True Story!!

John and Ana, asked me to post this for all to read so you can see evidence of your contributions and how they are changing lives in Honduras and of the volunteers from America.


What Can a Preacher Do On a Medical Mission?
By Dan Kilgore, Assistant Pastor

It was 4:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning and I was standing in the church parking lot about to get on one of our church buses. What in the world was I thinking when I told Jim and Annette Mills that I would go with them on a medical mission to Honduras! What can a preacher do on a medical mission? And no one mentioned we would leave at 4:00 a.m.! But here I was with ten other folks going to a town in Honduras that I had never heard of -in fact I couldn’t even pronounce the name! By the middle of the afternoon I was in Lepaterique, Honduras, with Dr. Jim and Annette Mills, Dr. Jennifer Wright and Edmundson, her son, Dr. Ford Simpson and Holly, his daughter, Dr. William (Skip) Pridgen and Katie, his daughter, Dr. David Nelson, and Tracy Ferguson, a nurse from Tuscaloosa.

I went on my first mission trip in 1967, and have been on many of these trips in the U.S. and in about thirteen other countries over the years. However, this trip was special! In fact, it was very special!

What made it special? Well, first we knew the missionaries and they knew us! Dr. Ana and John Lamon have been part of our Global Impact Celebration. We have seen how dedicated they are to their work. We know their story. We have seen their son grow up over the years. We support their work with our mission offerings.

The imprint of FUMCT is on the churches and the people around Lepaterique. We have sent teams there for several years. Three of our team members had been before. All week we heard stories about the impact that doctors and dentists from our church have made on the lives of children and adults.

Pastor Omar and his church members greeted us as if we were old friends. Immediately we felt the warmth of Christian fellowship. We spoke different languages, but we serve the same Savior. These folks had everything so organized that the trip was an easy one in many ways. But work we did! We went to four different areas in five days. And everyday when we arrived at a small church there would be a hundred or more folks waiting for the clinic to open. Our doctors saw over 1,200 patients in 4 1/2 days.

On Friday after this team had been given the privilege to ease pain of so many and to pray with the patients and to be loved by the people, we made our way back to the capital city. There some of us got to see a dream of the future. “Hands of Christ” Ministry has purchased several acres just outside of the city where John and Ana hope to see a clinic built. Our church is committed to help with this project.

You see, one of the main reasons this was so special to me was because we have not finished in Honduras. There will be more teams to go help the Lamons fulfill the mission Christ has for them and us.

Will you join me in praying for the “Hands of Christ” Ministry every day? Will you go with me to Lepaterique or some other part of Honduras one day, because I want to go back!

P.S. What can a preacher do on a medical mission team? Well this time I was the pharmacist’s helper and I also got to preach in the church one night!