Honduran Mission Report - June 2004: 

Friend Ships has just completed six weeks of medical outreach with our ship "MV Hope" and helicopter "Angel of Hope".  We are filled with excitement to report that the mission more than achieved its goals!

On May 29th, the incredible ship God has given us to use for medical missions, MV HOPE slipped quietly into the crystal blue waters of the Caribbean.  We are so grateful to God for the use of this ship that has made possible the spiritual voyage we are about to tell you. As the ship parted the waters of the deep southern seas, the songs of praise and singing of joy could be heard.  She carried tents, medical equipment, medicine, fuel, a mobile kitchen, a truck, a bus and a full crew with strong and willing hearts. We had Swedish and Cajun cooks, a capable captain and engineers, medical personnel and ship crew's from many nations.  The ship made her way to the Caribbean Island of Roatán and began her mobile medical missions and leadership training.  

Over the next six weeks, we were to be joined by great teachers and ministers such as Pastor and City Councilman Sam Talbot, head of his Missionary Baptist church and Missions Director for hundreds of churches, a wise and capable Louisiana man; the mesmerizing song and dance man Roger Sirratt from Arkansas- while looking deep into the eyes of each person he ministered to, he truly loved them with a great passion and seemed to know their needs, hurts and hopes, leaving them full and running over with joy and hope; the solid teaching and firm foundation church building faith man Gary Dixon from the great state of Wisconsin; the medical doctor and teacher Dr. Cesar Tamez from Tijuana, Mexico, a streetwise but gentle man with the capacity of relating a message that relates precisely to the hearts and wounds of this impoverished people; our own Pastor Bo Melin, sometimes from Topeka, Kansas but really a man from more than 60 countries, with a gift of hope and encouragement to all he ministers to with wise and solid tools for leadership application, and like each speaker, a minister with great passion and a valuable message. Three great ladies, Mia, Hilda and Rosa, spoke to the women of Roatán - the incredible story of one woman, Rosa; imprisoned, punished cruelly, falsely accused of murdering her husband and his girlfriend, spending years in jail, only to be released and found innocent. Her story and her walk with God left the women stunned at what an incredible God we serve. Hilda and Mia ministering to the women's needs with profound knowledge of their circumstances -- what gifted speakers!

On the stern of the Hope was the mighty helicopter "Angel of Hope" with two great pilots Mike Smith, an instructor and flight trainer and a young French woman, Benoite whose experience is multi-engine jet instructor and full instrumentation.  "Hope", the ex-Coast Guard cutter with her mighty engines is capable of all oceans, any seas.  She catches our helicopters comings and goings without notice on her large landing pad.  Sometimes it truly felt like a battle zone when we were sitting in the War Room, a large air conditioned room deep in the ship with a large conference table where we looked over maps and planned the logistics of the operations with the small boats and the helicopter.  With the shore boats going in, engines roaring and the helicopter flying onto the deck, then flying out again carrying troops to the work site, you truly got the sense of the army of God on the move with love pouring out of the ship to the beaches and into the villages.  This is the best kind of invasion.

We have seen more than12,000 patients - on the island of Roatán, and on the mainland in the cities of Choloma, Tela and Tegucigalpa.  There were 21 full days of medical services with 5 to 6 teams at work each day.  Most locations provided space to set up 5-7 medical tents.  We also had a large tent that served as a waiting room and we created a landing spot for "Angel of Hope". In the evenings, the waiting room was transformed into a church where we held 13 services, most with dinner served for all.  Guest speakers from the US, Mexico and Honduras flew in for various meetings.  Some services were leadership seminars with pastors and church leaders attending. Some meetings were women's ministry, open crusade type and some more intimate pastoral gatherings.  In addition to the evening services providing encouragement to local church leaders, we saw many people receive Jesus as Lord, both during the day and evening services. 

