March 2001, La Ceiba, Honduras
“Thou, therefore, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." II Timothy 2:3
We continued working with Quenton up in the mountains around the La Ceiba area. There were such great physical and spiritual needs in the small villages that it compelled us to return to them, even though it was always a challenge to get there. We made the long trip back up into the mountains and were able to treat many more people. There was a man that Quenton trusted in that village and so we decided that at the end of the day, we would leave all of our equipment and supplies in the building we had worked in and this trusted man would sleep there that night, guarding our things. We would return in the morning for another day of evangelistic clinics. We knew this man must be special for Quenton to trust him. There is a great temptation for people in such poverty to resort to theft when the opportunity presents itself. Quenton knew that only too well. Previously, when he had been away for the day, Quenton came home to find that his wife and children had been tied up and their house had been robbed. Thankfully no harm had been done to his family but that had been a hard occurrence for all of them. Janet and the kids had sung Christian songs while the house was being robbed to keep up their courage and to show their faith in the Lord through this hard circumstance. We were amazed at the endurance of this family to keep staying and serving in the wilds of Honduras.
When we woke in the morning, it was not good news to see that it was pouring rain and had been all night. Quenton said the roads would be impassible as they would be a sea of mud. But all of our equipment was up in the mountains. Quenton made some phone calls and arranged for us to use a dental clinic in town for the morning. He was assured that we would have everything we would need to work. So he drove us there, got us settled and arranged for a believer from his church in La Ceiba to be a translator for us and to take Quenton’s place, sharing the gospel with the patients. Then Quenton took off to see if he could make it up the mountain in spite of the rain. We hated to see him go off alone with the conditions the way they were.
We began working at the clinic and saw a number of patients from town. Our translator, a very nice man who was doing a great job, had an unfortunate accident that day. For some reason there were pvc water pipes sticking up out of the floor of the dental clinic right near the chair and the translator tripped over one of these, snapping it and sending water shooting to the ceiling as we were working! With water squirting everywhere, that was the end of the dental clinic for the day! The translator told us to go off and he would handle the problem but we didn’t know where to go. It had stopped raining and the beach was not far from the clinic so we walked down there expecting to find a beautiful, white sand, Caribbean beach, with blue water. Instead it turned out to be the garbage dump of the city with trash floating everywhere accompanied by lots of sand fleas. We retreated back to the clinic.
Quenton came to pick us up finally and told us about his day. Our equipment was in the back of the truck looking none the worse for wear. He had not gotten very far up the mountain with his truck because of the mud and he had to go the rest of the way on foot. He found his faithful friend still guarding the equipment but how was Quenton to get it down the mountain? Not to be stopped by mud, he hired mules from some villagers (who were more than happy to rent them and make a little money) and tied our trunks and dental equipment and supplies to their sides and walked them down to his truck. Then he had to walk the mules back home and then walk back to the truck. It took hours to do all that walking. Thankfully everything was still in his truck when he got there and he was on his way to connect with us. He was happy to have the problem of the equipment solved and didn’t seem the least bit flustered by his experience.
Quenton was a good example to us. His “can do” attitude served him well in Honduras and we marveled at his patience with these crazy situations that seemed to spring up daily. The Lord used all of this in our preparation for years of dental/medical evangelism trips in the future. Whether all of this difficulty was part of a larger spiritual battle or just some of it, we never knew but we were learning to not expect things to be easy in missions. Trouble of one kind or another is par for the course. But the good news is that we have a God who is ever faithful and makes a way in any and all situations. We just need to follow Him. We are the servants; He is the Master and missions is His heart.