Volunteers Head for the Hills

Kim and Jonathan Hall, and family
(this photo was NOT taken in Honduras)

Visiting teams to Western Honduras are always met with enthusiasm from the Sowers family. When a visiting team contains Kim Hall, who spearheads the Manna 4 Lempira program, and her husband, Jonathan, the enthusiasm is kicked up a notch.

Last week Kim and Jonathan, along with their children, and a group of other child sponsors headed for the hills. Well, they headed for the mountains of Western Honduras!

Manna 4 Lempira Refresher Course

With the Manna 4 Lempira program, individuals can sponsor children through one of the feeding centers supported by Sowers 4 Pastors. One sponsorship is only $15 a month, and it provides two nutritious meals per week, bi-annual deworming medicine, a pair of school shoes and a backpack filled with necessary school supplies at the start of each school year, and correspondence between the children and their sponsors.

Because Sowers 4 Pastors and Manna 4 Lempira operate on the up and up, they want you to know the $15 will not ALL go to provide for your sponsored child. The EXTRA money goes to feed as many as SIXTY other children each month! How is that possible? It is possible because of the Halls’ tireless volunteer efforts, and the Sowers’ almost miraculous ability to stretch a penny like it’s a worn out piece of elastic.

Home Visit, Sweet Home Visit

Team Hall was able to do “home visits” to a lot of the sponsored kids. In order to do that, they also got to schlep for hours in the mountains of Lempira, boldly going where no vehicle has gone before (at least not easily). Of course, the Halls are no strangers to Honduras and its scenic foot tours, and this group of sponsors would have crossed any obstacle for an opportunity to spend time with the children.

What’s Up, Doc?

The medical station - physician's assistant with patient in front,
computerized record keeping happening to the right, translator to
the left, and doctor seeing another patient beyond the desk

The group brought along a doctor, who provided check-ups and medical supplies to the kids at the Mercedes and Betania centers. Kids from surrounding smaller satellite feeding centers came in, as well. For children who might otherwise never get to see a doctor, such checkups are invaluable! (See the previous line about the bi-annual deworming medicine. After you finish saying, “Eeew,” you might want to think about how you can support this ministry!)

 

Roll Call

 

 This bunch of motivated volunteers registered additional children at the Mercedes and Betania centers. All of the children (both newly registered and previously sponsored) were weighed, measured for height and for shoe size, given a brief medical exam and a bag of goodies, photographed, and fed. Children who received personal gifts from their sponsors were photographed with the gifts, so the sponsors know their gifts made it to their child. These hard workers also cleaned up the rolls by removing children who have either moved or aged out of the program.

 

Looking to the Future

Even though the two Manna 4 Lempira programs (Mercedes and Betania) are growing by leaps and bounds, Kim and Jonathan are NOT about to rest on their volunteer laurels. They are working on opening a 3rd Manna 4 Lempira location! The El Tablon program is still in the planning phase, but the group was able to visit the area to take some photos and make some plans. Kim has also added another volunteer in the US, Amanda Lane, to help with all of the paperwork involved.

If you haven’t already, please consider becoming a Manna 4 Lempira sponsor. For $15 a month, you will be able to touch dozens of lives. And you won’t even have to hike through the mountains for hours in order to do it! Just click here, to get started!

- posted by Christi