Where can I even begin to describe all that I’ve experienced and felt through this one week mission trip to Honduras. As I think back upon this week, what God has allowed me to experience in this one short week has far, far exceeded my expectations prior to going on this trip. Just to give a quick background about the organization that sponsors the mission trip is called Baptist Medical and Dental Mission International and was founded in 1974 by a missionary couple who had been serving in Honduras and recognized the severe medical/dental need in Honduras. Through this organization now, more than 40 teams from different churches volunteer with BMDI in Honduras and Nicaragua each year. Most of the teams that come to Honduras and Nicaragua mainly go into the remote villages to evangelize and also provide medical/dental care but the team that I happened to join is the only group that works the whole week at the Good Shepherd Children’s Home which I will talk more about later.
Truthfully, when I signed up to go on this trip, my main desire was to learn as much as I could about doing dental mission work so that I could apply it to our own church medical/dental mission trips in the future but I didn’t expect to be as deeply impacted by the condition of the country, the people and especially the children I met to the extent that I already find myself wanting to go back there again. As I look back now, I feel as if it was God’s will for me to come specifically on this trip even though when I first signed up for the trip, it wasn’t with much thought about where I wanted to go but simply I wanted to go somewhere, anywhere to learn about dental mission work. I remember in the beginning of June looking on the internet for different medical/dental mission groups to volunteer for during the summer, but for some reason this team that I ended up going with was the only one who responded saying they needed another dentist to go and the time frame worked out as well. Later on, when I met with the team leader, Richard, he had told me that they had been worried about not having enough dentists on this trip because one of the Honduran dentists who normally worked with the group had not been in contact with them for awhile and so he was really surprised and thankful when he got my email out of the blue asking if I could join his team as a dentist.
I remember my first impression as we left the airport and headed to the mission home we would be staying at is how beautiful and lush the country was, filled with mountains and trees. Yet, despite the natural landscape being so beautiful, I was also surprised to see the poor conditions that most of the people lived in. Even in the capital city itself, there were many signs of poverty as I saw so many shacks built on the sides of the mountains where people lived w/o electricity, no running water. As we got farther away from the capital, the poverty became more and more evident.
It’s definitely been an eye opening experience being a part of a mission team that was not comprised of our own church members. Even though I was the only Asian among the seventy members on the team yet the other team members made me feel right at home and I think one of the blessings on this trip was simply to be able to fellowship with these brothers and sisters in Christ mostly from Louisiana and Tennessee. The team members were from 3 different churches in Louisiana, and one from Tennessee. It challenged and inspired me as many of the people on the team were easily over 50 years old yet their passion and energy in serving throughout the week was just as if they were young twenty year olds. Many of these old “grandfathers” were outside each day in the hot, humid weather doing heavy construction work all day long, and for many of them they had been coming each summer to Honduras for more than 5 years. It also was an eye opening experience seeing parents and their children working together, in fact their was one family who had the grandparents, son and wife, and their grandchildren all together on this trip.
Just to give a quick outline of the week, every day we would drive over to the Good Shepherd children’s home from where we were staying and would work in the different ministries we were assigned to. People from the surrounding villages, some walking for several hours would come to the children’s home each day to be seen. Every day, as we drove in, there was already a long line of people waiting to be seen at 7:30 am. I was surprised by the list of different ministries they offered including: evangelical team, youth and children’s ministry, clothing ministry, hair dressing ministry, eye glasses ministry, construction, pharmacy, medical and dental ministry. Among the ministries described, I was surprised at how powerful the clothing and hair dressing ministries were and the way it brought so much joy to the villagers. Instead of simply handing out bags of clothes in the clothing ministry, they actually had set it up so that each person who comes in can look and shop for clothes that they actually like. And in the hair dressing ministry, the volunteers would help wash and cut people’s hair and help braid the children’s hair. Each evening after dinner, we would have a tent evangelical/revival service mainly for the workers and children from the children’s home.
It was definitely a very busy and fruitful week, as over 2100 people came through the week. When I first heard that number, I thought that they were mistaken but I was amazed at how many people from the surrounding villages came over the course of 5 days. Being part of the dental team with three other dentists, in total we were able to see about 300 patients throughout the week. Definitely in terms of the dental ministry, one of the main highlights was being able to go the nearby schools to provide fluoride/oral hygiene instructions and being given the opportunity to give a short evangelical presentation at two of the schools. I would never have imagined that here I would be giving a short gospel presentation to more than 200 school children in Honduras because all I thought I would be doing on this trip was mainly doing dental mission work. Yet I was really grateful for the opportunity to be able to tell these children about God’s love for each and every one of them. The tragedy is that the children in Honduras are unable to receive a good education because the teachers are constantly on strike due to them not being paid enough and the condition of most of the schools is utterly depressing. The day we went to visit the schools, we ended up only being able to go to two because three of the other schools were closed due to teachers being on strike.
