Opportunities Abound!

There’s a foster home in Gracias, which is run through Russell’s church. A few weeks ago, Russell had the opportunity to speak to the woman who operates the home. At any given time, about thirty children are housed there until a more permanent home can be found. The foster mom told Russell about a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl who recently came to the home. The girl is completely blind, but her vision loss occurred in the last two or three years. Prior to that, she could see.

Russell joked about his limited medical knowledge, but he immediately suspected cataracts to be the cause of the girl’s blindness. Cataracts are common in Central America--even in children. As Russell mentioned during our phone call, cataracts are easily fixed, if they are treated in time. Without treatment, they can result in total blindness. This young woman is still sensitive to light, which indicates there is still some vision lurking beneath the cataracts.

Last week, Hector, one of the translators who sometimes works with Sowers4Pastors, was on hand. Russell knew Hector also works as a translator for a ministry which partners with an eye clinic in the U.S. Hector arranged for the girl to be seen for an evaluation. $100 was all it took to provide travel costs to an eye clinic. And the verdict?????

Her condition is treatable! A pediatric ophthalmologist will be traveling to Honduras in March. The doctor will be performing a life altering surgery on this girl. The cost will be another $100 for travel expenses.

That’s it! For $200, a girl who seemed destined to go through life in the dark will once again be able to see! It boggles the mind!

Allen came on the line to point out that they come across opportunities like this all the time. Whether it’s the chance to feed kids for pennies a meal, or the chance to fix cleft palates, the opportunities are out there!

To emphasise the point, Allen shared about an eighteen-year-old woman who had a cleft palate. Everywhere she went, she held a hand over her mouth to prevent people from seeing it. The young woman was able to be included in a clinic to repair cleft palates. Along with babies and young children, the eighteen-year-old traveled to a team of skilled surgeons. And the cost? About $50-$100 per patient, for travel costs.

If you’re thinking to yourself, “But that’s Honduras! I never have miraculous opportunities to change lives,” think again! You do have the opportunity. We all do. Every donation made has the power to change lives! Opportunities abound!

Trish adds: We are able to help people when these opportunities arise, because of the generous donors who give to our "General Fund." We love gifts that are specifically earmarked for a certain aspect of the ministry, too, but those "General Fund" gifts mean that we can have the funds on hand, when these time-sensitive opportunities come up! I'm going to add a link to the "How to Donate" information on our blog, at the end of this post, for anyone who feels led to help with this.  

We are so grateful to all of our donors who partner with us to bless the people in the mountains of western Honduras!

Follow this link for instructions on how to donate to our ministry. 

 - posted by Christi and Trish