Honduras: 90F, Ohio: 29F--All in a day.

Weather Shock
God was gracious in all my travels and I am home safe and sound. But somewhere between yesterday and today I lost about 60 degrees of air temperature! It was 90 when I left Honduras, and somewhere around 29 degrees with snow flurries when I arrived in Ohio. What a contrast! But, Keith had a long warm embrace that warmed my heart more than anything else in the world could do. What a joy to fall into his arms!

The pool at Hotel Paris in La Ceiba, Honduras Friday morning

Home Friday night!

Chickens, Critters, Snakes, and Soldiers
The stories from this trip to Rus Rus just don't stop! Even though I'm home there is still so much to share. My last night in Rus Rus there was an awful ruckus outside in the back yard. Turns out Wes braved the dark at 1:00AM to use the machete to kill a possum-like critter that was killing the Wiles' chickens! Then in the morning, Wes found a poisonous snake in the hangar. Fortunately the snake had his attention on the rather large frog it was trying to eat so Wes saw the snake before the snake saw him. Blessing on blessing! Also that morning before we left, a large army truck loaded with soldiers pulled up outside the house. Now there's a picture! We weren't sure what to expect! Carlos and Wes and I walked out to the yard to greet them. The two leaders came over and were very friendly. They came to thank Wes for letting their soldiers use the phone the week before and for helping the soldier that had been injured in the accident.

Ready to board for the trip to La Ceiba

Wes, Samuel, Rachel, Gabriella, Denise and me

Where There Are No Roads...You Fly
Thursday morning we piled into "One-Niner-Zulu"(our trusty Cessna 206) and off to La Ceiba we flew. "One-Niner-Zulu" is how Wes identifies the airplane on the radio.The name comes from the end of its registration number: N9719Z. Once in town, we were blessed to get rooms at the Hotel Paris. It was uncertain what, if anything, would be available due to the large number of folks there from International Health Services (IHS) plus another another group that was in town, but the hotel staff graciously provided a room for us.

It was very welcoming to have air conditioning, hot showers and a lovely pool to swim in. IHS had a banquet for all their people and kindly invited us to attend as well. It was a wonderful evening and it was nice to hear a few words from each of their nine teams that had been in Honduras on this "medical brigade."

Off To San Pedro Sula
Friday morning I said my goodbyes to the Wiles family, grabbed a couple of donuts and a hot chocolate from Dunkin Donuts, and hopped on the bus for the three hour ride to San Pedro Sula Airport. It seemed very strange to hand the clerk a $100 bill for 2 donuts and a drink! I had to remind myself that it was 100 Limpera, not dollars! By this time I had numerous friends from the IHS team, four of whom were on the same bus, so it was very enjoyable to be with folks I knew for the long ride to the airport. It was nice to have some "ground time" to see more of Honduras. I saw groves of coconut trees and pineapple fields. There is much poverty but much beauty as well. I arrived at the airport in plenty of time to maneuver through the many lines for boarding passes, departures taxes, and numerous passport and security checks. All went well.

Making Friends and Building Relationships
When I boarded the airplane in San Pedro I was greeted by the person seated in my row saying how glad she was that I was seated by her....really??? I had no idea who she was and yet she was saying she had wanted to meet me! How funny. It turns out she is the Assistant Director of Nursing (I think I have that title right) for IHS, she had heard that I was the nurse with MAG at Rus Rus, and was interested in talking about how we might work together to help Rus Rus Hospital develop its potential. We had a nice chat and I believe we'll have lots to talk about before IHS returns to Rus Rus in February of 2014! God is so good!

The Untapped Potential in Rus Rus
There truly is HUGE potential at Rus Rus. This medical clinic we just had shows just how much the medical care is needed in such a huge area of unreached people. When people will walk for days, sleeping in the jungles and savannah, braving the dangers of the drug cartels to have a tooth pulled or see a doctor for basic medicines or get reading glasses--you know there is much need!

Wouldn't it be wonderful if that care could be available more than once a year? Wouldn't it be fantastic if we could have dental clinics several times a year to repair teeth instead of just extracting any teeth that might go bad before the next clinic comes in a year's time? 

While I was there we unpacked a dental chair that was donated to us from a dentist in the U.S. It's a modern chair with X-ray, water, and air drill capacity that will allow restorative work to be done as well as extractions. We need dentists who will come.

Rus Rus Hospital has an Operating Room that is nearly ready to be used for general surgeries. We need resources to make some repairs and to purchase supplies. And we need surgical teams who will come. Pray for us as we pursue these potentials. All of us at Missionary Air Group are excited about the tremendous opportunity that exists to serve so many, in such dramatic need, who have nowhere else to go and no one else to turn to.

Will you join us? We can't do this alone.

• To make a donation to help us deliver help and hope in Rus Rus, please click HERE. (Credit card doners will be directed to our "Harvester's International Mission" secure donations page!)

• To inquire about how you can become involved as part of a future medical or work team, or to investigate possible mission service with MAG, please click HERE.

• To visit our website and learn more about our overall ministry, please click, HERE.

Wes and the IHS dentist take a look at setting up the new dental chair.

Appreciation And Thanks
As I return to my very comfortable home I can think of a thousand things I am thankful for. In fact I wrote 4 pages of those things in my diary as I waited for my flight in Atlanta!

I am thankful for Westley & Denise Wiles who live and serve in a very difficult and remote area in order to share the love and compassion of Jesus Christ to the neglected peoples in La Moskitia.

I am thankful for those who give and pray so we can be part of MAG enabling us to love and care for Wes and Denise and the people of Rus Rus and beyond.

I am thankful to be back home where I understand the language, the money and the culture and can function quite easily in my environment. There are many things we take for granted. Though it was an amazing trip for me, I did take a big sigh of relief to step back onto familiar soil once again. It's good to be home!

THANK YOU for all your friendship, love, care, prayers, and gifts as we serve with Missionary Air Group. We look forward to having you with us on each step of this Journey!