March Update 2011

Greetings Friends, March 2, 2011

Let me share with you that Dr. Ana and John Lamon, representing The Hands of Christ, Inc. have been very busy over the last few weeks. Dr. Ana and John have been going several times a week to government offices trying to speed up the paper work on the "Convenio de Salud" (our "agreement with the health dept."). In the middle of January, Dr. Ana and John worked in Lepaterique, Honduras, checking 200 children that are in a program by run by Compassion International and spent extra time completing the paper work for this organization. Following that commitment, we again visited the government officials trying to help the “Convenio de Salud” paperwork through the appropriate channels. We also prepared and submitted papers to the medical and dental college to obtain permission for the doctors and dentist with the medical team from Kentucky to work legally in Honduras this week. We also completed the paper work for a Tennessee team that is coming in April. Last week medicine was purchased and 825 tubes of toothpaste and toothbrushes for the Kentucky group. We also spent half a day going to customs and picking up medicine for them and taking it out to Fuerzas Unidas so it would be there for them to distribute. They have seen somewhere around 700+ patients yesterday and today.
We continue to proceed in planning the Women’s Clinic. In the last two weeks, we have visited our surveyor/engineer who was preparing the entrance and road plans to be submitted to the highway department and the environmental agency here in Tegucigalpa. We took them to the highway department for them to review before we submitted them for approval. They gave us a few minor changes to make and the engineer has completed the changes and our lawyer is preparing them for official submission before the end of the week.
At the end of January, Dr. Ana, John and John Israel traveled to the States for the Global Mission Conference at First United Methodist Church in Tuscaloosa, AL. This conference and the friends that have been made there are revitalizing to our souls. While in Tuscaloosa, they attended a gathering of supporters to begin fundraising for the Women’s Clinic in Tegucigalpa. You will be hearing more about that in the near future. Please pray for us as decisions are made about the progression of the Clinic. Dr. Ana and John had the opportunity to visit with several other supporting churches in the days following the conference. Sadly, some visits had to be cancelled because of the winter weather that arrived in middle Tennessee while they were here but John Israel sure had fun playing in the snow with his cousins!
As you visit with friends and family over spring break and summer vacation the next few months, please be sure to tell them about The Hands of Christ and direct them to the website at www.thehandsofchrist.org to sign up for the e-newsletter. Encourage them to learn more and pray about how they are to support our mission.
On a personal note, let me share with you that communications will now be coming from Sharon Connell. She and her husband have known and supported Dr. Ana and John and The Hands of Christ since its inception. Our girls are becoming teenagers and their schedules sometimes make my head spin so I am going pass the communication baton to Sharon knowing she will do an amazing job sharing the news from Honduras. Thank you for all your support over the years and please continue to share with others the amazing work that Dr. Ana and John are doing for the Lord!

In His Hands,
Sarah Hathaway