When a flame flickers, does the multiverse see it coming? Better yet, what does the God of eternity do to prepare for the pending darkness? The laws of conservation of mass and energy say that every speck of dust that exists has always existed in some form or fashion. Furthermore, that same matter will always exist! Why am I blowing wind at the philosophical sails of the cosmos? I have a hunch that AHMEN has been witness to an intergalactic legacy transfer.
For those of you who might have been lucky enough to know AHMEN founder Dr. Tom Camp, you know that he didn't sweat the small stuff. He didn't let the little things get under his skin because he went all out in everything he did. The goal Uncle Tom had was not to be grandiose for the sake of it but to check all of the boxes. In conversations over the years about Honduras, Dr. Camp would often end the conversation with questions like "Who are we leaving out?" and "What are we forgetting?" If Uncle Tom saw a hot dog dressed to the nines, he would wonder what additional toppings would make for a more perfect bite.
If we were teaching water filtration, one type of instruction on one type of filter wasn't good enough. We needed three. If we were inviting a Honduran preacher to join our team, we would suddenly have a whole cadre of pastors traveling with us. If we were called on a home visit to meet with a sick mother, we would end up assessing the health needs of the entire family. If you knew Nath Thompson Camp, then you understood his need to be thorough.
The year before time began to take Uncle Tom from us, God gave AHMEN another Thompson to help fill the void. Gregory Thompson joined the Alabama Honduras Medical Educational Network in 2017 ready to do it all!
And just like a Thompson, he was a little sneaky about it at first. Greg came on the Río team at its largest. We were a team of 25 people that year, and you could literally see the energy beaming from Greg's bones at our team's massive undertaking. The next year our team was much smaller in size and scope. I would not have characterized Greg's reaction as disappointment. What I think he observed was that our efforts that year were insufficient. Again, the universe manifests emotions to spur us along. In this case, our 2018 team motivated Greg to dig an additional estuary for the Rio team.
In 2019, we both had a little Thompson in us. As I visited all four of AHMEN's ACSI workshop sites in a little under ten days, Greg led his first solo team. I was able to spend 48-hours with him as he did, and I was taken aback by the direction of Greg's leadership.
Not only had he recruited his own team of volunteers to teach first aid and sex ed, Mr. Thompson brought a real CPR dummy on the team with him to validate the entire training. Not only had Greg opened up an entire new area for AHMEN in partnership with Jutiapa's Youth Network, he invited the entire Youth Network back to Villa Helens for a pool party as friends. Joyfully, Greg took on additional challenges not to prove to himself what he could do, Mr. Thompson told the dealer "hit me" because there was more to be done. What I witnessed that year was oddly similar to the behavior of another dark-haired, bearded man I used to travel with to Honduras. What I witnessed must be a Thompson thing, and I can’t wait to tell you about our adventures this summer in my next blog.
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Why don’t you consider joining me in Honduras in 2023 for the 10-year anniversary of AHMEN’s Río de Agua Viva team? This will be our grandest endeavor yet! Just go to Facebook.com/ahmeninhonduras. Drop your $100 deposit for next year’s team in the donation box, and we will provide you a $100 discount on your team fees. Greg and I can’t partner with the people of Honduras in a vacuum. We need your help.
Together, we are the difference.
