Nathan Neighbors
Follower of Christ, Husband, Father, & Youth Pastor
Today we finished our final day of clinics, children’s ministry and women’s ministry. We hosted clinic yesterday in Icotaeas where we saw 186 patients and a clinic today at our Limon clinic where we saw 180 patients. All total the medical staff treated over 800 precious people this week. In addition, we saw literally hundreds more at children’s Bible clubs, worship services and women’s Bible studies. The greatest testimonies of our week have been stories like those of the seven adults who accepted Christ as Lord and Savior.
Tonight was also our last day with the orphanage children. The power was out across Limon tonight so the children came to the clinic for our goodbye party. They sang, danced and had a great evening together with our team. We gave them each coloring books, crayons, toothbrushes, and notebooks. The girls absolutely loved their handmade dresses from the ladies in our church and they all loved their new crocs from our Ebenezer children.
Saying goodbye is never easy. Our teams have seen many of these children grow up from babies. Each time we go we leave a piece of our hearts in Honduras. Tonight was full of laughter, hugs, tears and hearts overflowing with love for the least of these. It’s been overwhelming to see how our students have responded. I’m so proud of them all. Seeing their compassion as they hugged on these sweet children, gave them their pictures, cards and in some cases even the shoes off their feet was powerful. I love student ministry and this week has been a high watermark in my journey. These students and adults have truly been the hands and feet of Jesus. To God be the glory!
*Since I last posted the cross has been passed to Ethan, Anita, and Aaron.
Since my last post we’ve been in Limon now for almost two days. Sunday morning we began the long and rough drive from Le Ceiba to Limon. We didn’t have any problems and arrived in the late afternoon, just in time to stop by and see the orphans.
On our way to the new orphanage we stopped by to show some of the new team members the old orphanage to help them get a better perspective on how great their new home truly is. As always, the old orphanage was overwhelming. This is the first trip we’ve been on where we’ve seen the children fully moved into the new location. The children came running out as they saw the vans driving up. The reunion was sweet to say the least. Our students were covered with children, hugs, and love. Hugging these precious ones made the entire process from sign up to fundraising to every step along the way worth it all.
Last night we attended the worship service at the church in Limon where our pastor, David Wike, brought a powerful message about the Armor of God and our mission as the Church. The church was packed and the Spirit of the Lord was in that place. Our team really enjoyed seeing the church’s children do their worship dancing. Molly sang a solo in English, but the message was clear. Two cultures, three languages, and One God!
Today we headed to our remote clinic at Plan de Flores where our medical team worked for about eight hours seeing over 200 patients. The clinic was set up in a very small five room school house. Our student team also worked with over a hundred children in Plan de Flores while the the clinic was going on. Dr. Connor says that a larger portion of the patients today were sick children. In addition, there was a higher percentage of cases of malaria among these people than in our previous clinics. The best news today out of the clinic was that Nancy got the opportunity to lead a woman to Christ as she gave her glasses. Now this lady sees clearly & sees Jesus!
Our students finished out the day by hosting a children’s ministry event for the orphans this afternoon. We taught Bible lessons, sang songs, made bracelets, and played soccer with the 45 kids at Leonarda’s Home of Hope.
Since I last blogged the cross has been passed from Molly to Marci and from Marci to Ethan.
Continue praying for our team. We are staying in close quarters during these days in Limon with up to six people per small bedroom, but the team is very flexible and concerned more about helping the people of Honduras than themselves. I’m very proud of each of our team members. Everything is going so well! Continue to pray for us all.
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- out for a rainy sunday drive to Limon
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- loving the babys at the orphanage
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- David bringing the Word!
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- great meals in Limon
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- loaded down vans
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- passing the cross
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- exams
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- gloria hard at work in the lab
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- glasses and witnessing
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- witnessing
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- crafts
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- triage
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- exams
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- exams
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- Wendy doing nails
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- Colin’s new friend.
