March was full of flying adventures and so much more....
Flew to Mainland Honduras (San Pedro Sula) - Baby Heaven's Testing
And off we go!! I mentioned last month about Baby Heaven and that we were scheduling to fly to mainland Honduras to get testing completed to try and figure out a medical diagnosis (on the island we don't have specialists in this area so we have to fly to the mainland). At the beginning of March we (me, Heaven's mom and Heaven) flew to San Pedro Sula, Honduras to complete three things: get an MRI of Heaven's brain, get blood work that is used to run 70-80 different tests and many other tests, and have a doctor visit with her neurological pediatrician to go over the MRI results. After speaking with the doctor, he is thinking it might be genetic epilepsy, but he wants to wait to get all the blood work results to confirm it's not molecular. So our next step is flying back to San Pedro Sula once the blood work comes back (takes 30 days)...during this second trip we will get a swallow evaluation to check on Heaven's eating (doctor said she may need a feeding tube...were praying that is not the case, please pray with us) and we need to get an updated EEG (brain wave scan for seizures). We will also have another visit with the neurological pediatrician at this time to go over all of these results and hopefully have a diagnosis. Stay tuned to see how the second flight to the mainland goes. Praising God for my sweet friend Pamela that allowed us to stay at her house and drove us around while in San Pedro Sula. She was a huge blessing!
Flew again to mainland Honduras (Tegucigalpa) - Celebration Place visit
(also got to do a few other things since we were close to where we used to live)
Off again…another plane ride to the mainland!!
Celebration Place visit in Tegucigalpa:
A while ago, I talked to you about a training I did over zoom for a missionary friend and her team who are serving on the mainland who wanted to use the children's Celebrate Recovery program at their family life center. We always wanted to go in person to check it out, but it costs money to fly to the mainland and rent a car to do all of that, so we settle with the zoom training…but GOD….we had a church fund the trip to the mainland to go and encourage those running Celebration Place and see how it’s going. It was such a fun time seeing the teacher and the kids so excited to be doing Celebration Place. This program is run in Spanish and currently has a small group of kiddos attending the program. It was such a great time and such a blessing to see this program impacting the lives of the kids and the teachers. Can't wait to go back!
While on the mainland this time, we were able to do a few other things since we were so close to the town we used to live in while attending language school. We got to see so many old friends. It was great!
Elisa and Carlos' wedding in Siguatepeque….
Visited our old church in Comayagua and had lunch with dear friends….
Visited our friends mission, El Eyudante "the Helper", for some volleyball fun…
Stayed with great friends Paula and Angie while in Siguatepeque…
Visited the language school and saw a near by friend, Jonathan
It was a great trip to the mainland!!!
Using my Speech Therapy degree in Honduras
As some of you know, I am a licensed Speech Language Pathologist. Well, word got out on social media that there was an SLP on the island and I got a lot of messages. The reason for all of the messages is because in Honduras they do not have a traditional SLP program here in this country and there are only 4-5 licensed SLPs that I know of in the entire country and I'm one of them. I was not planning on doing speech evaluations or therapy right now, but guess God is wanting me to start opening that door. It is all in discussions right now since I don't have any materials for this here on the island. So as of now, I will be offering a training on typical speech and language development and then another training covering the different types of speech disorders. Please pray along with me about getting speech materials here and to follow God's leading on using my degree here in Honduras.
Trish and Pat visit - Planning a Celebrate Recovery Mission Trip
When we were called to international missions, our hearts were to share Jesus with the world and help others find healing from their hurts, hang-ups and habits like we did through a program called Celebrate Recovery. Our hearts are still passionate about equipping and training churches to offer Celebrate Recovery to help their congregations finding healing from hurts, hang-ups and habits through Jesus Christ. My friend, Trish, who I met when she was on a short term missions trip with her church, recently called me to schedule a vision trip to see about later scheduling a Celebrate Recovery mission trip here in Roatan, Honduras. We have tons of ideas and are looking forward to working out the details about getting a team here to help get the word out about Celebrate Recovery across the island. Stay tuned to see how this all works out. God is so good!
Pictures from our visit at the rehab with Trish and Pat…
Homeschool and G's birthday
Guenther is doing a great job at homeschool and is ahead in school. He should be (according to his age) finishing up his freshman year, 9th grade, of high school, but he is in the middle of his junior year, 11th grade, of high school. He has 10 more credits of 24 to complete to be done. He is super smart and is working hard at Algebra and World History right now. We're going to be getting back into Spanish soon to continue on our studies of the language here in Honduras. Guenther is now 15 years old and is growing up so fast. He said, "now that I'm 15 I need to get a job". Little did he know that we were starting a construction project the next day to build a friend a bathroom and we could definitely use his help. He was a hard worker on his Birthday and then later we went out for sushi to celebrate him. I am so excited to see all that God is going to do through Guenther. I am blessed to be his mother.
Update: Shareen's Bathroom
I was telling you last month about a friend of mine who I found out was living without a bathroom/shower and in a house that needs some repairs. God came through and the bathroom/shower project is underway. We started with emptying the septic tank. Then we used some of the guys at the rehab along with my guys to dig out a hill and make a trench for water drainage. The last thing we did was to pour the floor for the bathroom/shower and lay the outline bricks. Then came the rain...for 4 days straight. The two main guys helping head up this project (Todd and Jed) have full time jobs here and are doing this as a side blessing, so we have to squeeze in getting it done when we can. I will keep you updated along the way.
God is doing so much here...I could go on and on about his goodness. Thank you for your support in prayer and financially. May the great name of Jesus be known throughout all nations and many many come to trust and follow Him! Matthew 28:19-20
All for Him...King Jesus!
Lorenda