Posts

Preparation

 We are a team of six St. Peter Lutheran Church members who have been called by God to travel to Honduras for an eyeglass clinic.  We have met several times, raised money through fundraisers, have been blessed by donations, and are doing weekly Bible studies.  We traveled to Ann Arbor together to MOST for training on how to test eyes for both distance and reading.  We each packed a suitcase, which ended up weighing 50 lbs., of eyeglasses, sunglasses, and eyeglass cases.  We also packed witness bracelets and puppets to use as evangelism tools to tell these people about God.  We have been vaccinated and have our medications ready to start when the time comes.  We have been praying together, reading our Bibles and sharing our concerns.  I would say we are becoming well prepared. We are very excited about this journey that God has started us on.  We are looking forward to seeing how He will use us and know many people will be impacted.  We will be leaving July 8 and returning July 16, 2023
5 comments
Read more

Commission Weekend - July 1 & 2

Image
  Romans 10:14-15  And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!” Pastor Kurt commissioned the members of the team who were able to attend the commission service during all four services the week before leaving for Honduras.   Sarah, our MOST team leader was able to attend during one of the services.  Thank you Pastor Kurt for that wonderful sendoff.
Post a Comment
Read more

Meet the Team

We had five people from St. Peter Lutheran Church who joined Pastor Mark who had a vision of taking a group on a mission trip to Honduras.  We added two more people plus our team leader from MOST to form this team of nine. Pastor Mark Arendell Crisis Management Assistant “I can't wait to see God at work in the team members and the people He has called us to serve.  It's going to be AWESOME!” Cherrie Arendell Medical “I would like to see how the Honduras people love Jesus and to see Jesus at work.” Paul Stade Luggage Coordinator “I'm looking forward to showing them that Christian love for others has no borders.” Linda Fix Photographer and Blogger “I am excited about serving other children of God and seeing where this journey takes me.” Dave Bratkowski Devotion Coordinator Nate Bratkowski Devotion Coordinator Three others joined us. Sarah DePriest  MOST Team Leader Serving the team - ensuring they are confident in their training, well fed, hydrated, housed, safe, healthy, and
Post a Comment
Read more

Travel to Honduras, Saturday, July 8, 2023

Image
 The day has finally come to fly to Honduras.  We met at Pastor Mark and Cherrie’s house at 2:30 am where we squeezed into a metro car with all of us, our personal luggage, and six suitcases weighing 50 pounds each containing eyeglass materials for the clinic.  We met our team leader, Sarah when we arrived at Metro Airiport. We were excited to begin our journey. We had a layover in Miami where we met two more team members, Sandra and Steve.  After a devotion, we again boarded our plane for Honduras.  We learned some new things about Pastor Mark.  He began walking up and down the aisle of the airplane looking for kids.  He then proceeded to make balloon animals for them!  We overheard someone say “I didn’t know they did that”.  We knew “they” didn’t, but Pastor Mark did. We got through customs without any hassle, especially when they discovered Pastor Mark and Cherrie were married.  Cherrie was passed through without question.   We were greeted at the airport in Honduras by Pastor Junio
Post a Comment
Read more

Sunday - July 9 - Set up and Church Service

Image
Today was an amazing day!  After breakfast of eggs, ham, toast, plantains, and cheese, we set out to set up our clinic.  We arrived at Igiesia Evangelical Luterana Castillo Pierre, which means “A Mighty Fortress”, where Pastor Junior and his wife, along with a group of the sweetest kids, greeted us.  We proceeded to set up the eye glass clinic and tested the eyesight of 16 of the people there.  This was done just to get us ready for Day 1 of the Clinic.  We worked well together and are ready for the rush of people we will see tomorrow. We had a special treat in the afternoon.  We had Sunday church service with Pastor Junior and his congregation.  The message was from Romans 7:13-17  Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good   to bring about my death,   so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.  We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual,   sold   as
Post a Comment
Read more

Four Amazing Days - Monday, July 10 - Thursday, July 13

Image
For the next four days, we began each morning with breakfast at Tito’s, the local restaurant.  They served a variety of eggs, pancakes, beans, avocado, ham, tortillas, coffee and juice.  It was always pretty tasty.  At this time, we took turns giving a morning devotion.  The van would then pick us up and transport us to men, women and children who were already waiting for us to arrive.  Their smiles were contagious.   Each of us had an interpreter to help us speak to everyone since the people of Honduras only spoke Spanish.  We got pretty good at saying hello, nice to meet you, and other common phrases, but we could not have done our jobs without our amazing interpreters.  We bonded with them immediately.  The clinic opened each day around 8:30 am.  We would work until noon when Rosa, Pastor Junior’s wife, served us a delicious lunch which consisted of chicken, rice, and tortillas.  After enjoying time eating and relaxing, we continued with checking the eyes of these great people.  Som
Post a Comment
Read more

Free Day - Friday, July 14

Image
 We had a “free day” on Friday.  Sarah, our team leader, Pastor Junior and his wife, Rosa, planned a day at Rancho Sophia so that we could relax.  We enjoyed sightseeing along the way.  The mountains and landscape are beautiful. Upon arriving at Rancho Sophia, we found that there was horseback riding, fishing, outdoor games and sitting areas to relax.  Songs were playing throughout the camp such as Through the Years by Kenny Rogers and Rocky Mountain High by John Denver.  We were surprised that these songs were in English as were many of the songs at the eye clinic.  When questioned about this, our interpreters said that they listen to English songs quite often.  It was very peaceful and we enjoyed spending time together. We had lunch at the Cow Bar.  Some were adventurous with the soup while others stuck with hamburgers. That night, we decided on getting a pizza as most of us had had our share of tacos at Tito’s.
Post a Comment
Read more