March 1999. La Ceiba, Honduras
“Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance; for ye serve the Lord Christ.” Col. 3:24
We were up in the mountains around Limon again. Slowly we were losing our fear of the narrow and difficult roads. We were in another desperately poor village and we saw it as a privilege to help those who needed help so badly. As always there was no shortage of patients with terrible teeth as well as those who needed to hear the gospel.
Quenton was uneasy, that day, about the weather, though. It took forty-five minutes to an hour to reach some of these villages and thunderstorms can come up quickly in rainy season. While we were working, Quenton told us that if it began to rain we had fifteen minutes to get out of there. We had crossed five streams on our way up the mountain. They had looked harmless enough, in fact they had no bridges and we drove right through them. We had great respect though for the unflappable Quenton and his judgment, so we nodded and kept working. We had just completed cleaning out a large cavity when Quenton jumped up and said “Okay, let’s go! It’s raining!”
We were caught in a conflicting situation. We couldn’t just leave this man with his tooth open and no filling in it. Our son Patrick began hurriedly packing up what he could of our equipment and hauling it out to Quenton’s truck. Quenton announced that he was leaving! He said if he didn’t make it over the first two streams right then we’d be spending the night in the mountains. The streams would become raging rivers in a matter of minutes. So off he went, leaving us to finish up. Patrick packed up all the remaining supplies and equipment while we finished with our patient. We had to balance finishing this filling in record time and doing it slowly enough that we did it correctly. Then we cleaned up and ran for the first stream. There was no sign of Quenton. We picked our way over the rocks in the stream and thankfully it was still just a stream. We hurried on to the next stream. It was one of those “What are we doing here moments?” but of course the answer was the incredible needs of the people and the Lord’s love for those lost and in need. Someone needed to go and help these people hear the gospel and also address the pain they were living in. It just happened to be us at this time and in this difficult situation. We were blessed that we were there to help and that we didn’t have to live up there permanently.
Crossing the second stream in the same way we crossed the first, we saw Quenton waiting for us on the other side. Jumping in the truck, we raced down the mountain (still no windshield wipers) so we could cross the three other streams before they overflowed with the runoff water from higher up the mountain. It was a great relief when we drove up to Quenton’s house and were able to grab a hot shower and have dinner. What a blessing to be in a warm home to spend the night. We couldn’t help but think of those we had left up in the mountains. What was it like for them? We had done what we could for them, most importantly helping them to hear how they could know the God who loved them and had sent someone to help them. We had done our ministry for Him and for them and we hoped that the Lord was pleased with our service. We were already looking forward to going back again to help the next day!