Top left (Jeremiah), Top Right (Jeremiah and Isaiah on left with Lisa and Stepmother right to left)
When we go on mission trips it’s to fulfill part of the Great Commission given to us by Jesus (Matthew 28:18-20), but Ashley often reminds me that there are sometimes specific “God Appointments” that happen along the way. These last two days in Belaire have turned out to be one of the major reasons I’m here in Honduras this week.
Let me tell you the story of Jeremiah and Isaiah. On Friday I helped get our three student teams situated and serving in their assigned children’s ministry areas, but didn’t personally have much interaction with the Honduran children in the first few hours on site. However, later in the day I started throwing a frisbee with two boys that looked a lot alike. Turns out they are twin 12yr olds named Jeremiah and Isaiah. Their names alone gave me a great open door to begin sharing the Gospel with them. It’s not often you meet Honduran children with these names. So I was very curious about their lives. There was something more that kept drawing me to them. Aaron Cheney, one of our team members, saw me talking for a while with these boys and he asked me, “why do you feel drawn to them?” He and I agreed that we felt the Holy Spirit wanted us to get to know these two more and go deeper in conversation.
Jeremiah and Isaiah spoke a few words of English and told us their story through a translator. They said that their mother died when they were four. They lived with their dad and that they hadn’t been in school for some time. We shared the Word with the boys and they both said they knew Christ (or at least they knew what we were talking about). The day ended and the boys left. They were on my heart and the heart of most of our team the rest of the night.
When we headed back to clinic today (Saturday) we hoped the boys would be back. When we arrived we saw Jeremiah, but Isaiah had stayed home. About an hour after we arrived I began talking to Evelyn in the clinic. Evelyn is the American who owns the clinic and ministers year-round to this community. In the course of our conversation I asked Evelyn if she knew anything about the twin boys. Her eyes immediately lit up. “You’ve seen Jeremiah and Isaiah?” Turns out that she had been looking for them for some time. The boys live with the father, but Evelyn had placed them in a healthy and safe foster home over a year ago. The boys were well cared for, educated, and taught the Bible by a very godly foster mother named Lisa. Lisa is an American who has given up life in America to minister to the least of these in Honduras. She runs a small boys home in the area. Jeremiah and Isaiah ran away from the home two months ago because they were strong willed and having trouble adjusting the a healthy and structured family life. Evelyn said it would be a miracle if our team could talk the boys into returning to the boys home. She had heard rumors of the boys being on the streets and stealing. Boys in the area who are caught stealing from people are often killed by the local farmers and drug dealers. She worries for the boys safety.
We began talking to Jeremiah and he agreed that life had been better at Lisa’s house. He said he would be willing to return to the boys home. We called Lisa and told her that we found the boys. She was ecstatic. She said, “We prayed all last night that The Lord would bring the boys home.” Wow!! I couldn’t believe my ears. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit. My mind flashed back to Aaron asking me why I was so drawn to those two boys. I was drawn to them because this woman was asking God to bring them home. The Lord was so gracious to us to allow us to be part of their homecoming.
After talking with Lisa for a few minutes I put Jeremiah on the phone with Lisa and he began to cry. He was ready to return. A few of the guys and I loaded Jeremiah up in the van and drove to his father’s house to get Isaiah. We drove up to a small one-room mud hut where the stepmother was standing on the front steps. She was happy to see the boys go. She wanted better for the boys and said she and their father couldn’t provide for them.
A few hours later Lisa arrived with the other six boys in her SUV to pick up Jeremiah and Isaiah. It was a sweet reunion.
What an awesome picture to our team of love, sacrifice, and hope. Lisa is living out what Christ has done for us all. She takes in those boys and loves them in spite of their issues. She calls them her sons and points them to the Son of God.
My heart is overwhelmed that The Lord let our team be part of this reunion and part of the life story of Jeremiah and Isaiah.
Nathan Neighbors 