The second city of the mission, Choloma served as a witchcraft center for Central America. There we had a woman who had been raised from childhood to serve as a witch come forward for prayer and receive complete deliverance. We saw deaf and mute people healed and other sicknesses departing.  It was awesome.  About 20 city officials including the Mayor, a Congressman and the National Commander for Fireman attended our final meeting in Tela.  They officially honored our team who prayed over the leaders and asked God for wisdom, guidance and blessings for them as they do the important job of leading the people of Honduras. 

This mission has been very special in that it has been truly a cooperative effort between Friend Ships, the federal government of Honduras including tremendous help from the "Bomberos" (Firemen) and the local church community.  Friend Ships crew and guest workers have included people from north, south, east and west US, Canada, Mexico, France, Sweden, New Zealand, Guatemala and Honduras. We have had seasoned missionaries and others who are experiencing their first time on the field. We have had pastors and church leaders from San Pedro Sula, Roatán, Choloma and Tela, all working together with our US, Canadian and Mexican ministers to advance the Kingdom of God. We had the federal government providing all permits, Honduran police guarding us by day and night, fireman organizing patients, giving security and helping transport equipment.  We had bilingual students assisting us and the mayor's office in each city arranging for locations, trucking and a myriad of support services.  It is as it should be - people working together to help people with a great sense of unity between church members local and foreign and a government administration that is in support of a mission that lifts up the name of Jesus. 

At each location, we first offered a 1 to 2 day course created by the World Health Organization teaching general health care.  Many people who attended the class, scheduled themselves to return during the week and put their new knowledge to work as assistants.  When the clinics began, we opened the doors at 8:00 am and took in 400 to 500 patients for a day's work.  People registered for service and while awaiting treatment; viewed the evangelistic movies "God's Story" and the "Jesus" film for adults; "Veggie Tales" and "The Jesus Film for Children" for the youth.   There was ministry and games to occupy the children as they waited for service. We had a wonderful team at each location that received their training and worked on the field as medical interpreters.  Patients received medical care with medicine dispensed to them as needed.  Many received dental care.  Many had eye examinations and were fitted with much needed glasses.  Each patient received individual prayer with the staff of medical providers that attend them and afterwards, a consultation for their spiritual needs with a team of local church leaders.  Hundreds made decisions to follow Jesus. 

We worked in seven locations over the course of 6 weeks.  On the island of Roatán, we set up at church grounds in the main city of Coxen Hole, then in a field on the island's main highway in an area called "Los Fuertes" and finally in a church in the village of Punta Gorda.  We utilized the large grounds of a centrally located home in Choloma and a soccer stadium in Tela with a covered cement auditorium.  In Tegucigalpa we worked two days at a school and two more days in a soccer stadium, both in very poor communities. Our standard equipment includes two 20 foot shipping containers, six medical tents, one large all-purpose tent, several generators, a mobile water tank, cook trailer, six port-a-potties, two double hand wash stations, more than 500 chairs, a TV and VCR, two transport trailers that double as stages, sound equipment and lights, a bus, a pick-up truck, two shore boats, one helicopter and of course, one ship where we can produce water, carry supplies, house, feed and care for 58 people at a time.  At times, the ship was tied to a dock adjacent to the medical site. Sometimes we were many miles away or at anchor.  Each new situation created good experience for future missions where we may be called on to respond to a disaster with unpredictable circumstances.   

Roatán is a popular tourist spot of about 30,000 people.  Because of its beautiful reef, excellent diving and appeal to passenger ships, the economy is based on a tourist trade. However, many of the people there are without education or job skills and still live in poverty.  Choloma is a city of 200,000, the fastest growing city in Honduras because many factories are based there for making clothing and other industries, creating jobs for woman. Choloma is located close to the Port of Cortes, where goods are regularly exported and many people travel there in order to seek work.  Tela is a quaint city with a population of about 100,000 that originally grew as the home base of Tela Railroad, which owned Chiquita Banana. But the fruit company no longer houses its' operations in Tela and the dock that used to load bananas has burned down and has not been replaced.  There still remain exquisite gardens, a botanical history of fruit research and experimentation and a city of many wonderful people.  The majority of the population now fish or farm to make a living.  And the final outreach location, Tegucigalpa is the capitol city of Honduras, a huge metropolis of more than a million people.  

