Viva Honduras
Published 5:00 am Friday, July 28, 2017
Viva Honduras
Honduran children visit the Rosa Adelina mission center, where a team from Panola County worked last week.
Photos by Malcolm Morehead
Anthony Dean, pastor of Goodwill Church of God, preaches, with interpretation by Honduran pastor Victor Lopez.
By Rita Howell
An annual trek last week into the mountains of Honduras took a group of Panola Countians into familiar territory where they’ve traveled for years, to a mission complex, the Rosa Adelina Assistance Center, near the village of Yamaranguila.
They’d been anticipated by villagers who eagerly lined up at the gate each morning, knowing they’d have a rare opportunity to be seen by doctors and dentists, and for Bible School classes for the children.
Olivia Dean passes a bag of food and a Bible to a guest at the Rosa Adelina Center last week. Each family received a bag of rice, a bag of beans and a sack of sugar. The mission team also distributed 571 Spanish-language Bibles.
Some people walked for nearly 25 miles one way to get assistance.
In all, the mission team, made up of 13 North Mississippians and 15 Hondurans, saw 900 medical patients and dispensed 2,700 prescriptions from a pharmacy organized by Erik Broome of Batesville.
Dentist Andy Garrott, who has led teams to Honduras for more than 30 years, extracted 248 problem teeth. He was assisted by Randy Willis of Batesville and John Owens of Olive Branch.
Pediatric dentists Lilia Larios, Jose Rodriguez and Gloria Corea provided preventive treatments to about 150 young patients.
The team distributed a ton each of beans, rice and sugar, so every family left the complex with a bag of food.
Dr. Andy Garrott greets a Honduran child.
Anthony Dean, pastor of Goodwill Church of God at Locke Station, had found on his first trip last year that the Honduran children are fond of a crunchy, cinnamon-dusted American cereal. So he brought a giant-size bag in his suitcase…and a box of snack-size plastic bags. By the end of the week the supply was exhausted, but many kids had been delighted to take a bag of his cereal.
Dean’s daughter, Olivia, 14, and friend Gini Helton, 17, operated a make-shift hair salon one day, offering haircuts for boys and a shampoo and braid for girls. At intervals Olivia and Gini provided manicures, too, with choices of green, blue and pink nail polish for their young clients.
Meanwhile, Bible School classes were directed by Cindy McCurdy of Pope, who makes the trip each year with her husband, Jim, and son, Ryan, who just graduated from South Panola High School.
While Cindy was busy with the children’s program which served 341 kids, Jim and Ryan did maintenance chores all week.
Honduran pastor Victor Lopez and his wife, Wendy, were there to translate for Anthony Dean and Southaven pastor Richard Chambliss when they preached. The pastors reported 106 professions of faith.
The team delivered 450 meals to inmates in a regional prison, and spent the day sharing the gospel with the prisoners. Garrott removed 133 teeth there.
Photographer Malcolm Morehead captured hundreds of images to be used to share the mission with friends and supporters back home.
The Mississippi team was made up of members of nine different churches and five denominations.
Support was provided by Batesville First United Methodist Church and the FUMC Wesleyan Class; Batesville First Baptist Church and the Fruit of the Spirit Class; Pope Baptist Church; Curtis Union Church; Batesville Presbyterian Church; Goodwill Church of God; Immanuel Baptist Church; Goodway Pentecostal Church, Harvest of Faith Church in Southaven, and Renewal Church in Memphis.
