HIM!”



The First Lady of Jutiapa



Again, those of you that have worked at the Clinica del Los Angeles will probably remember Jessy. She is the wife of the Mayor of Jutiapa. Since her husband owns the private clinic in Jutiapa, Jessy often helps our medical teams both as a nurse and as a source of medical supplies. She is a devoted friend to Evelyn and, by extension, to AHMEN. We are so very grateful that Jeannie, Jessy and Sofia survived the shooting and are expected to recover physically. And we pray that God will embrace each of these and grant them piece of mind and spirit in the days ahead.

At this point it is not known with certainty who or why the attack occurred. But there are facts that suggest a most probable cause. When Jessy’s husband was first elected as Mayor he initiated a campaign to clean out corruption in the local government. One of his first official acts was to fire several members of the established police force. To accomplish this, the Mayor called in Federal forces from Tegucigalpa. This was viewed by the bad guys as being an informant. It has been no secret that one or more of these individuals carries a grudge against the Mayor.

It is worth noting at this juncture that Jessy and Sofia were not in Jessy’s car on Saturday, but were instead had borrowed the Mayor’s vehicle. It is also important that the gunmen did not kill the women when clearly they could have. The general sentiment is that the Mayor was the target, and Jeannie, Jessy and Sofia were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Where does this put us? The world is a dangerous place, and we have for some time known that there has been an escalation of violence throughout Latin America. We must continue to be vigilant and security minded in our work and travel. We must also know that there is more need now than ever for us to be in prayer and action in Honduras. I am looking forward to being once again with our friends at the Clinica del Los Angeles and at the Casa Cielo Orphanage in June. I ask that we all pray for these wonderful people.

Amor en Cristo,

guf      

Donations of Wheelchairs, Crutches and Walkers are vitally needed.

Periodically AHMEN is called upon to provide used orthopedic equipment for needy people in Honduras. Once again we are in dire need for usable wheelchairs, crutches, walkers, splints, and orthopedic type stuff. The need for wheelchairs in all sizes is especially critical. If you have any such equipment that you can donate, please let us know ASAP.

Back in 2008 we delivered a pickup truck load of crutches and walkers to the only free orthopedic rehab clinic on the Northern Coast. Your donation will help others regain their mobility and their dignity. We will be loading out our spring container of equipment within a couple of weeks so contact us today.



Comprehensive Rehabilitation Center of the Atlantic Coast




Walkers, Crutches and Potty Chairs




Patients Awaiting Physical Therapy



CHHF April Newsletter

The April 2011 Edition of thw CHHF Hearald is now available. To request a copy and/or donate to this worthy cause contact:

                  CHHF

                  P.O. Box 528

                  Barnwell, SC 29812

Limon Nurture Center Newsletter

The April, 2011 Edition of the "Limon Nurture Center / El Ministerio Unidad Familiar" Newsletter is now available. To receive your copy and/or to donate to this worthy cause contact:

                        Limon Nurture Center
                        c/o Christ United Methodist Church
                        PO Box 790
                        Jasper, AL 35502

Updated Calendar

AHMEN Team Dates and Locations 2011
Team Name and Dates	Team Leader and E-mail	Location
Team Belaire January 26-February 5	Gregg Rushton grushton@aol.com	Clinica de Los Angeles Belaire
“Snake Eaters” April 25-May7	Bruce McFadden & Tom Arnold bcmcf@bham.rr.com	Rio Plátano Biosphere La Moskitia
“316 Fellowship” May 27-June4	Pat & Cindy Richards noneckquas1@bellsouth.net	La Union
“It’s a God Thing” June 4-June 12 (Some team members will visit in Utila June 12-June 18)	Larry “Bucket” Guthrie twfaull@bellsouth.net	Clinica de Los Angeles Belaire
June 8-June 15	Tom Camp llamacamp@gmail.com	La Esperanza
June 10-June 18	Debra Rodgers debracrna@aol.com	Roatan
“Bio-Sand Filters” June 10-June 18, maybe longer	Joe Jones & Cliff Hardy Joejones141@bellsouth.net	All over
“Jane Cox” Team June 21-July 1	Peggy Polhemus & Sharon Bentley mspeggysue@netzero.com	CHHF Clinic Limon
“Feed My Sheep” July 2 - July 10	C.D. & Linda Tripp ctripp@bellsouth.net	El Corazon de Cristo La Ermita
July 6 – July 16 “Baptist Connection” Team	Richard Bowie pharmknife@aol.com	CHHF Clinic Limon
AHMEN/CHIMES/SIFAT August 6-Autust 14	Tom Camp llamacamp@gmail.com	Cusuna , Ciriboya & La Moskitia