People in all four of these locations are very much in need of medical assistance and we saw many minor medical problems that have become major problems because of the lack of timely medical care or medicine. We also saw many children with sexually transmitted diseases. 

One baby girl lived a long way from our clinic in Tela. This little girl had been born without ears or ear canals. She had pneumonia and a serious throat problem that caused her to regurgitate her food.  She was small and getting weaker. Something had to be done to sustain her life. A relative of the girl came to the clinic one day to ask, if the mother would make this long trip, would we agree to see the baby?  Of course, we said yes and a fireman was dispatched to pick her up, a long drive in a 4-wheel drive vehicle. When she arrived, the staff examined her and they decided that a miracle cure was what this baby needed, the only thing that would fully restore her.  All the pastors, local and foreign were called together, along with a team of Friend Ships crew who circled around the baby and fervently prayed.  Mother and baby stayed with a pastor's family that night and the next day she returned to the site, the baby stronger, with a brighter countenance. The mother, who had asked the Lord specifically to cause her baby to take food, told us that since prayer, she was able to hold down her food and was in fact, nursing enthusiastically.  The baby's father came along that day and gave his heart to the Lord. The team prayed and the mother once again asked the Lord to take the "gurgling" from her daughter, a product of the pneumonia. The next day, mom and baby returned to the site and the mom told us with excitement that the baby had not gurgled since prayer!  That was the last day of the clinic in Tela and we may not see mother and baby again, but we left behind a family united in Christ with renewed faith and hope for their baby's future.

Although we were are able to offer help in some way to most patients with their physical needs, one man in Roatán whose wife and son brought him to see our medical team was in the final stage of life because of the AIDS virus. There was nothing medically we could do for him.  But there was something spiritually to be done.  Both he and his wife asked the Lord Jesus to come into their hearts and we prayed for the Lord's intervention before driving him home.   

In the outlying areas of Tela is a mighty river called the Rio Congo. Some of the poorest people of Honduras, who have no place to live, gather on the rock river banks in the flood plane because it is federal land.  

An average of once every two years, the rain takes all of the cardboard houses and mud huts built on the banks and washes them out to sea.  The people have nothing and must start again, the poorest of the poor.  About twenty kilometers north of Tela, there is an old train, narrow tracks that were laid around the turn of the century to carry bananas, pineapples and fruit for Chiquita and the Standard Fruit Company.  This old train clicks along slow as it has flat cars for hauling cattle and train cars, vintage 1918.  The cars are wooden (made long ago with old crate type wood seating).  Our final day in Tela, we received 50 patients on the train, which stopped to pick up the poor along the river, then creaked across the old bridges and steamed into town carrying the load of people.  What a sight to behold, old people with dried faces, children sick and crippled, walking from the train two blocks to our compound.  We brought them into a shaded area and seated them in front of a ministry television, pouring the story of God into their hearts, bringing them cups of water with ice.  They were excited to see our dentist and the woman ready to exam their eyes for glasses or the doctors to check their ailments and administer medicine.  They were so happy that someone would care enough to pray with them, encourage them, and look after their illness. 

In Tegucigalpa, we experienced tremendous support from the government, fire department and church community. There we were able to see more than 800 patients a day because of help from the local doctors and dentists. After seeing the spiritual aspect of our outreach, the government physicians made a decision to invite the church to participate in future clinics they offer, seeing that it was a wonderful opportunity to help the whole man, rather than only the physical man.

It is humbling and we are so thankful to be a part of this.  No one's heart could have this experience and not be moved.  It was life changing.  Some of us were stunned at the illnesses we saw and the stories we heard. To look now into the eyes of a fellow man, their opportunity and hope so faint compared to ours.  We return from each mission with something greater in our hearts, a new strength and appreciation for Him who sent us, so grateful to be a part of His mission on the earth.  Thank you so very much to each and every person who gave into this mission and made it possible.

Please email us at info@friendships.org or call us at (337) 433-5022 for more information.

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