At the end of the week, I was told there had been 138 salvation decisions through the week. Wow, praise the Lord!! One ministry that they began this year is called the rice and beans ministry in which they would drive to the remote villages and hand out bags of beans and rice while doing door to door evangelism. I heard that through this ministry, eight people made salvation decisions. I was so thankful to God that I had an opportunity to play a small part in these decisions by serving the people through meeting their dental needs. I remember someone sharing how after they went on the Cambodia medical mission team, they realized that what these people needed was more than medical treatment because medications run out, and eventually they will get sick again but what they needed the most was the Gospel. And I personally became convinced of this through this trip as well as I saw so many people with medical/dental needs. What hurt me the most was seeing all these little kids who came in with such badly decayed teeth that the only solution was to extract them. In the medical clinic, I heard that they saw many 14, 15 year olds coming in either pregnant or already having children. As patient after patient came into the dental clinic, I realized that we can only do a limited amount to help them with their health issues but what they needed the most was to come to know God’s eternal love for them.
The utter poverty I saw in Honduras was such a contrast with what I saw happening with the children in the Good Shepherd Children’s Home that we worked at. The founders of this children’s home, Greg and Eva Vaughn, reminded me a lot of Mike and Cindy Edson and what they were doing in Tashkent through the orphanage. Their vision for this children’s home was not simply that it would be a place where abused, abandoned children can have a home and come to know God’s love but that this children’s home would be able to have an impact around the surrounding community which it has indeed. I heard from other team members that came before, that the villagers are so grateful and thankful for the Children’s Home because without the home, they would not have a place to receive health care and clothing. One of my regrets was not being able to spend time talking to Greg and Eva as I was so busy throughout the week in the dental clinic but I was able to find a brief testimony about how they started this orphanage online:
Founded in 1997 by BMDMI missionaries, Greg & Eva Vaughn, the Children's Home is a fulltime ministry to the abused, abandoned, and orphaned children of Honduras. More than 200 children reside at the Children's Home where they receive the basic necessities of live - food, clothing, shelter, education and lots of love. The Good Shepherd Children's Home is a ministry of the Baptist Medical & Dental Mission International. The GSCH is built on the firm foundation of Love. Love For God and Love for Children. Eva Vaughn says "God closed my womb so that we would come here and open this home for abused and neglected children." Her husband Greg says " I became angry with God, asking Him why He gives children to people who abuse them in horrible ways and would not bless us with a child when we would teach them your ways and raise them in Church." Then Greg says he had to ask God to forgive him, who was he to question the ways of the Creator of the Universe. He then adds, "I said Lord, You know the Love you have given us for children. Just give us a big home and fill it full of children."
The Vaughn's suffered through 9 1/2 years of infertility treatment as they sought to become parents. They asked God to bless them with 5 children. God obviously had a bigger plan in mind. Through their trials the Vaughn's marriage grew stronger as they bonded together to weather this terrible storm. Around every corner they were reminded they were childless yet their faith in God continued to grow. They knew that God had a plan and soon realized that through their inability to have children God had created a children's ministry. The Vaughn's had become Directors of the Children's Ministry in their home Church, Westside Baptist Church in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
On a week long missions trip in 1995 with Baptist Medical and Dental Mission International God revealed His plan to the Vaughn's as they saw the need of the children in Honduras. As they watched children standing on street corners in tattered clothing begging for something to eat God began to unveil His purpose for them.
Returning to the states they sought God and what He wanted. The Vaughn's lived a comfortable life with all they could ask for. Good paying jobs, family and friends close by and a Church full of children that loved them dearly. But God was clear in His plan and in July of 1995 the Vaughn's became missionaries with BMDMI to return to Honduras full time. Greg says "Leaving was not easy for us or our family and friends. But we knew that God had spoken and we knew that we would never be truly happy if we did not fully surrender to Him. We were told that we would not be given a salary and would be responsible for every expense of the home. I knew I could not handle something like that but God assured me that He could. That is why we are called "Faith Missionaries". We have Faith that God will provide what is needed. And He Does!"