Springville Road Community Church Missions Conference 2011

Sunday evening Mary, Joe Jones and I had the pleasure of witnessing Steve Saint’s presentation at the Missions Conference at the Springville Road Community Church in Birmingham (http://www.srccweb.org/ ). Like many of you, we own copies of both “End of the Spear” and “Beyond the Gates of Splendor” and watch these frequently throughout the year. In addition, last year Steve gave us a copy of the unauthorized DVD “Steve Saint: The Jungle Missionary” and we have added it to our collection and periodic reviews. Also we own and have gone through Steve’s complete “Mission Dilemma” program. 

This is a Video series of seven half-hour lessons that accompany a booklet that is designed for small group study. It offers the most compelling evidence of how short term mission teams often do more harm than good and then gives solid advice on how to avoid contributing to unhealthy dependency. This study is simply the best such study that we have ever seen. Steve is now in the process of planning for and producing a sequel series called "Missions Resolution." This series promises to have a greater emphasis on better missionary practices.   

We have heard Steve speak at the Annual Global Missions Health Conference (http://www.medicalmissions.com/GMHC/Home.html) in Louisville several times over the years. Mary and I are both great fans of Steve and his ongoing ministry to empower indigenous people and to spread God’s word throughout a broken and suffering world. That ministry is shared by his son Jamie and functions exclusively through I-TEC (http://www.itecusa.org/).

The US training center for I-TEC is in Dunnellon, Florida. The acronym stands for Indigenous People’s Technology and Education Center. The center’s stated objective is to train and equip indigenous God-followers to say “I-CAN”.

At the SRCC Mission Conference I picked up a copy of the 2011 New Look at Missions DVD. This disk has several promotional videos that explain and demonstrate I-TEC’s four major initiatives for 2011. These include

·        I-See, a turn-key approach to empowering indigenous people to fit and distribute both near and far vision eyeglasses.

·        I-Dent, a complete training program that allows indigenous people to provide basic dentistry (both extractions and reconstruction) in remote locations.

·         I-Med, a non-verbal communication method to teach basic aspects of sanitation and hygiene.

·        I-Fly, a status report on the Maverick LSA, the only fully licensed and successful flying car in the world today.

The I-Fly program is exciting as an example of applying an advanced technology but is of little practical value for most of us at this time. The I-Med program is limited at this point to one non-verbal video. But it would be of tremendous value in basic health instruction, especially where there is a language barrier, if you have access to a projection system. Both the I-See and I-Dent are programs that are potentially applicable to the kinds of missions that are supported by AHMEN (the Alabama Honduras Medical Educational Network). In addition, I suspect that they would be of tremendous interest to organizations like UMVIM (United Methodist Volunteers in Missions - http://www.umvim.org/ ) and SIFAT (Servants in Faith and Technology - http://www.sifat.org/ ). Both the I-See and I-Dent programs have been fully tested all over the two-thirds world and have been demonstrated to be an asset in spreading the Gospel, especially in countries that are openly hostile to Christian evangelism. 

I-Dent

There are two enabling features of the I-Dent (http://itecusa.org/ident.html) program. The first of these is a completely mobile dental clinic. The dental chair, solar powering unit, and drill apparatus are all contained within a thirty-three pound backpack that can be fully assembled within sixty seconds. The design of this mobile clinic was driven by a simple distribution logic – it is more resource efficient to take the dental clinic to the patients than to bring the vastly disperse patients to the clinic.

