We have arrived! 4:30am had team members from Richmond, Dinwiddie, Harrisonburg, Farmville, Charlotte, Petersburg and Florida heading to the airport for the first "practice" Mountain Medical Team back to Honduras since March of 2020. As with any travel day, there was much waiting, a little napping and a great of people watching. The majority of the time was spent catching up on each others lives and talking about the new challenges we may face in serving the people of Honduras.
Honduras has been through a great deal in the last 18 months. Procedures for getting people and things into the country have changed. Families are challenged in many ways to provide the basics for their loved ones. Many have lost homes and livelihoods. Many are living with extended family. But the need for the services that Friends of Barnabas provide is still present, and in many ways at an even greater level of need.
Customs is always a challenge to maneuver through. Today was no different. We are happy to share, though, that we were able to get all of our medications and supplies out of the airport with us. We have now seen the new processes in person, and will fine tune what we do on the US end to make things easier for our teams.
Nury, Geovanny and Santos met us at the airport and we got to christen the new FOB bus!!! It has cool bells and whistles (literally) inside. The outside is shiny and colorful. We even had to ask Geovanny to turn down the air conditioning because it was doing a fabulous job of cooling us...a little too cool.
There was a plethora of hugs and smiles as we arrived at Alfredo's House. It is truly like coming home. Coffee was waiting. Birds were singing and the clouds of the nightly rain shower were rolling in. After a lovely dinner out, our team settled into their rooms and crawled under mosquito netting for a good night's sleep.
We have full confidence that God is with us. His protection, love and grace will surround everything we do this week. There will be much brainstorming, many decisions to be made, many people to treat, but in the end, His work will be done as only FOB can do it. We are ready to serve!
~Patti Wagner
FOB Medical Coordinator
