Henderson Missionary Family

Kris and I are excited to be serving with the International Christian Fellowship Church here in San Pedro Sula.  Things are quite different now. We now sleep in our apartment every night instead of on a cot in a room full of team members. I also get to drive here in the city. I have even ventured out on my own some seeing as our current car is an automatic.  At the mission, the trucks were all straight shifts and it was just a little too scary for me with dodging holes, people, bicycles, speed bumps, moto taxis, taxis, buses, and rapiditos. Navigating all this is such a task in a manual vehicle and that I just never got adjusted.

Yes, city life is much different. It has its pros like sleeping in my bed every night and being able to drive. But, I must say that I often miss working with the teams and going on the adventures to the mountains. I had the opportunity to join a medical dental team from North Carolina last week to minister to the people in the department of Lempira. I felt that God was opening this door and so I took the opportunity. Sunday, we traveled out to the rural village of La Iguala, Lempira.  It was a long trip, like a total of 7 hours and over 2 of those hours were on a really bumpy, really dusty dirt road.  As I have traveled many times to serve with teams, I often think about the people of Honduras that live remotely in the mountains.  They may never travel away from their home or village for their entire life.  Buses, taxis, and standing in a truck bed holding on to a metal bar are the forms of motorized transportation for the rural population of Honduras.  Standing on the back of a truck must be a learned skill because I visualize myself falling off as soon as the first jolt is felt!

I have a friend on the team that I served with who is also a dental hygienist.  This made the third time we have served together in Honduras.  We share our passion for educating others about how to properly care for their mouth, and treating periodontal disease which will save many teeth over the course of the person’s life along with eliminating the bacteria that is present in their blood stream from the disease.  I know, many people are thinking yuck and that’s ok!  God has given us all a special talent that He can use. Too often, we go about life thinking that we are using our talents for the Lord when in reality, it’s in our own strength toward our own glory.  This has been a revelation of God in my own life for several years now.  I knew I had a deep passion for my profession and thought God was directing me in everything I did until I realized I had been wanting the control by doing things perfectly and getting upset with issues.  God began revealing to me that if I wanted to serve Him through my profession, I had to let Him be the guide and trust Him to take care of issues and dilemmas instead of me trying to solve my problems alone. This work of God in my life continues today. I now strive to give Him my best each day and let Him be responsible for the results. A big part of that result ends up being me enjoying my talent more and giving all the praise to God!  So, if you would have been there last week, you would had observed two dental hygienists having so much fun sharing with others their talent and laughing and giggling as the day passed by.

Alania