As I sat in the 85° heat in the Estadio Nacional under the full heat of the sun without a cloud in the sky on January 27, 2022, I reflected on a relationship God brought into our lives almost seventeen years ago.
It was a long day in Punta Piedra, a small Garifuna pueblo on
the outskirts of Colón, Honduras. I was again
on a medical mission team with the Alabama Honduras Medical Educational Network
as I had been each summer since I was just barely a teenager. My cousins, parents, aunt and uncle, and the
rest of our team had treated over 250 patients who had not been seen by a
comprehensive medical staff, much less one with medicine to treat and prevent
illness, for a very long time, if ever.
We were tired, sipping on Kool-aide filled water bottles, eating beanie
weenies straight out of the can talking about all of our adventures from the
day.
Just about the time we thought about getting antsy enough to pack
up and make the dirt road trek back to the Carolina Clinic in Limon, a young
man in a stark white doctor’s coat came strolling up to the undone tailgates of the rented pickup trucks where we were resting.
While the unstained ivory jacket stood out from the dusty ambience, it
was his demeanor that struck us most. It
turns out the young man was a Honduran Garifuna medical doctor recently
graduated from the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana, Cuba. Conversations commenced about why he was
there, why we were there, the politics of going to school in Cuba, and how we
might expand our medical team to additional underserved areas. We concluded the day by exchanging contact
information and both extending offers to collaborate in the future.
Today, that doctor is the Secretary of Technology and Innovation
for the Republic of Honduras under the nation’s first female president of Honduras, President Xiomara Castro. Yes, Dr. Luther Harry
Castillo, my dear brother, has risen in the ranks from a teacher’s son in
Tocamacho all the way to the President’s cabinet in Tegucigalpa.
God works in mysterious ways, and the Lord did not put Dr. Luther
in my life merely for friendship and inspiration.
Dr. Luther invited me to attend the inauguration as a friend of AHMEN
and as a favor to our late founder Dr. Tom Camp.
I attended with Uncle Tom’s brother, Bill Camp, to represent all of the
work AHMEN has done for the future of Honduras because this new administration
stands for ensuring Hondurans have a future.
In the coming days, weeks, and months, I will be leveraging my
relationships and experience to not only position my actions as a lifelong
volunteer in Honduras on pathways of legitimate sustainability, but I will also
continue pursuing the creation of UVA-Honduras (Uniting Volunteers App ofHonduras) in order to make volunteer work, mission work, the efforts of NFPs and
NGOS more appropriate and effective. To
hear my passion for creating this app click the above link and share widely! Make it viral because God is making it
happen.
In my next blog I will be sharing action steps for strategic outreach from the meetings I
participated in during the week of the inauguration. In preparation, I ask that you consider
donating to AHMEN and our long-term educational efforts in Honduras. I also ask you to pray about joining one of
our many teams, including my own Río de Agua Viva teaching team this summer. Contact me for more information. Honduras is not alone. The world is paying attention. Our mission to ensure the liberty of God spreads deep and wide continues, but we cannot
ensure social and economic justice for Honduras alone. Yes, one single person can change some things
around her, but together, everything is possible.
Together, we are the difference.
No comments:
Post a Comment