FAME Group 2016

We had our first and only FAME medical group for 2016.  Building on the experience with the BGN team in February, we expanded that idea, providing a balance of education (medical and spiritual) with the time to see the doctors and get needed medicines.  We made a few small changes from February.  We will be making inquiries to the Churches about what went well, what we might need to do in the future to fine tune, etc.  We have some ideas already about some further "improvements" to make things go smoother, and provide better results for the Churches and those attending.    

I took some pictures along the way...some related specifically to the group, some to just pass on some information/prayer requests.

San Juancito was not on our initial list of Churches to visit, but it went well, and is always good to get to visit.

Speaking of visits, we will be making changes to how we host groups, in that we will be taking groups on Sundays to visit our Churches rather than staying in Tegucigalpa.  This way we get to see how they are doing in many aspects, spend some time with them, and hopefully be of some encouragement.  Even taking every group to do this, with the number of groups we normally have we will not be stopping by more than two or maybe three times a year to each Church.


This picture was taken on the road from San Juancito, but it symbolizes similar scenes around the country.

The "gorgojo" or some kind of weevil is quite prolific in destroying huge swatches of the famous pine forests here.  The wood can be used...but to prevent spreading, they are cutting down as many of the affected areas as quickly as possibly, and of course then burning the area as well.  Prayers for further and greater efforts at reforestation all over the country for sure.

Sunday with this group was the last group to still go to Church in Tegucigalpa.  Which also means they are the last regularly scheduled group to do food distribution on a Sunday afternoon.  Maria coordinated visits to ten Milk Project families, and a good time was had by all.

Not sure if or how we would continue doing food distribution here in Tegucigalpa.  There is only so much time in the schedule.  Most of the corn we currently have will be going out with the Churches to do the work we used to do with groups...with the Church doing all the visiting though in this case.

That could change in the future...but that is the plan for now.







Our second stop was Sampedrana.  I include this picture of the woman holding her baby with a 105.4 temperature as a reminder to the past when we would see with great regularity very severe or long standing cases visiting Sampedrana.


With this process now that we do via invitation (February it was 50 patients per location, this time we were able to raise it to 75) that cuts down a bit on those cases, seeing more systemic sorts of things, but we also see in general less emergencies there when we are there.

We also left pastor Henry with a well equipped first aid kit to help when those cases do appear.








Talanga was the third brigade day, and the group got to experience some normal Talanga heat.

We have a donation to buy property for Sunday School rooms here.  Of course, right after we got the donation, the offer to sell us the property was rescinded.  No other property that attaches to what we have is for sale for the size we need (a big piece is available for much more money than we have is for sale however)

And with the continued heat, and lack of ability to expand into another piece of property...we are now looking forward to taking a small part of the existing Church building, and raising the roof so to speak to add a second floor for Sunday School rooms.  That will not be a big part of the building, but it will get the Church what it needs, and in the future if more meeting space, etc. is needed this would be a way to do that...and also address the aforementioned heat in the first floor to some extent.


Our last "health day" was in Cantaranas.  Here I finally got a chance to take a picture during the education portion of the program, with a rather clever demonstration about diarrhea using a punctured water bottle and a ziploc bag standing in for a toilet.

There was a full day spent in the Milk Project, as well as a visit to the children's ward at the hospital as well.  Every time we visit the hospital...it flumuxes me and makes me want to write a book at the same time.

A great team all the way around, and looking forward already to 2017 to see how we can take what was done this year and expand upon it even further.