As I read through their testimony, it reminded me a lot of how Mike and Cindy Edson started out the Tashkent orphanage in faith without the necessary funds and yet God provides. I remember the first time I made my way up to where the children were living. Even though I was meeting them for the first time, yet so many of them were so outgoing, so eager to grab my hand and hold onto me, so eager to want me to play with them. Being the only Asian on the team, many of them gave me the nickname Jackie Chan. As I saw these kids happily playing around and interacting with us, I would never have imagined or realized the tragic backgrounds most of these children come from. Throughout the week I had opportunities to learn about the stories of some of these children. At the mission home where we staying, they had file folders with the background story of each child and how they came to the children’s home. Just like Compassion International, they also have forms for people if they are interested in sponsoring a certain child.
I remember on the last day I was playing with this little girl, Meylin, who was so playful and cheerful. Later on the bus ride home, someone told me about her tragic story. When she was 4 years old, someone found her tied up in a trash bag that was floating on the river. When they opened the trash bag, they discovered that both her hands and feet had been tied, and her mouth has been duct taped. Basically she was left there to die on that river. When she first came to the home, she was so afraid of anyone touching her and she would yell and scream whenever someone tried. I was stunned beyond belief to hear about her past because the way she interacted with people now so happily and cheerfully I would never have imagined such a tragic background. I remember throughout the night she kept coming up to me and wanting to sit on my lap.
I learned about another girl, Angelica, whom I first saw in the dental clinic. I think she’s about fourteen, a really cute and pretty girl with a beautiful voice as she sang at one of the evening tent services. Growing up, she was sexually abused by both her father and uncle so badly that when she was only 11, she had to undergo a complete hysterectomy. Again, looking at her now, one would never have imagined her having such a dark history.
One of the doctors in the medical clinic told me about one of the recent girls who had entered the orphanage and who had visited the clinic during the week. When the doctor examined her, he was shocked to see that her head was disfigured and her body was covered with scars because her mom used to beat her up with a hammer and machete.
I remember one cute boy named Joster who is five years old and he would follow me around everywhere I went and kept wanting to hold onto my hand. I remember when I hugged him and held him up, I was shocked to see how light he was for his age, he didn’t seem that much heavier than my daughter Emma who’s not even two. Later on when I read his file, I realized that he came from a home filled with domestic violence and he was malnourished. I could go on and on with the heartbreaking stories of each of these children I met throughout the week but what really touched me and amazed me was the transforming power of the love they have received from Greg and Eva and from God.
On the last day when the older children of the home put on a special program for the missionaries, one girl shared her testimony and in spite of her tragic background, she praised God and said that she is glad that she is in this home so that she can come to know God’s love. In my heart, all I could say was praise the Lord for what He has been doing through Greg and Eva, through the Christian workers at this orphanage. Where else can you find a little kid thanking God and being grateful that she is in an orphanage and not being resentful or bitter against God.
The last night we were there was so sad as I had to say good bye to many of these kids that I had started to get to know throughout the week. It was sad seeing many of them with tears in their eyes, not wanting to let go of my hands, telling me to come back again next year. I remember this one kid, who I said goodbye to, but then he would come back again, and I ended up saying goodbye to him 5 different times. I remember another kid who throughout the week tried to look cool but when it was time to say goodbye, his eyes were filled with tears. I was told that every year, this is the one week they look forward to because this is the only mission team group that spends the entire week at the children’s home, all the other teams that come to Honduras mostly go to the remote villages and only spend half a day at the children’s home. For me, I was surprised at how attached I’ve become to many of these kids I only met for the first time and for only a couple of days. As we were leaving in the bus, I just wished I had more time to spend getting to know them. I brought back several of their sponsorship forms because so many of them left such an impression on me that I want to continue to pray for them and have a relationship with them. For me, it’s just so different than sponsoring a Compassion child whom you never met, versus a child whom you’ve actually interacted and played with, whom you’ve taken pictures with.
As I was on the plane back from Honduras, my mind was filled with the images of each of these precious children I met through the week, and haunted with images of the utter poverty of this nation. One prayer I found myself praying was “God, please let me come back to this nation, let me come back to love these children again.” I know I surprised myself that I would be praying this prayer. I would never have thought prior to this trip that I would develop such an attachment for this country, especially the children, but it has happened and I thank God that He has opened my eyes to see the needs of this part of the world that I never thought about. This was my prayer request prior to going to the trip that God would open my eyes and help me to share in heart for the world a little more through the trip but I think God has really, really stretched opened my eyes to see the need for God in Honduras and He has left my heart yearning to see these precious little children I met again.
