May 13th - our second day in Honduras

Tuesday (5/13) was our first day at the hospital. We awoke hot and tired, but so thankful to finally be here. We attended the morning devotions (in Spanish) sparsely attended and a very quiet, humble affair led by a local pastor. He lead is in one song while playing guitar and then spoke for about 10 minutes. I couldn’t help but think of Jesus’ words about the humble and poor in spirit. This man qualifies, I think. A missionary named Nelson greets us and takes us under his wing and begins to give us a tour and introduce us. This is a working hospital. We are wandering around the hospital among the local Hondurans that give us a warm smile for a greeting. Instead of the full Buenos Dias, we get the local greeting of simply “Bueno”. There is a quiet peace about the hospital, partially because it is a quiet day, mostly because it is here in Honduras among a quiet people. No one is complaining that they haven’t been seen yet – no one seems to be complaining about anything. The doctors and nurses move about with friendliness and closeness to the patients that wouldn’t be considered “normal” to us. I think that if this missionary hospital were within a day’s drive of you, you would want to come here. It feels like the kind of place that you would want to be if you were sick.
We are warmly greeted by the missionaries here. We learn that they have been praying for someone to help out with the computers here for a long time. They do not want to seem overbearing in this, but it is obvious that the really hope that we will stay.
I spent my first time with Kenton today. Kenton is the current computer technician and will be leaving June 4th. He is torn between his love for the place and his strong desire to get the heck out of here. He takes me through the hardware, software, and phone systems. It is a complicated setup, mostly governed by the fact that all communications, including phone, go through the satellite. There is now local cellular service here, but most people use the ip phones to call (and to receive calls) from the states. Kenton has arranged a really amazing way to work phones over the satellite.
We spent our first evening having supper with a couple of the missionaries here. Nelson (who took us under his wing earlier today) and his lovely wife Margo invited us over for supper. It is a blessing to get to know some of the people here. There is an incredible sense of community here – it is obvious that the missionaries here depend on each other greatly. I have the feeling that this is the way that the church is supposed to be – a community of believers all pressing together towards the same goal and depending heavily on each other. Here there are needs that no one person can meet, so it is push forward together or fail. There a lot to be said for that.