Day 6 - May 17

Saturday May 16 was another exhausting, eventful, beautiful day. You can't sleep in here - it is too hot and there is too much activity - but we were able to get up (around 6am) and spend some good quiet time together out on the porch of our building overlooking the jungle - absolutely beautiful. We had lunch with Kenton and Saundi Brown. Kenton is the outgoing IT missionary here and they were full of wonderful advice for us on what to do and (even more valuable) what not to do. I love Kenton's sense of humour and Saundi is just one really gracious lady who definitely has the gift of hospitality. We were also able to meet the Rumbaugh's, a veritable dynamo of missionary activity and were able to get some fantastic ESL resources for a Colorado church that we work with that does quite a few ESL classes. The hospital hosts ESL classes for local youths - one of the many, many non-medical related outreaches offered.

After lunch we were able to take a ride to some water falls about 30 minutes away. This was the first time I had left the hospital campus since being here and words cannot describe our experience. Many people have told me of the beauty of Honduras. When you tell someone who knows Honduras that you are going to Honduras, they will respond with two things: 1) it is a beautiful country and 2) it is full of warm friendly people. When you hear this you nod your head and smile and slip that information neatly in your pocket filed with what you know to be beautiful and who you know to be warm and friendly. Great. Then, if you are incredibly blessed, you get to see what we saw to day. To describe the little stretch of Honduras that we saw today as beautiful is to do it a real disservice. To say it is indeed on of the most beautiful, lush places on the face of the earth must be much more honest. While I have not traveled enough of the earth to be able to say this with authority - Honduras must simply be one of the top 5 most beautiful countries on earth. Did I mention lush? Fruit that looks like it was grown in a mad scientist laboratory - large beyond belief. Trees so tall that they define the jungle canopy in the middle of the sky, or so it seems. The only thing that detracts form the beauty here is the poverty. With poverty always comes trash. We drove through several very small villages with very small (incredibly humble) homes and we forded (yes drove through them) several small rivers for about 20 minutes. We pulled off to the side of the road and all piled out (many of the Missionary Kids - MK's - came with us) and took a short walk up river to an absolutely gorgeous little water fall area. Before we could get there, the kids were all in the water, splashing and having the time of their lives. We climbed up above the falls, only to find pools and more falls that were even more pristine. I know that we haven't begun to tap the beauty of this country yet - but we were stunned by what we saw. Driving home, we watched the sun set over the jungle, deep red from the smoke of the local farmers (tragically) burning off jungle. It was incredible. We will post pictures when we get back!

We finished off the evening with yet another meal with two more warm, gracious, and sincere missionary couples. We've just about made the rounds now in terms of having supper with almost all of the full time missionaries here and I don't know that I've seen a more loving group who genuinely care for each other and the local people that God has given them to to minister to. Who knew doctors (most of them) could be so kind and caring? :)

We've just been blessed beyond belief. My health appears to have returned. For those of you who have struggled "with me" for years in my attempts to lose weight will be gladdened to know that this appears now to be quite inevitable. We walk everywhere here and often up very steep hills and we sweat buckets and bucket. We eat simple food with very little in the way of chemicals and preservatives. Sounds like God is finally calling Dave to some real weight loss! :)