The second enabling feature of the I-Dent program is to empower the indigenous people to do for themselves and break the dependence on the foreign, short term and short sighted, missionary teams that have historically provided dental care.

Experience has demonstrated that competent dental care can be achieved with only two 10-day training sessions:  The first seminar provides instruction in giving anesthesia (shots of Novocain) and pulling teeth.  The second 10-day seminar, usually taught a year later provides instruction in filling teeth.  The most important aspect of this program, however, is the determination and verification of the minimum proficiencies that are required of the students and the certification of those capabilities. This is all done within the I-Dent program. 

The most exciting applications of the I-Dent program have been within communities where there is substantial opposition to the Gospel. Christian pastors in countries that are dominated by Islamic law or brutal dictatorships have been able to use I-Dent as a means of access to suppressed populations. Relationships are established and the love of Christ is demonstrated. As a result many who would not otherwise have been led to the Lord are saved.      

I-See

Like the I-Dent program, one of the most salient features of the I-See (http://itecusa.org/isee.html) program is its portability. The I-See system revolves around a simple backpack kit that contains all the charts, lens ladders, technician’s tools and simple lens glasses that are required to evaluate and fit both near and far vision glasses. The process is one whereby the patient uses a sequence of single vision positive and negative sphere glasses to improve his or her performance on a unique hand symbol eye chart. These sequenced test glasses are incorporated into two devices that I-See calls lens ladders which function like over sized retinoscopy racks or “ret bars”.   

It is worth noting that the portability and simplicity of the I-See program does come at a cost. The tradeoff is in terms of the “goodness of fit” between the needs of the patient (the actual prescription required to correct vision) and the specifications of the glasses that are readily available. The “best” mission vision care program is still the KOM system that matches patients’ prescription as determined by a Retinomax via computer with a substantial inventory of available used glasses. But this approach is extremely cumbersome and best suits a stationary clinic format. AHMEN’s current stock of computer accessible glasses is 3840 pairs and takes one pickup truck to transport (we are in the process of shifting to a specially outfitted twelve-foot pull-along trailer). Current setup and knock down times are one half day each. Although this is a very accurate means of fitting glasses it is not highly mobile.

In actuality the I-See approach offers a very good first order approximation for the glasses prescription required for both near and far vision. Even in the presence of mild astigmatism, the I-See solution yields the “spherical equivalent” fit for the best eye. And as long as you pre- and post- measure the patient you will be able to know if you have achieved significant improvements in vision. The real advantage to the I-See program is in terms of its application as a micro-business enterprise. The entire system is easily taught to interested persons within the community. They then can carry the entire operation into even the most remote communities. And they can charge a nominal fee for the glasses. The pricing scheme suggested by I-See allows for a modest, but reasonable profit for the new entrepreneur. This is empowerment operating at its best. Add in a Christian perspective and you have local ministry that is sustainable.  

The “I-TEC 2011 New Look at Missions” DVD is attainable through I-TEC http://itecusa.org/contact.html. We whole heartily recommend this DVD for anyone involved in Medical Missions.

Amor en Cristo,

Guf

Mutual Empowerment Seminar

United Methodist Volunteers in Mission
Mutual Empowerment Seminar
May 12-14, 2011 SIFAT Training Campus

This workshop is an invitation to mission volunteers to:
Engage in reflection and dialogue about the impacts of volunteer service: who is impacted and how?
"Consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds" (Hebrews 10:24) for lasting change
Explore key components of mutual empowerment:
Community development and appropriate technology for impoverished communities
Spiritual transformation for volunteers-seeing the world with new eyes

The target participants are United Methodist volunteers interested in the concepts of community development including health, agriculture, water, sanitation and appropriate technology. Emphasis is working WITH the impoverished of our world, both locally and globally and in spiritual growth for volunteers.

click here to download the flyer